Intended to provide educators with enough information about the educational uses of computers so that they can make responsible decisions about the usefulness of computers in their own instruction, this paper defines and describes a variety of computer uses and gives advice on the selection of appropriate computer equipment and software. The first section of the paper defines computer assisted instruction (CAI), explaining some of its varieties: drill and practice, tutorial, modeling, and simulation. Other educational uses of computers are also explained in this section. The second section of the paper goes into more detail about CAI, explaining its advantages and disadvantages. This section also gives advice on integrating a computer program into an existing course. Selection of a computer system and the software to go with it are the topics of the third and fourth sections. The appendix contains sample material from an existing CAI program for study skills and the names and addresses of software sources and computing magazines. (JL)