World Without Words from 4Mation is a package for upper juniors that sets some fairly straightforward problem-solving taks along with some interesting open-ended activities. It's all wrapped within excellent graphics, but is presented so that, at first sight, World Without Words can seem shrouded in mystery.

The package contains a wealth of resources - posters, booklets, even a braille card - but the program puts you into an environment that uses no written language to communicate and only a pointer for input. This pointer can be linked to any of the input devices common in schools; Concept keyboards, trackerballs and the like.

The program opens with the arrival of an alien spaceship; the child is faced simply with the ship and the pointer. Clicking the pointer over the ship moves you closer. By experimenting with clicking buttons while pointing to the outside of the ship, you enter a control room. Then, by experimenting with various controls, you discover the package's different facets.

The activities are either closed or open-ended. The closed exercises pose imaginative, if uninspiring, problems to be solved. There are robots to be built, an alien landscape to be explored and bits of machinery to be collected and assembled in a sliding block puzzle. You must also build a network of pipes, solve a mini graphic adventure and deal with something called 'Sparklies' which defies description but is a fairly straightforward strategy game. Several of these activities are reached via a sort of on-screen Rubix cube; using rotating blocks to create arrows that point in different directions, thus accessing different screens. And this is perhaps the main point about these activities; there is no instruction as to how they must be completed. It is all about exploration and interpreting the signs on the screen and their effects.

The open-ended parts of the program offer huge scope for creative work. The 'Picture Book' contains a series of line drawings of the adventures of an alien charater. Each picture may have one vital component changed; the choices lead to different pictures building up different stories. The program allows a child to colour iin the pictures and print them out and so provides a springboard for all sorts of written work, drawings and even drama.

The other open-ended section is the 'face processor'. After working out the controls, this lets you construct and animate faces using a variety of predefined mouth and eye shapes.

The potential of this activity is vast; like the whole program you first have to admit "I don't have a clue what all this is about but I'm going to find out".

Most junior school children will not yet have come across windows and pointers. This became clear as some children spent a good deal of time running over blank areas, clicking at different points and getting nowhere. One of the objectives of the software is to let children discover for themselves, but there must also be input from the teacher.

At the start there is only one problem - to get into the ship; children were able to guess what was expected of them quickly, but once inside the ship reactions varied. One extremely bright 10-year-old took charge of her group when she discovered the picture book; she spent nearly an hour exploring different shadings, and explained afterwards that it was great to be able to colour in pictures, as she felt she was normally such a poor artist. Other children tended to flit around more, trying different tasks, getting so far and then quitting - any task may be left at any time, it doesn't have to be completed.

A very important factor in the class exploration was the exchanging of knowledge between groups as different discoveries were made. As the children used, and became familiar with, the program, it became apparent that this is a Logo-like activity, the World Without Words is filled with 'objects to think with'.

The accompanying resources reflect this approach, and are all based on the theme of communication. Among the items is a book of three thoughtful short stories, which reflect some of the concerns evident in earlier work from 4Mation. Plus there's a pupil's book containing examples of many forms of communication, a poster and a tape of atmospheric music. All these are merely starting points, they demand exploration and experimentation from both teacher and pupil.

It is quite possible that substantial parts of this program will be used in a more structured way, but that doesn't appear to be the intention. World Without Words presents you not only with a software package, but also invites you to accept a particular educational approach.

Having said that, there is no doubt that the teacher's guide provides a wealth of concrete suggestions for the classroom - you are encouraged to be open-ended in your approach, but you are never left alone, floundering for follow-up ideas. I found the section relating the rather abstract problem-solving activities with real-life activities and situations both useful and practical.

Certainly this exciting new package opens up the creative end of education generally, via the computer and the rest of the media resources. Let's hope that there will continue to be a place in schools for it.