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July 16-31, 2000 READ RIGHT |
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JIVA FUN SERIES A Treat for the Toddlers The multimedia series is an attempt to provide an interactive and fun-filled learning experience to children while at play. By Amit Ranjan Rai
Multimedia Software has opened up a new stream in children's learning. It provides highly interactive settings (games, puzzles and creative environments with accessible tools) with potential to stimulate the young mind. Mental actions like comparing, organising and symbolising become easy and learning is a lively and interesting process. Experts say that children learn by doing and early education must encourage them to do things, asks questions and explore. The "Fun At" series multimedia CD-ROMs by Jiva Institute attempts the same-making the learning process interactive and interesting. The three CD pack-Fun at the Zoo, Fun at the Park and Fun at the Fair-targets age groups between four and 10 years. All three locations provide various interactive activities, making the children learn while at play. Counting Numbers First in the series, targeted at children between the ages of four and six years, is a trip to the zoo. It starts with a ticket counter where the child buys tickets and learns counting numbers. A simple exercise prompts him to buy different numbers of tickets, familiarising him with various numerals. Similar is the exercise in the snacks shop where the kid buys different articles, sums their costs and learns simple addition. Moving further he meets various animals-lion, elephant, goat and horse-and masters to categorise them as wild and domestic. Children prefer those programmes where they get a chance to exercise their influence. They simply love doing something or the other with the mouse. What they don't like is reading a lot of text on the screen, lengthy verbal narration, or just watching what happens next. The "Fun At" series has kept these points in mind. The experience is completely interactive-the screen does not switches itself until the user does what he is prompted to do or skips the event. Text and narration, keeping the tender age of the users in mind are kept at bare minimal so as not to confuse the kids. Second in the series is "Fun at the Park" targeted at children between five and eight-an age group that loves staying out in the field playing games. A little cricket game that prompts to throw and hit the ball. When hit the ball lands-up on a meter scale, making a kid identify the various lengths. At a picnic session one is asked to identify the nutritional value of various foods. For kids who are not so familiar with using the mouse, a skill builder section teaches basic mouse features. The third title, aimed at six to 10 age group, is a trip to a fair with more to learn. What it Lacks The titles, however, lack an adventure-like experience. Children like adventures and emotional experiences, and multimedia applications should aim at raising curiosity of the children and their interest in exploring things. The CDs lack these elements and, therefore, the stickiness to retain the young users for long. Another drawback is that CDs taken individually have quite less to offer, compared to other titles and games in the market. |
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