hopper, 1993 [abstract, overview, toc, switchboard, references]

1 Introduction

Most educators are still using microcomputers with primitive telecommunications capabilities, and have not begun to deal with the impact of entering a new computing paradigm and all of the implications that follow. In an article entitled "Networked Computing in the 1990's," Tesler (Tesler, 1991) provided a description of the new paradigm and its relationship to the older paradigms (see Table). He also descried many larger implications of computing paradigms, including changes in the role of users, the types of data used, and the types of activities performed by users (activities and operations). All of these implications will also effect how computers will be used for educational purposes.
 
Tesler's Diagram of Computing Paradigms
 
Table Four Major Computing Paradigms (1960s-1990s)
 
The new network paradigm will bring with it palmtop computers that are extremely mobile and easy to use, thus allowing for the possibility of greater independence and freedom for the learners who use computing technology. The emergence of extremely easy to use telecommunications will bring the capability of learners to work cooperatively on the same project electronically, thus providing opportunities to emphasize collaborative group projects. There will also probably be changes in the role of authors through the introduction of a much larger array of data types and ways of interacting with the computer.
 
Will new educational computing efforts emphasizing this new paradigm be successful, or will there be critical problems that will hamper efforts to implement computers across the curriculum? If new projects are going to achieve breakthroughs in education, it could depend upon learning from the mistakes of past efforts to integrate computing technology for education. Of course, the new approaches to developing and implementing computer courseware will probably be specifically designed to address the flaws in earlier approaches. Even if all the problems identified in earlier efforts are addressed, there should still be caution about over confidence. New initiatives could face some entirely new problems that are a function of the new computing technology and the different organizational milieus in which they exist. Overemphasis on addressing previous problems and using advice based upon earlier experiences could endanger the success of new efforts. A reliance on older suggestions could overshadow a foresighted focus on identifying new sources of problems.
 
The interactions of older problems with new environments can best be explored by studying situations similar to the educational computing arena of the near future. During the 1980s, a few forefront academic computing organizations invested in advanced computing technology similar to what will soon become more commonly available to other educational organizations. These projects are at a point where they can be analyzed with hindsight by their participants. One example of such a project is the Athena Project (AC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This project was specifically designed to be an experiment to provide the answers that will be needed to insure the success of similar efforts in the future.
 
The Project Athena experiment embodied technological, pedagogical, and organizational questions:

  • What does it take to design, implement, and operate a fully distributed, coherent, vendor-independent, academic computing environment for a university?
  • How do faculty use such an environment educationally, and which of these uses prove effective?
  • Who should manage the environment, support faculty and student users, and provide appropriate incentives and financing for academic computing to flourish?

    Like all experiments, Project Athena also sought to identify unrecognized issues, costs, and benefits surrounding advanced academic computing. (Jackson, 1991, p. 20-2)


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    A majority of the reports about the computer courseware development efforts in this advanced educational computing environment emphasized successes and opportunities. But some reports also discussed a number of challenges. These reports of experiences from the Athena experiment provide evidence that there are a combination of educational, technical and organizational issues that could threaten the success of future research and development projects in advanced computing environments.
     
    The reasons for nonsuccesses included underestimating the size of the task (often by a large amount), using an inappropriate pedagogical model, difficulties with the system, difficulty in obtaining necessary skills for programming (UNIX, C, X-Windows System, human interface design), and declining interest on the part of the faculty member. (Champine, 1991, p. 46)

     
    Some of the problems Athena experienced were certainly due to the experimental nature of the endeavors and manifestations of older problems occurring in the newer environments. Other problems could be new and unavoidable in the age of distributed computing. It will be critical for future developers in advanced computing environments to be prepared for both old and new problems. The success of new efforts will depend on addressing older issues, while not neglecting new ones which could also be inherent in using advanced computing technology. A critical approach to avoiding problems is to study key projects in today's advanced computing environments as samples of commonly available computing environments in the future. This study gathered information about courseware development from a few pockets of expertise in developing educational courseware in computing environments similar to those that will become more common by the beginning of the twenty first century.
    © Mary E. Hopper | MEHopper@TheWorld.com [posted 12/04/93 | revised 04/12/13]