'Educational software' is
computer software whose primary purpose is
teaching or
self-learning.
History
Early History, 1940s - 1970s
The use of computer hardware and software in education and training dates to the early 1940s, when American researchers developed
flight simulators which used
analog computers to generate simulated onboard instrument data. One such system was the type19 synthetic radar trainer, built in 1943. From these early attempts in the WWII era through the mid 1970s, educational software was directly tied to the hardware, usually
mainframe computers, on which it ran. Pioneering educational computer systems in this era included
PLATO (1960), developed at the University of Illinois, and
TICCIT (1969). These early terminals cost over $10,000, putting them out of reach of most institutions. Some
programming languages from this period, particularly
BASIC (1963), and
LOGO (1967) can also be considered educational, as they were specifically targeted to students and novice computer users. The Plato IV, released in 1972, supported many features which later became standard in educational software running on home computers. Its features included bitmap graphics, primitive sound generation, and support for non-keyboard input devices, including the
touchscreen.
History 1970s – 1980s
The arrival of the personal computer, with the
altair 8800 in 1975, changed the field of software in general, with specific implications for educational software. Whereas users prior to 1975 were dependent upon university or government owned
mainframe computers with timesharing, users after this shift could create and use software for computers in homes and schools, computers available for less than $2000. By the early 1980s, the availability of personal computers including the
Commodore PET, and
Apple II allowed for the creation of companies and nonprofits which specialized in educational software.
Brøderbund and the
Learning Company are key companies from this period, and
MECC, the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, a key non-profit software developer. These and other companies designed a range of titles for personal computers, with the bulk of the software initially developed for the Apple II.
Major types of educational software
Children's learning and home learning
An immense number of titles, probably running into the 1000s, were developed and released from the mid-1990’s onwards, aimed primarily at the home education of younger children. Later iterations of these titles often began to link educational content to school curricula (such as
England’s
National Curriculum). The design of educational software programmes for home use has been influenced strongly by
computer gaming concepts – in other words, they are designed to be fun as well as educational. However as far as possible a distinction should be drawn between proper learning titles (such as these) and software where the gaming outweighs the educational value (described later). Parents need such a distinction in order to make informed purchasing choices.
The following are examples of children’s learning software which have a structured pedagogical approach, usually orientated towards literacy and numeracy skills.
★
GCompris, contains numerous activities, from computer discovery to science
★
Knowledge Adventure’s
Jumpstart and
Math Blaster series
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The Learning Company’s Reader Rabbit and
Zoombinis series
★
Disney Interactive learning titles based on characters such as
Winnie-the-Pooh,
Aladdin,
The Jungle Book and
Mickey Mouse
Classroom aids
A further category of educational software is software designed for use in school classrooms. Typically such software may be projected onto a large whiteboard at the front of the class and/or run simultaneously on a network of desktop computers in a classroom. This type of software is often called
classroom management software. While teachers often choose to use educational software from other categories in their IT suites (e.g. reference works, children’s software), a whole category of educational software has grown up specifically intended to assist classroom teaching. Branding has been less strong in this category than in those categories orientated towards home users. Software titles are often very specialised and produced by a wide variety of manufacturers, including many established educational book publishers.
★ ''
The schoolzone.co.uk Guide to Digital Resources, 5th ed. (2005)'' - An up-to-date full-colour guide with reviews of around 500 selected and recommended products, categorised by subject area, albeit specific to the UK school system.
Edutainment
In a broader sense, the term ''
edutainment'' describes an intentional merger of
computer games and educational software into a single product (and could therefore also comprise more serious titles described above under children’s learning software). In the narrower sense used here, the term describes educational software which is primarily about entertainment, but tends to educate as well and sells itself partly under the educational umbrella. Software of this kind is not structured towards school curricula, does not normally involve educational advisors, and does not focus on core skills such as literacy and numeracy.
Reference software
Main articles: Reference software
Many publishers of print
dictionaries and
encyclopedias have been involved in the production of educational reference software since the mid-1990s. They were joined in the reference software market by both startup companies and established software publishers, most notably
Microsoft.
The first commercial reference software products were reformulations of existing content into
CD-ROM editions, often supplemented with new
multimedia content, including compressed video and sound. More recent products made use of internet technologies, to supplement CD-ROM products, then, more recently, to replace them entirely.
Wikipedia and its offspins (such as
Wiktionary) marked a new departure in educational reference software. Previously, encyclopedias and dictionaries had compiled their contents on the basis of invited and closed teams of specialists. The
Wiki concept has allowed for the development of collaborative reference works through open cooperation incorporating experts and non-experts.
Educational software on custom platforms
Some manufacturers regarded normal
desktop computers as an inappropriate
platform for learning software for younger children and produced custom child-friendly pieces of hardware instead. The hardware and software is generally combined into a single product, such as a child-sized laptop-lookalike. The most well-known example are
Leapfrog products. These include imaginatively designed hand-held consoles with a variety of pluggable educational game cartridges and book-like electronic devices into which a variety of electronic books can be loaded. These products are more portable than laptop computers, but have a much more limited range of purposes, concentrating on
literacy and
numeracy.
Computer games with learning value
These are games which were originally developed for adults or older children and where the developers usually paid little or no consideration[reference needed] to potential learning implications. The absence of educational intent means that the term
edutainment cannot be applied here. Such games were nevertheless enthusiastically received in some educational circles and even passed into academic literature.
[1] Typically the educational value lies in the
simulation of social, historical or economic processes.
★
City-building games such as the
SimCity series (1989-2003) and
Caesar I-IV (1993-2006, with many spin-offs)
★
Civilization (computer game) series (1991-2005)
Software in corporate training and tertiary education
Earlier educational software for the important corporate and tertiary education markets was designed to run on a single
desktop computer (or an equivalent user device). The history of such software is usefully summarized in the ''
SCORM 2004 2nd edition Overview'' (section 1.3), unfortunately, however, without precise dates. In the years immediately following 2000, planners decided to switch to
server-based
applications with a high degree of
standardization. This means that educational software runs primarily on servers which may be hundreds or thousands of miles from the actual user. The user only receives tiny pieces of a learning module or test, fed over the internet one by one. The server software decides on what learning material to distribute, collects results and displays progress to teaching staff. Another way of expressing this change is to say that educational software morphed into an online educational service. US Governmental endorsements and approval systems ensured the rapid switch to the new way of managing and distributing learning material.
See also:
★
Web-based training (WBT)
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Virtual learning environment,
LMS (learning management system)
★
SCORM
Software for specific educational purposes
There are highly specific niche markets for educational software, including:
★ Language learning software (
Kverbos,
Verbix, or
English in a Flash, for example)
★ Typing tutors (
Mario Teaches Typing or
Mavis Beacon, for example)
★ Medical & Dental Encyclopedia elearning software
★ Driving test software
★ Software for enabling simulated dissection of human and animal bodies (used in medical and veterinary college courses); cf. ''
April Kung, "The Case for Educational Software in the Life Sciences" (2004)''
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Interactive geometry software
★
medical and healthcare educational software
Selected reports and academic articles
★ ''
Judi Johnson, “Then, Now and Beyond… A Look at the Past 30 Years of Educational Software” in Learning & Leading with Technology Volume 30 Number 7 (2003)''
★ Warren Buckleitner, “The State Of Children's Software Evaluation--Yesterday, Today And In The 21st Century” in Information Technology in Childhood Education (1999), 211-220
★ ''
Virvou, M., Katsionis, G., & Manos, K. (2005). "Combining Software Games with Education: Evaluation of its Educational Effectiveness." Educational Technology & Society, 8 (2), 54-65.''
★ ''
J. Enrique Hinostrozam & Harvey Mellar, "Considering Pedagogy in the Design, Development and Evaluation of Educational Software" (2000?)''
★ ''
Said Khalifa, Chris Bloor, Walter Middelton, Chris Jones. “Educational computer software, technical, criteria, and Quality” in Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2000''
★ ''
"An Environmental Scan of Children’s Interactive Media from 2000 to 2002" (An executive summary prepared for by Just Kid Inc., June 2002)''
Products and Suppliers
★ ''
Jill Stolzfus, “Overview of Education Software Companies” (Latest update: 2005?) ''
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Adventus Interactive
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Broderbund
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Davidson & Associates
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Dorling Kindersley
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Edmark
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Inspiration Software
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Knowledge Adventure
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The Learning Company
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Renaissance Learning ()
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Software MacKiev
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Medical simulation software
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Healthcare Net
See also
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E-learning
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Graphing calculator
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Online learning
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Computer-assisted language learning
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Educational technology
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Edutainment
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Educational game
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Intelligent tutoring system
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Interactive geometry software
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Instructional technology
★
Virtual learning environment
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