software reviews

528

Software ReviewsAnne Miller, Cathy Radziemski, Editors

Debbie KennedyDiane PitzerArizona State UniversityTempe, Arizona 85287

HyperCard

Publisher: Apple Computer, Inc.Address: 20525 Mariani Ave.Cupertino, California 95014

One megabyte memory(2) 800 disk drivesPrice: $49

Hardware needed: Macintosh Plus

HyperCard was developed by Bill Atkinson. His dream was to put the power of themicrocomputer into everyone’s hands; it took him three years to create HyperCard.HyperCard has two very different capabilities. It is a system that lets you build

Macintosh applications with the same point-and-click interface that we expect fromMacintosh programs. It also allows you to use applications developed by other people.The on-screen display is similar to a card catalog. Information is stored on cards and

cards are grouped into stacks. Each stack is a disk file that serves as a HyperCardapplication.

Cards in a stack can contain buttons and fields. Buttons perform a variety of tasksfrom sending you to another card or stack, play music, activate spoken test, operate avideo-disc player, or create whatever suits your needs. Fields also have many qualities.They can contain text in a variety of fonts and styles, execute a formula (like aspreadsheet cell), and be visible or invisible.HyperCard normally begins a session with the Home Stack, which serves as a guide to

other HyperCard stacks. By clicking an icon you can make your selection and godirectly into any application of your choice. If you wish you may return to the homestack at any time by clicking a house-icon button that takes you back with a singleclick.HyperCard contains five different levels of complexity. Browsing is a read-only level

and allows the user to open stacks, click on buttons, and access the various levels ofinformation. At the typing level you can enter and edit information in fields located oncards. The painting level adds the tools menu and fills out some of the existing menus.At the authoring level you can create and modify buttons and fields. You can pastetogether new applications from existing stacks. Scripting gives you access to HyperTalk,the programming language that is built into HyperCard.

Hypertext Card in Education

The possible uses of the hypertext card in education are as vast as one’s imagination.Reading and vocabulary can be enhanced by having more graphics integrated withreading. In a story, "buttons" can be made for many of the words and if a child has

School Science and MathematicsVolume 88 (6) October 1988

Software Reviews 529

trouble understanding a particular word, a button for that word can be opened and apicture and/or definition can be displayed. For older students, a dictionary stack couldbe ready for use at any time, and accessed within seconds.For language, buttons or stacks can be created to help show sentence structures,

define and give examples of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. as aids for those who needthem. Teachers can create buttons to grade papers and the students can look at moredetailed explanations of what they did wrong without destroying the appearance of thepaper.

In math, appropriate math tables and/or theorems can be put into buttons instudysheets and worksheets to reinforce new math concepts. Stacks with a variety ofmath aids such as: math tables, theorems, logorithms, and equations can be availablewithin moments to aid the students.

Social studies and history programs can have text with buttons to cross-referenceother events and dates to help reinforce learning. Maps and graphics can be available asbuttons or stacks on the same disk, and can be accessed quickly to clarify geographicaldata. Science programs could have more detailed explanations of theories, anddefinitions of new vocabulary as well as cross-references to past knowledge in buttonson study disks. More in-depth information could be in stacks on the same disk forstudents interested in biographies of famous scientists or how they happened to discoverprinciples or laws.

Health could have diagrams of the body and each label could be a button thatexplains different functions of that organ or system and cross-reference related systems.Nutrition and food units could have pictures of the food available in a separate stackand cross-referenced with buttons.The use of dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, and graphics all integrated into specific

files to use with each other combines to make a very powerful tool. Although it can beargued that many of these types of aids are currently available to the students inhardcopy or book form, I think that most teachers will agree that many students seldomtake the time to look for these to look up questions they may have. If these aids andreference information is as close as a "button," they will be more likely to be used. Astime progresses, many innovative ideas will make hypertext and this three-dimensionalteaching an extremely powerful educational tool that will facilitate greater in-depthteaching and learning.

Iggy’s GneesCathy RadziemskiArizona State UniversityTempe, Arizona 85287

Sunburst Communications, Inc.Pleasantville, New York 105701-800-431-1934

Grades K-2Problem-solving

Price $65.00

Those folks who want to see a computer program nicely integrated with the curriculumshould look carefully at Iggy’s Gnees: The Package (sub-title my own). By itself, theprogram is a carefully crafted exercise in visual discrimination. Students are asked tolook at a collection of shapes in a variety of colors and combinations, and match thecomputer’s set with their own. There are three levels of difficulty, meaning that at thehigher levels there are more complex combinations of "this, but not that, that or that."HELP is in the form of clues, and shapes are chosen with the assistance of Iggy the


530 Software Review

Inchworm, an adorable little graphic that inches across the screen and picks up pieceswith its flat ends. But it’s the print materials that make this package a real winner.There are scripted lessons for the teacher to present to a class, transparencies for usewith complementary activities, a student record sheet, a cognitive skills matrix, and cleartechnical reference pages.

If I were to use this in my own classroom, I would make Iggy my mascot for the yearand build on the natural affection children will feel for this cognitive creature. Althoughnot content based, this program provides a wealth of strongly motivated practice in thediscriminatory skills essential in any content area.

Algebra Shop

Scholastic SoftwareScholastic730 BroadwayNew York, NY 10003

Apple lie, lie, 11GS

Price: $69.95

Grades: 5-9

Anne M. MillerArizona State UniversityTempe, Arizona 85287

Algebra Shop by Scholastic is a new way to go shopping at a mall. Shoppers come hereto buy equations, or have their algebraic-function machines repaired. The program isdesigned to practice basic mathematical skills as well as developing problem solvingstrategies. Students solve different algebraic problems based on what shop they arehelping in. The student does not have to compute the actual solution, the program isdesigned to do that. Therefore the student spends most of the time estimating, inferringand generalizing, which are the foundations of developing problem solving techniques.The skills in each store are extremely varied, making the program flexible for use by a

variety of students. Examples of the math content include: factoring, conversion offractions to decimals, squares and square root, two function variables and nestedfunctions. There are two basic activities: 1) one shop game in which the students canwork against the clock to serve as many customers as they can during the 9-5 day. Theusers can also work at their own pace, not against the clock. Without the time pressurestudents are able to fully develop certain content skills. 2) the all shop game, thisactivity opens all the shops in the mall and it is the student’s job to serve as manycustomers as possible in all of the mall shops. The game will periodically inform theuser that other customers have arrived in a different shop from the one the student isworking in. This lets the user know which shop to go to after serving the customers inthe current shop. The all shops game does provide allocations for some stores in themall to be closed.The program also provides student worksheets which are designed to introduce the

students to the types of problems they will encounter when working in the shops. Theseare nice introductory activities and can really help prepare the student for using theprogram. The program is extremely easy to use and provides on screen instructions foreach shop.

Overall, Algebra Shop is a nice addition to the mathematics classroom. It provides areal world application for the mathematics that the students are learning in theclassroom.

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