The Future of the Microcomputer in Schools Macmillan Microcomputer Books General Editor: Ian Birnbaum (General Adviser (Microelectronics in Education) Education Department, Humberside County Council)) Advanced Graphics with the Acorn Electron Ian 0. Angell and Brian J. Jones Advanced Graphics with the BBC Model B Microcomputer Ian 0. Angell and Brian J. Jones Interfacing the BBC Microcomputer Brian Bannister and Michael Whitehead Assembly Language Programming for the Acorn Electron Ian Birnbaum Assembly Language Programming for the BBC Microcomputer (second edition) Ian Birnbaum Using Your Home Computer (Practical Projects for the Micro Owner) Garth W. P. Davies Microchild: Learning through LOGO Serafim Gascoigne The Purple Planet-Micro-PROLOG for the Spectrum 48K Serafim Gascoigne Turtle Fun-LOGO for the Spectrum 48K Serafim Gascoigne A Science Teacher's Companion to the BBC Microcomputer Philip Hawthorne Operating the BBC Microcomputer: A Concise Guide Graham Leah Sorting Routines for Microcomputers Angus Barber and Keith McKluckie Beginning BASIC with the ZX Spectrum Judith Miller Using Sound and Speech on the BBC Microcomputer Martin Phillips Beginner's Guide to Interfacing the BBC Microcomputer Martin Phillips The Complete Disc Manual for the BBC Microcomputer R. I. M. Sadek File Handling on the BBC Microcomputer Brian J. Townsend Good BASIC Programming on the BBC Microcomputer Margaret White Other books of related interest Advanced Graphics with the IBM Personal Computer Ian 0. Angell Advanced Graphics with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Ian 0. Angell and Brian J. Jones Micro-Maths Keith Devlin Beginning BASIC Peter Gosling Continuing BASIC Peter Gosling Practical BASIC Programming Peter Gosling Program Your Microcomputer in BASIC Peter Gosling More Real Applications for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum Randle Hurley The Commodore 64 in Action M. M. Novak Computer Literacy: A Beginners' Guide Vincent Walsh The Future of the Microcomputer in Schools Nick Evans M MACMILLAN EDUCATION © Nick Evans 1986 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1986 Published by MACMILLAN EDUCATION LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Publishing services by Ponting-Green, Basingstoke and London Photoset by Parker Typesetting Service, Leicester British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Evans, Nick The future of the microcomputer in schools. 1. Education-Data processing 2. Microcomputers I. Title 370' .28'5416 LB1028.43 ISBN 978-0-333-41761-4 ISBN 978-1-349-08750-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-08750-1 Acknowledgments Thanks to Paul Thompson for starting it all, Ian Birnbaum for pushing it forward and my wife and children for putting up with it for all these months. Figure 1 was generated using the AMX Pagemaker package and Figures 2-6 were generated using the AMX Mouse. The book was written using Wordwise Plus on a BBC B microcomputer and was typeset from the author's disks. Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 1 The Immediate Future of Hardware 5 2 The Future of Software 18 3 The Future for the Primary Teacher 33 4 The Future for the Secondary Teacher 48 5 Educational Viewpoint 63 6 Problem-solving and Group Work-an Aside 82 7 User versus Expert 96 8 The Role of Computer Studies 103 9 Logo-A Developing Aid to Understanding 112 10 Control, Robotics and Microelectronics 120 11 Communications and Networks 132 12 The Microcomputer in Administration and the Information Revolution 141 13 The Future-Some Conclusions 160 Appendix: Useful Addresses 180 Glossary 184 Bibliography 192 Index 193 Preface A look at possible future strategies in the light of present practice This book has come about as a result of six years' close contact with computers in education. During those years I have encountered a wide spectrum of software, a multiplicity of applications for the computer in the classroom, a huge amount of common sense. and an equal amount of cant. An attempt is made in these pages to synthesise all of this experience into a form which will be of use to the layman, to the classroom teacher and to the experienced computer user. The views expressed here are of course personal and do not represent any official line, despite my involvement with the Microelectronics Educa tion Programme. I expect some opinions here will raise eyebrows, others will be met with scorn, yet others will be seen as putting into words what has been implicit in classroom practice all along. The information contained in these pages is directed mainly at edu cators, but it is hoped that other interested parties such as computer hardware and software manufacturers, advisory and development organ isations and, indeed, interested parents, will find not only information but also food for thought about the curriculum debate that faces our schools in a rapidly changing society. The main emphasis is on the BBC microcomputer as it is used throughout the curriculum. Nonetheless, the general arguments apply to all makes of computer and the implications to be drawn have a bearing on decisions about any hardware which is chosen for the future. If this work helps to forward the use of the most powerful aid to teaching and learning since the invention of printing then I will feel that it has been worthwhile. Introduction The impact of new technology on the curriculum has not yet been appreciated in many quarters, not least in schools and colleges them selves. Consequently many pupils are moving through their school lives having little or no contact with the realities of the quickly changing tech nological environment that awaits them on leaving school. The role of the microcomputer in this situation is one that has been misrepresented, misunderstood and often misdirected, and this book aims first of all to put the microcomputer into its proper context within educa tion, secondly to consider the future with regard to many aspects of technology which have a bearing on school life, and finally to discuss the implications for all those involved in every aspect of education, from the classroom teacher up to the Secretary of State. The microcomputer has been with us a good while now, for good or for ill, and the many experiences through which teachers have gone have defined attitudes to the use of technology in the classroom. Whether these attitudes are positive or negative depends to a great extent on the value or otherwise of any experiences the teacher may have had. INSET courses, experimental teaching ventures, private study, observation of other staff's use of microcomputers, curriculum development groups and the like have all contributed to the general picture. Unfortunately, as has been the case with many such developments in the past, the 'too little too soon' syndrome overtook many adventurous souls who, having decided to experiment, were astounded by the poor quality of software available and often relegated the microcomputer to the cupboard along with the overhead projector and the language lab oratory. This sad state of affairs has come about largely for the same reasons as the demise of the language laboratory. The idea was excellent, but the equipment was unreliable and the software was merely a reflection of the ordinary teaching style of the person who wrote it. A colleague once remarked that the only people who should be involved in computers and their applications for education in the next 10 years are computer 'nuts' - the cognoscenti of the information technology environment - who would sort everything out before handing it, on a plate, to the waiting hordes of anxious and, presumably, grateful teachers. This rather extreme view is easily dismissed and yet, as with all 2 The Future of the Microcomputer in Schools such wild statements, there is a grain of truth there. The teachers who are able to cope with the problems of temperamental equipment are those who are most likely to have spent a good deal of time actually using it, whether at home for enjoyment, as part of research outside education or indeed, having weathered the storms of computer use in the classroom and come through relatively unscathed. These people know the workings of the microcomputer, the ins and outs and the tricks of the trade, and are seemingly able to rescue the most impossible situation by the deft manipulation of a few keys. If that is the style of person necessary to run the software now being produced then the software writer is going drastically wrong somewhere along the line. In the same way as the playwright should not be 'visible' through the medium of the play, and the musician should not distract attention from his music, so the computer should not be continually the centre of attention. The software used on the machine is the focal point and any interruption by the operation of the technology is necessarily a distraction and therefore unwelcome. Those individuals who were disappointed by the apparent inadequacy of their new-found teaching aid were unable to cope either with the idio syncracies of the equipment which, in the early days, promised a nerve wracking time for anyone daring to confront a class with a lesson based around a computer, or with the strategic problems involved in adapting one's teaching style to include the computer. This last is probably one of the most serious aspects of the whole discussion since it has to do, not just with the teacher and his or her response to the new medium, but with the very structure of the curriculum itself, the orientation towards an instructional rather than a heuristic approach, the emphasis on content rather than on skill and the overbearing requirements of examinations based on the acquired knowledge of vast amounts of content of dubious value. This area will be expanded further in the sections specific to primary and secondary education. To return however to the early problems of the microcomputer in the existing class set-up. In the first instance the refusal of the machine to load a piece of software-often from tape- or, having loaded it, to then run it, were nightmares which few people except the most resolute were willing to repeat. It is a brave teacher indeed who, having shown that he cannot control the computer, faces the same class next week for an action replay! Moreover, the peculiar ability of the machine instantaneously to lose every trace of the program at a single key-press was enough to persuade many that even if the microcomputer were to be in the classroom, it would be for the teacher's use only. In the second case, the software often failed to live up to expectations, either those generated by the advertising of its manufacturer or the enthusiastic claims made by other staff who had successfully employed it. One man's meat was definitely another man's poison and the problem was