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From: glb@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU (Gina L. Bull)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.edu,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Becoming CAI literate
Message-ID: <2253@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Date: 23 Feb 88 14:48:48 GMT
References: <776@zippy.eecs.umich.edu> <3316@killer.UUCP> <26@dogie.edu> <27@dogie.edu>
Organization: U.Va. CS Department, Charlottesville, VA
Lines: 37
Summary: Different Perspective

(many lines deleted)
> 
>   I think the breakthroughs are going to come when the computer is truly 
> more intelligent than the child is. The computer will have to process speach,
> and be able to converse with the child. The current state of the art in 
> Educational programming is quite primative. A humanlike robot probably will 
> be a better teacher than a simple computer and keyboard. 
> 
This paragraph is an example of one perspective on using computers in
education.  The computer teaches the child.  There is another way to
use computers.  Would you say that a blackboard teaches the child?  Or
that the overhead projector teaches the child?  No, a teacher uses a
blackboard, or overhead projector, or computer, to teach the child.

A lot of educators, programmers, and lay persons seem to believe that
the goal of using computers in education is to replace the teacher.
If this were the goal, then present day computers (and associated
software) do have a long way to go.  However, there are many teachers
in school systems today, using the technology and software available
today, who are using the computer to enhance their own teaching
ability and to enhance the children's motivation to learn.  They are
not using the computer exclusively to drill multiplication tables
(though this use does have its own niche).  A PC with a few sensors
attached enables students to collect and analyze weather data.  The
addition of a speech card turns a PC into a talking word processor.
Special Education teachers in Charlottesville make their own
custom-designed switches for physically handicapped students.  The
switches enable students who could not use a keyboard to control
a computer.  

In summary, don't write off the use of computers in education because
they are not currently "Socrates in a Box".  They are being used in
very effective and innovative ways by a lot of very effective and
innovative teachers.

Gina Bull	Internet: glb@uvacs.cs.virginia.edu
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