1.
TITLE: Abaccus
PUBLISHERS: Autopay Payment Processing
AUTHOR: JF Pautex
COPYRIGHT: c. 1996 Digital Money, Inc, All rights reserved
CONTACT: Pautex JF
14, Av Milton
54000 Nancy
France
E-MAIL: pautex@lpmi.u-nancy.fr
INTERNET ADDRESS: ftp://ftp.lpmi.u-nancy.fr
http://ftp.lpmi.u-nancy.fr
2.
To register this program, you must send $20 and the version number of the
sample package and JF Pautex will send back an unlock number that enables access
to the complete package.
Abaccus is an independent learning program that can be used by students to
expand their knowledge of the English language. This program is good in so far
as the package is presented in a game format, which encourages children to use
it and at the same time gain knowledge. Therefore the educational worth versus
the price/registration fee justifies the money spent in order to obtain the
package.
After some familiarisation with Abaccus, it became very easy to use. The
instructions combined with the on line help made this particular package user
friendly.
The installation of this program was down loaded form the internet and saved on my personal file server account. This process was not difficult.
3.
No additional documentation on operating instructions, help systems and
student worksheets accompanied this package. Perspective buyers of this package
are left to discover the operations of use for themselves. There are however 2
files that can be accessed, these are a readme file and users references file,
but are of little use. Additional information would most likely be sent when the
programmer received the fee.
The ability to change content is restricted to level of difficulty gradients
only.
4.
Abaccus has 5 lines with a permutation of possible 5 letter words. The first
letter of the first line is given to the player. The object of the game is to
then think of a 5 letter word beginning with the letter given. The game then
carries on to the next line and any letter that are correct appears in blue in
the correct positions. If letter appear that are not in the correct positions
they have a yellow circle over them. The player is given five lines to guess the
word before the computer reveals it.
5.
The person I observed using this software at first found it difficult to
grasp the concept of the game, but once it was explained to her she encountered
no other major problems. I thought this program was easy to use after I had
familiarised myself with it. I knew that children would find it difficult to
start with, but once shown how to use the program would able to use it
proficiently unsupervised.
Click here to
see Lesson Plan