Describes a community college's process of choosing good educational software. Elements include the college's own software catalog, statewide vocational curriculum laboratory, catalogs from established publishers, and the state software clearinghouse. The author then discusses software reviews and the questions that are asked concerning preview…

Options for special educators in creating computer assisted instruction for handicapped learners are examined, including machine code (such as BASIC), authoring languages, authoring systems, and commercially available shell programs. Examples of each are cited. (CL)

Reports on a project designed to examine the needs and opportunities for reading, writing, and communication software. Offers suggestions for ways to improve software quality. (FL)

Argues that having students use the outlining, prompting, and abstracting capabilities of word processing programs can help tighten their writing organization. (FL)

School systems that rushed to join the computer age are now finding that their expensive acquisitions do not always provide more learning opportunities for students. Reasons include the lack of properly trained teachers and inadequate software. Positive aspects for the use of computers in learning are also examined. (RM)

Current resources in microcomputer use in special education are identified. Names and addresses of producers of hardware, peripherals, software, reviewers, and information exchange systems (both human resource networks and electronic networks) are listed. (CL)

Using flippers, or pieces of paper attached to the edges of a sheet of a main script, can help to communicate computer interactions to a student. (HOD)

Argues that computers can be used in schools or reading clinics to maintain skill banks for organizing information about materials, tests, and prescriptive recommendations. (FL)

At Arizona State University in Tempe, Academic Computing Services provides large-scale support for the computer graphics programs. (MLF)

Three aspects of Piagetian theory are explored in this article and are then related to the use of computers in the education of young children. The computer tends to disrupt the development process by ignoring action and assimilation processes necessary for child development. (DF)

Discusses the potential of word processors for allowing students to generate and manipulate language while writing, and its superiority over the widespread use of computer programed packages and drills for teaching writing. (HTH)

Discusses some of the caveats of computer-assisted teaching of foreign languages raised in David Wyatt's paper, "Computer-Assisted Teaching and Testing of Reading and Listening." These include the limited ability of the computer to display text. Questions if the benefits of computer-assisted instruction justify the time, energy, and…

Five conclusions were reached by participants at this meeting: microcomputers cannot take the place of teachers; computer-assisted learning (CAL) should be used to promote teacher-student-computer interaction; there is too little peer review; an international CAL clearinghouse is needed; and the international geography community can play an…

Points out why drill work has a role in the language arts classroom, explores the possibilities of using a microcomputer to give children drill work, and discusses the characteristics of a good software program, along with faults found in many software programs. (FL)

Methodology for developing a computer assisted instruction (CAI) lesson (scripting, programing, and testing) is reviewed. A project done by Informatics Education Ltd. (IEL) for the Department of National Defense (DND) is used as an example. (JT)