Michael W. Allen, the Chairman and CEO of Allen Interactions, is an architect of interactive multimedia learning and is recognized for his many insights, inventions, and presentations. With over 50 years of experience in e-learning, both in academic and corporate settings, he is known for his role in creating Authorware and overseeing the work of…

The development of both the materials for an intermediate-level hybrid German writing course and the software in a virtual learning environment for the course may be viewed as activity systems. Viewing the individual components of each system as interrelated enables us to conceptualize the complexities of the development process, which goes well…

Outlines how the National Education Association's Educational Computer Service program for evaluation of educational software is run, and responds to critics of the program. (MD)

Discusses the dissatisfaction of teachers with using computers in the classroom and argues that the problem is not the computers themselves, but rather the deplorable state of educational software. (SRT)

Presents and evaluates the National Education Association's for-pay software review program. Also reviews the 98th Congress's legislation relating to school software. (MD)

The Languages Review Consultation Report recommends exploiting the potential of communications technology for the enhancement of curricular offerings. Newly developed instructional software is credited with opening doors to the cultures of young people while serving as an infinitely patient and supportive tutor. Thus, in the UK as in the US,…

This document contains three position papers concerned with copyright, cataloging, and software standards for educational software. In the first paper, "Cataloguing Educational Software: Is There a Problem?" R. N. Tucker advocates the cataloguing of educational software in the same way and in the same place as other materials in a…

Suggests sources for reviews of available software, and provides seven guidelines for selecting appropriate software: know your objectives; check on software compatibility and available support; consider brand names first; check evaluations, copying restrictions, and documentation. Suggestions for taking care of software and a discussion of word…

Most currently available computer-assisted language learning offerings fall into three categories: instructional, collaborative, and facilitative. Each is described and cost-effective approaches to using them are noted. (Contains two references.) (LB)

Question and answer column about the CD ROM medium discusses: (1) optical storage devices available; (2) language teaching applications; (3) types of courseware available; (4) costs to hook up a CD ROM drive as a peripheral to an existing system; (5) how to go about developing and mastering a disk; and (6) mastering and replication costs.…

Describes MediaText, a multimedia document processor developed at the University of Michigan that allows the incorporation of video, music, sound, animations, still images, and text into one document. Interactive documents are discussed, and the need for users to be able to write documents as well as read them is emphasized. (four references) (LRW)

The computer and its attendant software, in combination with cooperative learning principles, provide all students, regardless of English-language proficiency level, greater opportunities for peer communication than are available within the traditional classroom setting. (IAH)

Argues that a special type of software (i.e., mindware) is needed to prepare students for life and work in the knowledge-based society of the 21st Century. Sees mindware as enabling students to experience the full range of inquiry skills, from data gathering to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. (DMM)

Responds to the article, "Blackboard's COURSEINFO: Supplementing In-Class Teaching with the Internet," by David M. Fahey. Focuses on the benefits and drawbacks to using this software to have a paperless course Includes an overall review of COURSEINFO. (CMK)

Intended to help educators choose the most appropriate word processing products for elementary school writing instruction, this report provides information about 12 word processor software products and 13 writing activity products. These products and the writing activities they use are as follows: (1) Bank Street Writer III (Activity Files,…