We've had a lot of requests for a copy this article which ran on Heartsoft in the Tulsa World. Have fun. (We will post this on the Heartsoft home page "investor relations" section along with the pciture.
Matthew Benjamin Shell, 91/2 months od, looks over a new educational program developed by Heartsoft. Wolrd Staff Photo by Tom Gilbert
Software Publisher Plugs In To Fill Educational Needs
During the 1997-98 school year, school districts across the country will spend more than $500 million supplementing curriculums with technology.
ut that technology actually could aggravate a problem many students now face. "The Internet is here. Big wave. Everybody's jumping. Plugging in all over the place," said Jimmy Butler, co-founder and vice president of development for Heartsoft Inc., a Tulsa- based educational software company.
"Tulsa Public Schools has a $95 million bond issued, and a lot of it's going to wire for Internet stuff -- which is good, because the Internet is a place to discover information," Butler continued. "But you've got piles and piles of information, and what's happening is that kids are getting overburdened by it." While this increase in information is a godsend to education, it takes a person with exceptional critical thinking skills to dissect, organize and compile that information into a useful set of opinions, statistics and studies. These are the skills that will arm students in the battle of information overload.
Thinkology, Heartsoft's new software series, is designed to develop critical thinking skills. The first three titles of the five-part series are in the final stages of testing and should be on the market by August.
Looking to expand beyond its traditional fare of classroom basics, Heartsoft began researching new areas of educational software two years ago. Finding the market lacking in products that foster authentic critical thinking skills, the company secured Dr. Linda Elder of the Foundation for Critical Thinking at Sonoma University in Rohnert Park, Calif., to develop a software curriculum that would do just that.
Together, Heartsoft and Elder developed Thinkology. Heartsoft has produced the first three titles in this series -- "Clarity," "Accuracy" and "Logicalness." "Evidence" and "Relevance" will complete the series. Using the Knowledge Construction Set, Heartsoft's new engine created by its development team and headed by Dana Swift, director of programming services, the company was able to provide 10 frames per second -- the average is four to seven -- and incorporate advanced sound recordings to Thinkology. "A lot of times the school software gets cut. Companies don't put as much into it because there's not as much money being spent there," Butler explained. "We wanted to provide kids with the same kind of quality that Nintendo would provide them."
Additionally, the Knowledge Construction Set develops multiple platforms, so when the product is developed for the MacIntosh, it simultaneously develops over to the PC. "Most companies will develop software for the MacIntosh and then start over from scratch for the PC," said Butler. "We don't have to do that. It saves 50 percent of the time and money needed for development, which will give us rapid growth. "Clarity" has 200 megabytes on one CD- ROM. Typically a volume of that size slows down the system, but through the Knowledge Construction Set, Heartsoft is beating the speed factor by 4-1, Butler said. The first volume has about 15,000 cells of animation, which provide "Clarity" with a Disney-like quality. It contains 45 minutes of running animation, which include short stories and activities.
"We have found that this helps kids to think -- across all academic subject matter," said Butler. "Clarity, accuracy, logicalness, evidence and relevance are necessary to separate and evaluate all information."
Fourth grade teacher Nina White and her students gave Thinkology an enthusiastic A+. "Critical thinking is one of the things we're trying to teach daily," the Broken Arrow teacher said. "Learning how to identify important details in a set will actually help students develop critical thinking skills. (Thinkology) is software that's definitely needed now."
After reviewing "Clarity," Dr. Susan Babbitt, former director of instructional media for Tulsa Public Schools and new director of technology for Metro Christian Academy said, "This is the way we need to be teaching our children. "Education isn't supposed to be boring," Babbitt continued. "It's supposed to be fun. I think this will hold kids' attention. More importantly, it's not just feeding them material and having them spew it back. It forces them to use critical thinking skills to solve problems."
Heartsoft anticipated test responses to be positive, but teachers have proven more enthusiastic than expected, said Butler. "Based on this, we expect Thinkology to be a hit. We anticipate it will triple the growth of the company. And that could be an underestimation." Heartsoft was founded in 1985 as a regional publisher of curriculum-based educational software products for schools. The company currently publishes about 75 educational software titles, which have been sold to more than 15,000 schools nationwide. Revenues during fiscal 1996 exceeded $1.5 million. Heartsoft is a public company and is traded under HTSF on Nasdaq. The company has 5 million shares outstanding with a float of 1.6 million shares. Its stock has a 52-week trading range of 75 cents to $3.61, with 1,600 shareholders |
