Alpha-Beth

Crash

Rosetta McLeod

CHIPS WITH EVERYTHING By Rosetta McLeod (with Daniel Feen, aged 4 and David McLeod, aged 6) Imagine the scene: Monday, 9 am. The week begins. Father kisses Mother goodbye and goes upstairs to the office - it used to be the 1 spare bedroom. He sits at his desk, keys his password into the computer, and his day at the office begins. Mother, meanwhile, is chasing up her elder son, Zizzz, who is toying, with his perfectly nutritionally-balanced breakfast biscuit. She finally packs him off to his studies - in what used to be the family dining room. Zizzz sits down at his VDU, selects the word processing chips, and transmits his history essay on-line to his personal educationalist. Next, before she activates the micro-chip panel controls for the washing machine, dishwasher, robotic vacuum and automatic window washer, Mother deals with the baby of the family, Xon, aged three. She carries him into the living room, and pops him into his playpen in front of his own kiddy-komputer. Having inserted a variety of discs into the multi-stack disc drive, she can relax until lunchtime, safe in the knowledge that her younger child's pre-school education is in expert hands. An exciting vision of the future? A dehumanising picture of the micro-chip age? Whether we like it or not, the micro-revolution is in the process of altering our whole concept of education, and it may not be too long before we have to face the possibility of children being educated 'at a distance'. One of the most frightening aspects of the present world for me as a teacher, is the fact that educational experts are losing control over the rapidly expanding market of educational software. Teachers and parents are now being dictated to by the producers of such software who are concerned mainly with commercial rather than with educational interests. Yet the two need not be separate and incompatible. This month, the software I have looked at falls into two categories: 1) Games designed by educational experts who have begun by clearly identifying their aims and objectives, and who use the games format as a means to achieve a worthwhile end; 2) Games brought out by software houses who have tenuous - if any - links with the world of education. These designers seem to begin with the games format, and then attempt to superimpose their sketchy ideas of educational aims, often based on their own (outdated) experience of the education system. But how can parents, visiting their local software shop, make the best selection when choosing educational software? Unbiased magazines can be helpful, of course, but parents would be well-advised to read the cover blurb very carefully on software to ensure that the programs have been both designed by educational experts in the first place, and have also been tested by teachers in the classroom. This test will not be foolproof, but it will be a move towards ensuring that the proliferation of rubbish stays where it belongs - on the shelves. The most effective use of educational programs, particularly with younger children, is in situations where an adult - teacher or parent - is present to discuss the game and give help if necessary, The child can then be guided towards related areas of activity, or encouraged to read round the subject, and thus the educational content of the software can be supplemented Much educational opportunity will be lost if the child is left to play the game alone. ALPHA-BETH Producer: A&F Software Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.75 Age Group: Not specified but probably 7 and over First we had the 'compu-novel' from Melbourne House, now we have the 'arcational' game from A & F. Alpha-Beth is supposedly a 'new concept in computer games' The cover blurb tells us with interesting use of grammar and punctuation, that you find yourself stood on a computer keyboard, the VDU is displaying a question which you must answer, once you have the full answer typed in, you must jump on the enter key dead easy!!! These language errors did not inspire initial confidence, and having tested out the game, I can safely say that this really is one of the poorest 'educational' programs I have seen. Mike Fitzgerald from A & F who had the initial idea for the game, told me that its main purpose was to increase general knowledge through what is basically rote-learning, which he described as 'a well tried philosophy', and he added that his wife, a former teacher, had tried out the game and was happy with it. Surely this is the wrong way to go about devising an educational game? Alpha-Beth is really nothing more than an arcade game with a vague educational aim superimposed upon it. The player has to answer questions like 'which famous queen of Egypt killed herself with an asp?' and 'where would you go to watch a play?' As you move Alpha-Beth around the keyboard, spelling out your answer, you have to watch out for hazards like the school bully and the flying dictionary. If you don't know the answer to a question, you can press the cheat key which will display it briefly on the screen. There may still be a place in'education for general knowledge games like this, but it seems to me that non-specialist designers of educational pro grams have to remember that the school curriculum has changed vastly since they were pupils. A & F have also published Alpha-Gen, which is a database generator for Alpha-Beth, and this may be useful for certain subject areas (or, as Mr Fitzgerald pointed out, for parents who with to devise their own quizzes for in-family). I would love to hear from any parents who use it. COMMENTS Control keys: Q/A up/down; O/P left/right , M to select (the keys can be redefined) Keyboard play: good response Use of colour: good Graphics: not very imaginative

Your Computer

Overall 1/5

ZX Spectrum £5.75 Educational A 'n'F Software The sort of education game that says "Your not trying" when it means "You're not trying". Don't you just hate teachers who are stupider than you are? The program assures us that Indira Gandhi is the prime minister of India. Sorry. A 'n' F, some good ideas but must try harder.

ZX Computing

Clive Smith

Written for the 48K Spectrum, "Alpha-beth" is an educational/arcade game which is designed to make learning fun. Basically it's a quiz game but answering the questions is quite novel. You are shrunk down to the size of a pea (in fact you are a little schoolgirl) and faced with a giant keyboard and VDU. The questions are printed across the VDU and you have to answer them by leaping from key to key pressing the right letters to form your answer. Once you have printed out your answer you have to make a mad dash for the "Enter" key to see if it's correct. Things are not all rosy though, as you are chased around the keyboard by the school bully and an object which changes in relation to the questions. If you bump into one you lose one of your six lives. I had trouble loading as the inlay said LOAD " " and it wouldn't load until I entered LOAD" "CODE. Once loaded you are presented with a menu and on asking for instructions I received about three pages in half a second. I rang the company to ask if my copy was a 'special' just for reviewers but they confirmed it was a production model. Other options on the menu included one to save and load your scores from previous games. Another option enables you to select which operating keys you would like to choose or another to use a Kempton joystick. There are several girls names listed with scores of 1000 by each one but not being able to Tread the instructions I was quite baffled by them. Once you have answered all the questions you can go out and buy 'ALPHA-BETH (gen)' with a database programme so you can write your own questions. Also there are to be pre-recorded databases on various subjects to be released. These can be loaded from the menu. The game itself, I would imagine, is aimed at the 8 to 15 year olds. Other games from A&F are Jungle Fever, Cylon Attack and Chuckie Egg.