Voyager Technical Support: 212.219.2522 (www.voyagerco.com)

Educorp contact number: 800.843.9497 (www.educorp.com)

This CD-ROM (available in "lab set," which includes 5 unmarked identical CD-ROMs that a class may install and run from multiple PCs) does not just showcase the Shakespearean tragedy in its entirety -- it also incorporates several multimedia features with which to do so. It provides ten (10) structured sections with which students may use to familiarize themselves. These sections provide detailed information about a variety of topics related to the play – descriptions of the characters, background knowledge about the time period in which Shakespeare wrote the play, alternative and supplementary readings students might consult, and other useful data.

Not being an expert on Shakespeare beyond undergraduate coursework, I can only expect that the play and all information related to it are accurate. The software itself is cumbersome (meaning it is not "user-friendly") to navigate, especially if the user cannot figure out how to unhide the menu bar. The text is easy to read, but the multimedia is not so easy to view as the motion picture clips are extremely small. Other reviews of the software claim that the audio readings of the play sometimes do not accurately follow the written text itself, but that may be more related to the processor of the CPU than the actual software itself.

A non-computer-based manual or set of instructions has been a consistent recommendation from other reviews and this one will follow suit. The documentation that came with the software only touched on installation instructions but provided no further guidance. The company apparently believes the help feature available with the software will answer any questions its users will ask, regardless of their degree of technical experience or their comfort level with using online technical support. Inexperienced users will find the omission of a manual disheartening, discouraging, and perhaps even too infuriating to even bother with the software itself.

The software allows the user to experience a variety of interpretations of scenes thanks to the QuickTime video content and the audio readings. It would have been helpful for Voyager to offer such luxuries for the entire play instead of selected scenes or at perhaps offer multiple artistic interpretations for the same scenes to demonstrate how distinct people’s understandings of the play truly are.

The software offers two installation options: either run from the CD-ROM (thereby taking up a mere 9.70 MB of hard drive space) or copy everything to the hard drive (and take up 371 MB instead). If the user chooses the first option (which also probably the most common choice), the CD is required to be in the CD-ROM when using the program. If it is not, the software actually quits to the desktop.

In the Windows 9x environment, installation modifies the WIN.INI file without warning and the only assistance it offers for its uninstallation is a list of files within the MACBETH.TXT file. There is no uninstall wizard as most software packages typically use (thereby, the "ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS" of the Windows CONTROL PANEL is useless for removing this software). The files listed in the .TXT file must be manually deleted.

The software also installs the necessary QUICKTIME 2.03 (which at the time of the software’s release was probably state-of-the-art; as of this writing, QUICKTIME is up to version 4.1) so that the video clips contained within the program can be viewed.

The installation process is pretty straightforward. The only documentation of value the software included that offered any guidance was for the installation itself (forget about a manual for actually using the product). The pop-up menus for the installation are very clear about what is happening with one’s operating system.

The graphics, sounds, and videos are helpful for those who seek to do something than actually read the play. However, they probably are nothing more than Voyager’s Marketing Department’s attempt at providing some "bells and whistles" to help sell the product. The colors in the videos are difficult to make out because of the window size being so small (and I was unable to locate any configuration setting that permitted me to change that, even with the risk of losing resolution).

The true "bells and whistles" of this product is actually in its use of commentaries, elaboration of scenes and quotes, explanation of characters, and other "non-flashy" academic modules. For example, a student may be able to improve his or her vocabulary by merely clicking on an unfamiliar highlighted word while also getting an explanation of its context and possible reasons for its use within the play. Students may also take advantage of the "dog-ear" function by clicking in the upper right-hand corner of any page they encounter should they wish to bookmark it (meaning, they could leave software entirely or focus on another portion of the product and immediately return to it at will later). Still, similar editorial work within a normal text could accomplish the same objective and students can always just physically bookmark a page in a book.

Only experienced computer users who are used to "clicking around" will be able to figure out how to use the software smoothly without losing much instructional time. The software has a "tool" menu bar, but the only way to activate it is to find the hidden menu at the top of the screen and select it. Novice users may spend several frustrating minutes clicking all over the screen without any success. Even experienced users may quickly abandon this product based on these unusual circumstances. Although there are other ways to navigate about the program, the tool menu offers the clearest way to move throughout the software (see figure 1.2). For example, the user can examine the play on a page-by-page basis using the "PAGE" menu or seek out specific lines using the "FIND" option. I could not locate any alternative options for choosing to do this without the tool menu.

There is a feature on the tool menu called "GUAGE" that enables a student to see how they are progressing throughout the course of using the software. After only a few moments, I started looking at the "GUAGE BAR" not to see what I have accomplished, but rather to see how much more I had to endure. For high school students who either have not yet been exposed to Shakespeare or who do not as yet have acquired an appreciation for his work, I would expect that they would share such sentiments.

I would like to claim that Voyager’s Shakespeare: Macbeth offers more than this, but sadly, in good conscience, I cannot. The colors are dreary (which although may befit the play itself does not make one inclined to want to stare at a computer screen for any great length of time) and dare I suggest boring. The software may only offer marginal enhancement of the quality of the user’s understanding of Macbeth if even that much.

This software would be best used in a non-required manner. It does not really offer much in terms of evaluating what students have done aside from the "GUAGE" bar. The teacher does not have the luxury of being able to modify the software itself, so the teacher would need to offer a considerable amount of direction outside of letting students just use the product. Perhaps I am too much of a fundamentalist, but I believe learning about William Shakespeare’s Macbeth would be best suited with a book and an instructor followed by watching the play in its entirety either live or on a British Broadcasting Company’s video. I would only offer the use of this software as an optional supplement.

I suspect students who rely on this software to learn about Shakespeare’s Macbeth will not only never actually read or experience the work, but will only have their apprehension to do so reinforced. In my opinion, the software is not user-friendly and has more of a chance of encouraging students to fall asleep than stimulate their minds. Students must make using this product interesting on their own as it is doubtful that many will be impressed with the true substance of the software: the commentaries and other purely academic modules. Watching the videos and listening to the sound bytes may offer only initial appeal, but will quickly wear out its attraction once the novelty passes.

Students may work at their own pace, take online notes, and "dog-ear" pages to continue where they left off and they have plenty of opportunities to have various aspects of the play explained for them in the software’s academic supplements. However, if they choose not to do so, I doubt they will gain much understanding about Shakespeare’s tragedy let alone any appreciation for it. Students need to really demonstrate a proactive desire if they are to make using this software significantly productive.

Put simply, this software is no substitute for a teacher. It offers some initial pleasant elements (i.e., the videos, audio readings, commentaries, etc.), but quickly loses its luster. A decent teacher could provide all that and more, and most importantly for students, sustain their interest. To elaborate on the point, in sports such as football, any defense can halt the progress of an offense if the quarterback relies on using the running back to move the ball. For an offense to successfully advance into the opposition’s territory to score, they need to vary their methods. Teachers are in the same situation as the offense — they must mix up their approaches to educating their students (the reluctant defense) about Shakespeare. Unfortunately, if students were only receiving the Voyager software to gain an understanding of Macbeth, it would be as though the teachers were only running the ball on every down. The end result is the defense would win, which in this case I suspect would be that students would gain minimal, if any, understanding of Shakespeare’s work let alone appreciation for it.

If the teacher wants to turn his or her students on to Shakespeare using this software, he or she will need to offer substantial additional materials and lessons to help the students do so. Teachers should only use this Voyager product as a supplement; perhaps to elaborate on a confusing scene. There is little opportunity for students to use critical thinking skills (aside from figuring out how to activate the tool menu) as they are not exactly active participants in the learning process unless they really demonstrate innate motivation to do so. Students may find various aspects of the software confusing or may not take advantage of the excellent commentaries that accompany much of the play. A teacher may need to tell them when they should seek out these additional features (which defeats the purpose of using this software at all instead of traditional classroom instruction).

I did not notice any teacher materials that accompanied the software; the product itself seems to be as described in the above sections not really needing additional instructional utilities for educators.

As much as I think the aggravation this Voyager product burdens the teachers with outweighs any potential academic advantages for the students, I think there may be ways to incorporate it into a teacher’s unit. For example, after reading the text in a book, a teacher could use a projector and show some of the highlights of the software (i.e., the commentaries or a powerful reading). I think a teacher could also introduce some of the background on Shakespeare and his work using some of the images included with the software under the "Introduction" and "Picture Gallery" sections of the software. Again, the emphasis is using the product as a supplement to bolster student learning rather than relying on it as the primary material for the lesson. A teacher should not focus on using this software as a lesson in and of itself.

If students worked alone or in pairs or even small groups with it, I do not think the software possesses any attributes that will keep their attention for long. If anything, I would think students would be further dissuaded from learning Macbeth if this was all they had to go on. Still, in this age of budget cuts and "textless" classes, perhaps it may be the only instructional tool a teacher may have to use to introduce Shakespeare. I would only hope not.

Although the software offers some excellent additional resources to the play, I do not feel these strengths offset the shortcomings of the overall package. As a teacher, I find it difficult enough to heighten students’ interest and awareness in experiencing the pleasures of literature (let alone that of Shakespeare). I feel that Voyager had the right idea in mind with their product by using children’s seemingly innate interest in computer technology to introduce them to literature; however, I feel that this particular software package has too many drawbacks to achieve the goal. The software is too complicated for the average student to navigate and the "bells and whistles" that may entice one to investigate its offerings quickly fails to sustain that interest. With students’ attention spans continuing to dwindle, I do not see how a student who is reluctant to learn about Shakespeare in the first place will resist the temptation just to turn off the Voyager product and jump on the Internet or play a video game instead. Just because the fad in education now is to incorporate technology into the curricula does not necessarily suggest that all technology is automatically the best method with which to teach today’s youth.

If Educorp, which has since acquired the Macbeth product from Voyager, has any desire to make this software more useful to teachers, they will need to release another version of it (which by this writing they may very well have) that addresses the concerns and recommendations detailed in this review. These areas include using contemporary video software plug-ins, offering various interpretations of the same scenes so students may understand that there is no one "correct" way to view a scene, improve the creativity and color schemes so the user does not become so bored looking at the screen (after all, Macbeth is hardly a quick read), and perhaps most importantly, improve the documentation and navigation control.

OVERALL RATING (BASED ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10): 4

The CD-ROM received credit for its wonderful commentaries, summaries, and essays. I also thought it deserved merit for being among the first software packages available that attempted to utilize computer technology to teach what was traditionally restricted to textbooks, playhouses, and audio/video tapes. I also took into account that this software package is somewhat antiquated with respect to its technological benchmarks as compared to the current computer products on the market. It perhaps is akin to comparing an Atari 2600 video game such as "Asteroids" from the 1980s with the recreational offerings of the much fancier Nintendo64 of today. However, despite taking all of these things into account, I still do not believe that this product would do a decent job introducing Shakespeare to today’s students on its own as I believe it is intended. Dare I offer, the teacher who is able to use it as more than supplementary material is a better educator than I am. I would warn that a teacher who chooses this software as a primary educational tool is in great peril of turning his or her students off to Shakespeare entirely. Some of my academic colleagues who have reviewed this software for their respective coursework offer more lenient critiques, but they seem to share the sentiments of my overall analysis:

I would not allow the CD-ROM to replace my interaction with the class as a whole…I feel the interaction of the classroom community might initially stir individual ideas and imagination better, allowing the students to develop their abilities to deconstruct a text and recreate the work in their own minds. Instead of exploration and student interpretation, the CD-ROM program feeds the students with valid, yet narrow information. Voyager’s CD-ROM presents itself as a better resource tool than unit plan. (Freed, no date given).

As mentioned before, just because using technology is currently the focus of teacher training programs and school systems does not mean that it is the best way to educate students in every discipline. Sometimes, traditional methods are not only valid but the better alternative. In the case of Voyager’s Shakespeare: Macbeth, I believe this is the case.

Beinroth, A. and Feldmann, D. (1998). Available online at: http://www.ph-erfurt.de/~neumann/erlangen/mac88.html. Last accessed: 01 Feb. 2000.

Freed, J. (No Date Given). Available online at: http://www.ed.psu.edu/k-12/cdrom/freed.html. Last accessed: 01 Feb. 2000.