Discis Knowledge Research

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Discis Knowledge Research is a company, founded in Toronto in 1988, that acquired rights to children's stories and published them as CD-ROM-based interactive children's books. [1]

Contents

History

By 1993, the company had published 20 interactive titles including The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, and Thomas’ Snowsuit by Robert Munsch. [1] That year, Discis had sold more than 300,000 discs, primarily across North America. [1]

Discis' two main brands are Little Kids Can Read and Kids Can Read. [1] Users can "have words defined, hear pronunciations, identify parts of speech, and have access to questions and commentary." [2] MacUser wrote that series like Living Books and Kids Can Read "operate on two levels" by letting players follow the story narrative and by exploring the story's contents. [3]

Discis Books is a series of Interactive storybook by Discis Knowledge Research. [4]

Entertainment Weekly wrote that "interactive storybooks" like Living Books' Harry and the Haunted House series promoted "less reading comprehension in kids" than "moderately interactive, more fact-oriented" CD-ROMs like Discis Books’ Thomas’ Snowsuit. [5]

Kids Basics

Kids Basics is a sister series of four educational video games by Discis Knowledge Research of Toronto, targeted to children aged three to six who are learning to read. [6] The series was created "in an effort [for Discis Knowledge] to broaden its coverage of the children’s market for multimedia". [6] The brand began shipping on February 28, 1994. [6] The titles are written by Susan Amerikaner and illustrated by Judy Ziegler. [6] MacUser said My Silly CD of Counting was "funny" and "effective". [7]

Kids Basics titles

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Discis branches out to multi-format 'books'". strategy. 1993-03-08. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  2. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED392069.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  3. MacUser (PDF). December 1994. p. 92.
  4. "Best PC for Families May be No PC". 17 December 1992.
  5. "Fail Safe?". EW.com. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Discis intros 'Kids Basics' CD-ROMs". strategy. 1994-03-07. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  7. https://vintageapple.org/macuser/pdf/MacUser_9412_December_1994.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]