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Educational computing
Compur Edur Vol. I?. No. 4. pp. 553-554. 1988 Pergamon Press pk. Prlnred m Great Britain
BOOK
Educational Computing-Edited f7.95 (paperback).
by Eileen
REVIEW
Scanlon
and Tim O’Shea.
Wiley,
New York.
340~~.
Educational Computing is a collection of papers selected to form part of an Open University course of the same title. Both the book and the course are aimed principally at teachers and parents who wish to use computers for educational purposes. This review considers the book alone, and not in the context of the course which it supports. As is inevitable in any such collection of papers from different authors, originally written in different contexts (some as magazine articles, some as part of another book, some as academic papers, some commissioned for this collection), the chapters are of varying quality. Less inevitably, the whole lacks coherence. Some papers have been edited in such a way as to omit some of the base information which the reader has a right to expect to be given. A trivial example of this can be found in the paper by Self, where frequent references are made to a “top” without this term being defined. An educated guess might be that this is a “teacher-cum-programmer”, but the reader should not be expected to resort to guesswork. Maybe this is a way to encourage extensive background reading by Open University students? The papers are presented under four general headings. Each section has a short introduction which gives some shape to both the section and the whole text. The first section, A review of developments, contains three papers which look at the current (or recent) use of computers in education. While most aspects of this subject do not change particularly fast, some do; the reviewer found the inclusion of a paper about the Microelectronics Education Program in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, written in 1982 and therefore out of date, somewhat strange, even irritating. Five papers are presented under the heading Educational computing in practice. One of these looks at the thorny subject of how students learn and hence how the use of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) can be evaluated; it is a pity that the language used in this paper is so specialised and the density of references so great that it is almost impossible for the casual reader to assimilate. The potential value of simulation programs in primary education is explored through a discussion on the development of one such program. A short paper looks at the question of why more boys than girls get involved with computers and what might be done to overcome this imbalance: while the evidence of imbalance and some of the causes are quite clear, the solution is much less so. An entertaining, if slightly petulant, paper by Skinner argues the case for more programmed instruction. Neither he (a behaviourist) nor the cognitive psychologists he berates has a monopoly on the truth, but it is refreshing to have an unfashionable view argued so forcibly. The final paper in this section looks at who is in control during the development and use of a CAL program and who else exerts an influence (for example, commercial concerns) on the design; an account is given of experience gained during the development of one particular program, the working of which is still a mystery to the reviewer. Inevitably, a section on Educational software contains papers on LOGO. One of these describe the language and its use in a very positive way while the other looks more critically at evaluations of student’s learning with and without the use of LOGO. There is also a look at the use of PROLOG as a language for education, for example in the study of history. A tedious paper on a programming environment for non-programmers (based on SMALLTALK) and a refreshingly positive and realistic paper on the educational value of giving students access to a word-processor complete this section. It is a pity that programming languages feature so large in this section; the reader is left with the impression that this is all there is to educational software. The final section purports to look at The future of educational software, namely the application Introductory papers describe relevant work on artificial of artificial intelligence techniques. intelligence and expert systems. Two papers then consider the current position, in which mediocrity 553
554
Book
Review
(or worse) is the norm, and look at the influences governing the future development of programs for use in education. There is an enthusiastic paper, exuding unbridled optimism. looking at the wonderful things that might happen if the educationalists, technologists and people who control funding all had the same vision of the future of CAL as the author. There follows a proposal for the design of a flexible electronic encyclopedia, and a description is given of a simple prototype version which has already been developed to test out some of the ideas; this paper is a positive and hopeful report on work done and on future work planned. The final paper looks at the social and political reasons for introducing computers in the workplace and in schools, and on the effects that this has. It concludes: “In our everyday lives most of us either defer to computers or distrust them as another expression of capital; why not analyse them?” This is one thing that the reader of this collection will have been encouraged to do. In compiling this collection the editors have achieved a good mix of enthusiasm and highly critical questioning, and of practical and theoretical work in the field. Some of the papers are entertaining and easy to read but others are stodgy, some almost unreadable. Some are highly informative or thought-provoking, others less so. In the process of editing, some of the papers have lost their shape; the whole collection too is rather shapeless, bringing to mind more the haphazard mix of foods at a children’s tea-party than the well-planned presentation of courses at a dinner party. The food is there, and some of it tastes very good, but there are less appetising dishes too. 173 Cottonmill Lane St Albans Herts, AL I 2EX U.K.
A. E. BLANDFORD
BOOK
Educational Computing-Edited f7.95 (paperback).
by Eileen
REVIEW
Scanlon
and Tim O’Shea.
Wiley,
New York.
340~~.
Educational Computing is a collection of papers selected to form part of an Open University course of the same title. Both the book and the course are aimed principally at teachers and parents who wish to use computers for educational purposes. This review considers the book alone, and not in the context of the course which it supports. As is inevitable in any such collection of papers from different authors, originally written in different contexts (some as magazine articles, some as part of another book, some as academic papers, some commissioned for this collection), the chapters are of varying quality. Less inevitably, the whole lacks coherence. Some papers have been edited in such a way as to omit some of the base information which the reader has a right to expect to be given. A trivial example of this can be found in the paper by Self, where frequent references are made to a “top” without this term being defined. An educated guess might be that this is a “teacher-cum-programmer”, but the reader should not be expected to resort to guesswork. Maybe this is a way to encourage extensive background reading by Open University students? The papers are presented under four general headings. Each section has a short introduction which gives some shape to both the section and the whole text. The first section, A review of developments, contains three papers which look at the current (or recent) use of computers in education. While most aspects of this subject do not change particularly fast, some do; the reviewer found the inclusion of a paper about the Microelectronics Education Program in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, written in 1982 and therefore out of date, somewhat strange, even irritating. Five papers are presented under the heading Educational computing in practice. One of these looks at the thorny subject of how students learn and hence how the use of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) can be evaluated; it is a pity that the language used in this paper is so specialised and the density of references so great that it is almost impossible for the casual reader to assimilate. The potential value of simulation programs in primary education is explored through a discussion on the development of one such program. A short paper looks at the question of why more boys than girls get involved with computers and what might be done to overcome this imbalance: while the evidence of imbalance and some of the causes are quite clear, the solution is much less so. An entertaining, if slightly petulant, paper by Skinner argues the case for more programmed instruction. Neither he (a behaviourist) nor the cognitive psychologists he berates has a monopoly on the truth, but it is refreshing to have an unfashionable view argued so forcibly. The final paper in this section looks at who is in control during the development and use of a CAL program and who else exerts an influence (for example, commercial concerns) on the design; an account is given of experience gained during the development of one particular program, the working of which is still a mystery to the reviewer. Inevitably, a section on Educational software contains papers on LOGO. One of these describe the language and its use in a very positive way while the other looks more critically at evaluations of student’s learning with and without the use of LOGO. There is also a look at the use of PROLOG as a language for education, for example in the study of history. A tedious paper on a programming environment for non-programmers (based on SMALLTALK) and a refreshingly positive and realistic paper on the educational value of giving students access to a word-processor complete this section. It is a pity that programming languages feature so large in this section; the reader is left with the impression that this is all there is to educational software. The final section purports to look at The future of educational software, namely the application Introductory papers describe relevant work on artificial of artificial intelligence techniques. intelligence and expert systems. Two papers then consider the current position, in which mediocrity 553
554
Book
Review
(or worse) is the norm, and look at the influences governing the future development of programs for use in education. There is an enthusiastic paper, exuding unbridled optimism. looking at the wonderful things that might happen if the educationalists, technologists and people who control funding all had the same vision of the future of CAL as the author. There follows a proposal for the design of a flexible electronic encyclopedia, and a description is given of a simple prototype version which has already been developed to test out some of the ideas; this paper is a positive and hopeful report on work done and on future work planned. The final paper looks at the social and political reasons for introducing computers in the workplace and in schools, and on the effects that this has. It concludes: “In our everyday lives most of us either defer to computers or distrust them as another expression of capital; why not analyse them?” This is one thing that the reader of this collection will have been encouraged to do. In compiling this collection the editors have achieved a good mix of enthusiasm and highly critical questioning, and of practical and theoretical work in the field. Some of the papers are entertaining and easy to read but others are stodgy, some almost unreadable. Some are highly informative or thought-provoking, others less so. In the process of editing, some of the papers have lost their shape; the whole collection too is rather shapeless, bringing to mind more the haphazard mix of foods at a children’s tea-party than the well-planned presentation of courses at a dinner party. The food is there, and some of it tastes very good, but there are less appetising dishes too. 173 Cottonmill Lane St Albans Herts, AL I 2EX U.K.
A. E. BLANDFORD