The SuperDictionary... my theory is that it only corrupted kids. If they are old enough to read the definition for promise? They can already read the actual word. Which would come way after understanding the idea of the word. Because they've already been exposed to the idea and word long before they've encountered it in print form. Hopefully, even in the 70s, kids got read to. Peter Rabbit, Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are? They had the vocab. to understand what words like *opens randomly* 'long' or 'his' are. That's what's weird to me about the SuperDictionary. Also, it's crazy. It really doesn't help to see... gah. Okay, I'll warm up the scanner. For science. And really good definitions. Because hanging=Promising! and, as you mention, Awesome!
(I feel that the SuperDictionary mostly hung out in classrooms, unused except for sustained silent reading time. When kids grabbed whatever they had lying around and stared at images until the timer buzzed.)