Xref: utzoo sci.math:6675 comp.edu:2277
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!bu-ma!fred
From: fred@bu-ma.bu.edu (Fred Blundell)
Newsgroups: sci.math,comp.edu
Subject: Net Textbooks
Message-ID: <611348814.15174@bu-ma.bu.edu>
Date: 16 May 89 19:06:54 GMT
Lines: 50


If hypermedia textbooks and automatic quiz generating software were
available at universities, students could study at their own pace. The
opportunity to be retested repeatedly would motivate them to go back
and correct their misunderstandings. One can imagine video
presentations at the quality level of the PBS series NOVA, followed by
illustrated text and exercises. A student would be required to
correctly solve several problems of every kind, at his own pace. Small
group discussion sections with faculty or graduate students could
facilitate interactive learning. The need for textbooks could be
reduced. The cost of both lecturers and textbooks could be greatly
reduced.

Traditional lectures in large auditoriums are inadequate because so
many professors are unskilled in educational techniques, and because
multimedia presentations rivet our attention more effectively than a
distant voice. Also, a student often needs the opportunity to stop the
flow of information to think for a few minutes, which is impossible in
a lecture hall. 

In subjects of highly standardized and technical content like freshman
calculus and computer programming, nationwide competence exams should
be available. That way, people who cannot afford a college education
and people who study technical subjects independently after graduating
in the humanities could certify their qualifications.  Self-paced
online computerized education, and national competence tests could
make technical education available to age groups and income groups
that have traditionally been excluded.

In my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, it seems that the public 
library has almost become day care center, with many students from
the several nearby public schools waiting there for their parents
in the afternoons. Many of them play with the personal computers
that are available there. The public libraries could be an ideal 
setting for computerized educational systems.

The suggestion has been made that a free textbook foundation should
be established in the image of the famous Free Software Foundation,
to make electronic manuscripts available over the network. This is
a good idea, but productions of the depth and sophistication needed
to attract large numbers of users would require several hundred
man-years of highly skilled labor. It would seem to me that the
national interest could be served by some involvement by the Department
of Education. The philosophy that has relegated all educational
projects to the states is inadequate if our goal is to fully exploit
the potential of nationwide computation and communication networks
for informing people who are isolated from the flow of information
for reasons of age, health, economics, or geography.

--Fred Blundell