Although for some of us computing still means entering data, running programs and sending and receiving mail, an increasing number of CUNY faculty, staff and students are taking advantage of multimedia computer technology - including high-resolution graphics and audio features - to develop innovative and dynamic ways of both teaching and learning.

The following represents a small sampling of projects now being developed on different campuses:

* At Hunter College an interactive videodisc program titled Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl: A Multimedia Project on the Garment Industry in New York City in the Early 1900s is being designed for use in undergraduate social science courses. It examines the decision on the part of immigrant women from Eastern and Southern Europe to join the newly formed International Ladies' Garment Worker's Union.

* A courseware project underway at Bronx Community College will comprise a tutorial package in Evolutionary Taxonomy that can be used in the General Biology undergraduate course offered at the college.

* At Queensborough Community College a courseware project will offer an analysis of the play A Raisin in the Sun using a laserdisc, illustrations, photographs, charts, texts and music, to give students a deeper understanding of the drama.

* At the College of Staten Island instructional software will be developed for teaching under-graduate French in an interactive environment using text, video, and computers.

In future issues of FY^eI, descriptions of such projects and profiles of their creators will become regular features, giving the CUNY community a taste of the future in the making.

-- Holland Cotter