The idea behind the Inside Information pack is not totally new: others have already tried to give an overview of the impact of modern technology on our society, culture and business and industrial practices. None has perhaps attempted to attack the topic from so many points of view, however.

There are several reasons for this - first, not all lecturers (this is aimed at further education colleges) will necessarily wish to use all aspects of the material. Second, it's capable of being received on a number of levels. If the message does not get through at the first attempt then perhaps a new tack will cause the penny to drop. Third, the pack is offered as a component of the City and Guilds of London Institute course, number 444, Inside Information.

Part of the course involved a radio broadcast and two C60 audio cassettes are available containing an edited version of the radio programmes, introduced by the excellent Pual Heiney. These cover topics from databases, through communications, the electronic office and computer-aided design to computer control in cameras and aeroplanes, artificial intelligence, expert systems and robots.

I found them interesting and provocative in many ways. These would provide useful jumping-off points for discussion, used in the small five-to-ten minute sections which are recommended by the guide.

To accompany the programs there is a parallel book, again entitled Inside Information, by Jacquetta Megarry who, among other things, writes for Acorn User and the Times Educational Supplement. The book, over 200 pages including a substantial and very lucid glossary, is of the type that young people thoroughly enjoy - high quality pictures backed up by clear and concise text giving an overview view reminiscent of the Time Life scientific and natural history publications. It covers the whole gamut of microtechnology applications in a superficial, though not a trivial, fashion. This approach whets the appetite and encourages the reader to delve deeper into the subject. The book on its own can be recommended as essential reading for any would-be technologist from about 13-years-old upwards.

Further back-up to all this is provided by the software which aims to take the lid off the computer and help the student understand some of the processes involved in spreadsheets, databases, wordprocessing and computer control - hence the program titles of Lidoff, Lidtext, Lidcalc, Liddata, Lidbase and Lidturn.

The first of these I thought was rather complex for an introduction. Its intention is to show the stages by which the computer decodes its instructions and acts upon them: it's possible for the user to enter a simple program and see the way in which the computer handles the various commands. Input, processing and output are all dealt with but I'd rather have seen this last aspect dealt with later. Nonetheless, it's entirely up to the user which program they use first.

Lidtext provides a fascinating insight into the mechanisms of word processing. The user may edit text or command the computer to perform functions which are then clearly visible on the screen.

This rather startling facility causes the text and the cursor to dance around the screen until formatting, justification and general editing are complete. The demonstration program would be suitable in a wide variety of situations in colleges and schools.

In a similar way, the student is brought to a simple understanding of the basic principles of spreadsheets in the Lidcalc program. This is based on a central-heating exercise for a house, changing variables such as building materials, size of rooms and air change rates.

Lidturn provides a demonstration of the ways a computer may control a piece of machinery - in this case, a lathe which is represented graphically on-screen. A program of commands will cause the lathe to create shapes on the 'material' on screen and the process may be varied to discover the effect on the end-product.

Finally, Liddata and Lidbase provide introductions to information handling, searching and sorting in a simple and efficient way.

This pack, which provides so many avenues of approach to the same areas, will be of great value in colleges of further education. My guess is that sections of it will begin to appear in other areas of education as well since the style and presentation would suit all ages from about young teenagers upwrads - this, tied in with it also being part of a City and Guilds Certificate, seems to ensure that it will be widely used. Well done, all concerned!