TITLE	Explorapedia World of Nature
PUBLISHER/AUTHOR	Microsoft Pty Ltd.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS	Multimedia PC with a 486SX or higher processor. 4 MB of memory (8 MB recommended). Double speed CD ROM drive. Audio board. Speakers or headphones. 256 colour colour VGA monitor. MS-DOS/E operating system version 3.1 or later. Microsoft WindowsTM operating system version 3.1 or later. Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Explorapedia World of Nature costs $49.00 to buy. This price is very reasonable when compared to the educational significance of the program.

The program has fully narrated text, which is engaging for children of all ages. It helps to bring the text to life, and is an excellent feature.

The program also has on screen help in the form of a character called "Thaddeus Pole" we can call him "Tad". Tad is available to provide help for users in any part of the program. The presence of on screen help means that children do not have to navigate through a number of screens in order to get help. This was one of the most impressive features of the program.

The program was quite easy to install and would certainly be simple for children in grades 3 and 4 to operate.

Overall I consider that for $49.00 Explorapedia is great value. It has the ability to develop children's reading and language skills, creative thinking and writing and also research skills.

DOCUMENTATION ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM

Explorapedia comes with an instruction manual which outlines installation and operation procedures. Once the program is installed however, the manual is not really necessary. The presence of the on screen help character "Tad" make the program easy to operate without the constant use of a manual.

The program does not allow you to change the content as this is all factual information. However, updates to the data are released frequently, and can be added to the program.

DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION

The operation of Explorapedia is very simple. Once the program has been installed, by loading the CD, the program is very simple to use. First you meet the on screen help character "Tad". Tad is a space frog, and to explore the world of nature you must climb aboard his "frog ship". From the ship children can travel to almost every type of natural environment.

In terms of actually using the software, this is very easy. It only requires that children can perform basic functions on the computer, including being able to control the mouse.

SCREEN SHOT:

OBSERVATION OF GRADE 3 CHILD USING PROGRAM

Before I asked 9 year old Joey to use the Explorapedia program I wrote down what I thought he should be able to do. Joey has used computers quite a lot. He mostly uses them for playing games and has had limited access to the internet. Because of Joey's contact with computers I expected him to be able to operate the program quite easily. I thought that he might have a little trouble loading it up, as he is not really familiar with the use of the CD ROM.

Joey needed a little bit of help loading up the CD, but from the moment it was loaded up and he had met "Tad" he was completely enthralled in the program. Joey thought that the idea of boarding the "frog ship" to explore the various nature sites was great. He operated the program with ease and explored a number of different natural environments.

Joey found the on screen help feature very useful. Being a beginner he found that he needed to use the help feature quite a lot. Having the help function in the form of the character "Tad" was a really great feature, Joey actually enjoyed seeking help.

Another feature that Joey found great was the fully narrated text. Having real children's voices (as opposed to synthesised) made Joey feel that the information he was getting was really relevant.

Not only is the text narrated but it also has animations, videos, original sounds and songs. All of which Joey found to be interesting and fun features.

The program also has activities that reinforce key educational points. I didn't know how Joey would go with these as they did require a fair bit of searching for information. Joey actually really enjoyed this part of the program, and found that the searching was not a boring or difficult task but was made fun by the presence of "Tad" and all the songs, animations etc.

When I asked Joey how he thought he might use this program in school, he suggested that it could be used in his social science class. Joey explained that in class they quite often do projects, he thought that the Explorapedia would be a really good way to get information.

Joey is a student from my target group, he operated this program with great ease and really enjoyed working with it. I could see that Joey had learnt a lot from the program and I could also see the potential for further learning. Joey exceeded my expectations in regard to this program. I believe that this is an excellent research program for children in grades 3 - 4.

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