History Channel: The Ellis Island Experience

Rating:
Summary: Ideal for home & classroom educational software collections.
Review: The Ellis Island Experience is an amazing, informative and fun educational software developed by SouthPeak Interactive in collaboration with The State of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. and The History Channel. This comprehensive, interactive, 365-year chronicle of American immigration offers a wealth of information and images that take full advantage of the Windows 95/98 formatted CD-ROM, including interactive video segments allowing users to undergo the immigration experience for themselves!. Hosted by Robert Siegel, the web-enabled CD-ROM also connects to a website available only to users of The Ellis Island Experience and offers Search and Print capabilities for text, images, and transcripts. The Ellis Island Experience is ideal for classroom and homeschool use, and would make an invaluable, popular addition to personal and community library educational software collections as well.

Rating:
Summary: Ideal for home & classroom educational software collections.
Review: The Ellis Island Experience is an amazing, informative and fun educational software developed by SouthPeak Interactive in collaboration with The State of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. and The History Channel. This comprehensive, interactive, 365-year chronicle of American immigration offers a wealth of information and images that take full advantage of the Windows 95/98 formatted CD-ROM, including interactive video segments allowing users to undergo the immigration experience for themselves!. Hosted by Robert Siegel, the web-enabled CD-ROM also connects to a website available only to users of The Ellis Island Experience and offers Search and Print capabilities for text, images, and transcripts. The Ellis Island Experience is ideal for classroom and homeschool use, and would make an invaluable, popular addition to personal and community library educational software collections as well.

Rating:
Summary: Brings the Ellis Island Experience to life in a new way
Review: Times sure have changed. When I was growing up we could read a book, or see a film or listen to a teacher explain something. Now, however, in addition to all these ways of learning, CD-Roms have been added to the mix. Not as a substitute, of course, but as an enhancement. This kind of software makes an excellent gift for children, for families, and for history buffs who just can't get enough. It's fun to just click a mouse and hear the sights and sounds of the experience of the millions of people who arrived America through Ellis Island from 1892 to 1954.

It takes a full two hours to view this CD if a person would view it all at once, but of course it can be returned to again and again. There's a lot of information here, but, more than that, it is an experience. We hear the sound of the steamship whistles, we see rare films and photos of the immigrants, we listen to oral histories, learn about the Old World and its political upheavals, the challenges the immigrants faced, the whole story of immigration.

Perhaps it was the intent of the program, but I found it impossible to view this in a logical order. I just clicked away in a variety of areas which kept opening up to deeper and deeper layers of historical fact and insight. Some of it could be absorbed quickly, such as the wonderfully interactive portion where a short re-enacted film shows immigrants walking up to inspectors. The viewer can vote "yes" or "no" and then see what the actual outcome would likely be. There are other parts though that require a lot of reading and patience.

There is always something new to learn and even though I think I know a lot about Ellis Island, I must say that I learned some new facts, especially since the easy navigation on this software allowed me to click on the things that interested me the most. The one thing I didn't like about the program was the musical score in the background which I found brooding and distracting. Please understand though that I'm a person who complains about background classical music in restaurants.

I am definitely enthusiastic about this CD-Rom and recommend it highly. And for those of you who might never have tried a CD as an educational tool before, I say "Try it; you'll like it."

Rating:
Summary: Brings the Ellis Island Experience to life in a new way
Review: Times sure have changed. When I was growing up we could read a book, or see a film or listen to a teacher explain something. Now, however, in addition to all these ways of learning, CD-Roms have been added to the mix. Not as a substitute, of course, but as an enhancement. This kind of software makes an excellent gift for children, for families, and for history buffs who just can't get enough. It's fun to just click a mouse and hear the sights and sounds of the experience of the millions of people who arrived America through Ellis Island from 1892 to 1954.

It takes a full two hours to view this CD if a person would view it all at once, but of course it can be returned to again and again. There's a lot of information here, but, more than that, it is an experience. We hear the sound of the steamship whistles, we see rare films and photos of the immigrants, we listen to oral histories, learn about the Old World and its political upheavals, the challenges the immigrants faced, the whole story of immigration.

Perhaps it was the intent of the program, but I found it impossible to view this in a logical order. I just clicked away in a variety of areas which kept opening up to deeper and deeper layers of historical fact and insight. Some of it could be absorbed quickly, such as the wonderfully interactive portion where a short re-enacted film shows immigrants walking up to inspectors. The viewer can vote "yes" or "no" and then see what the actual outcome would likely be. There are other parts though that require a lot of reading and patience.

There is always something new to learn and even though I think I know a lot about Ellis Island, I must say that I learned some new facts, especially since the easy navigation on this software allowed me to click on the things that interested me the most. The one thing I didn't like about the program was the musical score in the background which I found brooding and distracting. Please understand though that I'm a person who complains about background classical music in restaurants.

I am definitely enthusiastic about this CD-Rom and recommend it highly. And for those of you who might never have tried a CD as an educational tool before, I say "Try it; you'll like it."