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(More customer reviews)The previous versions of Encarta included a host of homework tools. These have now been made into a separate product called Microsoft Student.
Homework assignments are the bane of most students I know (not to mention their hard-pressed and nescient parents). This is mainly because of the tedious and mind-numbing chores of data mining and composition. Additionally, as knowledge multiplies every 5-10 years, few parents and teachers are able to keep up.
Enter Microsoft Student 2006 - a productivity suite which includes the Encarta Encyclopedia, assignment templates, tutorials, graphing calculator software and a Web Companion.
Similar to the Encarta, MS Student's Web Companion obtains search results from all the major search engines without launching any additional applications (like a browser). Content from both the Encyclopedia (the full Encarta encyclopedia is built into MS Student) and the Web is presented side by side. This augmentation explicitly adopts the Internet and incorporates it as an important source of reference - as 80% of students have already done.
This may raise important and interesting issues of intellectual property, though. Web content copyright-holders may demand royalties from Microsoft for the use it makes of their wares in its commercial products.
MS Student would do well to also integrate with new desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. Students will benefit from seamless access to content from all over - their desktop, their encyclopedias, and the Web - using a single, intuitive interface.
MS Student's templates are actually clever adaptations of the popular Office suite of products - Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. They help the student produce homework plans and schedules, projects, book reports, presentations, research reports, charts, and analyses of problems in math, physics, and chemistry. Detailed step-by-step tutorials, Quick Starters, and pop-up toolbars (menus) guide the student along the way in a friendly, non-intrusive manner.
The graphing calculator is a wonder. It has both 2-D and 3-D capabilities and makes use of the full screen. Aided by an extensive Equations Library, it does everything except cook: trigonometry, calculus, math, charting, geometry, physics, and chemistry. And everything in full color!
And if this is not enough, the lucky owner is entitled to one year of Online Math Homework Help: step by step instructions and hints for solving math problems (including algebra and geometry). The program addresses most math textbooks and more are added all the time.
For the student keen on the liberal arts and the humanities, Student 2006 provides detailed Book Summaries of dozens of classic works. Besides plot synopses, the student gets acquainted with the author's life, themes and characters in the tomes, and ideas for book reports. This is buttressed by a Book of Quotations and the entire corpus of the Encarta Encyclopedia, dictionary, and thesaurus.
This is the first release of a great contribution to learning. Inevitably, it has a few flaws and glitches.
Start with the price. As productivity suites go, it is reasonably priced had its target population been adult professional users. But, at $100, it is beyond the reach of most poor students and parents - its most immediate market niches.
Installation is not easy. MS Student 2006 makes use of Microsoft's .Net technology. As most home computers lack it, the installer insists on adding it to the anyhow bloated Windows Operating System. There is worse to come: the .Net version installed by Encarta 2006 is plagued with security holes and vulnerabilities. Users have to download service packs and patches from Windows Update if they do not wish to run the risk of having their computers compromised by hackers.
Fully installed, Microsoft Student 2006 gobbles up more than 4 Gb. That's a lot - even in an age of ever cheaper storage. Most homesteads still sport PCs with 20-40 Gb hard disks. This makes the Encarta less suitable for installation on older PCs and on many laptops. Despite the hype, relatively few users possess DVD drives (but those who do, find the entire encyclopedia available on one DVD).
Finally, there is the question of personal creativity and originality. Luckily, MS Student does not spoon-feed its users. It does not substitute for thinking or for study. On the contrary, by providing structured stimuli, it encourages the student to express his or her ideas. It does not do the homework assignments for the student - it merely helps rid them of time-consuming and machine-like functions. And it opens up to both student and family the wonderful twin universes of knowledge: the Encarta and the Web. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"
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It may not seem possible, but thanks to Microsoft Student 2006, being a middle or high school student has just become a whole lot more fun, and a whole lot easier. In one convenient package, Microsoft Student 2006 provides students with templates, organizational tools, tutorials, translator tools, and a just about everything else they'll need to finish -- and ace! -- their French homework, algebra exam and research papers.Designed with the help of leading educators and publishers, Microsoft Office 2006 offers students easy-to-use and intuitive software tools -- such as Encarta Encyclopedia, foreign language translators, and Graphing Calculator Software -- that will help them to:
Research and brainstorm term papers on virtually any subject
Create professionally designed charts and diagrams
Produce properly documented research assignments
Design outstanding classroom presentations with PowerPoint
Learn invaluable scientific and mathematical analytical skills
Expand foreign language skills
Whether the task at hand is a science project, literature presentation, math test, or Spanish homework, Microsoft Student 2006 has what it takes to not only help students meet their deadlines, but to also help prepare them with the tools they'll need to continue their education beyond high school.Quadratic Equations and 3-D Graphics: The Graphing Calculator Software A great complement to any handheld calculator, the easy-to-use Graphing/Scientific Calculator Software can help speed up individual math calculations, or can be used to create high-quality group science projects. Much more than a handheld device, this calculator lets students enter math problems exactly the way they are displayed in textbooks, so there's no need to learn any new syntax simply to complete homework assignments. From helping with quadratic equations to providing 3-D graphing capabilities in full color, this calculator does it all. And best of all, it allows students to save their calculations to share with their study group or to finish on their own at a later time.Microsoft Student 2006 also offers online math help with step-by-step tutorials that are taken directly from popular math textbooks used in schools. This way students can learn from examples that will actually help them when it comes time for the big test.Researching Literature and History With a subscription through October 2006 to Microsoft Encarta Reference Premium, students have immediate access to one of the world's most comprehensive sources of research information in the world. Literature guides offer in-depth information to leading writers and works of literature; over 68,000 articles provide the background information students will need for research papers; over 29,000 Web page links, pre-selected by professional researchers and editors, guarantee that they won't be wasting valuable time visiting irrelevant Web sites.Students also have access to more than 2,000 sound and music clips, 1.8 million map locations, and 300 video clips. In addition, Microsoft Student 2006 offers several interactive features for all levels of learning, including interactive videos from The Discovery Channel, an interactive world atlas, Encarta for Kids, Africana Encyclopedia, Virtual Flight, and much more. Also, tutorial content from leading publishers provides students with advanced guidance on writing reports, building presentations, and creating the right visuals to complement their assignments.Making It Look Good: Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office There's nothing more daunting to a student than facing a blank screen, and nothing more frustrating than spending all your time trying to make your report look nice. With Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office -- one of the key features of Microsoft Students 2006 -- students will quickly be able to get past that blank page and create professional looking reports, presentations, graphics, and just about any other kind of documents they'll need. With Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint templates, students can spend their time focusing on content, without having to worry about how to make their work look nice. In other words, Microsoft Student 2006 lets students focus on what's really important to the learning process while still creating great looking reports and presentations.The Right Tool for Every Student Whether a student is studying for an Advanced Placement exam in calculus, or trying to master subject verb agreement in expository writing assignments, Microsoft Student 2006 can help. As a perfect complement to Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, or Microsoft Office Student and Teacher, this exciting educational tool promises to revolutionize the way students learn.Note: Students must have Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, or Microsoft Office Student and Teacher 2003 edition in order to use the Learning Essentials tools and templates in Microsoft Student 2006.
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