Cds

The Primary English Encyclopedia: The Heart of the Curriculum, Third Edition

See also CD-ROM, ICT, living books, multiple literacies

CDs were once principally associated with music, but the new educational CDs often have a strong visual element. Younger children learn from the playful approach of Microsoft’s Magic Bus CDs. Older children will appreciate learning through the illustrations and animations of the Dorling Kindersley’s ‘Explorer’ series.

Making a CD to explore a history or geography topic can be a highly creative project for children at Key Stages 1 and 2. I recently looked at a CD on Evacuees in the Second World War made by a Year 6 class to present their drawings, research findings and poems during a history project. There were dramatic moving images of the Blitz and there were plans to improve the CD by incorporating some drama episodes they had improvised on the experiences of evacuees.

In this example a teacher was working with groups within the class which encouraged a great deal of talk and collaboration.

Perhaps the quality of information CDs is better than that of stories at present. Olivia O’Sullivan, Assistant Director of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), remarks: ‘There are very few electronic texts to which I could give a wholehearted 10 out of 10, in the way that I could recommend a host of picture books’ (O’Sullivan, 2005). One of her own favourites is Sheila Rae the Brave; this is an account of the adventures of a resourceful female mouse told with such humour that it is still effective ‘on multiple rereadings’. Many of my readers will know of Mantra, a publisher for many years of multilingual texts for children, who is now making an impact in CD production. The multilingual dictionaries in many languages are most helpful. A more recent initiative is their CD series of stories based on traditional tales (although they refer to them as ebooks.) These invite young readers to try their own versions of the tales.

Become a Human Body Explorer; Become a Science Explorer; Become a World Explorer Dorling Kindersley CDs.

Bugs, Ocean, Dinosaurs Microsoft Magic School Bus CDs.

(All available from software suppliers, for example www.amazon.co.uk.)

Mantra Multilingual dictionaries on CD and eBooks, available from http://www.mantralingua.com/

O’Sullivan, Olivia (2005) ‘ICT and early literacy’ in Books for Keeps September.