Time can drag

I have seen several excellent programs dealing with aspects of time, so it was with interest that I loaded Tell The Time from Duckworth Educational Computing.

The tape consists of three separate but linked and complementary programs, each dealing with an aspect of time as it relates to both analogue and digital display.

Together they would certainly cover most aspects of this work, with each having a variety of options concerning display, difficulty and purpose.

The first section, Tell The Time, has the child either setting the clock to the words supplied, or supplying the answer for the displayed time.

Clockset displays a clock, digital or traditional, and allows the child to move the hours or minutes, by pressing H or M.

Pressing T will reveal in words the current time displayed.

24 Hour Time Translator is the rather unwieldy name given to the final program, dealing specifically with the links between 12 and 24 hour times.

Again there is a wide range of options to be selected, thus increasing the program's potential. This seemed to be the most educationally sound of the three, containing more helpful information for the children when problems arose.

The first and third program share an annoying aspect — after every single question you return to the score screen, with the option to have another question.

> Duckworth call this constant monitoring, but in a busy classroom it becomes a constant nuisance when children require an explanation of its function. This is only a small niggle, but it spoils a competent program.

Phil Tayler