Describes some of the factors that affect computer monitor display design and provides suggestions and insights into how screen displays can be designed more effectively. Topics include color, font choices, organizational structure of text, space outline, and general principles. (Author/LRW)

Student-led parent-teacher conferences help young children make sense of what hey know and what they need to learn at school. Just ask them! For the past two years, the kindergarten children at Seymour Elementary School in Ralston, Nebraska, have used PowerPoint to tell their parents how they are doing in school, and the conferences have been a…

A theory of the planning and debugging of computer programs is formalized as a context free grammar, which is used to reveal the constituent structure of problem solving episodes by parsing protocols in which programs are written, tested, and debugged. This is illustrated by the detailed analysis of an actual session with a beginning student…

Described is an inexpensive apparatus, consisting of a microcomputer, a magnetostrictive digitizing tablet, and a teletype terminal, that accurately and quickly measures positions, lengths, and areas. Particular emphasis is given to interfacing, software, and to some applications in education and research of this minimum configuration system.…

Engineering design is a complex cognitive skill differing from possession of knowledge in tactical use of knowledge to achieve goals under constraints. An operational definition of a design must satisfy a set of constraints and objectives. Several published theories about the design process in terms of the criteria developed leads to the…

Describes the components, costs, and capabilities of several desktop publishing systems, and examines their possible impact on work patterns within organizations. The text and graphics of the article were created using various microcomputer software packages. (CLB)

Reviews relevant features for interactive video images of the four primary technologies that merge to intertwine themselves in interactive video (computers, television, instructional design, visual design); outlines critical structural elements of interactive video; and presents guidelines for creating interactive video images. (MBR)

Describes Ovation, an integrated software system with a common command environment of 26 English words which provides access to all of the system's capabilities and handles spreadsheet analysis, information management, word processing, graphics, and communications in the same workspace. Capabilities of Ovation's applications and features…

Presents six computer-oriented classroom activities. They include: surveying a house for products using microprocessors, writing a program to display a flag, experimenting with LOGO's graphics capabilities, writing stories on the computer, using FOR/NEXT commands to create a blinking object, and teaching the Milton Bradley Big Trak to play…

Describes an interactive graphics package which illustrates the phase behavior of binary mixtures. The package has been successfully used with graduate and undergraduate students in the chemical engineering curriculum at Cornell University. Features contributing to this success are noted. (JN)

Discusses the works of Darcy Gerbarg, Ruth Leavitt, David Em, Duane Palyka, and Harold Cohen, visual artists who work with computers to create art works by relying on standard hardware/software tools, using custom tools created for nonartistic tasks, manipulating images at the programing level, and programing creativity into computers themselves.…

B. F. Skinner provides advice for educators on several issues related to computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Some pitfalls of programed instruction in the 1960s which CAI may also face today, aversive control, courseware design, and use of computer graphics are among the areas explored. (JN)

A computer program which allows the solution of a Monte Carlo simulation (probabilistic sensitivity analysis) has been developed for the Vic-20 microcomputer. Theory of Monte Carlo simulation, program capabilities and operation, and sample calculations are discussed. Student comments on the program are included. (JN)

Discusses properties of epicycloids. (The easiest way to picture them is to think of a piece of radioactive bubble gum attached to a wheel which is rolling around the outside of a larger wheel.) Includes a computer program (TRS-80 color computer) that will graph any epicycloid with integer values for the radii. (JN)

Discusses the design and operation of a microcomputer system which obtains and displays an individual's electrocardiogram (EKG). The EKG information, in digital form, can be stored on a floppy disk and transmitted over telephone lines by use of a modem. (JN)