Educational software targets both children as well as adults. Children’s learning software primarily aims at education of younger children at home, where games and various characters are used to educate younger children. Courseware is material used by teachers or trainers, which is a package that contains various lessons, tests, etc. Another kind of educational software is used in schools called classroom aids, which can be viewed using a projector and a screen. Edutainment is another category where computer games are used to aid learning. These are not based on the curricula. Reference software involves dictionaries and encyclopaedias. Initially these were available as CD-ROMs where multimedia images, videos and sounds were included. But, the recent widespread use of internet has almost replaced the use of CD-ROMs.
Educational software on custom platforms aims at literacy. These products are for children and are laptop look-alikes onto which various game cartridges or books can be loaded. Computer games with learning value are used by adults or older children, which allow simulation of various human activities. City-building, empire–building and rail-road management games help the user to learn bout the social, economic, engineering, history, political and military aspects. These games maybe considered as edutainment if the intent is literacy. Software in corporate training and tertiary education decides what learning material to distribute, conducts tests and gives out results. Software are also developed for specific purposes like language learning, typing tutor, software for driving tests, medical software for dissection of human or animal bodies, healthcare educational software, etc.
