CD-ROM Reviews: October, 2005

-- School Library Journal, 10/1/2005

Music

Musical Leaps and Bounds. 1 CD-ROM. Systems: Win 95 & later. Mac OS 8.5+. Prod. by Granada Learning. Dist. by Tool Factory. 2002, 2005 release. ISBN 1-8423557-9-1. $44.95.

K-Gr 2–Six simple musical games are designed to encourage children's listening skills as well as their visual and auditory memory. Six characters each represent a different musically-focused activity. The games lack any directions, help menu, text, or speech. There are three main icons for navigation: a left-arrow for returning to the main menu, a musical note for stopping the music, and a down arrow for exiting the game. There is no onscreen indication of which items are "clickable." In "Monster Choir," users can listen to the creatures singing the scales or can record their own sounds for them to sing. The accompanying booklet provides directions on how to record your own sounds. (Children would definitely require adult assistance in using certain features of this product.)In "My Band," a row of creatures, each with their own instrument, appear below a stage. Children can create their own music by clicking on the characters and "placing" them on the stage. Users click one of five buttons on the "Moody Jukebox" to play a particular tune. Clicking on a button on the side of the jukebox reveals visuals that correspond to the song. In "Mixing Desk," players can move five characters closer or further away to make their sounds louder or softer. Students can put musical notes on a fence, representing a musical stave, in "Up and Down." In "Let's Dance," characters can be moved into eight different poses to perform a dance. Although the activities are intended to be open-ended and encourage exploration, young children may flounder without any directions and older users may be bored by the simple activities. The Pianomouse series and The Nutcracker Music Game (Sept. 2003, p. 80) would be more popular with young children.–Maren Ostergard, King County Library System, Issaquah, WA

Sex Education

Jenny's Choice. CD-ROM. Systems: Win. Center for Educational Media.2005. ISBN 1-888933-15-1. $49.

Gr 7-12–In this interactive CD-ROM, students play the role of peer counselor to 15-year-old Jenny who is debating whether or not to have sex with her boyfriend. Users hear Jenny talk about her relationship with her boyfriend, her parents, and her friends, as well as listen to Jenny's thoughts about love and the future. Players also meet two of Jenny's friends and hear from Brad, her boyfriend, and Jenny's mother. The CD-ROM features a female teen narrator, four teen characters, and Jenny's mom. This seemingly unscripted production challenges users to think about teen sexual activity, relationships, and the future. At the end of the presentation, viewers are asked to write a letter to Jenny offering her advice. Students who work through the program (it takes several hours to complete) will find themselves truly engaged in critical thinking about tough subjects and will relate to the teens in the program as well as the issues confronting Jenny. This production can also be an effective discussion starter and give teachers a starting point for a secular, abstinence-based sex education class. While not graphically dynamic, the program's realistic tone makes this an effective tool for middle and high school sex education programs.–Elaine Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, LA

Utility

Classroom Photo Publisher. 1 CD-ROM. Systems: Win 98 & later, Mac 9.1 & later. APTE. 2005.institutional use: $64.95; 5 copy lab pack: $279.95;25 copy site pack: $699; network: $899.

Gr 2-8, teachers–This is a program that is designed for "busy teachers," but it is actually easy enough for students to use. It enables users to import digital photos and then use them to create newsletters, banners, flash cards, certificates, calendars, and stickers. Laid out like a timeline or a series of folders, the program works on each feature in order, but it is possible to backtrack and add or subtract from the work, saving, printing, or exporting the results. The program will exit without prompting users to save, which can cause problems for students. There are attractive templates that are nice enough to use without any editing, or users can add photos, clipart, and text to a template; it's not possible to start from scratch and create original products. The APTE Web site (www.apte.com) offers additional clipart that can be added to the program, and personal artwork can be added with any digital camera.Photos can be edited, and students will especially enjoy being able to use the special effects or make original drawings. An update button is located on the bottom of the screen, but it would not connect on repeated attempts. The biggest drawbacks are the limited array of products that can be produced, and the inability to zoom in on work. The newsletter and calendar each offer only two layouts, and it is especially difficult to check the work in the newsletter. Many of the editing options that are useful in word processing programs, like undo, copy, cut, paste, and spell check are lacking from this program, but the buttons are easy to navigate, and it is very easy to import, add, edit, resize, and move pictures around within the projects. Teachers and students will find many ways to put these tools to work creating lessons and projects in the classroom with their own photographs.–MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann Elementary School, Binghamton, NY

Microsoft Student 2006. DVD-ROM. Systems: Win 2000 or XP, Microsoft Office XP or Office 2003, Internet connection. Microsoft. 2005. $99.99.

Gr 5 Up–Microsoft Student is "a comprehensive, subject-specific resource designed to help students complete high-quality homework assignments and projects in less time." And it really does live up to this description, leading students through any assignment from brainstorming to the final presentation. Microsoft has taken the best of Encarta Encyclopedia, added Office templates, and included some great research tools. One of the most important parts of the software is "Learning Essentials for Students," which adds tutorials, toolbars, and templates (developed in conjunction with major education companies) to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Unfortunately, this means that users must have a recent edition of Office in order for the program to work. For foreign-language students, the templates include verb conjugations, spell-check, and translation tools for French, German, Italian, and Spanish. More than 1,000 works of literature are included in "Book Summaries," which include information about the author, analyses of themes and characters, and topics for discussion. There is a book of quotations and a dictionary. In addition, there's online math homework help through an included subscription to MSN Encarta Premium (through October 31, 2006). Students can access their textbook online (most major publishers are represented) and receive step-by-step instructions and hints for solving math problems. The program's full-featured graphing calculator software allows students to mouse over buttons for quick descriptions of their function, store and easily change variables, and save work to finish later. To help visualize a problem, students can create 2D and 3D graphs and view, rotate, and animate them onscreen. "The Web" Companion displays current information from over 70,000 Encarta articles, along with rather limited search engine results. The software is inviting and simple to use with many toolbars and quick-launch icons. It provides all the tools and information for research and homework tasks for a wide range of assignments.–MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann Elementary School, Binghamton, NY

Browse the September CD-ROM reviews