Personal Computers and Education Software Move to Head of the Class
SAN FRANCISCO — Because of an editing error, the first part of this story was inadvertently omitted from Sunday’s Orange County Edition of The Times. The story is reprinted in its entirety.
Seven-year-old Ryan Ballas, a student at E. R. Taylor elementary school, patiently explained the “game” on his Apple II to a hopelessly dense visitor.
“See, you’re supposed to pick out all the words with a ‘U’ in the middle,” the second-grader said. “You let the other words drop into the trash can. Here, I’ll show you.”
Concentrating closely as words flashed onto his screen, Ryan let HAM and BEG go by but hit the space bar to select HUT, HUM, BUN, SUN and BUG. After five correct selections, Ryan reaped his reward: A rabbit materialized on the screen and danced a jig as the computer played a little ditty.
All around Ryan, children at computers squealed happily as Reader Rabbit hopped onto their screens. Barbara Langerman, the computer lab teacher at E. R. Taylor, was equally delighted. “If we tried the same lessons with flash cards, they’d be bored in two minutes,” she said.
After a false start earlier this decade when they promised more than they could deliver, personal computers are making a strong surge in education. Cheaper, more powerful machines and a host of creative and instructionally sound programs from such software publishers as the Learning Co. (maker of Reader Rabbit), Davidson & Associates, Broderbund and Sunburst Communications are fueling the trend.
To be sure, the educational software category remains minuscule compared to the business software market. At least $20 is spent on business software for every dollar spent on educational programs, according to the Software Publishers Assn. in Washington. Still, “we can now say that education is no longer a stepchild of the software industry” said Pat Neu, a teacher and software consultant at the Montaloma School in Mountain View, Calif.
Simply put, good educational software appears to deliver. While computers will never replace teachers--or, for that matter, parents--in education, the debate these days is not whether children benefit from PCs, but what software is best and what kinds of children benefit the most.
“You have a very patient, nonjudgmental tutor in a computer,” said Ariella Lehrer, a cognitive psychologist and member of the California Educational Technology Committee. According to Lehrer, computers have shown the best results when paired with intelligent students. “If kids are pretty competent to begin with, put them in front of a computer and watch them fly,” she said.
Industry Hurt
But the machines have proven beneficial to slower learners, too. “When we started our computer labs four years ago, our school had really poor test scores,” Neu said. “Today, they have shot up to the point where we are considered a distinguished school.”
As that realization spreads, “the educational market, finally, is exploding,” said Victor Alhadeff, president of Egghead Discount Software, a 90-store national chain. He estimates that the educational market is worth $100 million a year.
Still, reaching parents remains a major marketing challenge for purveyors of educational products. “Not too long ago, most parents were phobia-ridden when it came to computers,” said Claudia Cohl, editor of Family & Home Office Computing magazine. “We actually had mothers saying, ‘I don’t even want to dust it.’ ”
Early on, Cohl added, “a lot of unsubstantiated claims were being made, and that hurt the entire educational software industry.”
Even computer literate parents, most of whom used IBM or compatible personal computers at work, faced a dilemma when buying machines for their homes. Should they buy an IBM-type machine, allowing them to bring work home? Or should they buy an Apple II, for which 90% of educational software was written, or some other type of machine?
Meanwhile, most early educational programs were either too abstract for the average child or consisted of rote “drill and practice”--known by teachers as “drill and kill”--exercises. “Even today, I would estimate that 95% of educational software is junk,” said Bonnie Bergum, San Francisco school district software coordinator.
Widely Acclaimed
But the problems are abating. The relentless march of PCs into the office has made more parents comfortable with the technology. And it is no longer so important to buy an Apple now that educational publishers are rushing out IBM versions of popular Apple programs.
Perhaps most important, the choice of educational software has become easier now that a handful of companies have won reputations for consistently issuing excellent products. Educators say the Learning Co., founded by nun-turned-entrepreneur Ann McCormick on a $130,000 National Science Foundation grant in 1980, is one of the best. The closely held company hopes to double its sales this fiscal year to nearly $10 million.
Its Rabbit series for teaching the “the three R’s”--Reader Rabbit, Writer Rabbit and Math Rabbit--has been widely acclaimed. A new “talking” version of Reader Rabbit, featuring some of the most realistic digitized sound ever produced, has just been released for the Apple II GS and Tandy 1000 computers.
Although Reader Rabbit is the clear leader in the reading field, Learning Co. takes a back seat to Davidson in mathematics. Educators say Davidson’s Math Blaster is probably the best math program around. “We’ve had letters from parents whose kids have gone from a C in math to an A,” said Jan Davidson, the former teacher who started the company in 1983.
Other Learning Co. products that have won plaudits include Rocky’s Boots and Think Quick!, which help children develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Educational programs typically list for $40 or $50 but are often discounted.
McCormick, the former nun who founded the Learning Co., revels in her background. “It’s a beauty, isn’t it?,” she laughed. “I’m surprised the Enquirer hasn’t written me up: ‘Former Nun Teaches Babies With Computers.’ ”
Still, a unifying thread runs through her life: a deep desire to teach children. She taught school as a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace in Bellevue, Wash.
Translating Ideas
But after six years, McCormick became disillusioned with “the rigidity of the Catholic educational system” and left the order for an experimental school in Albany, N.Y., and, later, a doctorate in education from the University of California, Berkeley.
It was after leaving Berkeley that she got the idea of using computers to educate children. “I had made videotapes and filmstrips and written books, all with little effect,” she recalled. “I wanted to make something that was colorful and pretty, that would engage and motivate children.”
She used her grant money to hire programmers who translated her and other educators’ ideas into computer code. “At first I was afraid--literally--to go into a computer store,” she said.
Editors knew a good story when they saw one, and McCormick was soon featured in Business Week and Fortune and made a personal appearance on television’s Phil Donahue show. “But good press didn’t lead to good sales,” she said. Marketing snafus and a revolving door in the executive suite also took a toll.
With the company losing money and its future in jeopardy, McCormick was fired as chairman in May, 1985. “I was told I had done nothing of value for years,” she said. Though hurt, she agreed to stay on as a consultant.
In November, 1985, William Dinsmore was hired as president and chief executive. With his consumer products background, which included a six-year stint at Beatrice Foods, he has returned the company to profitability. He pruned slow-selling programs from the product line and redesigned packaging to make the company’s software stand out on retailers’ shelves.
“As a company, we face retail shelves that are totally forbidding to the typical mom,” he said. “Our challenge is to make the value of our software crystal clear to parents.”
