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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]

History

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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

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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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  • My Silly CD of ABCs
  • My Silly CD of Counting
  • My Silly CD of Colors
  • My Silly CD of Opposites.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "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". Los Angeles Times. 17 December 1992.
  5. ^ "Fail Safe?". EW.com. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
  6. ^ a b c d "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]