Considers the instructional potential of computer adventure games to develop text-processing skills. Design improvements to increase metacognitive skills are discussed, a prototype adventure game utilizing intact prose is described, and a study using the game with sixth-grade readers of varying ability is reported. (LRW)

The controversy over appropriate educational uses of computers is framed along a continuum based on the amount of support provided to the user. Software programs in which the user's role is to respond in a pre-determined structure (program controlled software) anchors one end of the continuum, while software which empowers the user to create new…