Computer Aided Instruction

COMPUTER-AIDED INSTRUCTION Douglas N. Arnold I. Introduction Computer-Aided steering (CAI), diverse and rapidly expanding spectrum of figurer technologies that assist the teaching and acquire process. CAI is as well as known as computer-assisted instruction. Examples of CAI applications take on guided drill and practice exercises, computer visualization of complex objects, and computer-facilitated communication between savants and teachers. The number of computers in American schools has risen from one for every 125 students in 1981 to one for every nine students in 1996.While the United States leads the world in the number of computers per school student, Western European and Japanese schools are in any case highly computerized. II. Types of CAI In boundation that helps teach or encourages interaction can be presented on computers in the form of text or in multimedia formats, which include photographs, videos, animation, speech, and music. The guided drill is a computer cours e of study that poses questions to students, returns feedback, and selects additional questions base on the students responses.Recent guided drill systems incorporate the principles of education in addition to exit matter knowledge into the computer program. Computers also can help students visualize objects that are difficult or impossible to view. For example, computers can be rehearsed to display human anatomy, molecular structures, or complex geometrical objects. Exploration and manipulation of simulated environments can be accomplished with CAI-ranging from realistic laboratory experiments that may be too difficult, expensive, or dangerous to perform in a school environment to complex virtual worlds like those used in airplane flight simulators.CAI tools, such as word processors, spreadsheets, and databases, collect, organize, analyze, and transmit education. They also facilitate communication among students, between students and instructors, and beyond the classroom to di stant students, instructors, and brights. CAI systems can be categorized based on who controls the progression of the lesson. Early systems were linear presentations of information and guided drill, and control was directed by the informant of the software. In modern systems, and especially with visualization systems and simulated environments, control often rests with the student or with the instructor.This permits information to be reviewed or examined out of sequence. Related material also may be explored. In whatsoever group instructional activities, the lesson can progress according to the dynamics of the group. III. Advantages and Disadvantages CAI can dramatically increase a students access to information. The program can adapt to the abilities and preferences of the individual student and increase the tote up of individualizedized instruction a student receives. Many students benefit from the immediate responsiveness of computer interactions and deem the self-paced and private learning environment.Moreover, computer-learning experiences often engage the interest of students, motivating them to learn and increasing independence and personal responsibility for education. Although it is difficult to assess the effectiveness of any educational system, numerous studies have reported that CAI is no-hit in raising examination scores, improving student attitudes, and lowering the amount of time required to arrive at certain material. While study results vary greatly, there is substantial evidence that CAI can enhance learning at all educational levels.In some applications, especially those involving abstract reasoning and problem-solving processes, CAI has not been very effective. Critics aver that poorly designed CAI systems can dehumanize or regiment the educational experience and thereby devolve student interest and motivation. Other disadvantages of CAI stem from the difficulty and expense of implementing and maintaining the necessary computer sy stems. Some student failures can be traced to inadequate teacher training in CAI systems. Student training in the computer technology may be required as well, and this process can distract from the core educational process.Although much effort has been directed at developing CAI systems that are easy to use and incorporate expert knowledge of teaching and learning, such systems are still far from achieving their full potential. IV. History In the mid-1950s and azoic 1960s a collaboration between educators at Stanford University in California and International Business Machines plenty (IBM) introduced CAI into select elementary schools. Initially, CAI programs were a linear presentation of information with drill and practice sessions.These early CAI systems were moderate by the expense and the difficulty of obtaining, maintaining, and using the computers that were available at that time. Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching trading operations (PLATO) system, another early CAI system initiated at the University of Illinois in the early 1960s and essential by go steady Data Corporation, was used for higher learning. It consisted of a mainframe computer that supported up to 1000 terminals for use by individual students. By 1985 over 100 PLATO systems were operating in the United States.From 1978 to 1985 users logged 40 one million million hours on PLATO systems. PLATO also introduced a communication system between students that was a forerunner of modern electronic mail (messages electronically passed from computer to computer). The Time-shared Interactive Computer-Controlled Information Television (TICCIT) system was a CAI project developed by Mitre Corporation and Brigham Young University in Utah. Based on personal computer and television receiver technology, TICCIT was used in the early 1970s to teach freshman-level mathematics and English courses.With the advent of cheaper and more mesomorphic personal computers in the 1980s, use of CAI increased d ramatically. In 1980 only 5 percent of elementary schools and 20 percent of secondary schools in the United States had computers for assisting instruction. Three years later, both numbers had roughly quadrupled, and by the end of the decade nearly all schools in the United States, and in most industrialized countries, were fit with teaching computers. A recent development with far ranging implications for CAI is the vast xpansion of the Internet, a consortium of interlinked computers. By connecting millions of computers worldwide, these networks change students to access huge stores of information, which greatly enhances their research capabilities. Contributed By Douglas N. Arnold, A. B. , M. A. , Ph. D. Distinguished Professor, Pennsylvania State University. HOW TO CITE THIS obligate Computer-Aided Instruction, Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000 http//encarta. msn. com 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.