What do teachers and pupils now expect from a CD-Rom? My guess is that most would want some text, some sound, some illustrations and photos, some animation, and some video clips. Putting them together in an interesting and meaningful way is another requirement.

This disc certainly meets the basic requirements. It also provides the written word on screen in the form of hypertext, which allows learners to click on highlighted words and learn more, or make links between different parts of the disc. It has a scrapbook facility and printed worksheets for the teachers and pupils who still can’t live without them.

The disc, produced jointly by the British Library, Interactive Learning Productions and Yorkshire Television, gives a good coverage of Inventors and Inventions for the history, technology and science curriculums from key stages 2 to 4. It basically offers an encyclopaedia containing 70 biographies of a range of inventors, 1,500 images (drawings or photos) of various sizes, a timeline device, 39 video clips, sound effects in places, and an index to all the hypertext terms.

Inventions are grouped into five themes : textiles; power; communication; flight; transport. Each one is divided further into sub-sections, such as fuels, electricity and steam under Power. Users can enter each of these themes by clicking on the appropriate icon which is just as well, because I could not read the words Textiles, Power etc on my Acorn screen. The themes and sub-themes help to structure a potentially-confusing topic and show users where they are on the disc.

The disc is easy to get started and to use, with a good combination of text and illustrations, although I do not think learners will find the animationvideo clips particularly exciting. The text itself is well written and clear, but at times the reading age is too high for primary or even lower secondary pupils.

My only other criticism is that sound could have been used more often. There is a useful audio help system which users can click on, but a commentary for saying hello and welcome to users, and guiding them through the material and telling them where they are might have been valuable. Sound could be used (as an option) to talk learners through the text on the screen. This would be especially helpful for poorer readers.

One extremely useful facility is the “scrapbook” which comes on a floppy disc with the package. This allows learners to create their own collection of material by taking chunks of text, audio, movie or still image from the CD-Rom. Students can then add to it or annotate in any way they like, in order to create their own file of material.

Using a microphone, they can provide their own commentary, or using the keyboard, write their own notes or captions. This seems an excellent way of interacting with a potentially dry topic and making it more exciting and personal. The scrapbook facility is one of the most important features of the disc.

The disc will be useful in schools, not just in science, technology and history, but in other areas too. If it is sited in the school library (as most seem to be) it could be used for a variety of purposes. It is not the most exciting and attention-grabbing CD-Rom I have seen, but it does hold a wealth of material and has a lot of educational mileage.

As for price, there is little rhyme or reason in the current pricing of CD-Roms for schools: I have seen discs priced at Pounds 25 which are as educationally valuable as those at Pounds 150.

This disc, at Pounds 150 plus VAT, is at the top end of the price range and will cost a further Pounds 75 plus VAT to network on a single site. But if it is used to support a range of curriculum areas and is actually “built in” to lesson plans, schemes of work and pupils’ flexible learning, then it will be worth the money.

British Library - stand 618