Babes in Byteland

Dan and Audrey Marsh of Media, Pennsylvania, thought they knew a thing or two about computing. They first met on an online bulletin board. Dan runs complex software in his job as a financial controller for a real estate company, while Audrey works as an information-systems manager. But even the Marshes have been startled by the fervor with which Audrey's two sons, Joshua, 10, and Stephen, 3, have been booting up educational software on the family's home computer. Since the day Joshua declared he had to have a popular geography program called Where in the USA Is Carmen Sandiego? the family's kidware library has steadily expanded. They now have several dozen titles. "Our Christmas lists always have software on them," says Audrey. "They're expensive, but there's so much to them. We're pretty hooked." Lately young Joshua has let it be known that the family could use a more powerful computer.

It's not just for techies. Educational software is swiftly becoming a fixture in computer-wary households as well. Nearly two decades after the birth of personal computers, millions of techno-shy Americans are finally discovering a reason to bring them home. Filled with hope that their children will find learning as compelling as blasting aliens in a video game, parents bought more than $243 million worth of educational software last year, a 66% increase over 1992.

The popularity of kidware has made it not only the hottest segment of the $6.8 billion software industry but also a driving force behind the rapid growth in hardware sales. There are more than 15 million U.S. homes with both personal computers and school-age children; that figure is expected to double by 1998. "More and more parents see computers as something essential for their children's education," says Jean Cho, a manager of learning programs for software giant Microsoft.

Dozens of companies are rushing to cash in on the boom. They range from Microsoft, which last fall launched a fast-growing line called Microsoft Home that puts out education, entertainment and reference products, to such start- ups as Big Top Productions, a San Francisco software designer with 26 employees that has introduced seven titles since January. IBM too has begun to focus on the kid market with such recent CD-ROM titles as The Book of Shadowboxes: A Story of the ABCs, an introduction to the alphabet. Even such blood-and-guts video-game makers as Sega and Electronic Arts are jumping into the field. Electronic Arts' new EA*Kids division has already brought out eight programs, including the best-selling Peter Pan: A Story Painting Adventure, which allows a child to color and rearrange scenes from classic children's tales.

Like video games, educational software combines sound, color and flashy animation to capture the often short attention spans of children. But unlike violence-prone games, the payoff of kidware comes in the form of knowledge and invention rather than the emotional rush of destroying a foe. The programs are tailored for young minds at several stages from preschool to teen. Easy whimsy is the spirit of software like Broderbund's Kid Pix for young children, a paint program with a collection of leaky pens, dripping brushes and splattering paints you never have to clean up. Children ages 10 and older can create their own newspaper with programs such as Student Writing Center from the Learning Company, a do-it-yourself word processor that gives kids a 660,000-word thesaurus, 120 pictures and numerous type fonts. All told, the kidware industry now offers nearly 1,000 programs. Among the most popular:

THREE-TO-SIX-YEAR-OLDS: For the youngest set of computer users, simplicity rules. Reader Rabbit I from the Learning Company uses digitized speech to help youngsters read and spell; kids click on three-letter words to hear Reader Rabbit pronounce them aloud. Millie's Math House from Edmark has an animated talking cow that invites children into her home to learn about numbers, shapes and sizes. And just this month, Software Toolworks released Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing! for Kids, a simplified version of a program for older children that has sold more than 3 million copies since 1986. Hit the letter M on the new program, for example, and Mavis' dog Dizzy turns into a mouse. Or press the letter T to see a refrigerator pop open and a turkey leg fly out.

SIX-TO-10-YEAR-OLDS: Kidware for this group must be demanding enough to keep children interested but not so tough as to cause them to switch off their machines. Davidson & Associates' Math Blaster, a venerable series that has sold 1.6 million copies since 1983, freely borrows video-game techniques. The latest title, In Search of Spot, sends kids on a quest to rescue the Blasternaut's caterpillar-like space pal. The correct answer to a math problem puts the user closer to freeing Spot from the Trash Alien's ship. The Even More Incredible Machine, from Sierra On-Line, confronts users with more than 150 challenges to their ingenuity, ranging from launching a toy rocket to shooting a basketball through a hoop. To send up a rocket, a child must find a way to light the fuse. One possibility: using a magnifying glass to focus light rays. Budding authors can use Storybook Weaver, from Minnesota Educational Computing Corp., to create adventure tales. After clicking their cursor on a haunted house or other exotic setting, children fill it with colorful characters and write a story based on the scene.

TEN-YEAR-OLDS AND UP: Software in this category often appeals to both kids and adults. The Oregon Trail, from MECC, sends users on a simulated journey along the famous trail. Along the way, they grapple with many of the same problems that the pioneers faced, such as how much food to carry. The Cruncher, from Davidson, has a practical aim: it introduces kids to spreadsheets and accounting principles by asking them to figure out the full cost of activities such as planning a vacation or owning a pet. Microsoft's Dinosaurs brings the beasts back to life in gripping detail that includes the tyrannosaur's roar and its victim's howls. There's even a Software Toolworks program called Capitol Hill for congressional wannabes who yearn to vote and answer constituent mail.

Many of today's educational programs were dreamed up by computer-industry veterans who were dissatisfied with what was on the market for their children. One parent, Richard Devine, started Club KidSoft, a mail-order company that distributes a quarterly magazine and a CD-ROM disk that allows parents to try out 40 software programs for free in their homes. To buy one, consumers simply call a telephone number for a code that unlocks the rest of the program. Started last October, Club Kidsoft already has more than 40,000 subscribers.

Does this software really teach kids anything that sticks? While there are no wide-ranging, independent studies to prove that such best sellers as Math Blaster and Reader Rabbit boost students' grades or test scores, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that kids love them -- and that the best ones can be useful teaching aids. Garry Breitstein, a teacher at Seattle's Hawthorne School, says his fifth-graders often spend their lunch hour and recess logging on to programs like Microsoft's Creative Writer, which helps children write stories by suggesting possible situations and opening lines. Another favorite is Microsoft's Encarta, a best-selling encyclopedia on CD-ROM. "It's had a huge impact, especially in their writing," Breitstein says. "They don't even know they're improving their skills."

In schools that use programs designed for classrooms, the news has been encouraging as well. One notable success story comes from Oklahoma City, where district officials had been set to close Dunbar Elementary, a virtually all- black school in a low-income neighborhood, because student scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills failed to meet state standards. In an eleventh-hour effort to save the school, the district two years ago used federal money to buy a computer learning program called SuccessMaker, developed by the Computer Curriculum Corp. of Sunnyvale, California. The software allows individual students to advance at their own pace through reading, math and science lessons. After spending as much as an hour a day at their terminals, the students produced average test scores 50% higher than before; that helped persuade officials to keep the school open last year.

While home software tends to be more lighthearted than programs for schools, the two have many features in common. For example, students who log on to the classroom-oriented SuccessMaker instantly get a reading passage that, like home software, may include animation. A correct answer brings immediate affirmation, just as it does on a home computer -- a response that not even the most attentive teacher in a classroom filled with 20 or 30 students can provide. Wrong answers are greeted with new lessons that reinforce the material. Students thus advance only when they are ready for new levels, sharply lowering the risk that individuals will fall behind the rest of the class as it marches ahead on a rigid schedule.

Of course, no computer program can teach a student who is not interested in learning. But much of the educational software entering the home market captures kids' attention in innovative ways. In MECC's DinoPark Tycoon, entrepreneurs eight and older become the owners of simulated theme parks, which they can run into the ground or turn into successes, depending on their skill. Among other decisions, they must determine which dinosaurs to stock, how much admission to charge and how many workers to hire. All that exposes diligent players to a taste of mathematics, economics, business and science. "In most of our products, the kids become so riveted playing them that they don't even know they're learning," says Tracy Panning, who helps market the firm's software. That is the goal, and sometimes the virtue, of turning children into software consumers.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: PC Data

TIME Graphic by Jason Lee

CAPTION: Top-Sellers in Educational Software