Computing: Double act

Combine a paper book with software? Whatever next? Jenny Benjamin discovers a surprising education duo

One of the favourite predictions of the IT (information technology) prophets is the imminent death of the book. In the future, they tell us, we'll read only from monitors, if, that is, we read at all. Talking text, voice command and touch screens will make reading, writing, and even typing, obsolete. Well, all I can say is, don't hold your breath. The book, that anachronistic wad of non-interactive paper, seems to be holding its own pretty well in this new era of Chips with Everything.

The big joke on the pundits is that the computer industry itself generates mountains of literature. Apart from the obvious manuals, mags and how-to tomes, there are the game hero fanzines, the Quick Ways to Win game books, even a whole genre of IT-dominated science fiction set in that bookless future.

Now comes the ultimate irony - the educational CD- Rom 'n' book combo, an embodied admission that each medium has limitations that can be supplied by the other.

Proof that this new hard-copy/software hybrid is more than a gimmick has recently been provided by educational publisher Two-Can. Its book-plus-disc Interfact series has already attracted favourable reviews from both the educational and the computer press. The bulk of the range is designed for Key Stage 2 pupils. There are 20 basic titles covering historical, scientific and geographical subjects (examples include the Romans, Weather and the Rainforests) and three reference packages incorporating a large format map, interactive quizzes, puzzles and suggested experiments.

The Interfact range also includes four Play & Discover titles for children between the ages of three and six: Colours and Shapes, Counting, Letters, and Numbers. We had a close look at Colours and Shapes, and found much to commend.

The PC and Mac-compatible CD-Rom was easy to use, with clear instructions, colourful illustrations and a welcome touch of humour. Introduced by baby astronauts Luke and Jo, the space-age equivalents of Janet and John, from the surface of a red 'colour and shapes moon', the eight activities include colour creation with Mr Mixit and the Jackpot game, where a talking fruit machine encourages you to choose the odd symbols out and win a shower of stars. In each case, right answers were congratulated and explained, so that even random success would reinforce learning.

The book's introductory and follow-up activities are just the thing to keep the rest of the children productively busy while the lucky few take their turns on-screen.

Many of the better educational programmes already supply activity sheets and teacher's notes. Putting them together in book form seems so obvious that, anti-paper prejudices apart, you can't think why it didn't happen before.

To contact Two-Can publishers phone 01933 443 862

Software reviews

The Wow factor
BabyWOW! (Windows/Mac, CD-Rom, PCtots, £19.99), for the youngest mouseketeers, age nine months and up, is fundamentally a sound programme. Introduced by a stuffed blue sun-face toy, it presents attractive photos of objects, with a cheery voice saying the relevant word. Click on the mouse, or press any key, and something like a sheep appears - 'Sheep!' says the voice. Move on to the next activity and a colour fills the screen. 'Yellow!' it says. When you've had enough Basic Colours, move on to Basic Shapes.

The advice is good too. Parents and carers are advised to sit with the child throughout, taking care to stop when their attention starts to wander.

But, for all its strengths, there is something about babyWOW! that puts this reviewer's back up. Maybe it's the company's loud claims that this not very revolutionary programme 'has been developed through the latest in brain research available today'. We didn't need brain research to tell us that 'children love repetition and familiarity'.

Maybe it's the apparent contradiction between the advice about supervised computing and the inclusion of an 'autopilot' option which, perhaps, is there so baby can go solo while Mummy has a quick fag. Maybe it's the Pythonesque photo-montage approach of the Opposites section, where giant pears and rattles are superimposed confusingly on landscapes in order to demonstrate such concepts as 'near/far'. Or maybe it's that babyWOW! seems designed as much to impress a certain kind of professional parent as to educate small children.

Yet much of the material is appealing and accessible to the under-threes.

Without the misplaced sophistication and the overblown pronouncements of the company publicity, the programme would have been even better.

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