Discussion of the rhetoric of disability, including physical, hearing, and visual impairments, highlights possible benefits that computer technology can provide. Designing for disabled individuals is discussed, and product development efforts by Apple Computer to increase microcomputer access to disabled children and adults are described. (LRW)

Describes a project aimed at developing a system to support managers of business software projects by incorporating knowledge acquisition and emphasizing the integration of the manager's tasks. The discussion covers the knowledge acquisition methodology, the architecture of an integrated system, and an overview of project management tasks. (15…

Many school business officials have turned to computer equipment leasing. A lease arrangement permits administrators to stretch annual budgets, to appropriate funds, and to easily upgrade or change equipment. Another alternative to high-cost computer purchase is to buy or lease used equipment. (MLF)

Discusses the teaching consultant process in computer programing courses, describes a teaching consultant model from both the teachers' and students' perspectives, and shows how this model can be used to develop an intelligent teaching consultant (ITC). Differences between this collection of expert systems and conventional intelligent tutoring…

Two articles describe computerized reference systems created for college libraries in New York (Cornell and SUNY Binghamton) and at the University of Virginia, respectively. (TE)

Design considerations for speech training systems include the types of information about speech to be used in training, whether acoustic or physiologic; and the use of models of speech production, whether partially perceptual and partially knowledge-based or explicit data-based models. A taxonomy of speech training systems is presented.…

Discusses the development of computer-assisted music instruction at Ohio State University and describes a courseware development system for the Apple Macintosh microcomputer that facilitates the creation of sophisticated computer-assisted music instruction programs. Walter Hewlett's pitch representation system is described, structured programing…

Discusses the evolution of mainframe and personal computers, and presents a case study of a network developed at the University of Iowa called the Iowa Computer-Aided Engineering Network (ICAEN) that combines Macintosh personal computers with Apollo workstations. Functional objectives are stressed as the best measure of system performance. (LRW)

An approach to the design of flexible text-based management systems for archives includes tiers for repository, software, and user management systems. Each tier has four layers--objective, program, result, and interface. Traps awaiting software development companies involve the market, competition, operations, and finance. (10 references) (MES)

Discussion of electronic performance support systems (EPSS) focuses on performance support engineering and its role in designing performance support systems. Highlights include the organizational performance/learning cycle model; a systems approach to EPSS; computer-based training and other EPSS methodologies; and future possibilities. (LRW)

Gives practical tips on how to retrieve and view images from Internet databases, with a description of image file formats and the requirements for viewing and decompression software. A list of nine image databases and a brief description of the University of Arizona library's digital image project are provided. (Contains four references.) (KRN)

Discusses multimedia design and the shift in models from computer-assisted instruction and audiovisual learning to multimedia environments and computer-based learning environments. Topics addressed include multimedia generations and architectures; changing trends in software development; object-oriented design; and the design of media systems.…

Describes a study that examined the effectiveness of implied boolean searches using personal author surnames plus first and/or last title words to retrieve an entry from a simulated online public access catalog (OPAC). Implications for the design of OPACs are discussed, and further research is suggested. (LRW)

Describes "DesignStation 2000," a software and hardware workbench for laptop computers for the design of learning systems that includes capabilities for needs analysis; client presentation and proposal generation; rapid prototyping of interactive media projects; collaboration and project tracking; assessment of results; and adding to a…

Examines the relationship between computer-user interface (character-based or graphical) and the quality of documents written by college students. Finds that, after six weeks of business communication instruction, IBM users excelled on the criteria of mechanics and format, but that after five more weeks the two groups demonstrated no significant…