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Computer-assisted learning (CAL) can be used for adults functioning at any academic or grade level. In adult basic education (ABE), CAL can promote greater learning effectiveness and faster progress, concurrent learning and experience with computer literacy skills, privacy, and motivation. Adults who face barriers (financial, geographic, personal, or motivational) affecting their attendance or progress and adults who prefer self-paced learning should be considered for CAL. For a CAL system to be successful, it should have features that make it relevant to adults, reliable, and effective. Competency-based learning principles, emphasizing careful determination of previous learning, the mastery of new concepts and skills, and retention through review, are recommended for courseware design. The use of competency-based learning principles implies a new role for the instructor as facilitator, motivator, and guide, rather than as dispenser of information. The focus on individual needs results in a more flexible environment, where problems with scheduling, interpersonal conflicts, and other barriers to the learning process are minimized. (Essential features of courseware, software, hardware, and vendor support for a CAL system are suggested, and a checklist is provided to assist adult educators to identify questions to be posed to vendors. There are 21 references.) (KC)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert