What is Computer Assisted Learning (CAL)

Information and communication technology (ICT) is today influencing many aspects of our lives from administration to economy from culture and entertainment to work, and so forth. Education is receiving from IT and ICT a great deal of suggestions just from their first beginning. It is well known, for example, that Taylor (1980) outlined three metaphors for computer use in education: tutor, tool, and tutee: first, tutor (by looking at the possible use of computer to support or to substitute teachers); second, tool (by using suitable editing tools to support students’ autonomous learning); and last, tutee (by adopting special programming languages for the development of metacognitive skills in students’ minds). The reader will easily recognize in the above metaphors many ideas belonging respectively to the behaviorist, the cognitivist, and the constructivist psycho-pedagogical paradigms.