The proposed work provides an integration of the electronic delivery technology developed through the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Army's Basic Skills Educational Program, and the needs of the civilian population in adult literacy/basic skills education. Tested concepts used in the Hand-Held Tutor that have proven effective in the teaching of specialized vocabulary to soldiers in the Army's BSEP II program and the device itself are used as the basis for the development of a low cost, portable delivery system matched to the combined needs of the adult civilian population, the public educational system and the private sector. The work includes the identification of the requirements of some current programs within the New York State Education Department, the selection of candidate programs which can benefit from the infusion of this technology and the generation of demonstration courseware that can be delivered on existing or modified Tutor hardware. Emphasis is placed on programs that can be extrapolated to a national level. The work also covers the investigation of the reduction of the manufacturing cost of the delivery system to below 200 dollars per unit in reasonable production quantities. Anticipated Result It is anticipated that the Phase I effort will result in: 1) the identification of educational programs that can benefit from the proposed technology; 2) the authoring of sample courseware materials relevant to these programs; 3) a demonstration delivery system that runs the authored courseware; and, 4) a guide for a low-cost design. Phase II will result in the implementation of the low-cost design on a formal basis, the development of courseware generation standards and the authoring of additional materials for a larger demonstration and test program.
