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From: punia@uvm-gen.UUCP (David T. Punia)
Newsgroups: net.college,net.cse
Subject: Re: Why force the AT&T at UVM?
Message-ID: <240@uvm-gen.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-May-85 11:15:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: uvm-gen.240
Posted: Wed May 22 11:15:25 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 24-May-85 08:25:58 EDT
References: <380@uvm-cs.UUCP> <70@gatech.CSNET> <235@phri.UUCP>, <294@tilt.FUN>
Organization: University of Vermont (780a)
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   Mr. Chen's "rebuttal" to Mr. Smith overlooks some very important
distinctions between the functions of calculators, textbooks and
micros.  A textbook is "programmed" uniquely with specific information
in a specific order to go along with the "program" an educator desires to
use in a given class.  The calculator is a far more general purpose
tool that operates at a much lower level than either the textbook or
the programmed micro.  The choice of calculator that a student uses in
classes is a far less critical one than the choice of text.  Imagine
the chaos if students were to choose their own textbooks.  Some of the
same arguments apply to microcomputers.  The courseware for a class
will comprise both textbooks and microcomputer software specifically
chosen to fit an instructor's program.  To repeat an argument already
made, it is very much a matter of practicality that students all use a
micro that can run the same software.  It would be tremendously
impractical to expect the faculty who write the software, or the
bookstore that must distribute it, to carry a multiplicity of versions
of the same product to meet the needs of those students who feel they
are the better judges of what equipment they need to learn about things
they know very little about.  Such is usually not the case with a
calculator.  Even if a student does go into an engineering class with
a four function calculator, it is not usually beyond the financial means
of the student to replace it with a more appropriate tool.  Certainly
that would not be the case for a student whose choice of a micro could
not meet the needs of his curriculum.  It has to be assumed that the
people responsible for the curriculum know at least a little more than
those they are planning to educate.  The committee that recommended
the micro to be used at UVM comprised 12 individuals drawn from each of the
areas that will be requiring the micros, as well as a few administrative
personnel.  These were not people unfamiliar with micros to begin with, but
people who have already been involved with microcomputing in an educational
environment, or at the very least, well versed in computing in general.
There has to be an element of trust in the expertise of these individuals,
in their knowledge of their own curricula, in their acquired or existent
expertise in microcomputing, and in their desire to select the machine 
that best met their educational needs, now and in the forseeable future.
Not to mention their probably better ability to resist being sold a
bill of goods by a particularly convincing salesman.  And not to mention
the fact that evaluation machines were available for several months from
numerous vendors.  Who is better able to select?  A kid fresh out of 
high school?  A very special kid, indeed!


-- 

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David T. Punia, Dept. of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering,
The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT   05405  
802-656-3330

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