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Educational: 4.6
Overall Design: 4.8
Ease of Use: 4.5
(4.0 = good, 4.5 = very
good, 5.0 = excellent)
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Program Description Commentary Who Is This Program For
Why We Selected This Program Computer Requirements
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Adventures in Typing with Timon and Pumbaa is a progressive learn-to-type tutorial and practice program that is designed to make this learning experience a lot of fun. It works!
Your program guide is Rafiki the wise old monkey character from the Lion King. He introduces you to the program and starts by teaching you the "home" keys of the keyboard. (See top right) Once you have done the lesson and some initial practice, you will get a score on how well you did (speed and accuracy). You can then choose to repeat the lesson, or proceed to one of the Timon and Pumbaa Games, that are actually practice activities that will correspond to what you have just learned.
You first play "Smack A Bug". (See right) You help Pumbaa target his pea shooter at a gallery of bouncing bugs that represent the first 4 home keys that you have just learned. You are trying to hit the right keys that correspond to the bug popping up as quickly and accurately as you can, so you can get the highest possible score.
What you are actually learning through this practice, is letter/key recognition and memory and finger placement on the home row. Once you have completed the game you can play it again to improve your score (or have more fun), go back to your previous lesson or advance to the next lesson.
As you advance through the 15 lessons, you will play 4 additional games as part of your practice and learning experience. In the "Savannah Water and Power" game, you are trying to fill a tank of water by typing words that appear in the picture. (See right) Here you are practicing typing whole words and accuracy is stressed.
Through the next 3 games, you progressively practice typing phrases, then whole sentences and finally you are typing whole paragraphs and edit mistakes. (See bottom right) When you have completed all 5 games you get to watch a closing song from Timon and Pumbaa.
The program has 15 lessons in total and the program will let you advance only when you have demonstrated sufficient skill at your current level. The program allows for performance tracking for multiple users and gives performance reports on speed and accuracy ( "current", "best "and "average") for each user and for all 5 games (each of which is testing and measuring different specific skills.)
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" I became addicted to playing Smack the Bug. It is just like playing in a shooting gallery and I liked seeing how high a score I could get." - Bart, age 13
" I was a little afraid that I wasn't going to able to do this but I found the lessons easy to follow and the practice built my confidence. I didn't feel like a dunce when I made mistakes." - Celilne, age 12
" I kept using the program every day for two weeks and I really started to notice that I was really learning to type. It really helped. The clowning around of Timon and Pumbaa and some of the games made doing the practice fun." David, age 14
Adventures in Typing will best serve someone who really wants to learn to type and will have regular opportunity to exercise his or her newfound skills. You will need to use the skills this program teaches on a regular basis to ensure that the learning the program provides really sticks.
Don't expect that this program will get your kids excited about typing if they are not motivated to begin with. Learning to type requires sustained concentration and discipline. If the motivation and opportunity is there, this is a great program to learn on.
Though the program is suggested for ages 6 and up, it is really going to be of most value for kids 9 - 10 and up. If the child is younger, they will be able to do some of the earlier lessons and gain some basic keyboard knowledge but may find the later lessons too challenging.
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This program's progressive sequence of learning is very well constructed, with "learn a little", practice, and then play. The game style of the drills, like Smack a Bug are very engaging to those who like a good fun contest. (The experience is a lot like playing pinball) We saw many kids playing this one particular game for well over half an hour. How many kids do you know would stick with a straight drill practice for half an hour? The antics of Timon and Pumbaa throughout the whole program make your time spent very entertaining.
The tone and style of Rafiki, the wise monkey, as the teacher was very encouraging for the kids who worked with the program, especially those who started off believing that they could never really learn to type.
If you really want your child to learn to type using Adventures in Typing, we would encourage the child to use the program for twenty minutes to half an hour at a time and to do four to five half hour sessions over the course of a week. Learning to type requires concentration and regular practice. Don't overdo it in one session and then lose interest in keeping at it with this program.
Learning to type is an essential skill for all kids today. Adventures in Typing can make what otherwise can be a very tedious learning process, into fun way to acquire a very useful skill.
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Pricing and Online Ordering
(or call toll free -1-800-250-9229 )
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Platform: Macintosh®, Power PC 75MHz or faster processor, system 7.5 or later, 24MB RAM, 10MB free disk space, 4X CD ROM Drive and 256 colour display video
Platform: Windows® 95 or later , Pentium 90MHz or faster processor, 16 MB RAM, 10 MB free disk space, 4X CD-ROM drive, 16-bit Windows compatible sound card, 256 colour video display.
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