COMPUTER-ASSISTED LEARNING IN ACTION

Abstract

What I have beenl asked to talk about today are some of the recent developmeiits in computer-assisted instruction (CAI). I shall not be talking about the scientific problems associated with devising effective pedagogical methods, but rather about applications that have been made of CAl. I want to emphasize at the outset that there are many scientific problems to be solved in this area and that considerable progress has already been made, but such topics are technical and not easily discussed in a general talk. Further, the chairman of our symposium has been explicit in his instructions to confine my remarks to computer-assisted learning in action. Before launching into a discussion of computer-assisted learniing, I should like to show you a film produced at Stan-ford University illustrating various aspects of CAI. Hopefully, this film will give you some acquaintance with the nature of computer-assisted learnling and make my later comments more meaningful. [The film which was shown at this point illustrated various forms of CAI under development at Stanford University. It gave special attention to a computerbased program in initial reading for children in grades 1 through 3 and presented several differenit types of student terminal devices and computer configurations in use at Stanford. For a review of research on CAl at Staniford University, the interested reader should consult the following references: Atkinson (1968), and Suppes, Jerman, and Brian (1968). The learning models and optimization methods that underline much of the research are discussed in Atkinson and Shiffrii (1968), Groenl and Atkinson (1966), Rogers (1967), and Wilson and Atkinson (1967). Detailed descriptions of the various CAI programs developed at Stanford a-n1d a bibliography of published research are available by writing to the Institute for M\/Iathematical Studies in the Social Sciences requesting copies of the quarterly reports entitled Progress Report: Stanford Program in Computer-Assiste(d Instruction. These reports provide descriptions of the major CAI programs in use at the Institute and include instruction in mathematics and reading for the primary grades; instruction in mathematics and language arts in grades 4 through 8; college-level courses in logic, algebra, and Russian; and CAI programis in computer source languages. ] In recent years there have been rapid, and in many cases quite sophisticated, developments in the area of computer-assisted instruction. A number of factors account for these developments. One factor, of course, has been the dramatic growth of computer techniology in. general. Also of major importance from a psychologist's viewpoitnt have been. the progress made in formulatinig viable psychological theories of the learniing process, anid their related impact on curriculum developmetnt. However, in imy opinion, the siingle most imlpoitanit factor in the developrnent of CAI is the poterntial that it offers for answering today's most )ressin1g nieed in education the inidividualizationi of iinstruction. Childreni enter school with remarkably differenit abilities and levels of knowledge. They work at different rates and with different degrees of accuracy and understanding. To ac-