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08/08/2004 |
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Educating Rita Practical PC’s children’s software expert, Kai Chandler, tells you what to look for when you are buying educational software for children. As multimedia computers become cheaper by the week, most children now have access to one, whether in the local library, at school or home. How do you choose from the hundreds of programs on the market? Of course, every child is unique and a program that may captivate one may be too demanding for another. What makes a good program for children? Good software is easy to use. You and your child should be able to use it without reading the manual or tearing your hair out. If a three-year old can make it fly, then anyone can! Good software should have immediate appeal. It should use colour, sound and animation to entrance and entice the junior user and draw him or her into using it. Good software should have lasting appeal. If a cheap program is used once and discarded, then it has been an expensive buy and poor value for money. Lasting appeal comes from good design and a knowledge of what keeps youngsters’ interest. The best educational programs are built around a good game where more games reward progress. Good software should use the features of the system. Does it support a sound card? Does it support a mouse? Unless purchased just for recreational purposes, good software should have educational value. This may include the three Rs but a chance to exercise logical thought, problem solving, general knowledge and manual dexterity is just as important. Modern British software is often linked to a particular national curriculum key stage or academic year so you should aim to purchase the appropriate software. A word of warning, my experience is that once children discover shoot ‘em ups, they may be reluctant to use any more worthy software so watch out! Good software has features for parents as well. Examples included parental controls for internet access, printing, sound and exit options. Installation should be simple and well explained. The best educational programs include a performance review so an adult can track progress over time, for one or preferably a number of users.
Another excellent range is ADI English and Maths from Knowledge Adventure. There is a title for each of school years three to ten. We concluded that it “is a very well designed tool that is fun to play and supports children in their school activities. It is easy to use and has a comprehensive range of activities to help with the National Curriculum. ADI is good value at Ł29.95 and deserves the Practical PC Update Award of Excellence.” Of course, the Internet is also bursting with information for school users as a check on any search engine will show. Some are listed in the resource section below - Software publishers Dorling Kindersley http://www.dk.com Knowledge Adventure http://www.knowledgeadventure.co.uk/ Search engines Ask Jeeves for Kids http://www.ajkids.com/ Google http://www.google.com/ KidsClick http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/ Get help with your homework http://www.schoolwork.org/ More software reviews Superkids http://www.superkids.com/ KidzSoft WebZone http://web.ukonline.co.uk/Members/kai.chandler Children’s Software Revue http://www.childrenssoftware.com/ |
As
a parent, you may have spent ages researching your hardware
purchase, but few families have the time or knowledge to choose good
software for the children. The good news is that multimedia
computers, with sound and graphics capability, make ideal learning
tools to stretch, stimulate, educate and entertain youngsters.
Some
of the most outstanding programs for children that we, on Practical
PC, have come across, have been from Dorling Kindersley. We reviewed
Test for Success a short time ago and concluded that “DK’s Test
for Success series provides a superb tool to support age 11 SATs and
gains the Practical PC Seal of Approval.”