Lucas Learning, which recently announced plans to exit the consumer market, showcased its educational titles at this week’s National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) and also spoke with MacCentral about its plans for the future, including the company’s view on Mac OS X.
At the trade show, Lucas Learning was touting the direct-to-school distribution availability of six educational software titles based on their “Star Wars” license: Star Wars Pit Droids; Star Wars Math: Jabb’s Game Center; Star Wars Early Learning Activity Center; and Star Wars Episode 1: The Gungan Frontier. Each title uses the Star Wars characters, worlds and galaxies to teach skills in math, science, ecology, critical thinking and logic.
But Lucas Learning is moving beyond Star Wars related edutainment titles. The company is working on a suite of “pure curriculum based, non-Star Wars” products, Mary Sadegy, director of marketing for Lucas Learning, told MacCentral.
“They will be in a variety of formats, such as software and online,” she said. “We’re doing research and development now. We’re hoping for a beta launch in 2002 and a hard launch in 2003.”
Lucas Learning products are Mac compatible now and that won’t change, Sadegy said. The future is less certain for Mac OS X versions, though they are definitely a possibility.
“It’s too early in the development process to talk about Mac OS X,” Sadegy said. “However, our goal is to be as compatible as possible with our products, especially with platforms and operating systems that are widely accepted by educators.”