Chapter 13 - The Ultimate Learning Tool

CS245 - CS II FALL 1996

Chapter 13 - The Ultimate Learning Tool

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Historical Perspectives

: The Mainframe Era
Plato

TICCIT - Time-Shared Interactive Computer Controlled Information Television (Dist. Ed.)

The Microcomputer Explosion

1975 - Altair 8800 (4K RAM < $1000)

Commodore Pet, Atari, Apple Iie

PC Jr., Macintosh

Microcomputers and Education

"Microcomputers...provide the vehicle through which properly developed software will make incredible changes in our methods of education and training."

INTERNET

13.4 What can a computer teach?

cognitive learning
pyschomotor skills
social interaction

Cognitive Learning-

knowledge skills (learning facts) - easy to define and assess achievement
Drill & Practice
thinking skills (ability to analyze and solve problems)
Problem solving games - Carmen Sandiego & Dr. Brain series

Pyschomotor Skills - eye-hand coordination and response
Social Interaction - development of successful relationships with other people

games like CivNet

Advantages of computer learning:

people like to learn with computers?
easier to visualize
cheaper

13.5 How Do Computers Help Us Learn

"I hear and I forget,
I see and I remember,
I do and I understand." Chinese Proverb

CAI - computer-aided instruction

Question and Answer
Content Lecture
Tutoring (allows for diagnostic branching)
Dialog - includes checking the student's level of comprehension for branching

Problem solving - concerned with the development of thinking and reasoning skills
Modeling - simulation (may require students to build model)
Competition
Show and Tell
Learn by Doing (Discovery)

Drill and Practice - ex. MasterType, MathBlaster, Funnels and Buckets (often include Competition)
JOURNALISM program - incorporates spellchecker and grammar checker

Tutorial (includes dialog strategy) - tutorials for software (Win95, WP, Spreadsheets, Multimedia Computer CD), CPR manikin program

Demonstration - not usuallyinteractive, good in kiosks
Simulation - Plato, SimCity, Balance of Planet, Life and Death program
Virtual Frog Dissection Kit, Carmen SanDiego

Productivity Tools
lab sensing hardware (LabView)
groupware

Gaming
Total Immersion (incorporates all of the teaching/learning strategies and all of the CAI types in one)

"In many schools today, the phrase 'computer-aided instruction' means making the computer teach the child. One might say the computer is being used to program the child. In my vision, the child programs the computer and, in doing so, both acquire a mastery over a piece of the most modern and powerful technology and establishes an intimate contact with some of the deepest ideas from science, from mathematics, and from the art of intellectual model building." Seymour Papert, Mindstorms

LOGO - write a program to draw a square

What Should Computers Help Us Learn?

Reading/writing literacy
Ability to apply math concepts to solve problems
Ability to analyze situations and determine appropriate actions
Technological familiarity
Local and Global Communications Skills
Cultural Awareness
Learning How to Learn
13.7 Courseware Development

Authorware (available in LH2)
HyperCard
13.8 The New Technology

"The further one pursues knowledge, the less one knows" Lao Tse

The Classroom of Tomorrow - Internet, multimedia

The Campus of Tomorrow - Project 2000 - UIUC's Tablet, Plato
Distance Learning
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in the home" Ken Olsen, 1977

EXERCISES (pg. 369): Due April 18, 1997: 5, 8, 9