| Australian Journal of Educational Technology 1985, 1(1), 2-11. |
AJET 1 |
Elaine Ray, B.Sc. (Hons) Dip.Ed.
BIS-Shrapnel Pty. Ltd.
How will this affect children?
Will the Federal and State government departments meet the challenges of the electronics age, or will teachers and teacher training institutions leave it to the computer industry to develop, produce and market the myriad electronic teaching devices that will flood the market in the 1980s?
Microprocessors already impinge daily on the lives of most Australians. They control an ever increasing range of both products and services, from our watches and calculators to our routine banking transactions. More and more they are becoming so important both directly and indirectly, in our lives that we cannot help but become aware as they rampage through the later part of the 20th century with their far-reaching social and economics implications. It is the responsibility of all educators and policy makers to prepare students with a sound body of skills and understanding of computers and computer literacy in order that they will be able to fit into an increasingly technological workforce.
Everybody has heard of the silicon chip, the media is often full of sensational claims concerning chips and how they will transform our lives - for better or for worse. The potential of the chip and the microelectronics revolution is enormous - we cannot afford to ignore it or sweep it under the carpet in the hope that it will go away. We must come to terms with and understand chips - their capabilities and their limitations - are they good or bad - will they provide a panacea for the ills of the world, take the drudgery out of production and domestic chores or just cause massive unemployment? It is already the eleventh year of the Age of Information (as this new technological era has been termed), and within the next eleven we are likely to witness drastic changes in the economic and social structure of western civilization as we now know it. The chip will affect everybody: at home, at work, in education, medicine, communications, crime, defence and security. Within this time approximately half of today's jobs will change drastically, or disappear altogether to be replaced by the new technology; robots are already taking over assembly line jobs from blue collar workers. microelectronic devices are transforming white collar employment. The chip will usher in the miracles and miseries of the Age of Information.
In the same manner as the Enclosures Acts were a catalyst in forcing people from an agrarian to an industrial based workforce, so will the technological revolution force more and more people to seek employment directly related to the new technology. People are concerned as to which jobs will disappear, to what extent will they be able to seek re-employment in newly emerging positions, will they have the necessary education and skills, will they be able to enjoy the promised new found leisure time - confident that they have economic security to do so?
Computers are here to stay, they have arrived virtually through the back doors of industry and commerce, their technology must be harnessed to prepare students to live and interact in the Age of Information.
The evolution of computer technology has been just another tool to provide mankind with an extension of thought patterns and solutions to problems. The electronics industry evolved from the first valve to the first transistor in a period of 50 years. Phenomenal expansion followed the introduction of transistors in 1948. Integrated circuits, combinations of transistors and semi conductors (substances such as silicon and germanium) developed during the late 1950s, reduced size, cost and electrical drain on the huge mainframe computers that were first produced during the 1940s and 1950s. The flow of electricity could be controlled much more accurately and computing power became economically viable. In 1940 it was estimated that the number of applications for computers would total 100 installations world-wide, be operated by a small number of highly trained technocrats, and be used exclusively by governments. Today, nobody would be brave enough to estimate either numbers of computers required, people to operate them, or the applications to which they might be put. The potential of the silicon chip is almost beyond comprehension and already we are being catapulted into an Orwellian world where fact is now stranger than fiction.
1960 oneThese figures, while not only impressive in size and performance, were accompanied by a decrease in cost and an increase in computing power - the beginning of the microelectronic revolution. In terms of relating these figures to something that we are all familiar with it is worth considering two products that we take very much for granted today - an electronic calculator and a digital watch. In the early 1970s both these products cost in the order of $2,000 and were thus available to a very small portion of the population. In the past years and despite inflation, it is now possible for everybody to buy them for about $10 and dispose of them when they break down. The microelectronics revolution in terms that we can all comprehend, but how many of us comprehend that exactly the same thing is happening in the computer industry.
1970 one thousand
1980 one million
Technological change has always been creating and eliminating jobs but, for the very first time, machines can now compete with humans for jobs that are dependent on intelligence.
Today, microelectronics does not rival the human brain but this is not necessary before it starts replacing people. While many jobs, especially production and assembly jobs, make little use of human intelligence, technological advances have heralded the introduction of microelectronically controlled robots that can be programmed to perform specific repetitious tasks. Robots coming off production lines in Japan today can even see and hear to a limited extent and the Japanese NEC Corporation has already began to advertise a secretary robot which can get people on the telephone and perform routine secretarial functions. Japan leads the world in the manufacture and use of industrial robots with more than half the world's total installed in Japanese factories. This total is something in the order of 50,000 robots of all kinds working in factories in 1980, compared with 6,000 installed in West Germany and 4,000 in the U.S.A. (Industrial Robot Association of Japan, 1980). It is also interesting to note that Japan and West Germany lead the world with the introduction of computer literacy in education and have a complex system of technological and associated education.
To industry that is besieged by inflation, the necessity of increasing production, lack of skilled workers and growing union demands, robots provide a very attractive alternative to humans. Not only do they stay on the job, they require no tea breaks, or holiday pay; they will work in almost any conditions and don't suffer from hangovers, or organise into unions. Once the initial capital outlay has been made they require very little service or maintenance. One robot may replace 10 people on a production line, but it may only take one service engineer to keep it functional. Robots are already occupying a growing place in the assembly of automobiles, and in Japan robots are being used to assemble other robots. As robots are integrated into assembly lines on a large scale their impact on the blue collar workforce will be far reaching. This is likely to be more pronounced in western countries where there has been a tradition of suspicion to automation and the introduction of automation is usually traded off with the unions being given some sort of sweetheart agreement to soften the blow. This is in direct contrast to Japan where workers in the biggest companies are often lifelong employees and feel very close ties to their company and its profit structure. There robots are welcomed not as a job threat but as a 'fellow worker' which will help improve productivity.
Given that up to 25% of today's workforce has assembly line jobs, 90% of these jobs could be eliminated over the next 20 years. The social and political implications of such changes could well change western democracies. Unions are unlikely to stand back and let this go unchallenged. Questions of law and order arise - will workers turn on this new technology and smash equipment in the manner as they turned on the French inventor Joseph Hacquard when he invented the Jacquard Loom in 1801? On the positive side, microelectronics could feasibly eliminate up to half the labour costs involved in the manufacture of consumer durables and provided the blue collar workforce was suitably educated, it could find new avenues of employment as industry changes to meet growing demands, e.g. instructional and software designers, television and video industries, defence, etc.
The white collar workforce is likely to feel the threat of technology in their employment much earlier than their blue collar counterparts. Computers, terminals, communication devices and printers are familiar in almost every office, streamlining routine operations and increasing productivity. To date the white collar has little to fear of office automation - fear and worship often go hand in hand in a love/hate relationship with computer technology Everyone is content when a million invoices are produced and posted on time but imagine the drama if every one of these invoices was incorrect due to a slight programming error! It is a matter of expediency for management to sack the programmer and blame the computer. Society has already been conditioned to accept the faults and failings of computers without even questioning why or how. Very few comprehend that a computer does not have an 'ego' or a brain, it is just a machine that relies on human input in the form of a program to instruct it in a very rigid sequential logic.
As the development and application of microprocessor technology shows no sign of slowing down, we are already feeling the effects in work, the home, and the school. On the domestic level we expect more and more labour saving appliances to invade our lives and titillate our expectations. In the school arena this invasion is seen to be more ominous and threatening. The huge number of unemployed youth must in itself bear witness to the changing technology and government inability to cope with it.
It is estimated that as many as 90% of students will pass out of high schools in Australia at the end of 1982 without ever having seen a microcomputer in a meaningful context, let alone had the experience of understanding how it works or 'hands on' control. Just how the schools are endeavouring to meet the challenges of the 1980s appears to be very nebulous to say the least, and one could almost assume that the changes, slow as they are, are occurring almost despite the obvious limitations of the present education system and a lack of funding.
Teachers have a clear responsibility towards their students. However, teachers en masse, are very much more concerned with the immediate question of how computer technology will affect their status; and will in due course, the students sit in their own homes with their terminals, learning at their own pace and thus superseding schools and teachers altogether.
Irresponsible speculation of this nature can only help but keep education in computer literacy out of schools and ignore a rapidly changing world. Properly used, the microcomputer has the potential to become a very powerful administrative and teaching aid, capable of enhancing the education experience of all students in a range of subjects from the very obvious mathematics/science usage through to art, music and host of other disciplines. Computers will never replace teachers in the classroom, only provide yet another means of educating young people to fit into the Age of Information with confidence and knowledge.
Thousands of children, leaving school this year, still live in a world where almost every aspect of their home and working lives, will involve some form of computerisation. Yet, almost none of these school-leavers will have learned about computers and their operation, let alone have had a sound training in computer program design. Even less comprehensibly, in an age where classroom research and programs have made basic literacy and numeracy available to even severely retarded children, thousands of bright school-leavers lack the adequate skills in reading, writing, spelling and numeracy required to deal with our present complex society. Yet, dealing effectively with computers, will require even more advanced and reasoning skills.
Computers and education are not, of course, a novel marriage. But their role has primarily been one of computer assisted instruction (CAI) or computer managed instruction (CMI). In assisted instruction, students are taught by the computer. It presents material, allows practice, tests the students' learning, and gives their results. If necessary, it follows up with further repetition of material where errors were made, and further opportunities for practice. In computer managed instruction the massive amount of information that can accumulate about students can be organised onto computer for easy recall; test data cannot only be quantified but analysed for the type of diagnostic detail and resultant programming requirements that overworked school counsellors find difficult to do; evaluation of the teacher's instruction and the students' progress is handled by the computer. But neither two approaches puts the student in control; he has scarcely to know how the computer operates (as opposed to knowing which button to push) let alone have any mastery of programming principles.
A thorough examination of the Direct Instruction model across a number of research studies and programs of instruction elicited four key variables. These variables, structure of teacher presentation, programming of the content area (i.e. microcomputing design), teacher supervision and the format of written materials were experimentally manipulated. The design of the four methods of instruction ranged from high to low structure on the key variables.
A post test was administered to all children. Analysis of variance revealed that there were no significant differences between methods across schools. However, there were significant differences between schools on both individual items and the total number of items correct. The differences between schools indicated that children attending independent schools achieved higher post test scores than those attending the government schools.
Discriminant analyses were undertaken to examine the interaction between school type (i.e. independent or government) and the four methods. The results revealed that when the high structured Direct Instruction model was implemented across schools there were no significant differences. Hence irrespective of whether schools were independent or government, the high structured method was the most successful. In addition, on the least structured method, independent schools performed significantly higher than government schools.
A further study teaching microcomputing design skills using the high structure of Direct Instruction was conducted at a residential institution with the mentally retarded. Field studies using Direct Instruction programs have shown that developmentally disabled children can inductively learn basic intellectual behaviours, acquire competencies in basic numeracy and literacy and exhibit the acquisition of cognitive processes by generalising the concepts learned to tests of general cognitive functioning (Gersten & Maggs, in press). The purpose of this study was to examine whether the subjects could generalise the concepts learned in the microcomputing design area. After fifteen weeks of instruction, the results revealed that these skills were well within reach of the adolescents who participated in this research study (Berryman & Maggs, 1982).
We know there are critical direct instruction components of instructional design. These need more than a simplistic explanation but, briefly, include:
Computers should be used as adjuncts, as another instructional technique. It has never been suggested (despite teachers' fears) that teachers just abandon children to equipment - this is why it is so important to have professionally qualified teachers involved in developing instructional methodology and software; to ensure that the computer is appropriately used and integrated into a total education program.
Some of the research issues that need to be investigated in the area of microcomputers and education are:
However, despite the problems of tradition, lack of knowledge, suspicion, resistance, and real lack of funding a growing number of microcomputers are finding their way into Australian schools, both at the primary and secondary levels. This number is expected to rapidly increase over the next two years - probably to the stage where the small portable microcomputer is as numerous as the overhead projector or the ubiquitous Fordigraph duplicating machine. Growing awareness of educators coupled with an effective cost reduction in microcomputer hardware will put these educational devices within the reach of most schools - probably through parent action and financial backing. Parents are constantly concerned with the quality of education that their children are receiving and the relevancy of education to equip them for employment. Due to parents placing top priority on computer literacy, it has often been the lot of parent-teacher associations to raise the necessary funds required to place microcomputers in the various schools.
All these changes will come about almost despite government and the system. In Australia, where there is no central co-ordinated pattern or policy governing direction, implementation or enhancement of education on a national scale, huge problems exist. The Federal government has traditionally left all matters of syllabus development, teacher training, and immediate funding of educational establishments to the individual states. This policy (or lack of) is fraught with pitfalls - how can the government commission the Myers Report and pay lip service to its far reaching findings and yet not even consider (to date) a concerted effort to bring about computer literacy to every Australian child from age five onwards?
The government must prepare to become totally committed, both in terms of policy and more importantly funding, to providing a viable future to young Australians. Computers are here to stay and already they are causing waves and rocking the traditional structures of society. Computer technology must be harnessed to prepare students to live and interact with technology. Computer literacy should become as important in school curriculum as the traditional reading, writing and arithmetic.
Computers have been used for over a decade by Universities and Colleges of Advanced and Technical Education in the specific disciplines of computer science, data processing, mathematics and physics. With the tremendous changes in technology and the introduction of commercially available low-cost microcomputers in the late 1970s computers in education are no longer a source of speculation, science fiction, or wonderment. They are here, available, ready for use and it is up to the relevant authorities to be aware and implement their integration into school curriculum as rapidly as possible, from infants level to high school and beyond.
As a medium for expressing, manipulating and communicating ideas, the computer could equal the power and impact of the printing press.
Cross, M., Hermann, G., Maggs, A. & Maggs, R. (1982). Microcomputing skills: A direct instruction approach. Unpublished Manuscript, Macquarie University.
Gelder, A. & Maggs, A. (1982). Academic engaged time, learning gains and direct instruction in microcomputing program design skill development. Unpublished Manuscript, Macquarie University.
Gersten, R. & Maggs, A. Teaching the General Case to Moderately and Severely Retarded Children: A Five Year Study. Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities. (in press)
| Please cite as: Maggs, A. and Ray, E. (1985). Microcomputers and education. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 1(1), 2-11. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet1/maggs.html |