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Computer education in Skövde
259
Computer Education in SkiSvde The Swedish Way
Ake LINBLOM Principal and responsible for computer education in Skgvde, Sweden
SkOvde has been visited by several persons and groups interested in computer e d u c a t i o n - - b o t h from Sweden and a b r o a d - - i n recent years. W h y have they come to a small town in the middle of Sweden? In this paper I will try to describe how we work and our ways of dealing with computer education. I will consider how to create possibilities for including computer education in primary and secondary schools in a small Swedish town, and present a special model for cooperation between school institutions and industrial l i f e - - t h e SkSvde Model.
Ake Linblom has been a teacher since 1960, graduating from senior level of compulsory school in 1967. He was Secretary of the Sk~3vde local authority e d u c a t i o n d e p a r t m e n t f r o m 1970-1976. He has been a headmaster since 1976, and responsible for computer education in Sk~Svde since 1982. He has been adviser for computer education at the county education department since 1985.
Starting ten years ago, computer education programmes have been gradually introduced in Swedish elementary schools, secondary schools and in adult education. In the spring of 1984, the Swedish Parliament decided to increase support for computer education, especially at the senior level of the nine-year compulsory schooling. According to the national curriculum, basic computer education (datalaera), often refered to as 'computer literacy', is a feature of social science, nature and mathematics subjects during the 3 senior years of the nine-year compulsory schooling. The large investment involved in introducing computer education concerns hardware and software plus the supplementary training of teachers. In an attempt to help the schools get started, the central municipal governments have jointly allocated 60 million SEK during a three-year period. These grants, representing half of the cost, are only paid if municipalities buy computer hardware and software which comply with requirements in a specification previously drawn up by the National Board of Education. Twenty two different computers have been admitted! The supplementary training of teachers for the senior level of compulsory school began in earnest in the 1982/83 school year. In the initial phase about 22000 teachers needed supplementary training, especially in senior level social science and mathematics. The date approximately 16000 of these have attended 2-5 weeks of basic training at some university. No computer education has been proposed by the central authorities for the lower and intermediate levels of compulsory school. Too many questions remain. When computer literacy was introduced in the nine-year compulsory school, knowledge gaps developed in upper secondary schools. Consequently computer literacy had to be put into the upper secondary school curriculum. Sk6vde
North-Holland Education & C o m p u t i n g 3 (1987) 259-263 0067-9287/87/$3.50 © 1987, IFIP
In 1982 Sk~vde's local board of education voted for a special administration for computers in
A. Linblom / Computer Education in Skgvde
260
school. Since then I have been responsible for computer education in SkSvde. A group--consisting of three local politicians and the director of education--was appointed. I was executive local government officer in this group.
purer education. There are about 1600 students who learn humanities, natural sciences, social studies, economics and engineering.
Hardware Conditions
in
1982
- A very interested director of education and a school board that understood that youngsters today need computer training. - A local government board which was prepared to put money into computer education. - A small group of teachers in upper secondary school who had started using computers in their teaching in 1970. - Programming training in Basic in the senior level of the compulsory school. What to do? - Arrange good, basic training courses for all teachers teaching computer literacy by: • using their own computers, and involving local teachers in the basic training courses; • supporting the 'newly-trained teachers' during their first lessons in computer training by more experienced colleagues; • lending computers to interested teachers during school holidays; • sending teachers of special subjects to advanced high school courses. - Gradually arrange post experience courses for special groups of teachers. - A r r a n g e courses in computer training for principals, for clerical assistants and politicians. (SkSvde local authorities have, since 1983, paid 1.7 million SEK in computer training for teachers.) Increase the common interest in computer education by: • newspaper articles about computer activities, • giving teachers opportunities to visit big, international computer exhibitions and congresses (e.g. in Munich). Sell computer training courses. - Make the school administration use computers. Present
- Prime 9950, a minicomputer • with the possibility of connecting about 120 terminals, • with main storage of 10 Mb and secondary storage of 1 Gb, • 8 terminals are CAD work-stations, with both graphical and alphanumerical terminals, located in the CAD centre. -A local net called C A T / N e t (40 Mb Winchester) with 32 Luxor ABC 806-machines. - 2 separate Victor AT labs: • one with 8 machines for CAD education, • the other one with 7 machines for economic education. - 40 single microcomputers.
Software
The programs used in education are the ones used in trade and industry. We think students must develop 'know-how' in this field. Students also work with 'tool-programs', that is, for example, word processing programs used in Swedish and other subjects, and spreadsheets used in
/~lO, 0 0 0
f S"o-ooo
Status
The u p p e r secondary s c h o o l - - V ~ , S T E R H O J D S K O L A N - - i s the backbone of our c o m -
F i g u r e 1.
A. Linblom / Computer Education in Skgvde
mathematics and physics. We also have statistics programs (i.e. Minitab from Pennsylvania State University). Mimer, Knowledge-men and Info are examples of software from the fourth generation programming languages. We also use Fortran, Pascal, C and Prolog. In the CAD centre with the 8 minicomputerworkstations Medusa is the programming language. It is very powerful and works with 3D generating software. We use AutoCad in the Victor lab.
261
EL~_U ~E~uCA-noN! ADM.
IALUiAL~NC~S I!
"
"
¢7 ,/
....
I
,
} ;
g
I
Figure 2. Experts and Teachers
As stated earlier, there was a group of about ten teachers who started computer education at V~istehSjdskolan. Thanks to the teacher training program there are now almost 100 teachers using computers in their teaching. Figure 1 gives a picture of the development of the extent of computer use at V~isterhSjdskolan during the period of 1970-1985. Some important factors have obviously speeded up the use of computers. These are: (1) Training, computer-maturity in teachers. (2) Access to high-quality, function computers. (3) Access to useful, functioning software. Some of the teachers have, through studies, but above all through their teaching, attained a lot of knowledge of computer training in schools. Three of them are used as experts by the Software Group in the Ministry of Education.
The Sk6vde M o d e l The so-called SkSvde Model (see Figure 2), which involves a wide and close co-operation between educational institutions and industrial life, demands an efficient utilization and a continuously on-going development of three basic resources: that is to say: - suitable localities, - well educated and trained staff, - technical equipment kept up to date. The 'SkOvde Model' gives considerable economical advantages, both to schools and companies. The school gets further income and the companies get cheaper courses. Of course, the outcome will be the same if necessary basic resources
are governed by a larger company in the same region. Who then cares for the small and middlesized companies and the pupils at college? The 'SkOvde Model' means that the educational institutions: - g i v e qualified basic education in youth school, - give valuable and necessary further education (up-grading) of already graduated personnel, - o f f e r technical resources and technical 'know-how' to small and very small companies. It is our firm belief that the model by which we are working, i.e. the 'SkOvde Model', is a very good way of realizing this. As a summary I can mention that in 1986 was sold 'high-tec' courses and basic knowledge computer education to organizations and companies for 2 million SEK. T h e U p p e r L e v e l o f the C o m p u l s o r y S c h o o l
There are five schools in SkSvde with pupils aged 13-15. All these schools have one computer laboratory each for computer literacy education. The students will have about 80 lessons during the three years. Five important parts are included: (1) Ability to use computers - handling data-bases and data quantities, word processing programs, - problem solving in mathematics--calculating, - data communication, i.e. electronic post, - measuring-, steering- and process-control. (2) The technological advances in society. (3) Automatic data processing. (4) The computerising of society--some developing lines.
262
A. Linblom / Computer Education in Sk6vde
(5) Influence of the use of computers. Three of the schools have Luxor ABC 800 machines. One has JET 8 0 - - a n o t h e r Swedish computer. M y own school has Macintosh. Up until now teachers in science and mathematics have been the ones who have taught computer literacy. M a n y interested teachers of Swedish, foreign languages and social studies have now started using computers in their teaching. Small projects in using data-bases (Videotext) have been introduced. There is a group working to build up a data-base about T c h a d - - ' o u r ' developing country.
T h e J u n i o r a n d t h e I n t e r m e d i a t e L e v e l s of C o m pulsory School
The authorities want to know more about the effects on children using computers before they recommended general use of machines at these ages. There are experimental activities in some places. One of these is Sk/3vde, where we started in spring 1984. Why did we start training young children to use computers? - The interface between h u m a n and machine is very important and we are convinced it is too late to start this teaching at the senior level. - This is the most important part of computer literacy. - The use of computers at these ages is so natural and without any anxiety (no hand perspiration)! - We want to know what happens in the classroom when the children start using computers. -We want to investigate some pedagogical and methodical issues about computerising these levels. - Children find it easier to learn to work with computers at these ages than later in life. We thought that: - there ought to be one or two computers in each classroom; - the children would soon use the computer as easily as other facilities; - it would be an advantage if the children, when using computers, 'learned b y discovery'. There are about 35 teachers who are working in 50 classes in 13 schools with computers (Commodore VIC64). At the junior level we use Logo
(Turtle graphics) and some home-made programs in mathematics and writing. We have also made a program that trains the children to see what time it i s - - w h e t h e r they have digital or analogue watches. We plan to buy Macintosh computers for the intermediate level of the compulsory school. We want to make it possible for the children at this level to start using the computer as a tool. We have chosen the Macintosh computer because it is very easy to handle. As we have used computers in the lower levels of the compulsory school for about three years we have got some experience. Some universities in Sweden want to co-operate with us. The department of education at the Gothenburg University is co-operating with us in three projects: - a follow-up study in a class which has started using Logo in the first class, - p r a c t i c a l use of small mathematical programs built on a didactical basis, - graphics in computer-assisted education. We are also working with Uppsala University on a project using a program, Prologo, written in Prolog, in two classes with children aged 10. The aim of the program is to give the children programming competence in Prolog. Together with Stockholm College of Education we are going to try using computers to assist in the acquisition of reading skills in beginner classes, and in music. The Educational Software G r o u p in the Ministry of Education pays for two of our projects - - t h e Prologo one, and a project where we let students aged 12 write literature reviews with the help of word processing programs. The B o o k / N e t project, initiated by Peter Anderson, Vermont USA, involves 15 schools in 10 countries. One of these schools is the Sventorp school in Sk/fvde. The schools exchange student produced ' books'. Kontiolahti in Finland, Trondheim in Norway, Aalborg in D e n m a r k and SkOvde in Sweden take part in a project whose purpose is to make it easier to introduce computers in education.
U s e o f C o m p u t e r s in the A d m i n i s t r a t i o n
The local education office, the upper secondary schools, and the 5 schools with the upper level of
A. Linblom / Computer Education in Sk6vde
compulsory school, use computers in their administration. The users are connected through telephone-modems. Two teachers at V~isterhiSjdskolan have developed the program for this on the minicomputer. It is possible to administrate teachers, students, classes, groups and school transport with the help of the program. The school clerks also use word processing programs, programs for financial control, and ordering of educational materials etc.
The Future
As you can see we have fulfilled our expectations from 1982. This is only a start as computer
263
science develops all the time and we want to keep up with it. My main occupation at the moment is to get a Educational Computing Resource Centre in Sk~Svde. There are already four such centres sponsored by the Ministry of Education in Sweden (G~ivle, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Link/Sping). I think we will have the fifth one in Sk/Svde.
Computer Education in SkiSvde The Swedish Way
Ake LINBLOM Principal and responsible for computer education in Skgvde, Sweden
SkOvde has been visited by several persons and groups interested in computer e d u c a t i o n - - b o t h from Sweden and a b r o a d - - i n recent years. W h y have they come to a small town in the middle of Sweden? In this paper I will try to describe how we work and our ways of dealing with computer education. I will consider how to create possibilities for including computer education in primary and secondary schools in a small Swedish town, and present a special model for cooperation between school institutions and industrial l i f e - - t h e SkSvde Model.
Ake Linblom has been a teacher since 1960, graduating from senior level of compulsory school in 1967. He was Secretary of the Sk~3vde local authority e d u c a t i o n d e p a r t m e n t f r o m 1970-1976. He has been a headmaster since 1976, and responsible for computer education in Sk~Svde since 1982. He has been adviser for computer education at the county education department since 1985.
Starting ten years ago, computer education programmes have been gradually introduced in Swedish elementary schools, secondary schools and in adult education. In the spring of 1984, the Swedish Parliament decided to increase support for computer education, especially at the senior level of the nine-year compulsory schooling. According to the national curriculum, basic computer education (datalaera), often refered to as 'computer literacy', is a feature of social science, nature and mathematics subjects during the 3 senior years of the nine-year compulsory schooling. The large investment involved in introducing computer education concerns hardware and software plus the supplementary training of teachers. In an attempt to help the schools get started, the central municipal governments have jointly allocated 60 million SEK during a three-year period. These grants, representing half of the cost, are only paid if municipalities buy computer hardware and software which comply with requirements in a specification previously drawn up by the National Board of Education. Twenty two different computers have been admitted! The supplementary training of teachers for the senior level of compulsory school began in earnest in the 1982/83 school year. In the initial phase about 22000 teachers needed supplementary training, especially in senior level social science and mathematics. The date approximately 16000 of these have attended 2-5 weeks of basic training at some university. No computer education has been proposed by the central authorities for the lower and intermediate levels of compulsory school. Too many questions remain. When computer literacy was introduced in the nine-year compulsory school, knowledge gaps developed in upper secondary schools. Consequently computer literacy had to be put into the upper secondary school curriculum. Sk6vde
North-Holland Education & C o m p u t i n g 3 (1987) 259-263 0067-9287/87/$3.50 © 1987, IFIP
In 1982 Sk~vde's local board of education voted for a special administration for computers in
A. Linblom / Computer Education in Skgvde
260
school. Since then I have been responsible for computer education in SkSvde. A group--consisting of three local politicians and the director of education--was appointed. I was executive local government officer in this group.
purer education. There are about 1600 students who learn humanities, natural sciences, social studies, economics and engineering.
Hardware Conditions
in
1982
- A very interested director of education and a school board that understood that youngsters today need computer training. - A local government board which was prepared to put money into computer education. - A small group of teachers in upper secondary school who had started using computers in their teaching in 1970. - Programming training in Basic in the senior level of the compulsory school. What to do? - Arrange good, basic training courses for all teachers teaching computer literacy by: • using their own computers, and involving local teachers in the basic training courses; • supporting the 'newly-trained teachers' during their first lessons in computer training by more experienced colleagues; • lending computers to interested teachers during school holidays; • sending teachers of special subjects to advanced high school courses. - Gradually arrange post experience courses for special groups of teachers. - A r r a n g e courses in computer training for principals, for clerical assistants and politicians. (SkSvde local authorities have, since 1983, paid 1.7 million SEK in computer training for teachers.) Increase the common interest in computer education by: • newspaper articles about computer activities, • giving teachers opportunities to visit big, international computer exhibitions and congresses (e.g. in Munich). Sell computer training courses. - Make the school administration use computers. Present
- Prime 9950, a minicomputer • with the possibility of connecting about 120 terminals, • with main storage of 10 Mb and secondary storage of 1 Gb, • 8 terminals are CAD work-stations, with both graphical and alphanumerical terminals, located in the CAD centre. -A local net called C A T / N e t (40 Mb Winchester) with 32 Luxor ABC 806-machines. - 2 separate Victor AT labs: • one with 8 machines for CAD education, • the other one with 7 machines for economic education. - 40 single microcomputers.
Software
The programs used in education are the ones used in trade and industry. We think students must develop 'know-how' in this field. Students also work with 'tool-programs', that is, for example, word processing programs used in Swedish and other subjects, and spreadsheets used in
/~lO, 0 0 0
f S"o-ooo
Status
The u p p e r secondary s c h o o l - - V ~ , S T E R H O J D S K O L A N - - i s the backbone of our c o m -
F i g u r e 1.
A. Linblom / Computer Education in Skgvde
mathematics and physics. We also have statistics programs (i.e. Minitab from Pennsylvania State University). Mimer, Knowledge-men and Info are examples of software from the fourth generation programming languages. We also use Fortran, Pascal, C and Prolog. In the CAD centre with the 8 minicomputerworkstations Medusa is the programming language. It is very powerful and works with 3D generating software. We use AutoCad in the Victor lab.
261
EL~_U ~E~uCA-noN! ADM.
IALUiAL~NC~S I!
"
"
¢7 ,/
....
I
,
} ;
g
I
Figure 2. Experts and Teachers
As stated earlier, there was a group of about ten teachers who started computer education at V~istehSjdskolan. Thanks to the teacher training program there are now almost 100 teachers using computers in their teaching. Figure 1 gives a picture of the development of the extent of computer use at V~isterhSjdskolan during the period of 1970-1985. Some important factors have obviously speeded up the use of computers. These are: (1) Training, computer-maturity in teachers. (2) Access to high-quality, function computers. (3) Access to useful, functioning software. Some of the teachers have, through studies, but above all through their teaching, attained a lot of knowledge of computer training in schools. Three of them are used as experts by the Software Group in the Ministry of Education.
The Sk6vde M o d e l The so-called SkSvde Model (see Figure 2), which involves a wide and close co-operation between educational institutions and industrial life, demands an efficient utilization and a continuously on-going development of three basic resources: that is to say: - suitable localities, - well educated and trained staff, - technical equipment kept up to date. The 'SkOvde Model' gives considerable economical advantages, both to schools and companies. The school gets further income and the companies get cheaper courses. Of course, the outcome will be the same if necessary basic resources
are governed by a larger company in the same region. Who then cares for the small and middlesized companies and the pupils at college? The 'SkOvde Model' means that the educational institutions: - g i v e qualified basic education in youth school, - give valuable and necessary further education (up-grading) of already graduated personnel, - o f f e r technical resources and technical 'know-how' to small and very small companies. It is our firm belief that the model by which we are working, i.e. the 'SkOvde Model', is a very good way of realizing this. As a summary I can mention that in 1986 was sold 'high-tec' courses and basic knowledge computer education to organizations and companies for 2 million SEK. T h e U p p e r L e v e l o f the C o m p u l s o r y S c h o o l
There are five schools in SkSvde with pupils aged 13-15. All these schools have one computer laboratory each for computer literacy education. The students will have about 80 lessons during the three years. Five important parts are included: (1) Ability to use computers - handling data-bases and data quantities, word processing programs, - problem solving in mathematics--calculating, - data communication, i.e. electronic post, - measuring-, steering- and process-control. (2) The technological advances in society. (3) Automatic data processing. (4) The computerising of society--some developing lines.
262
A. Linblom / Computer Education in Sk6vde
(5) Influence of the use of computers. Three of the schools have Luxor ABC 800 machines. One has JET 8 0 - - a n o t h e r Swedish computer. M y own school has Macintosh. Up until now teachers in science and mathematics have been the ones who have taught computer literacy. M a n y interested teachers of Swedish, foreign languages and social studies have now started using computers in their teaching. Small projects in using data-bases (Videotext) have been introduced. There is a group working to build up a data-base about T c h a d - - ' o u r ' developing country.
T h e J u n i o r a n d t h e I n t e r m e d i a t e L e v e l s of C o m pulsory School
The authorities want to know more about the effects on children using computers before they recommended general use of machines at these ages. There are experimental activities in some places. One of these is Sk/3vde, where we started in spring 1984. Why did we start training young children to use computers? - The interface between h u m a n and machine is very important and we are convinced it is too late to start this teaching at the senior level. - This is the most important part of computer literacy. - The use of computers at these ages is so natural and without any anxiety (no hand perspiration)! - We want to know what happens in the classroom when the children start using computers. -We want to investigate some pedagogical and methodical issues about computerising these levels. - Children find it easier to learn to work with computers at these ages than later in life. We thought that: - there ought to be one or two computers in each classroom; - the children would soon use the computer as easily as other facilities; - it would be an advantage if the children, when using computers, 'learned b y discovery'. There are about 35 teachers who are working in 50 classes in 13 schools with computers (Commodore VIC64). At the junior level we use Logo
(Turtle graphics) and some home-made programs in mathematics and writing. We have also made a program that trains the children to see what time it i s - - w h e t h e r they have digital or analogue watches. We plan to buy Macintosh computers for the intermediate level of the compulsory school. We want to make it possible for the children at this level to start using the computer as a tool. We have chosen the Macintosh computer because it is very easy to handle. As we have used computers in the lower levels of the compulsory school for about three years we have got some experience. Some universities in Sweden want to co-operate with us. The department of education at the Gothenburg University is co-operating with us in three projects: - a follow-up study in a class which has started using Logo in the first class, - p r a c t i c a l use of small mathematical programs built on a didactical basis, - graphics in computer-assisted education. We are also working with Uppsala University on a project using a program, Prologo, written in Prolog, in two classes with children aged 10. The aim of the program is to give the children programming competence in Prolog. Together with Stockholm College of Education we are going to try using computers to assist in the acquisition of reading skills in beginner classes, and in music. The Educational Software G r o u p in the Ministry of Education pays for two of our projects - - t h e Prologo one, and a project where we let students aged 12 write literature reviews with the help of word processing programs. The B o o k / N e t project, initiated by Peter Anderson, Vermont USA, involves 15 schools in 10 countries. One of these schools is the Sventorp school in Sk/fvde. The schools exchange student produced ' books'. Kontiolahti in Finland, Trondheim in Norway, Aalborg in D e n m a r k and SkOvde in Sweden take part in a project whose purpose is to make it easier to introduce computers in education.
U s e o f C o m p u t e r s in the A d m i n i s t r a t i o n
The local education office, the upper secondary schools, and the 5 schools with the upper level of
A. Linblom / Computer Education in Sk6vde
compulsory school, use computers in their administration. The users are connected through telephone-modems. Two teachers at V~isterhiSjdskolan have developed the program for this on the minicomputer. It is possible to administrate teachers, students, classes, groups and school transport with the help of the program. The school clerks also use word processing programs, programs for financial control, and ordering of educational materials etc.
The Future
As you can see we have fulfilled our expectations from 1982. This is only a start as computer
263
science develops all the time and we want to keep up with it. My main occupation at the moment is to get a Educational Computing Resource Centre in Sk~Svde. There are already four such centres sponsored by the Ministry of Education in Sweden (G~ivle, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Link/Sping). I think we will have the fifth one in Sk/Svde.