Storymaker

Crash

Rosetta McLeod

CRASH COURSE By Rosetta McLeod GIVE GIRLS A BREAK A few months ago, I mentioned the problems that schools and parents are facing in interesting girls in computers. The London Borough of Croydon has now published a fascinating document entitled Girls and information Technology which reports the results of a survey commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission. It discusses the observation that computers seem to be used more by boys and male teachers than by their female counterparts, and refers to a study carried by the MEP Primary Project which showed that twice as many boys as girls have access to a micro at home. Why should this be? Are girls intrinsically less interested in computers than boys are? If parents consider it more important to provide home computers for sons rather than daughters what implication does this have for the future of women in an age of technology? In many secondary schools, computers have been linked with the mathematics department and too much emphasis has been placed on programming and numerical uses rather than data-processing and other social implications. Another problem is that traditional stereotyping seems to occur very early with boys being perceived to have more interest than girls in new technology. Girls may be keen to learn word-processing but seem to have little curiosity about other computer uses. Perhaps the problem lies in the content of the commercial software available. Girls are not nearly so interested as boys in arcade-type games and even educational software tends to be directed towards male interests. Luckily though, the programs I've looked at this month are of a particularly high standard and will appeal equally to boys and girls. STORYMAKER Producer: Arnold Wheaton Retail Price: £4.95 Age Range: 8 and over This is an unusual program which aims to motivate children to write stories. In Storymaker, children are introduced to a picture character called Alpha, who helps them to choose the structure for a story First of all, the time setting for the story must be chosen from a list containing ideas such as' in the days of the cavemen' and 'In the year 2082AD'. Then the main character must be selected and this might be a wounded man, a kidnapped young lady, someone of the children's own age, an astronaut, a sailor or a blind person. A choice of setting for the story is also made, together with some other characters and an outline of plot. After the ending of the story has been selected, the title is chosen, and finally the computer displays a copy of the story plan, which might be something like this: TITLE: Rescue; THE TIME: in the days of the cavemen; MAIN CHARACTER: A kidnapped young lady; THE PLACE: the middle of the sea; OTHER CHARACTER: A friendly boy or girl; THE PLOT: They travel through time; ENDING: Their goodness is rewarded. The success of this program lies in its ability to motivate even the most reluctant writer. Children see the task of story writing as a game when given the instructions by the computer, and soon become aware of the importance of planning their structure before they start to write. The screen text is clear and easy to read, and if a ZX printer is attached, a print-out of the plan can be obtained. COMMENTS Control keys: single key commands only Keyboard play: good Graphics: confined to the character Alpha Use of colours: very limited - blue background with text in yellow or white