Microsoft's Encarta: An Encyclopedia That Entertains While It Teaches
Microsoft's Encarta: An Encyclopedia That Entertains While It Teaches
by Norman Desmarais
Norman Desmarais, Acquisitions Librarian at Providence College, is senior editor of CD-ROM World.
CD-ROM technology has burgeoned in the last two years, allowing software manufacturers to develop highly engaging products that incorporate digital sound, animation, and photographic-quality images with text and graphics to present information in a format unmatched by books.
Microsoft Corp. has been in the forefront of this activity, developing products that use multimedia to increase the power and value of reference tools. Its latest offering, the Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia, is the first encyclopedia developed on the computer, for the computer. It also raises the standard that all other electronic encyclopedias will have to meet. "No other product currently available has the tremendous depth of features and level of quality Encarta offers," said Encarta editor Sara Fox. "It has more sound and more animations covering a wider range of topics than any other multimedia encyclopedia, as well as the unique ability to create custom graphs and charts."
Microsoft worked with a select group of educators, cartographers, a photo specialist, and even an ethnomusicologist to develop Encarta (fig. 1). The project took five years to complete. The multimedia encyclopedia contains 93% entirely new material created exclusively for Encarta, including original art, language samples, and literary reading. It also features a new technology for Windows: fractal image compression, which allows compressing photographs to include more on a disc. The Encarta CD-ROM contains over 670MB of material, including text, audio, animation, and video.
Encarta features:
- More than 21,000 articles (1,000 new) in 94 categories, from history and geography (fig. 2) to performing arts and physical science and technology. It covers topics like carpal tunnel syndrome and U.S. Olympic skater Brian Boitano, pit bull, and Oprah Winfrey. The text is based on the 29-volume Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia.
- More than seven hours of sound (6,500 pieces), including music, natural sounds, historical speeches, and foreign languages, such as the national anthems of more than 170 countries, examples of 46 languages from American Navajo to Swahili, and literature readings in the original voices of authors like T.S. Eliot and Alan Ginsberg.
- Nearly 100 animations on topics from science to the arts, including the destruction caused by an earthquake, the elegance of the waltz and tango, and a simple explanation of the quantum theory. The article on "sound recording and reproduction" even shows how a compact disc player works.
- More than 800 color maps, including a world atlas which has the ability to zoom in on locations and give voice pronunciation and "sights and sounds" presenting music, pictures, and language clips from a specified country.
- The 83,000-word Webster's Electronic Dictionary, Concise Edition and 40,000 entries from Webster's College Thesaurus.
- More than 7,000 photographs, illustrations, and graphs chosen expressly for their reproduction quality in the multimedia format.
Special features include:
- A 20-foot historical time line from 15 million B.C. to the present that allows the user to click on a date or historic event and explore the subject.
- More than 700 specially added computer-related articles and terms -- from "anti-aliasing" to "WYSIWYG" -- to help users understand this often confusing terminology. It even has an animated sequence to show how a CD-ROM drive works.
- More than 100 "historical" maps.
- The ability to develop thousands of "custom" charts or graphs "on the fly" by combining information from the interactive charts (fig. 3). Users can look at population statistics of the United States or collect climate data for various cities.
- Mind Maze, an interactive knowledge/adventure game that encourages the player to progress through a series of hurdles by answering questions (fig. 4).
Encarta includes a category browser feature that gives users the option to browse casually through selected topics at their leisure (fig. 5). For example, one could select a list of birds, cities of the world, or religious figures to browse -- something only possible in specialized print encyclopedias.
Encyclopedia Complements the Subjects Children Study in School
"Encarta was designed to present information in the ways people really think and learn," said Susan Boeschen, vice president, Microsoft Consumer Division. "It creates the perfect learning environment so children and adults can have fun while exploring the world. It presents information and ideas in a completely integrated way that excites the user. It teaches by stimulating our natural curiosity to browse through the endlessly interesting articles, images, and sounds."
The encyclopedia was developed to complement the subjects children study in school. Its 'books within a book' feature empowers users to discover the world of learning. It can serve as a picture book, a map book, an exclusive music collection, a dictionary, or a fact-finder. Users can navigate easily through the content, moving back and forth through information, from text to photos to music to video to animations and maps.
Highlighted words in the text can go directly to related articles. The timeline of civilizations, epochs, and events provides an overview of world history. Clicking on an item immediately produces more information. The interactive atlas provides the ability to zoom in on a country or state, jump to associated articles, hear place names pronounced, see local sights, and hear samples of the language.
The Gallery button lets readers examine multimedia items by themselves, manually or as a slide show. The Topic Tracker even keeps track of the articles one examines, allowing free exploration of cross-references, pictures, animations, etc., and providies the ability to return to one's place.
The See Also button provides more information on a subject, while the Go To Topic button gives more information about any picture or audio segment of interest. the Zoom triangle expands text, photos, and maps for better viewing. The Outline feature lets readers move through long articles fast. One can view an article in outline form, then review the subheadings, and jump directly to particularly interesting ones.
The Contents button finds articles quickly. Typing the name of a topic shows a scrolling alphabetized list of all entry titles as the reader types. One can then select the closest match. The Find button searches the entire contents of Encarta. One can even use it to search the type of material (text, audio, or visual media) or by category, date, and place. The Research Wizard provides another way to find information. The reader just answers some simple questions about the topic and the Research Wizard gathers the available information.
For instance, a student interested in learning about the telephone will find nearly 200 mentions in Encarta. He or she can call up a written article on the telephone, run the information forward and backward, and stop it at any sub-section, such as "Early Telephones." He or she can then review images of the first telephones; watch an animation showing how phone circuits work; call up the Alexander Graham Bell article to see and learn more about the inventor; review statistics on the number of phones currently in use worldwide in 94 cities/states/countries; move to an article on the industrial revolution to see what other inventions were introduced around the same time, such as the car and phonograph; and browse through interesting related topics such as rural electrification administration, wiretapping, and Thomas Edison.
With multimedia computing, learners don't have to just read about topics, such as the Doppler Effect, which explains how sound changes based on its source and the location of the listener. They can actually "see" how the sound waves change shape and how they get louder and then fainter as a child riding a skateboard glides by a blaring ambulance.
After locating information, readers can manipulate it in a variety of ways. The Copy button copies text, pictures, and even sounds from Encarta into other projects in a single step. Encarta can also prepare footnotes and bibliographies so students can correctly attribute the work.
Learning Becomes Fun
"Educators tell us that technology can play a significant role in the learning process for children and adults," said Boeschen. "Microsoft's experience in applying innovation to software is unprecedented. We feel it's critically important to use that expertise to develop wonderful learning tools. Using multimedia programs, the possibilities for learning are endless."
"Giving children the opportunity to learn to use computers is critical to their learning today," agreed Sally Bowman Alden, executive director of the national, non-profit Computer Learning Foundation in Palo Alto, California.
"Multimedia technology with realistic visuals, animation, music and sound provides children with a learning environment we never had as children," Alden added. "It makes information come alive, making learning fun and motivating children to learn more." This encyclopedia will become the standard which other electronic encyclopedias will have to beat.
"Microsoft Encarta is a significant improvement in CD-ROM encyclopedias that empowers users in ways that no other electronic encyclopedia does," said Ken Kister, renowned encyclopedia critic and author of Best Encyclopedias: A Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias. "Its innovative features are easy to use; and it's full of knowledge just waiting to be discovered. Microsoft Encarta is a terrific example of how technology can play an important role in improving the learning process."
Encarta for Windows is available at most computer stores at a suggested retail price of $395 for a single-user copy. It will become available to teachers and school librarians at a special price of $249. Microsoft expects to have a network license available within six months at a price yet to be announced.
For more information, contact Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6309
Tel 206-882-8080
Fax 206-936-7329
Telex 160520
*********
Sidebar
MICROSOFT ENCARTA MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA FACTS
WHAT/WHO: Microsoft Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia
from Microsoft Corporation Redmond, Washington
FORMAT: CD-ROM
ARTICLES/
SUBJECT AREAS: 21,000 articles (1,000 new) in 94 categories, including:
-Nine primary: physical science & technology; life science; geography; history; social
science; religion & philosophy; art, language & literature; performing arts; sports, games,
hobbies & pets
-Subcategories - partial list:
Mathematics
Paleontology
Communications
Mammals
Space Science
Plants
Medicine
Countries
U.S. States
Maps/Map Making
World Regions
Ancient History
Exploration
Economics
Psychology
Anthropology
Education
Mythology
Religions
Painting
Architecture
Literature
Music
Dance
Games & Hobbies
Broadcasting
Photography
Biographies
ANIMATIONS: 100 animations on topics such as dance, physics, biology, human anatomy,
technology and physical science
Partial list:
airplane
dance
electricity
fish
glacier
laser
television
ozone layer
quantum theory
tide
eclipse
heart
rocket
volcano
nuclear energy
compact disc
SOUND: Seven hours, including 6,000 pieces of music, natural sounds, historical
speeches and foreign languages
Partial list:
Languages - American, Navajo, Swahili, Japanese, Hindi, French, Spanish
Music - more than 170 national anthems, world music, jazz, classical, folk, etc.
Natural sounds - baboon, dolphin, panda, llama, porcupine, etc.
Historical speeches/readings - poems by T.S. Eliot and Alan Ginsberg, speeches
by Albert Einstein, Gertrude Stein, Amelia Earhart, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston
Churchill, etc.
MAPS: 800 full-color maps with voice pronunciation of places and several "zoom in"
levels to view detail from "global" to "sub-national." Four map classes: locator,
atlas, historical, miscellaneous (climate, ocean currents, political events, etc.)
Partial list: Archeological sites, Amazon River, Battle of Vicksburg, West Africa, N.
American climate, Europe, Nations of the World
ILLUSTRATIONS/
GRAPHS/
PHOTOGRAPHS: More than 7,000 - all acquired for Encarta
DICTIONARY/
THESAURUS: 83,000-word Webster's Electronic Dictionary, Concise Edition and
40,000 entries from Webster's College Thesaurus
SPECIAL FEATURES: 20-foot historical time line from 15 million B.C.-present. Click on a
date/historic event & explore the subject.
More than 100 "historical" maps, more than 25 feature animations, on
subjects such as U.S. Civil War & the Crusades
Custom charts/graphs created "on the fly" by combining information from
illustrations
Category browser that lists all articles by subject, such as sports figures
700 new computer-related articles/terms
READING LEVEL: Elementary grades through adult, beginning about age 9
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
USED: Fractal image compression: a compression technology that makes a
mathematical model that can reduce images to up to 1/16th their normal
size, allowing information such as photographs to be stored in less space
on a disc, thus increasing the amount of information on each disc.
SUGGESTED
RETAIL PRICE: $395 single-user version
$249 educator special price
$TBA network license
HARDWARE
REQUIREMENTS: -386SX 16-megahertz personal computer (20 megahertz preferred)
-2MB of RAM (4MB preferred)
-CD-ROM drive
-VGA or SuperVGA color monitor
-sound card
-mouse
-speakers
SOFTWARE
REQUIREMENTS: -Microsoft Windows operating system, version 3.1
8052-6309
Tel 206-882-8080
Fax 206-936-7329
Telex 160520
by Norman Desmarais
Norman Desmarais, Acquisitions Librarian at Providence College, is senior editor of CD-ROM World.
CD-ROM technology has burgeoned in the last two years, allowing software manufacturers to develop highly engaging products that incorporate digital sound, animation, and photographic-quality images with text and graphics to present information in a format unmatched by books.
Microsoft Corp. has been in the forefront of this activity, developing products that use multimedia to increase the power and value of reference tools. Its latest offering, the Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia, is the first encyclopedia developed on the computer, for the computer. It also raises the standard that all other electronic encyclopedias will have to meet. "No other product currently available has the tremendous depth of features and level of quality Encarta offers," said Encarta editor Sara Fox. "It has more sound and more animations covering a wider range of topics than any other multimedia encyclopedia, as well as the unique ability to create custom graphs and charts."
Microsoft worked with a select group of educators, cartographers, a photo specialist, and even an ethnomusicologist to develop Encarta (fig. 1). The project took five years to complete. The multimedia encyclopedia contains 93% entirely new material created exclusively for Encarta, including original art, language samples, and literary reading. It also features a new technology for Windows: fractal image compression, which allows compressing photographs to include more on a disc. The Encarta CD-ROM contains over 670MB of material, including text, audio, animation, and video.
Encarta features:
- More than 21,000 articles (1,000 new) in 94 categories, from history and geography (fig. 2) to performing arts and physical science and technology. It covers topics like carpal tunnel syndrome and U.S. Olympic skater Brian Boitano, pit bull, and Oprah Winfrey. The text is based on the 29-volume Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia.
- More than seven hours of sound (6,500 pieces), including music, natural sounds, historical speeches, and foreign languages, such as the national anthems of more than 170 countries, examples of 46 languages from American Navajo to Swahili, and literature readings in the original voices of authors like T.S. Eliot and Alan Ginsberg.
- Nearly 100 animations on topics from science to the arts, including the destruction caused by an earthquake, the elegance of the waltz and tango, and a simple explanation of the quantum theory. The article on "sound recording and reproduction" even shows how a compact disc player works.
- More than 800 color maps, including a world atlas which has the ability to zoom in on locations and give voice pronunciation and "sights and sounds" presenting music, pictures, and language clips from a specified country.
- The 83,000-word Webster's Electronic Dictionary, Concise Edition and 40,000 entries from Webster's College Thesaurus.
- More than 7,000 photographs, illustrations, and graphs chosen expressly for their reproduction quality in the multimedia format.
Special features include:
- A 20-foot historical time line from 15 million B.C. to the present that allows the user to click on a date or historic event and explore the subject.
- More than 700 specially added computer-related articles and terms -- from "anti-aliasing" to "WYSIWYG" -- to help users understand this often confusing terminology. It even has an animated sequence to show how a CD-ROM drive works.
- More than 100 "historical" maps.
- The ability to develop thousands of "custom" charts or graphs "on the fly" by combining information from the interactive charts (fig. 3). Users can look at population statistics of the United States or collect climate data for various cities.
- Mind Maze, an interactive knowledge/adventure game that encourages the player to progress through a series of hurdles by answering questions (fig. 4).
Encarta includes a category browser feature that gives users the option to browse casually through selected topics at their leisure (fig. 5). For example, one could select a list of birds, cities of the world, or religious figures to browse -- something only possible in specialized print encyclopedias.
Encyclopedia Complements the Subjects Children Study in School
"Encarta was designed to present information in the ways people really think and learn," said Susan Boeschen, vice president, Microsoft Consumer Division. "It creates the perfect learning environment so children and adults can have fun while exploring the world. It presents information and ideas in a completely integrated way that excites the user. It teaches by stimulating our natural curiosity to browse through the endlessly interesting articles, images, and sounds."
The encyclopedia was developed to complement the subjects children study in school. Its 'books within a book' feature empowers users to discover the world of learning. It can serve as a picture book, a map book, an exclusive music collection, a dictionary, or a fact-finder. Users can navigate easily through the content, moving back and forth through information, from text to photos to music to video to animations and maps.
Highlighted words in the text can go directly to related articles. The timeline of civilizations, epochs, and events provides an overview of world history. Clicking on an item immediately produces more information. The interactive atlas provides the ability to zoom in on a country or state, jump to associated articles, hear place names pronounced, see local sights, and hear samples of the language.
The Gallery button lets readers examine multimedia items by themselves, manually or as a slide show. The Topic Tracker even keeps track of the articles one examines, allowing free exploration of cross-references, pictures, animations, etc., and providies the ability to return to one's place.
The See Also button provides more information on a subject, while the Go To Topic button gives more information about any picture or audio segment of interest. the Zoom triangle expands text, photos, and maps for better viewing. The Outline feature lets readers move through long articles fast. One can view an article in outline form, then review the subheadings, and jump directly to particularly interesting ones.
The Contents button finds articles quickly. Typing the name of a topic shows a scrolling alphabetized list of all entry titles as the reader types. One can then select the closest match. The Find button searches the entire contents of Encarta. One can even use it to search the type of material (text, audio, or visual media) or by category, date, and place. The Research Wizard provides another way to find information. The reader just answers some simple questions about the topic and the Research Wizard gathers the available information.
For instance, a student interested in learning about the telephone will find nearly 200 mentions in Encarta. He or she can call up a written article on the telephone, run the information forward and backward, and stop it at any sub-section, such as "Early Telephones." He or she can then review images of the first telephones; watch an animation showing how phone circuits work; call up the Alexander Graham Bell article to see and learn more about the inventor; review statistics on the number of phones currently in use worldwide in 94 cities/states/countries; move to an article on the industrial revolution to see what other inventions were introduced around the same time, such as the car and phonograph; and browse through interesting related topics such as rural electrification administration, wiretapping, and Thomas Edison.
With multimedia computing, learners don't have to just read about topics, such as the Doppler Effect, which explains how sound changes based on its source and the location of the listener. They can actually "see" how the sound waves change shape and how they get louder and then fainter as a child riding a skateboard glides by a blaring ambulance.
After locating information, readers can manipulate it in a variety of ways. The Copy button copies text, pictures, and even sounds from Encarta into other projects in a single step. Encarta can also prepare footnotes and bibliographies so students can correctly attribute the work.
Learning Becomes Fun
"Educators tell us that technology can play a significant role in the learning process for children and adults," said Boeschen. "Microsoft's experience in applying innovation to software is unprecedented. We feel it's critically important to use that expertise to develop wonderful learning tools. Using multimedia programs, the possibilities for learning are endless."
"Giving children the opportunity to learn to use computers is critical to their learning today," agreed Sally Bowman Alden, executive director of the national, non-profit Computer Learning Foundation in Palo Alto, California.
"Multimedia technology with realistic visuals, animation, music and sound provides children with a learning environment we never had as children," Alden added. "It makes information come alive, making learning fun and motivating children to learn more." This encyclopedia will become the standard which other electronic encyclopedias will have to beat.
"Microsoft Encarta is a significant improvement in CD-ROM encyclopedias that empowers users in ways that no other electronic encyclopedia does," said Ken Kister, renowned encyclopedia critic and author of Best Encyclopedias: A Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias. "Its innovative features are easy to use; and it's full of knowledge just waiting to be discovered. Microsoft Encarta is a terrific example of how technology can play an important role in improving the learning process."
Encarta for Windows is available at most computer stores at a suggested retail price of $395 for a single-user copy. It will become available to teachers and school librarians at a special price of $249. Microsoft expects to have a network license available within six months at a price yet to be announced.
For more information, contact Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6309
Tel 206-882-8080
Fax 206-936-7329
Telex 160520
*********
Sidebar
MICROSOFT ENCARTA MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA FACTS
WHAT/WHO: Microsoft Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia
from Microsoft Corporation Redmond, Washington
FORMAT: CD-ROM
ARTICLES/
SUBJECT AREAS: 21,000 articles (1,000 new) in 94 categories, including:
-Nine primary: physical science & technology; life science; geography; history; social
science; religion & philosophy; art, language & literature; performing arts; sports, games,
hobbies & pets
-Subcategories - partial list:
Mathematics
Paleontology
Communications
Mammals
Space Science
Plants
Medicine
Countries
U.S. States
Maps/Map Making
World Regions
Ancient History
Exploration
Economics
Psychology
Anthropology
Education
Mythology
Religions
Painting
Architecture
Literature
Music
Dance
Games & Hobbies
Broadcasting
Photography
Biographies
ANIMATIONS: 100 animations on topics such as dance, physics, biology, human anatomy,
technology and physical science
Partial list:
airplane
dance
electricity
fish
glacier
laser
television
ozone layer
quantum theory
tide
eclipse
heart
rocket
volcano
nuclear energy
compact disc
SOUND: Seven hours, including 6,000 pieces of music, natural sounds, historical
speeches and foreign languages
Partial list:
Languages - American, Navajo, Swahili, Japanese, Hindi, French, Spanish
Music - more than 170 national anthems, world music, jazz, classical, folk, etc.
Natural sounds - baboon, dolphin, panda, llama, porcupine, etc.
Historical speeches/readings - poems by T.S. Eliot and Alan Ginsberg, speeches
by Albert Einstein, Gertrude Stein, Amelia Earhart, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston
Churchill, etc.
MAPS: 800 full-color maps with voice pronunciation of places and several "zoom in"
levels to view detail from "global" to "sub-national." Four map classes: locator,
atlas, historical, miscellaneous (climate, ocean currents, political events, etc.)
Partial list: Archeological sites, Amazon River, Battle of Vicksburg, West Africa, N.
American climate, Europe, Nations of the World
ILLUSTRATIONS/
GRAPHS/
PHOTOGRAPHS: More than 7,000 - all acquired for Encarta
DICTIONARY/
THESAURUS: 83,000-word Webster's Electronic Dictionary, Concise Edition and
40,000 entries from Webster's College Thesaurus
SPECIAL FEATURES: 20-foot historical time line from 15 million B.C.-present. Click on a
date/historic event & explore the subject.
More than 100 "historical" maps, more than 25 feature animations, on
subjects such as U.S. Civil War & the Crusades
Custom charts/graphs created "on the fly" by combining information from
illustrations
Category browser that lists all articles by subject, such as sports figures
700 new computer-related articles/terms
READING LEVEL: Elementary grades through adult, beginning about age 9
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
USED: Fractal image compression: a compression technology that makes a
mathematical model that can reduce images to up to 1/16th their normal
size, allowing information such as photographs to be stored in less space
on a disc, thus increasing the amount of information on each disc.
SUGGESTED
RETAIL PRICE: $395 single-user version
$249 educator special price
$TBA network license
HARDWARE
REQUIREMENTS: -386SX 16-megahertz personal computer (20 megahertz preferred)
-2MB of RAM (4MB preferred)
-CD-ROM drive
-VGA or SuperVGA color monitor
-sound card
-mouse
-speakers
SOFTWARE
REQUIREMENTS: -Microsoft Windows operating system, version 3.1
8052-6309
Tel 206-882-8080
Fax 206-936-7329
Telex 160520
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