These three volumes list and describe a total of 65 new educational software products. The lists are the result of February and September 1988 polls of 10 computer coordinators from large educational software preview centers and evaluation agencies, who were asked to identify new products they had seen which, in their professional opinion, were…

This practicum report documents the development of a four-lesson multimedia program for robotics instruction for fourth and seventh grade students. The commercial film "Robot Revolution" and the videocassette tape "Robotics" were used, along with two author-developed slide/audiotape presentations and 14 overhead transparency foils. Two robots,…

The computer packages of PLOTALL, SYMAP, SURFACE II, QUSMO, QUSMO2, QUCRS, and QUTAB are commercially available plotting programs that provide aids for visualizing spatial distributed data and concepts. The incremental drum and line printer plots communicate often vast and difficult-to-interpret tabular data with or without geographic coordinates.…

This presentation outlines guidelines for developing and implementing an introductory course in computer-aided drafting (CAD) that is geared toward secondary-level students. The first section of the paper, which deals with content identification and selection, includes lists of mechanical drawing and CAD competencies and a list of rationales for…

Two questions about the effects of microcomputer-based laboratory (MBL) activities on graphing skills were addressed in this study: (1) the extent to which activities help students link their concrete experiences with motion with graphic representations of these experiences; and (2) the degree of importance of the real-time aspect of the MBL in…

In most existing computer assisted instruction (CAI), the nature of the instruction would not actually require a computer. Text is presented and read, questions are asked, and then materials are presented or reviewed depending on students' answers. There are two problems with this approach: computer capabilities for interactive task simulation are…

Spider World is an interactive program designed to help individuals with no previous computer experience to learn the fundamentals of programming. The program emphasizes cognitive tasks which are central to programming and provides significant problem-solving opportunities. In Spider World, the user commands a hypothetical robot (called the…

Begun on an experimental basis in March 1975, the ongoing PLATO project at the University of Delaware has become an established part of the University's academic program. This descriptive report is divided into three sections: (1) project history and development, including organization, utilization, instructor and author training, and projections…

This volume includes the texts of more than 50 papers presented at a conference which was organized to present in one forum all major work regarding computers in education in the United States, as well as abstracts of the special sessions, tutorials, and project presentations which took place at the conference. Among the topics covered in these…

This mini-course and article are presentations from a workshop on computer-aided drafting. The purpose of the mini-course is to assist drafting instructors in updating their occupational knowledge to include computer-aided drafting (CAD). Topics covered in the course include general computer information, the computer in drafting, CAD terminology,…

This work represents the development of computer tools for undergraduate students. Emphasis is on automatic control theory using hybrid and digital computation. The routine calculations of control system analysis are presented as students would use them on the University of Michigan's central digital computer and the time-shared graphic terminals…

This paper discusses the present situation regarding national data bases (particularly, ERIC, EDSTAT II, and NEDL) in higher education. Topics include availability of data, methods of retrieval, and uses made of the retrieved data. Also discussed are trends which will greatly enhance the uses of data bases, including: (1) a computerized cataloging…

A recent needs study determined that most of the terminal requirements for military computer assisted instruction (CAI) applications can be satisfied with mainstream commercial terminals. Additional development, however, is likely to be required to satisfy two of the capabilities (limited graphics and prerecorded visuals). The expected…

College teachers attending an NSF-sponsored summer workshop (1974) produced a series of films showing computer displays of mathematical problems and phenomena. These instructional materials are organized into four units: (1) functions and graphs; (2) analysis; (3) probability, statistics, and simulation; and (4) mathematical models. They are keyed…

This study defined a type of information-processing task analysis and an index relating different instructional sequences to this analysis. One hundred sixty-four college students were taught, with computer-assisted instruction, an imaginary science by various instructional sequences or by selecting their own sequence. A program-controlled…