Educational Software, Chalk Boards And Watercolour Painting

By Author: Aspex Software
Total Articles: 3
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Twenty years past children's educational software was a luxury item which most schools did not budget for. Now it is just a normal routine part of the learning resources found in any school. Over the years many new packages of children's educational software have been introduced as the next 'must have' for schools, only to disappear into oblivion within a couple of years.

A tiny proportion of educational software packages have been found to have a lasting relevance and usefulness, but Aspex has created educational software which children find just as fresh and interesting as they did fifteen years ago! That is because our software helps pupils to have fun while they gain and improve skills which are widely in demand in the twenty-first century. Such skills include mouse control, manipulation of on-screen graphics, budgeting money, and thinking up design ideas, all of which are fast becoming abilities necessary for everyday life today.

To survive and prosper in this ever changing world, at various periods of history and in diverse cultural settings, ...
... requires completely different sets of skills and know how. To make a living in the wild, as shown by Bear Grylls on TV, requires skills like rubbing sticks together to create a spark and start a fire, and knowing which plants have roots that are edible and which ones will kill you. But that kind of know how is utterly irrelevant when dining at the Savoy Grill, for that you need to know how to read the carte du jour, which cutlery to use for each course and how to handle it!

Children's learning is at least to some degree about learning what you need to know to survive, and at any single time and place there is a consensus on what children should be taught. Thus, well-born young women in the England of 150 years ago were taught to be lady-like, the important skills for them were watercolour painting, playing an instrument, singing, reciting and embroidery. These things were the needful accomplishments for acquiring a suitable husband eg WELL-OFF! The study of science, Chemistry or Mathematics was considered quite unseemly for a Lady and therefore girls were excluded from learning these subjects.

My school life started in the Dark Ages of the late 1950's, and instead of having fun with woodwork girls had to sit still and embroider. I can also remember we were given a slate and a piece of chalk for writing lessons while I was an Infant in a village school in Scotland, (and I haven't got my bus pass yet!). There have been vast technological changes in the classroom since then! Today the first thing a child is faced with in the classroom is the ever present school computer with all its potential for learning, kids educational software programs, school websites and a plethora of resources. Nowadays children don't just learn to write, they become published authors while they're still at school!

The computer and its software are now foundational to our children's learning and education whether they are at school or at home. However what they can learn by using the computer is heavily influenced by the quality of the software and web-based content that the child encounters.

Much research and consideration have gone into our children's educational software products and this has enabled us to create four genuinely content-free, open ended, cross-curricular design software for children, Spex for designing rooms in a house, Spexworlds! which makes it easy to design a house and other places, tabs for 3D shapes, nets and modeling, and lastly Shapes and Nets a program for school children to investigate 2D shapes and 3D shapes.

A child using one of these educational software packages can use their own creativity to make a personal and unique design, perhaps a kitchen layout or a model of a rocket. Learning is effortless, while the child is enjoying the experience!