ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN LIMA NEWSLETTER -- 1993 ~~~~~ TI-101 ~~~~~ OUR 4/A UNIVERSITY by Jack Sughrue Box 459 E.Douglas MA 01516 #7 MODULATING ACADEMIC LIFE The TI, Class, in case you haven't been conscious the previous six classes, is unique in the computer world. Not only were there hexbuses and something like wafer tape available or almost available for awhile in its erratic history. No, Mr.^Shakespeare, not erotic! I said erratic. Anyway, Class, not only were there exotic forms of connection - No, Mr.^Shakespeare, I said "exotic!" - and storage, but the variety of usable storage forms still exceeds anything out there for any computer. In addition to hard drives, both size floppies, a variety of RAM disks and supercarts and gram devices, and specific modules (and things that plug into or are soldered onto all kinds of places), the TI also uses ordinary cassette tape as storage/retrieval. Now this may seem a surfeit of options, but there are TIers out there who are using each and every one of these items on a daily basis, and their perception of our wonderful machine is viewed through these devices. Because you are all taking this course to find out how best to use the TI as an educational tool for yourself, your friends, your family, your new TI converts, your own classrooms, we will explore ways in this session to modulate your TI to suit your needs. As most of you here are parents, grandparents, or classroom teachers and your concern is with the 4A as learning tool, let's first review your notes. You'll find that newsletters, user group friends, TIGERCUB, local fairs, and MICROpendium are your immediate best sources for what is educationally available for the TI. The magazine carries the classifieds, as well as ads for ASGARD, COMPRODINE, TEXCOMP and other agents for educational materials. If you look at my greying temples you will probably understand that I have been at this computer game for a bit. Ho! Thank you, Ms.^Bronte. I wondered if anyone got the humor of that. Well, being around a bit - particularly teaching these kinds of courses to teachers - I have learned that the old is not necessarily the worst, even in the whizzly world of electronics. By a show of hands, how many of you have more than one console? Okay, that's most of you. How many have more than one P-Box? Ah, so there are many consoles not being used. How about tape recorders? So you all still have your tape recorders. Good. Write today (and send $10) for Mickey Schmitt's (196 Broadway Ave., Lower Burrell PA 15068) fantastic TI cassette book, GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR CASSETTE SYSTEM, and another $5 to Jim Cox (905 Edgebrook Dr., Boylston MA 01505) for MUNCH's incredible disk of the ultimate in cassette programming (Disk 89, which also includes all of the cassette utility programs in the book, as well as others from all over the world). It has loads of samples, too. Did you know, for example, that you can use your cassette to actually run dumped modules like "Yahtzee?" Or that you can program your cassettes to locate at high speed from a cassette menu? And then run the programs automatically, whether XB or EA? Those programs are all on MUNCH Disk 89. And with cassette programs loaded and running there is no P-Box fan noise, because there is no P-Box! I say all this, Class, because in looking through my notes after last session's discussion of textware, I uncovered a box containing cassettes. It was marked "Education for Home and Classroom." It should have been marked "Treasures." So many of my teachers from the past couple years have told me that they are still using cassettes in their classrooms (mostly elementary, I might add), that I asked if they'd bring in a few for demoing. That's when I learned about all these new ways of cassetting. But, more importantly, I had a chance to renew my acquaintance with some of the best non-cartridge, non-disk learning material available. A lot of these great programs have been translated to disk, however, and are still in classroom and home use in that form, too. Most of these disks can probably be gotten from Jim Peterson of TIGERCUB (156 Collingwood Ave., Columbus OH 43213). In this little box of treasures, though, were some extraordinary things I'd like to share with you. To begin with, there were some KIDWARE tapes. All KIDWARE tapes are superb. I pulled out "Lemonade" and played it. This is a thinking activity for running a lemonade stand. All kinds of decisions must be made by the players. I've played versions for other computers that have more toots, but this is more realistic and intelligent. I'd forgotten how great the KIDWARE educational tapes were. They still are. Collect all the KIDWARE programs you can. That goes for a couple other companies, too, who made educational tapes specifically for the TI. Two of the biggest and best were SUNGEM and INTELLESTAR. The former had the most extraordinary setups. In almost all their games, SUNGEM allowed you to use your console to the maximum. The opening menu asked if you were using BASIC or XB or Speech Synthesizer or TEII. It would build its high-level sound around your personal configuration. They had some monster tapes that haven't been equalled even today (for tapes, that is). Things like "Searcher of the Solar System," which is still one of the best ways to actively involve a learner in a challenging, creative, informative way about the planets. I know a lot of teachers who are still using their "Telling Time" program which not only shows the hands on a clock but speak the exact time in a series of build-upon activities. Their "Math Challenge" graphically challenged the students in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. There were other math and spelling and social studies games, too. Quite a company for educators and parents. And, of course, kids. INTELLESTAR's approach was quite different. First, they had science tapes, which nobody else had. These included the classic "CELLS: the Building Blocks of Life," which is one of the greatest things ever done on tape. Actually, it is on three tapes. Also in their Life Science series was "Inside Frankie Stein," an interactive trip through the human body, and "Heart Attack," where you, as doctor or nurse, must monitor a patient to prevent an attack. Other science and math activities included "Fireball" and "Vyger" (their spelling). "States Alive" was their social studies contribution. But their masterpiece is "E.T." - "The Everything Teacher." This 6-tape educational gem should be in every teacher's classroom, in every home where there are children. Basically, there is a file editor. This creates the master data base for all the programs that make up this classroom environment. The four one/two player or team games include "TV Sweepstakes," which is a game show that uses the created files. It's a funny and fast-paced and graphically well-designed show that requires quick thinking on the part of the participants. "Baseball" is just that. Graphically the "batter's team" hits and scores as in regular baseball, but only by answering the data-based questions. The same or different questions may be used for "Space Patrol - Lost!" and "Last Jellybean on Earth." All four of these "quizzes" are lots of fun and ingeniously created. The "Everything Teacher" guides you easily through their data base to create, literally, everything you need for the children (or adults) you want to have play these games. Score is kept in each game, too. So, conceivably, you could have some math, language, science, social studies, and whatever files for all occasions. SUNGEM can pretty well operates without its accompanying text materials; INTELLESTAR's programs need the directions, KIDWARE directions are right on the screen menu. But, can you imagine this kind of stuff out there on tape! There were a couple companies that made educational tape programs for multiple computers, when those others had tapes, even though TI was the only one that worked well. Anyway, a couple of these educational companies made excellent TI stuff. SCHOLASTIC put out three things: "Electronic Party," a colorful screen occasion card maker; "Square Pairs," the very best concentration-style game ever made for our computer; and "Turtle Tracks," an intelligent LOGO-like program that has some extra special items I wish were included in regular LOGO (such as their unique Picture Codes that let you draw in a pattern ). "Tiny LOGO," done on tape just for the TI, by the way, is another superb LOGO-like program that runs in BASIC, rather than XB, as in "Turtle Tracks." SUNBURST produced two programs, at least, for the TI. The only one I own and have used is "Arrow Dynamics," which like most of the others I've mentioned, really take tape instruction and activity to its limits. The object is simply to move an arrow across a playing grid from one goal to another. However, the movements (one square at a time) must be stated in a LOGO-like structure. Then the obstacles are added (such as 90-degree deflection mirrors) and the fun begins! This is a stupendous thinking game. I only wish I knew where I could get hold of the other SUNBURST games, if they match up to this one at all. Speaking of LOGO, which we will discuss in the last session next time in greater detail, there was also a language for teachers called ASPIC created specifically for the TI and used with tape recorders back in the old days. The BEST OF 99er book, mentioned last time, contains this entire language in its educational section. Worth exploring if you only have the basic system, even without XB. But dust off those tape recorders and look in your friend's or your group's library or at fairs or maybe even in tape-filled shoeboxes at the back of your closet to gather up and use these and hundreds of other exceptional educational tape programs. If you find them on disk, transfer them to tape using the automatic disk to tape transfer programfrom the MUNCH disk. And get more than one computer going. Or dedicate one just to the significant children in your life at home or school. Believe me, your basic console with a tape recorder, coupled with an appropriate selection of educational tapes and cartridges, can provide enough educational material for anyone's childhood. And then some. And more than any other computer on the market today. Oops! I almost forgot the two tapes that are in almost everybody's library: OLDIES BUT GOODIES I && II put out by TI. They contain some of the very best educational taped software in existence; things like Hammurabi, Hidden Pairs, Tictactoe, 3-D Tictactoe, Number Scramble, Word Scramble, Word Safari, Factor Foe, Peg Jump, and so on. Incomparable classics that the new generation of TI learners have probably not experienced, even though some may be old hat to you. Dig them out. Matter of fact, even some of those books we mentioned from TEXCOMP last time can come with tapes, in case typing in those programs from the texts is a problem. I think ASGARD (P.O.Box 10306 - free catalog), which is still making cartridges, including an educational one for pre-school and primary children, still sells tapes and also educational materials. So much for tapes, Class. Last time I asked you to bring in all the educational cartridges you have at home or school for sharing and show and tell. Cartridges are the best educational tool for any computer. The kids of any age can pop in the carts, turn on the computers and monitors, and run the stuff by themselves until bedtime. Though the modules were made by many different companies, including TI, I don't believe any other educational computer tool truly equals the ease of operation, the direct addressing of the desired skills, the positive reinforcement of successes (with colorful animation and music and loads of other toots and whistles and golden goodies unique to the 4A), and the understanding of the developmental level of the learner and the positive need for an entertainingly high motivational structure. Anyway, Class, the TI cartridges still available in all the places we've been mentioning all semester long - Look to your notes! - include excellent card and board strategy games like BLACKJACK and CHESS and OTHELLO, which no one can deny are skill building, thinking activities. They also have the logic problems which enhance map skills (and foresight) such as A-MAZE-ING and HUNT THE WUMPUS and ZERO ZAP. Standard boxed games like YAHTZEE and CONNECT FOUR surely are strategy learning tools. So, too, would be the Adams' ADVENTURE INTERNATIONAL SERIES which is made for interactive play only on computers and demand high-level reading comprehension skills and long attention spans to even begin to play them properly. Cartridges like TI WRITER and MUSIC MAKER are definitely educational tools, also. Though nobody could deny the efficacy of these and many others as learning tools, they were not specifically designed as educational cartridges. I want to take a few moments to put one list of some of the educationally-designed cartridges on the overhead here. This is just a partial listing, of course, and it would not include the fantastic modular software that was created but never released in module form. Most of those items are available on disk, butmany require a GRAM device or a GENEVE to operate. Nor am I including PLATO, TI's ultimate 180-disk courseware learning system for learners from primary through adult, including GED exam preparation. No. What I'm showing is mostly the stand-alone education-specific cartridges I found available at the last computer fair I went to in Boston a few weeks ago, as they probably are available from all those other resources we listed this semester. The ones with an asterisk use very sophisticated speech that still is not found in educational programs for other computers. EARLY LEARNING FUN, BEGINNING GRAMMAR, NUMBER MAGIC, VIDEO GRAPHS, EARLY READING*, ADDITION && SUBTRACTION I/II*, MULTIPLICATION I/II*, READING FUN*, READING (ON, ROUNDUP, RALLY, FLIGHT, etc.)*, SCHOLASTIC SPELLING 1-6*, DIVISION I/II*, TOUCH TYPING TUTOR, COMPUTER MATH GAMES I-III, MILLIKEN MATH, ALIEN ADDITION, MINUS MISSION, ALLIGATOR MIX, METEOR MULTIPLICATION, DEMOLITION DIVISION, DRAGON MIX, COMPUTER MATH GAMES 1-6, NUMERATION I/II, HONEYHUNT*, MICROSURGEON*, TERRY TURTLE'S ADVENTURE*, FACEMAKER, HANGMAN, STORY MACHINE*, VIDEO GRAPHS and on and on and on and on. Time's up! Homework this week is take, use (preferably with a young learner), and evaluate three of these modules. And be prepared to demonstrate them for us at the next session, which will be our last before the final. No, Mr.^Shakespeare, we will not be discussing things erotic next time. But we will be discussing a pretty hot topic: the very sexy LOGO II.