Computers have become such a pervasive fact of modern life that it
comes as a surprise when we learn that 50 years ago the word, computer,
referred to a person, a person who computed numbers. During World War II,
as the technology of ballistics developed, there was an urgent need to calculate
enormously complex equations. ENIAC, the first practical digital computer,
was still, in its essentials, "a calculator designed to work out ballistic firing
tables" (Winston, 1986, p. 137).
For several decades, computers remained large, expensive, high speed
calculators. They cost several million dollars and occupied the space of an
average living room. But changes in technology allowed the miniaturization of
information storage on silicon chips, resulting in the first cheap, very powerful,
small computers. Subsequent advances in laser optical storage technologies
and computer networking brought about the creation of multimedia programs
and world wide communication networks, fundamentally changing the nature
of manufacturing, sales, transportation, and finance, as well as a wide range of
consumer products ranging from automobiles to toys for preschool children.
When relatively inexpensive microcomputers made their appearance
many psychologists interested in education and development grasped their
potential for increasing the effectiveness of school-based instruction. Over the
last two decades, there has been a phenomenal growth of computer use in
schools. At present more than 95% of American schools have computers for
instructional purposes, and there are many schools in which a large part of
instruction incorporates computers (Baker & O'Neil, 1994; Means et al.,
1993).
Charles Crook (1994), identifies three approaches to the design of
computer-based educational activities that correspond to three theoretical
approaches to development that we have discussed in this book. Each approach
is based upon a distinctive metaphor relating computers to the teaching
process.
The computer-as-tutor
The earliest use of computers in education, which remains the dominant
instructional application to this day, is based on the idea that the computer
directly teaches children by presenting them material to be learned, recording
their responses, and giving feedback. A prototype application of this kind of
instruction, often referred to as CAI (computer aided instructio) would be
teaching vocabulary in a foreign language or arithmetic problems or geography
facts. Items to be learned are presented one at a time. The child responds with
a translation or a calculation or a place name. The computer corrects mistakes.
In its simplist forms, this kind of CAI is little different than the drill and
practice workbooks that children have used for decades. Where it differs is in
the ability of the computer to keep track of individual children's exact
performance and to arrange to present materials according to information
processing models that optimize the tutorial process. In work by Patrick
Suppes (1988) for example, the program repeats items the child has forgotten
more often than those the child remembers, and even presents "reminders" to
make sure that all of the information is firmly retained in long term memory.
Such individualized instruction is impossible in a classroom with one teacher
and 30 students sitting at their desks, providing a major argument for the
application of computers to education.
The Computer-as-Pupil
While the computer-as-tutor fits well with environmental learning and
information processing approaches to development in educational contexts, the
learner has little opportunity to operate on their environment, except to
respond to what is given. Seymour Papert and his colleagues at MIT's Media
Laboratory (Papert, 1980; Harel & Paper, 1990) developed an approach to
computer-based education based on Piaget's theory that children must
construct their understandings through active exploration of their
environments.
To make this idea practicable, Papert designed a special microworld
where it is possible to do interesting things such as drawing intricate visual
patterns, or designing a exercises to learn fractions. Papert's microworld is
called Turtle Logo. Logo is a simplified computer language that controls the
actions of a symbol on the screen (the turtle). By learning to "teach the turtle"
to carry out their instructions, children acquire several ideas that are
fundamental not only to computer programing, but to mathematics and logic
more generally.
[Insert Figure of a Logo accomplishment]
The Computer-as-toolkit
A third group of psychologists emphasize the fact that whatever their
uniquiness, computers are tools that mediate the way people interact with the
world and each other. Although it is often said that the computer is a general
purpose tool because it can be programmed to serve a wide variety of human
goals, every use of the computer requires that it be tailored to the task at hand.
Over the past decade computers viewed in this way have been used as tools to
extend and enrich variety of educational activities. Teachers can take
advantage of editing capacities of word processing programs to foster critical
writing skills. Data bases have been used to teach science concepts and provide
intriguing materials that can serve as occasions for developing mathematical
skills.
Those who think in terms of the toolkit metaphor are particularly
sensitive to the role of context in determining the effectiveness of education
using computers. They often see the greatest potential of computers as a way
to reorganize interactions of children not only with the materials to be learned,
but with each other, the school as an institution, and the world at large.
Give exmaples
By combining word processing capabilities with computer networks that allow
children to interact across great distances, it has been possible to create writing
activities that children find genuinely exciting, motivating them to seek out
more opportunities to write (Levin et al., 1985). Computer networking has also
been combined with instruction in database management to involve children in
such engaging projects as monitoring the levels of acid in rain or the migration
of butterflies from their winter to their summer habitats (refs).
Psychologists who think in terms of the computer-as-toolkit emphasize
the point that while the toolkit as a whole may be a relatively general p