Issue Index
Full-Time Dads;
The Magazine for Caregiver Fathers
Issue 19, originally appeared in print - January 1996
Here's what we did: We asked the major software publishers to send us their best kid's software. Then we assembled a team of experts - kids - to put the various programs through their paces. The staff of the Full-Time Dads Computer Center looked over the kid's shoulders as they played, took copious notes, and conducted interviews with the kids.
The most important things we learned had nothing to do with the individual programs at all. First of all, we were surprised at how sophisticated these kids are. When we examined the software, to get an idea as to how to run it so we could explain it to the testers, we thought a lot of it was really cool. Not so much the content but the technology. We were amazed at how these things work, the graphics, animation, sound, and the ways to move through them. We expected the kids to have the same, or similar, reactions. But they all see this stuff in school, and on TV and, for those who have them, on their own computers and video games.
For the most part, these games (although they all attempt to be educational in some way) are pretty complex in structure. There are multiple levels, degrees of difficulty and different sections of the program to explore. We discovered that, in most cases, it would take more than the hour or so we had scheduled to really put the software through it's paces. It seemed that kids would either "surf", wandering through the levels and sections, or the opposite: some of the kids would find one area they liked and would spend all their time there, playing the same game over and over. This speaks well to the question of how long these games will interest your kids; we'll get into that later.
There are dozens of publishers of kids software, and we couldn't possible include them all. We approached as many as we could and offered them the chance to participate. Those who sent us software got tested. Some of the things we looked for in testing were ease of navigation, level of interest, how quickly they learned how to work it, and how long they were likely to remain interested in it. At upwards of $35 a pop, this stuff ain't cheap, and longevity is an important consideration.
For the younger set, (three-to-eight), Ozzie's World, from Digital Impact, was a big winner. The premise is that you've been invited to play with Ozzie and his friends, and can visit any of several locations - Ozzie's room, a campsite, the beach, the veterinarian's office, etc. There are things to click on, which bring short animations to life, and a treasure chest icon, which when open, tells you to shift-click on a particular part of the screen. If that seems a little complicated, it stumped a few of our testers and took a while to figure out. When you do the shift-click, it opens up a puzzle game, or a Concentration-like matching game, or a coloring book, or a selection of projects, experiments and activity ideas relating to the section you're in. There was a lot of passive time; each time the user enters another section, there is a rather long animation to sit through, and some of the sound samples seemed distinctly homemade. The first-time user might not be sure about what he is supposed to do.
Another favorite was Thinkin' Things I, (4-8), from Edmark. This is one of the few that seemed more game than education, though any adult will quickly see the educational value. Thinkin' Things I offers kids several games to play. There are two different music games and four different pattern-making games. Each game offers different ways to play, either creating or matching a pattern, and adjustable skill levels. The sound is great, and this game kept two of our four-year-old girls busy for two solid hours. Edmark also offers Thinkin' Things II, (6-12), which is similar to Volume I, with slightly more sophisticated versions of the music and shape games, and now Thinkin' Things III. These games don't teach reading or math, but they deal with problem solving, pattern recognition and thinking patterns. Even the adults found them a lot of fun to play with.
Also from Edmark is Bailey's Book House (2-5 yrs.), and Sammy's Science House (3-6 yrs.). Bailey brings you five activities teaching letters, words and rhyming; this is education thinly veiled. The only requirement is a good handle on letter recognition. Our panel found it easy to navigate and easy to figure out the purpose of each section. Sammy offers similar activities dealing with science - weather making, seasonal changes in nature, a sorting game - and lots of on-line help. Book House and Science House are fun, but I doubt their long-term value. There is limited flexibility, and once each game has been played and mastered, I wonder how many kids will return to it much.
We also received two books-on-CD-ROM from Living Books, a Random House/Broderbund collaboration. New Kid On The Block, poems by Jack Prelutsky, includes selected poems from the book of the same name, narrated by Prelutsky and read by various others. After the poem is read aloud, the "reader" can point and click on any word in the text to hear it read, or on parts of the picture to see a little animation. Just Grandma And Me, by Mercer Mayer, can be read/listened to in English, Spanish or Japanese. Like other CD-ROMs, all parts of the pictures can be clicked on to see what happens. These are both captivating and entertaining, and somewhat educational, but once you've explored everything, you just keep doing the same things over and over. We also received a sampler disk from Queue that included ten of their book-on-disk titles. Since these were only vastly reduced samples, we couldn't tell much about them. They are mostly classic titles (The Velveteen Rabbit, Alice In Wonderland, etc.), and appear to be very nicely illustrated. Check them out further if this is the type of thing you are interested in. Children will likely prefer a real person and a real book over the computer version.
The last title in the younger-set category was Kid Phonics, from Davidson. Kid Phonics teaches reading skills through music and songs. The interface seemed a bit difficult to figure out, and the content was hard for pre-readers to understand. But once the navigation is mastered, there was enough to explore to keep our 4-year-old panelists busy. There are characters who will sing rather long, fully produced songs, and who will guide kids through letter and word recognition games. Each game leads through several steps: making sentences, coloring pictures, and each step can be printed. This is probably a better game for emergent readers than pre-readers.
Moving up to somewhat older kids, we come to another whole world, more complex and challenging. Two of the best were Fine Artist and Creative Writer, both from Microsoft Home. These are wonderfully complex programs, offering kids (and teens and even adults...), opportunities to create comic strips, newspapers, stories, stickers, posters and more. Each has fully formatted examples, extensive (and sometimes intrusive) on-line help, lots of sounds, and great flexibility. We worked with these two with lots of kids, and we never found everything there was to do with either. The biggest complaint is that the documentation is in the form of a big poster that was not very helpful for figuring out a specific problem. But the flip side of that is that it encourages exploration, and a "Let's see what this does" attitude.
Another story-creating program is the Imagination Express series (6-12 yrs.), from Edmark, offering kids three "destinations": Castle, Neighborhood and Rainforest. With the Rainforest version, the user can create an endless number of stories that take place in the rainforest, by writing text and illustrating the story with any of hundreds of stickers, some that animate, make sounds, or speak. You can record your own sounds for some of the stickers to play back. There is music to attach to each page, and all of the Destinations can be accessed from the same location. This is a lot of fun, and can encourage kids to research and think about each destination in their off-line time.
Somewhat more educational is Math Blaster, from Davidson. Math Blaster doesn't require too much in the way of navigation; the game pretty much navigates itself through an arcade-type game with equations, starting with single-number addition and subtraction and progressing through harder levels. There is tons of math to do, but the pace is quick enough to keep most kids interested. This, too, is thinly veiled education, and if your kids are already digging in their heels about math, this won't change their minds.
Microsoft Home also offers The Magic School Bus, based on the TV show of the same name. We checked out Exploring The Human Body, but found it a bit clumsy to navigate. There is a certain complexity to it; there are places for detailed exploration, but it took too long to get beyond the how-do-I-make-it-work stage to hold our attention. That said, the junior scientist will likely find this fascinating.
Almost all of kids software is educational. Some are more disguised than others, though, and we found a couple that were a lot of fun to play, and didn't seem like learning at all. SimTown, from Maxis (8-12 yrs.), is a younger cousin to SimCity, and works in essentially the same way. Kids get to either work with a "fixer-upper" town, or design their own town from scratch. They can "build" arcades, restaurants, municipal buildings, and several types of houses. The animation is great, and while it is pretty free-form, you do have to watch for local resources and balance of employment to population. This is a game that will keep your kids busy for a long time.
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition, from Broderbund, is also just plain fun. There is a whole series of Carmen games (Where In The USA, Where In Time, etc.) for older kids. The Junior Detective Edition has been designed especially for younger sleuths, while keeping the same geographical learning going. The "gumshoe" travels the world, tracking one of Carmen's gang of thieves, who has stolen some national treasure from one or another country. At each stop, bits of information about the country are offered, and the sleuth must figure out what country to go to next. There is enough going on - graphics and music - to keep it interesting, and the player moves up through the ranks pretty quickly, with a chance to catch Carmen herself at the end.
All in all, it seems that we learned more from this project that had to do with the ways kids approach new games and the computer in general than about the individual programs. The technology has gotten to a point where you can't go very far wrong whatever you choose. It is still recommend taking a hands-on look at anything before buying, either through someone you know who has access to it, or at a store like Learningsmith, who might have the games available for trying out.
We learned that kids don't have the fear of pressing the wrong key that adults have. They are far more likely to plow ahead and see what happens, and kids software takes that into account. We also learned that with the best of the software, it can take kids quite a while to fully explore and learn every part of the program, which is good. Kids tend to get hung up on one part of a game they like.
Finally, we were startled by how comfortable all of our kids were in front of the computer. Adults get intimidated, but for these kids, it was as if they had been raised with computers around. Some of the kids had not used a mouse before, but picked it up almost instinctively. Perhaps we have evolved to a point where basic computer ability has become part of our genetic code. After seeing what is possible and available just in kids software, the imagination is staggered when considering what is in store for us when our kids begin to design and publish software of their own.
Microsoft
1 Microsoft Way
Box 97012
Redmond, WA 98052-6399
Maxis
2 Theatre Sq., Ste 230
Orinda, CA 94563-3346
Davidson & Assoc.
19840 Pioneer Ave.
Torrance, CA 90503
Edmark
6727 185th Ave. NE
Box 3218
Redmond, WA 98073-3218
Berkeley Systems
2095 Rose St.
Berkeley, CA 94709
Queue
383 Commerce Dr.
Fairfield, CT 06430
Kidsoft
10275 N. De Anza Blvd.
Cupertino, CA 950214
(Available through America OnLine: Keyword: Kidsoft)
Digital Impact
6506 S. Lewis, Suite 250
Tulsa, OK 74136
Broderbund
500 Redwood Blvd.
Box 6121
Novato, CA 94948-6121
Other software outlets:
Discovery Toys
Learningsmith Stores
Educorp Catalog: 1-800-843-9497
Tell them you saw it in Full-Time Dads!
Copyright 1994 Stephen Harris
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