Educational Software products beginning with O

An online catalogue lists the latest geographical resources, many of which are downloadable and free. ‘Get-a-Map’ allows users to access Ordnance Survey maps at a range of scales and now includes free access to historical maps. When developed for the site, Homework Help may prove essential to GCSE-level Geography students. This is a useful site, particularly for mapping resources.

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This is a program to be used in conjunction with Clicker 5, covering the curriculum areas of Communication, Language and Literacy. It can be used with the relevant books or with an interactive whiteboard for shared or guided reading sessions. The activities also help children to develop their phonic skills and sight vocabulary. Its flexibility does allow you to adapt the materials to differing abilities of children, and the microphone facility and grids to input text help to support inclusion.

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This website aims to educate young people in an informal, interesting and stimulating way about the vital role oxfam plays in helping poor people across the world. If you are a teacher looking for free resources that can be used in your lessons, then you will find a large amount within this site. The site educates young people about the work done by Oxfam, but it does not entertain, stimulate and encourage young people to keep visiting the site.

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The Oxford Children's Encyclopedia is a highly motivating software package providing a useful resource for all aspects of the Curriculum, and a way of teaching the 'and', 'or', 'not' type of search skills required by the ICT Curriculum. It has a notepad facility for copying and pasting information, including animations and video clips, to make multimedia presentations. Excellent graphics, animation, video and sound are used wisely to bring the reader and text closer together and not used simply as flashy features.

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The website is the online version of the 20-volume second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Within the website, apart from investigating the meaning of over half a million words, one can explore words’ history and pronunciation, both present and past. It covers words from across the English-speaking world, and claims to offer the best there is in etymological analysis and variant spellings. A one-hour lesson exclusively using the dictionary is too long: ideally students ought to be able to access the site when needs demand.

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This fun CD-ROM is a valuable tool for developing speaking and listening through ICT. Children must help the Time Crew work through three missions, which provide experience, information, settings and context for children to write different texts, to listen and respond to ideas and recognise the importance of constructive criticism. The program addresses all the QCA Speaking and Listening Objectives. A comprehensive teacher’s guide containing lesson plans and photocopiable/printable resources is also included.

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This fun CD-ROM uses a computer game environment to help children develop speaking and listening skills. Children must help the Time Crew work through three missions, which provide experience, information, settings and context for children to write different texts, to listen and respond to ideas and recognise the importance of constructive criticism. The program addresses all the QCA Speaking and Listening Objectives. A comprehensive teacher’s guide containing lesson plans and photocopiable/printable resources is also included.

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This innovative CD-ROM enables children to develop speaking and listening skills through ICT and also provides links to Literacy, Geography, Science and History. The program uses a computer game environment to motivate children to learn higher order comprehension skills such as intuition and deduction. Many issues relating to PSHE will be triggered by the game as children explore the rights and wrongs of the choices they can make. A comprehensive teacher’s guide containing lesson plans and photocopiable/printable resources is also included.

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This fun CD-ROM is part of a series on Speaking and Listening through ICT and is intended to encourage Key Stage 2 children to cooperate interactively to complete a computer quest-style game. Each of the three missions provides experience, information, settings and context for children to write different texts, to listen and respond to ideas and recognise the importance of constructive criticism. A comprehensive teacher’s guide containing lesson plans and photocopiable/printable resources is also included.

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This bright, clear and easy to navigate program enables Key Stage 1 and lower Key Stage 2 children to research information across the National Curriculum areas. The program is divided into seven themed areas, which children can either read in their entirety (or have the computer read to them), or they can choose an aspect to focus on. Most pages feature a related activity to allow children to consolidate their understanding or undertake more research.

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This material is thoughtfully devised and highly suited to its purpose, and children enjoy the songs, pictures, interactive games and instruction and encouragement from the friendly spider. Children can easily use the program independently. It is a useful tool for supporting the teaching and learning of rhyme, initial sound awareness, and the alphabet at the start of the Reception year and by older children with Special Educational Needs.

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Sound Activities covers many specific Word Level targets within the National Literacy Strategy for the Reception Year and consolidation of these targets at later ages. It has the facility to set tasks and levels so it can be very teacher-oriented, or it can be used as a fun computer activity. There is spoken text throughout the program. It is easy for children to navigate. It offers spelling and listening activities covering each initial sound of the alphabet, together with the digraphs 'ch', 'sh', 'th', 'wh'.

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Sound Stories develops and extends phonic knowledge through alliterative text and is greatly enjoyed by children and staff alike. It uses aspects of the stories in the activities and thereby closely relates the games at the end of each story to the sound being targeted. The program is very easy to use, and supporting documentation and the CD-ROM offer a selection of activities that further support early Literacy.

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Maths Zone Year 1 has graphics that are lively and relevant to the concepts being taught, and feedback is fast and positive. The strength of this software is the repetitive structure of each exercise – but the pace of teaching is steady without becoming laborious. The material was relevant to the age group targeted, although more able Year 1 children might do better with the Year 2 CD-ROM. The program amply supports the teaching of number to a Year 1 class.

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Maths Zone Year 2 is an ideal tool to support average Year 2 children in the five aspects of the National Numeracy Strategy covered, but it does not include lessons on money, time, shape or measures. Each activity has three sections, and allows children to understand a process before answering questions. Teacher's tools enable them to restrict the number of lessons available and to keep a detailed printable record of children’s progress. Young children can easily navigate the program.

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Maths Zone Year 3 supports the teaching of Numeracy in Year 3 in the areas of Place Value, Subtraction, Multiplication and Fractions. Its twelve clear, simple, animated explanations are a little dull, but an effective way to introduce new skills in Numeracy. It is a good tool for children to learn and practice new concepts, and they can work independently. There is an excellent recording facility which allows the teacher to track a child’s progress.

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This electronic version of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of Collocations is excellent. The speed of the program in locating information, and the addition of sound, will be found to be of considerable help to advanced and mature learners of the English Language. Extra features, such as the study pages and exercises, provide useful support for language students and the wealth of material provides users with opportunities to consolidate and develop their skills.

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Each disc features six books, linked to the non-fiction part of the reading scheme, with onscreen activities to accompany each book. These cover most of the areas of the Literacy Framework, and provide opportunities for reading, speaking and listening and for interacting with the text. The program is structured to be used either as a teacher led activity or for the children to use independently as a way of presenting text, either on a stand-alone computer or an interactive whiteboard.

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This is an excellent site with well thought-out Literacy activities for children in Reception and Key Stage 1. Use of Shock technology works well and makes the site truly accessible for the younger child. Thought has gone into linking the activities to National Literacy Strategy guidelines, making it a valuable resource in the classroom.

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This Click and Explore program contains short stories that develop a child's concentration and aptly illustrate the concept of a story. The same characters are used throughout, offering continuity, while encouraging learning and development of the child’s Literacy abilities. The program is carefully structured, leading from pictures without words to short sentences. The teacher can use the ‘look and say/sight’ approach to learning vocabulary, and develop phonics skills to attack unknown words. The 'Click and Explore' section encourages discussion.

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This program brings books to life. There are 12 books on the CD-ROM and children familiar with the Oxford Reading Tree stories will delight in seeing the familiar characters come to life and will enjoy completing the Word, Sentence and Text Level activities included. Children new to the series will enjoy the humour and familiar settings of the books. The narration is clear and expressive and the cartoon characters are colourful, beautifully drawn and full of life and expression.

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These Talking Books add an extra dimension to the well-known scheme materials. They are a multimedia resource where the pictures are animated (but do not supersede the text) and sound is used to enhance the story and aid the children in their decoding. The excellent quality of text and illustration engages young readers and remains the key to the success of these books. Children can move through the stories at their own pace and navigation is easy.

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The CD-ROM provides an interesting and rewarding supplement to the printed Oxford Reading Tree reading scheme. The spoken text and animated illustrations enhance the presentation but do not detract from the purpose of the software. Instead they support poorer readers and offer a motivational incentive to the reluctant reader. The program is easy to follow and navigate through, encouraging independent use from an early age. Teachers can control levels and available activities.

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This software contains six of the Oxford Reading Tree books adapted for use by children on a computer. A simple and supportive environment has been created where users can enjoy the stories, controlling the pace at which they read and asking the computer to speak individual words they are unsure of. The software offers the added bonus of follow-on activities linked to the stories and to key Literacy objectives. This is a clear and simple program to navigate.

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This website has a vast array of information that can be used at Key Stages 3–5 and covers most Curriculum subjects. Each topic is covered in detail and this is an excellent resource. The search facility is good and comparable with the best of the main search engines on the Internet. Overall, this is a useful website that is really an online encyclopaedia and is a great source for information.

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This is an extensive Business Studies and Economics website. It provides help sheets and glossaries, exam questions, case studies and links to other Business Studies-related sites. With teacher guidance and intervention it could be a useful revision tool in class, although the lack of diagrams and images can make the site a difficult read. Careful planning would be needed by teachers to make this a useful classroom resource. The language used is appropriate for high-ability GCSE students and beyond.

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Oxford Student Multimedia Dictionary is an excellent program for any school network. It presents users with information in a clear concise way, whilst at the same time providing the opportunity to delve deeper. This can be done in a number of ways: by testing knowledge in a series of exercises, watching animated simulations or carrying out a three-dimensional search. This program is heartily recommended and students will enjoy using it.

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