Features

• Complete reference and development tool for English
• Over 80,000 words and phrases
• Computer-based learning exercises expand vocabulary
• Includes American and British language variants
• Valuable resource for ESL students as well

Amazon.com Product Description

This four CD-ROM package includes Webster's The Great Barrier Reef, Webster's Encyclopedia of Australian Mammals, Webster's Encyclopedia of Australian Reptiles & Frogs, and Webster's Encyclopedia of Australia 2000.

Australia's rich and unique wildlife and history are explored in these CD-ROMs, with features such as video footage of Australian wildlife, games, and interactive tools. Webster's Encyclopedia of Australia 2000 is a resource for studying the political as well as natural history of Australia. All CD-ROMs include the Project Creator option, which allows you to produce and save your own projects using the text and pictures from any part of the CD. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Not bad for the price
For the price, this program isn't too bad. Only 3 of the 4 CDs in the set work with Windows XP, though it's packaged as a 95/98/Me/2000/XP product. They'll send you an upgrade to make it work for an additional $10... not exactly the kind of support that warms the heart. The animations on the CDs are well done. It's best for older kids--most of the content appears to be text based, with some 3D animation thrown in. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Nothing has been lost in this electronic translation of the popularpaper version of the AmericanHeritage Children's Dictionary. In fact, this CD-ROM only builds on itssuccess by adding animations, interactive games, voice-over pronunciations ofnearly 13,000 words, and more areas to explore than before.

The dictionary is broken into several main parts: a Word Finder, which acts asthe main dictionary; three games (Hangman, Spelling Bee, and Charades); and anA to Z section, which shows a colorful collage of select wordsbeginning with whatever letter of the alphabet you clicked on.

The A to Z section is perhaps the most delightful area of theprogram. Within each scene, you can click on any image, and it will pronouncethe word and show an animation of that word. P unveils, among otherthings, a bamboo-eating panda bear, a package being unwrapped, two ballroomsdancers demonstrating the word partner, and a king and queen appearing onthe balcony of a palace to wave to their cheering subjects.

The Word Finder, though it seems overly simple at first use, can actually getyou lost in its depths. Once you find the word you're looking for--or use thehandy Word of the Day feature, which shows a definition at random--it willpronounce the word, display the syllables, and show past and present forms ofthe word if they exist, along with an easy-to-understand, kid-friendlydefinition. It also has two other features that pop up intermittently: the WordDetective and the Word Wheel. Word Detective displays synonyms, word history,homophones, language notes, a word builder, and more. The World Wheel will showyou similar words you might be interested in. When you look up the wordhorse, it will bring up words within the horse family: burro,donkey, mustang, nag, or palomino, for example,which you can click on for definitions, repeating the cycle.

We only had a few small gripes with this program. The first is that theinterface is far from intuitive. We recommend parents spend some time with kidsat first to get them accustomed to finding what they need. Secondly, the programdoesn't expand to a full-screen mode. Most folks probably won't be bothered bythis, but if your monitor is larger, background applications can be distracting,especially to younger kids.

However, this children's dictionary is nothing short of charming. Kids will likeit because it makes exploring English language and words fun and painless, andparents will like it because it expands kid's vocabulary and builds spellingskills. (Ages 7 to 12) --Ara Jane Olufson ... Read more

Reviews (1)

It is too slow
this dictionary is too slow. every time you need to enter a word, you have to click on a button. It is not possible to just erase the last word by pressing Esc and type in a new one. The CD needs to be kept in the cd-rom while using the dictionary. The window only takes up a third of the screen and it is not possible to view the dictionary in full window either. Enteries are alright with simple definitions and pictures. ... Read more

Features

• Help young people gain a greater appreciation and understanding of basic scientific concepts -From photosynthesis to physiology, chemistry to electricity
• Complete introductions to genetics and ecology -food chains, population growth, DNA and more
• Light and electricity are explained, along with circuitry, Ohm?s Law, reflection and refraction, and other important concepts
• Newton's Laws are explained, along with motion & gravity concepts like velocity, momentum, potential & kinetic energy
• It also teaches important scientific thinking skills -developing hypotheses, gathering and analyzing data, examining cause and effect, and more

Reviews (10)

Invaluable
I've tried both Encarta 2004 and Britannica 2004. As other reviews here pointed out, Britannica is also good, but the interface leaves a lot to be desired and program is very very sluggish. I'm on a 1.6Mhz Pentium 4 Windows XP system, with 1 gigabyte of memory. So I was a bit surprised how slow it was.

I decided to go with Encarta because it's faster, has more multimedia, and I like how Microsoft updates it (and displays a list of what was updated/added). I haven't tried the older versions of Encarta so I cannot compare, but 2004 looks and works fine for me. Some have complained about the Visual Browser "carousel" on the main page of the program. This can easily be disabled in the program options if it annoys you. The Encarta interface is very clean and organized. Colorful detailed buttons on the toolbar make it very easy to access the most common tasks and the search function is very fast. It seems the more you dig into it, the more goodies you'll find. There are great interactivities, games, dynamic atlas, 3D and 2D virtual tours, thousands of quotations, an entire dictionary program, and lots more. If you're used to the Internet Explorer browser, the "Favorites" menu in Encarta is identical and a great way to bookmark and organize your favorite places in this vast program. It's very easy to get "lost" for hours just clicking around.

I haven't looked through an encyclopedia on CD-ROM since the early 90's when CD-ROM technology was just starting to take off. I'm pleased to see how detailed and invaluable they've become. I'd recommend this to anyone.

I love this product!
I've not seen Encarta before so I have no idea about previous versions. However, this version is very impressive. I'm a computer professional and I can say that very few products have a user interface that 'flows' this well. My primary reason to get this was for my 10-year-old, but I think I'll be using it a lot more than her. The maps, dictionaries, articles, and links to related content on the web are great, but how they are all tied together is what really makes this product shine.

It does take a while to load and you want to install everything on your hard drive (about 2Gig). If you don't load everything to your disk then you'll wear out your arm swapping between the 5 CDs when you look at different articles.

Good, but better Encarta Reference Library
It is better to buy Encarta Reference Library, because it has more text and features (Atlas and so on). I have reviewed it if you want extra information. The system requirements are about the same.

Encarta 2004 versus Britannica 2004
I have bought both Encarta and Britannica for years (EB in printed edition too: 32 volumes, 32.000 sheets). This is my opinion in brief: Encarta is excellent in all aspects, but Britannica's authoritative text (sometimes outdated) makes interesting to buy both.
TEXT: Britannica is a superb encyclopedia in text (not in visual aid) since 1768 (you know: an article by Einstein and so on...). Text in electronic version differs from printed encyclopedia (very large articles have been shortened). Britannica claims that it has more items than Encarta, but this is a joke: articles like "Mexico" are only one (with a lot of subdivisions) in Encarta, while in Britannica subdivisions are unconnected, and you must "jump" from one subdivision to another, which is slow and very annoying, especially if you want to copy it in "WORD". Very often, the text is not updated.
In the other hand, Encarta's text is not bad at all. Most articles have the name of their contributors (professions, works...): They are not John Doe. You can find large fragments of literary works, literature guides, a lot of sidebars and thousands of quotations. "Encarta Africana" is included. The Pop-Up (double clicking a word) Dictionary and Thesaurus has sound for correct pronunciation (by the way, it can read aloud, with a robotic and ugly voice, a whole article). The "Translation Dictionaries" to Spanish, French, German and Italian must be improved, because they are minimal. It gives you a lot of "Internet links", even if you are not connected. With Britannica you must be "on-line" and it searches in an EB Web page.
In theory you can update Britannica over the Internet free for a year quarterly (4 times), but this does not work: You can not find new files. Encarta can be updated free EVERY WEEK with new articles and additions or corrections to the old ones (till October 2004). With Encarta updating really works. Technically, is amazing to see the changes in old items.
ATLAS Britannica has not a real atlas; only a worlds map whose maximum detail is the States of USA. Statistics are very poor. Encarta's Atlas is like another encyclopedia, with a great detail (1 cm/ 4 km all over the world) and 20 types of atlas presentations (statistical ones can be counted by dozens). If you look a geographical article (city, river...) you can see in a corner where it is placed and, with only a click, open the atlas. In articles of cities, if you are on-line, you can see in another corner the weather of this place in that moment. If it is a USA place, you can read the latest news.
MULTIMEDIA: They say that "serious" or "adult" readers do not care about "pictures"; that multimedia is only for kids. I do not agree, because I think that, sometimes, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Works of art, anatomy, historical maps, diagrams ... Encarta devastates Britannica with a lot of photos, paintings, drawings, charts & tables, animations, interactivities, videos, music and sounds, pictures, 2-D and 3-D virtual tours, 360-degrees views, timeline, games... It is not only the quantity and quality. It is the easy access you have to all the multimedia, and that text and multimedia are fully integrated. Britannica is not really multimedia. It has photos and videos, but they make the program slow and sluggish. They should edit an alternative version with only text, as they did with the first edition in 1995. It worked fast and easy in old computers.
INTERFACE AND PERFORMANCE: This is the worst side of Britannica. With Encarta you only have to type a word or the beginning of a word to see all the articles and multimedia that contain it. If Encarta does not find anything, it gives you automatically alternative spellings. Even if you write the name of a small village lost in any country, you see it in the atlas. If you need to copy text or pictures, the integration with Microsoft WORD is perfect. It has additional ways to find content, including subject or multimedia browsing, "related articles" and the standard A-Z method. The "Research Organizer" is very helpful too. Encarta's TEXT FONT is very clear (Britannica's...) and you can choose 3 sizes.
Navigating with Britannica is different. 2004 edition is better than 2003 one, but still it is disappointing. I will only give you an example: if you do not know the exact and correct spelling of a name or word, it does not help you with similar spellings (unless you open a window and fight with it). As I said before, the program's performance speed is very slow and sluggish, and it must be dramatically improved. To go "back and forward" you do not find any icon and you need to open a "menu".... One "pro" for Britannica: they say it works with Macintosh.
I repeat my modest piece of advice: Encarta is excellent in all aspects, but Britannica's authoritative text (sometimes outdated) make interesting to buy both.

Good in a Very Microsoftish Way
Encarta is good. It is very easy to use. It has a web site that a registered user could access. Its world map is far superior than the Encyclopaedia Britannica's. However, its contents are sometimes not that good.

For example, I searched "John Rawls," a prominent moral and political philosopher, today. Its first line reads:

[ Rawls, John (1921-), American moral and political philosopher, whose major work, A Theory of Justice, has had a profound impact on ethics and political theory since its publication in 1971. ]

For God's sake, Rawls died on Nov 22, 2002. It's March 21, 2004 today. And Encarta, which supposedly should be updated weekly, did nothing to correct this mistake. ... Read more

Features

• An engaging, fun, educational environment for kids
• Online learning games for reading, math, science, and social science
• Britannica Student Encyclopedia and Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia
• Merriam-Webster's Student Dictionary, Thesaurus, and World Atlas
• For ages 7 to 18; grades 2 through 12

Amazon.com Product Description

A fascinating introduction to maps, atlases, and our world, My First Amazing World Explorer incorporates two new educational games and more information into the award-winning original title. All the traditional features of a children's atlas are brought to life, while the magic of multimedia adds interactive adventures and learning activities that a book could never provide. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

world explorer 2.0
i think this game is very fun and good for educational purposes
i would definatley give this a 5 out of 5 i like the way you make your own passport

Globetrotting made easy
My son was 4 when he tackled this program. He'd was glued and wouldn't want to budge until he had completely filled his passport! You are given a huge map of the world, complete with landscape and landmarks , continents, countries and major cities. You can even use the magnifying glass and zoom in on an area for more information. For the "passport game" you are to search the map for any boats or planes that will take you from one country to another. Click on the plane, for example, and you will be told where you are travelling to and the flight time. For each journey you take, a visa will be stamped in your passport. Fill your passport with all 19(!) journeys and you will earn the title WORLD EXPLORER and get a certificate! In another game, you must search the map for flora, fauna, landmarks, etc. to fill a sticker book. There's also treasure hunt game and a snap game. I think my son was a little young to appreciate all the information that was available, but he felt challenged to finish the passport or sticker book by the narrator's positive feedback and encouragement. Older children will enjoy the chance to explore what looks interesting to them (graphics were DK quality and the clickables were great fun!) at their own pace. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Wonderful vocab and spelling booster
My First Incredible Amazing Dictionary is exactly what I was looking for to teach my 5 year old reading and vocabulary. It is a straight forward but well designed list of about 1000 first words. The words are presented in a list with pictures, and when he clicks on the picture the word comes out. The dictionary pronounces the word, pronounces the entire explanation, then shows an animated picture that demonstrates the meaning of the word. It is wonderful for homeschooling or just to give the child an edge in school. My boy spent about 10 hours clicking around it when I first showed him the game. Now, I am currently making him go through 16 words a day, in alphabetical order, to write each word down as he listens to its pronunciation and meaning. I give him a small candy as a reward afterwards, and he doesn't mind doing it because the animated pictures are very interesting, and all different. I think this is an excellent idea from DK and definitely wonderful teaching tool. Besides the dictionary, it also has word games, but my son isn't ready for it now. He will be!
Highly recommended for homeschoolers. But if you are just looking for a game, this is not really a game and your child probably won't play it too long, compared to other computer games.

Outstanding Vocabulary Development Software for pre-k to 3rd
Dorling-Kindersley's My First Amazing Incredible Dictionary is an absolute delight! Pre-readers up through 3rd graders (or so) will find this software easy to use and intriguing. The graphics, animation, and sounds are mesmerizing. Any child who can point and click can easily entertain himself for at least 30 minutes at at time. After clicking on a letter of the alphabet, the child is taken to a page with pictures of words for that letter, arranged in dictionary format. A click on any picture sends the child to the page for that word. The child then has the option to click on the word itself or the word's definition, which will result in voicing of the text. The child can click on the large colorful photgraph or cartoon drawing depicting the word. The fun is in discovering what will happen with this click. Will it be animation of the picture, a sound or both? Whatever the case, children are usually delighted. The vocabulary items include the obligatory concrete nouns, but also abstract verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepostions. There are easy links provided for words with the same spelling but different meanings. I have used this software with hearing impaired, speech impaired, and learning disabled children at work as a speech/language pathologist. All of them loved it. Besides the dictionary, there are games that children will find fun to try alone or with a friend. Enjoy!

Good for early learners
This program introduces children to more than 1,000 words andtheir meanings through pictures, sound effects and spoken words. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

The Jolly Post Office is an original and delightful CD-ROM, withall the charm of Janet and Allan Ahlberg's bestselling Jolly Postman books.

The child has been left in charge of the Jolly Post Office. It's a very busy daywith much to do, letters to sort, parcels to weigh and stamp, broken packages tomend, and where's Jack? Jack has to be found. The post office is a very popularplace, with visitors coming and going, and a lot for the child to do andexplore. There are six games, and each game has three levels of difficulty. Thelevel can be adjusted by using the selector on the yellow telephone.

The program starts at the post office counter, and there is a choice of whetherto send postcards, sort letters, swap stamps on the Internet, help customers,mend parcels, or personalize stationary. The child can send postcards to Jack onhis travels around Europe, learning all about maps, flags, and differentcountries. When sorting the jumbled letters, children can give the Jolly Postmanhis cup of tea and, if they are really quick, can catch him sleeping and watchhis dream. There is a World Stamp Book available on the Internet. Players candesign their own stamp, start a collection in their own stamp album, and entertheir designs in the World Stamp Book, collecting other children's designs fromaround the world. By weighing the parcels belonging to the Jolly Postman'sfairytale friends and calculating the correct postage, the children are helpingthe customers. Some of the packages get broken in transit, and the child isasked to put them together again so that they can be delivered. Last of all,there is personalized stationery. Children can make and print their own letters,cards, and invitations. There are over 100 different clip art designs from whichto choose.

Children will love helping in the post office, and with so many educationalgames and activities, they'll be learning as they play. --Lynne Unwin ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Wish I had passed on this one
As much as we love the Jolly Postman book we were really looking forward to this software. We were very disappointed and found little in the way of activities. The few activities there are did not hold my daughter's attention for very long. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Imagine a museum with the bells and whistles of a futuristic society, built back in the Cretaceous period. That's what DK Interactive's Dinosaur Hunter feels like. Granite slabs roll back to reveal maps, a mighty Megalosaur hides in a crevasse, and foreboding ambient sound echoes through the vaulted halls. If you manage to excavate a dinosaur and bring it back to life, roars and heavy footfalls add to the tension. This virtual-reality CD-ROM could be retitled "Jurassic Park meets the Smithsonian."

Dinosaur fans will delight in the 50 different species in this virtual museum. Yes, you can find Velociraptor and T-rex here, but you can also find obscurities like the thick-skulled Pachycephalosaurus and the horse-sized vegetarian Psittacosaurus. Each dinosaur display comes with an extremely handy audio pronunciation key, well-rendered illustrations, and handfuls of facts. Explorers move through the museum by clicking the cursor after it transforms into a directional arrow; folks who like to see the big picture can install a "you are here" map so they won't get lost.

Dedicated dinophiles should visit the Excavation Site and rebuild dinosaurs with missing bones. Be forewarned: paleontology isn't for the impatient. This virtual dig is nearly as slow moving and challenging as the real thing. But do stick with it, there's a payoff for the persistent. When you reassemble a dinosaur in this virtual world, it grows flesh, comes to life, and wanders the museum. In our house, we have yet to find out what happens when we add Tyrannosaurus to the Triceratops we already have roaming the halls. (Ages 8 and older) --Anne Erickson ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very Good - even for kids
Dinosaur Hunter is a quality piece of work. Our 5 year old started playing with it when he was 4-1/2 (box lists age 10). He needed a good deal of hand holding the first 3 months of constant playing (he really loves dinosaurs, and this was a perfect match), but after that point he was able to navigate and investigate on his own. He still loves the program. Even though the content is reasonably deep and fascinating for an adult, there is a lot of interactive work that a pre-reading younger kid can enjoy. When clicking on dinosaurs, they will move and make the kinds of sounds that scientists would expect from a study of bone structures. There are a large number of movies, and there are many places where the program will read or pronounce names. One day our son was walking in circles. Each time he came back into view he was a different dinosaur with a different walk and a different roar. A different day he walked into the room and asked my wife for help finding the caudal vertebra for the heterodontasaurus. Not for all kids, but our youngster loves it.

Dinosaur fans rejoice !
Enter the prehistoric world of dinosaurs... Simply wanderaround the VR museum and click on the exhibits...easy user interface!Amazing animations and special 3D animations makes learning about dinosaur easy. Moving around is easy ! In fact, this CD- rom is like playing an educational title of MYST. Many 3D models to thrill and excite dinosaur fans. There's even a dig site to find dinosaur bones to bring them back to life! The perfect CD-rom for anyone who likes or is interested in dinosaurs. ... Read more

Features

• This powerful digital dictionary gives you easy access to hundreds of thousands of words -- you'll be uncertain of what word to use, or what its meaning is!
• Learn the etymology, proper usage and definnitons of unique words, and use them to improve your vocabulary and impress your reading or speaking audience
• Make sure your writing is always free of errors using the special Spellchecker tool!