Online Latin Study Aid -- PLATO

A post to the Latin Study E-Mail List on 10 Apr 2008

A while back I discovered an online resource I thought others might find helpful. PLATO is a computer-based educational system created at the University of Illinois in the 60's/70's. The system runs on Control Data Corporation (CDC) Cyber mainframes. The number of functional CDC mainframes are dwindling. Luckily there is a CDC mainframe emulator available - DtCyber. An effort is being made to keep PLATO alive. Well, actually, it's a branch of PLATO known as CYBIS. Cyber1.org runs a CYBIS system on the DtCyber emulator and offers free access. One must register to access the system. I know that might turn some people off, but registration is free and fairly painless. Information about the system and how to register can be found at:

http://www.Cyber1.org

After registering I was pleased to find that there are a couple of Latin lessons available. One is Wheelock based. The intro screen shows a copyright date of 1978. I don't know if it's been updated since then or not, but the exercises I've gone through seem to work with the 6th edition that we're using. It has vocabulary drills, forms drills, sentence translation drills and a self test for each chapter. The name of the Wheelock lesson is 0beglat0 - that's a zero, not an alphabetic O, at the beginning and end. Once you've signed on, just enter that name at the "Choose a lesson:" prompt and hit the DATA(F9) key. From there just follow the onscreen prompts to get started.

Kevin Monceaux - email: Kevin at RawFedDogs.net
http://www.RawFedDogs.net
http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
Longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla!!! \