Information Processing

Crash

Rosetta McLeod

CRASH COURSE By Rosetta McLeod Home work for the holidays - reviews of Spectrum educational software covering chemistry, German, information processing and physics, plus learning by bitter experience in a stock exchange situation. The next CRASH Course will be in Issue 50, on sale February 25. VISIONS OF REVISION There seems to be a growing interest in serious revision software. The Vision Software packages reviewed in Issue 39 are attracting plenty of interest, according to the distributors, Disney. So far, the following subjects have been covered by Vision; biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, French, German, geography, history and information processing. These broad subject areas are divided into units which retail at different prices. Prices for the units reviewed this month are given below, but a full catalogue and order form can be obtained from Disney Ltd, [redacted]. Each of the 29 units uses a single program with the screen and user interaction being driven via individual data sets developed for each unit and subject. The software is intended to be used as a flexible resource - for example, as a library facility for students to work on modules of their own choice, or as an activity for small groups under the guidance of a teacher. Many different presentation techniques have been used in each unit to provide variety and to enable a very wide range of material to be displayed, explained and answered, with different levels of difficulty. A particularly useful feature is that each question set is given an A to C grading in the user guide (A is the most difficult). Each subject is covered in some depth and all the units are suitable for students taking CSE, GCE. 16 + and GCSE courses, as well as providing a revision aid for study after leaving school. The Vision Software programs don't use graphics, nor do they make much use of colour, but they are very good as serious study aids to be used as reinforcement for specific coursework. CHEMISTRY UNIT ONE - NATURE OF MATTER Producer: Vision Software Retail Price: £11.40 Vision has four packages covering the chemistry syllabus. The first one, entitled Nature Of Matter, starts off by quizzing the user on his knowledge of apparatus. A definition appears on the screen - for example, 'needed for some purity tests' - and two clues are provided if wrong answers are given. This section also includes tests on separation techniques. The course then proceeds to deal with atomic structure, particles, the periodic table and electronic configuration, acids and bases, salt preparation and identification, pH values and ion tests, and reactions. There is also a guide to accompany the package with tables of chemical data. The other three packages in the chemistry series cover energy and reaction equilibria; nonmetals, air, and water; and metals and carbon. Though Vision markets these packages as being for the 11-to-16 age range, the science units are more suitable for older pupils taking GCSE and 16+ courses - there are only a few topics in the chemistry units with the easy C grading. INFORMATION PROCESSING UNIT TWO - SOFTWARE AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS Producer: Vision Software Retail Price: £10.95 Following on from Unit One, Hardware And Techniques, this package aims to introduce the student to the topics of text-management, business-support systems and data/information systems, including word processing. Complete with quizzes, the package also deals with issues such as security of information, privacy and the social implications of exploiting this technology. GERMAN UNIT TWO - ACCOMMODATION AND MEETING PEOPLE Producer: Vision Software Retail Price: £10.95 If you've got through Unit One of Vision Software's German course, you're ready to tackle the two themes of Unit Two: meeting people and arranging accommodation. It offers games based on a town plan found in the user's guide. The section called Meeting People deals with conversational phrases and general information, and introduces the user to a letter in German. It then goes on to deal with writing letters to book accommodation in campsites, hotels and youth hostels. The final section provides useful practice on German verbs, covering various tenses as well as impersonal and separable verbs. The package contains a keyboard strip for producing the characters in the German alphabet not found or the English keyboard. This is a comprehensive and interesting suite of programs which would be a useful revision aid for examination purposes, as well as helping the holidaymaker brush up on his long-forgotten school German! HISTORY UNIT FOUR - SOCIAL (INDUSTRY AN TRANSPORT) Producer: Vision Software Retail Price: £10.95 Vision Software's history programs cover five topics The American West, Medicine (The Early Years), Medicine (Recent Developments), Social (Work, Trade And Society) and this one, Social (IndustryAnd Transport). As with all the history packages, this includes two tapes. The first deals with the Industrial Revolution and transport before 1850. The Industrial Revolution covers topics ranging from textiles and potteries to the production of iron and coal and inventors and inventions. Transport before 1850 is covered by question sets on road, rail, canal and steamships, and the second tape deals with industrial development and transport since 1850. Multiple-choice questions are used in the sections on road transport and communications in general, and there's a quiz on the British press. This package should be used only for short periods at a time, because there's lots of information to absorb. PHYSICS UNIT ONE - FORCES AND MOTION Producer: Vision Software Retail Price: £10.95 The first of four physics units from Vision Software, this package covers pressure and density, forces, motion and the motor car. As with all the company's educational packages, a variety of questioning techniques is used - when studying density, for example, the user is asked to indicate with a yes/no response whether he agrees with a number of statements such as 'The volume of a sample of material equals its density divided by its mass'. When the correct response ('no) is given, the computer explains that volume equals mass divided by density. But if a question is answered wrongly, four possible answers are put on the screen, and the student tries to choose the correct one. The section on pressure and density ends with a test on Hooke's Law, mass and weight, and the differences between them. In forces, the most difficult question set is on the principles of moments, while the easiest option covers Archimedes' principle. The final unit is on the motor car, and divides its subject into the engine, the electrical system, the fuel system, the transmission system and auxiliary systems. The accompanying booklet has tables and figures for specific topics, as well as a list of abbreviations. Vision Software's three other units on physics cover energy and matter, sound and optics, and electricity and electronics, and together the four packages provide a comprehensive revision course. WRITE ON Producer: System Software, [redacted] Retail Price: £9.14 Age Range: 4 years to secondary remedial Write On is designed to develop skills of basic literacy by encouraging children to write. For very young children who are just beginning to learn to distinguish words, the program also assists in the development of a sight vocabulary. As soon as Write On is loaded, the first of nine pages is displayed. This page contains 17 common words, together with some letters and the functions available, and it's the home page to which the program returns after completing most operations. All of Write On is controlled by dust two keys, from which the child can select those words he requires to form sentences which are displayed on the screen. By moving the cursor to the chosen box, the child can access a range of words grouped in alphabetical order, and if the word he wants isn't there it can easily be added to the word set. This personal word set is a particularly useful feature, as up to 240 different words can be built up and saved to tape: thus the learning can be focused on the child's own interests and needs. The accompanying booklet advises that it the programs being used with a very young child you should start off with a blank word set, and enter the words suggested by the child. Older pupils can have their attention drawn to capital letters and simple punctuation. Up to a screen of double-space text can be written at a time, and it can then be saved or printed. Written by an educational psychologist specialising in the development of reading skills, Write On is an extremely useful resource which allows for flexible use according to the needs of the child. With encouragement from an adult, children can develop their literacy skills, freed from the frustration which often results from poorly developed coordination or poor handwriting. Games paddles and joysticks can also be used with Write On, making it suitable for the physically handicapped too. COMMENTS Keyboard play: good. Option of using games paddles and joysticks. Graphics: no graphics, and limited use of colour STOCKMARKET Producer: Cases Computer Simulations, [redacted] Retail Price: £5.95 Age Range: older students/adults It may seem like a computer nasty in the aftermath of the other great CRASH, but this program (from CCS, well-known for its strategy wargames as well as for educational software) should have a wide appeal in the age of privatisation and small investors. The aim of the game is to maximise the value of your investments by buying and selling shares in up to six companies. There are three levels of difficulty; you can borrow money to the value of your assets in the easier two options, but if you are supremely confident you borrow only half the amount. The computer can provide you with basic facts about a company, such as its share prices and stability record. And other information is designed to make you feel jittery - for example, a general election might be called. At the end of five 'days', a statement is presented. Brokers' fees and capital gains tax have to come out of your earnings. The computer also gives you a rating based on your performance, and will comment on the tactics you've employed! But if you do badly, remember it's only a game and you won't have to sell the Porsche. COMMENTS Keyboard play: very responsive to the single-key commands Graphics: four information graphs, limited colour