Texts:1986 Into the Starting Gate - Revision history

Robbie at 16:41, 1 December 2024

2024-12-01T16:41:14Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:41, 1 December 2024
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	<p>Let us roughly estimate the vast quantities of information enclosed within such study trees.<span class="cite"></span><ref>these estimates I am assuming that a byte is a byte is a byte. This is not an entirely fair assumption. Generally, if software is designed well, a quantity of executable program code will usually occupy a student longer than reading an equal amount of American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) text code. All the same, treating all code as if it were text code gives an adequate approximation of the information content of software. The following estimates are in the number of bytes that would be required to code the information pointed to by various study trees. For text each character is counted as a byte. Representing the amount of information in this way should not obscure the fact that currently most of the information in print-based courses is obviously not coded in binary form. My basic assumption is simply that for a course to be genuinely <i>computerbased</i> the full information content within its study tree should be accessible through computers. When we have gotten the information into such a form, then computing is in the starting gate.</ref> For instance, most reading these remarks will have once been undergraduates at quality colleges and they will recall struggling with the knowledge structure of a tough liberal arts course: a book a week, that is, 1-2 megabytes, or a total of about 20 megabytes of required reading, plus a serious term paper, which would require careful study of another 5 megabytes, two or three further books, along with more cursory perusal of a good deal more data, all different from one student to the next. Let us say there were twenty students in the course. The information capacity of the study tree would be the following:</p>		<p>Let us roughly estimate the vast quantities of information enclosed within such study trees.<span class="cite"></span><ref>these estimates I am assuming that a byte is a byte is a byte. This is not an entirely fair assumption. Generally, if software is designed well, a quantity of executable program code will usually occupy a student longer than reading an equal amount of American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) text code. All the same, treating all code as if it were text code gives an adequate approximation of the information content of software. The following estimates are in the number of bytes that would be required to code the information pointed to by various study trees. For text each character is counted as a byte. Representing the amount of information in this way should not obscure the fact that currently most of the information in print-based courses is obviously not coded in binary form. My basic assumption is simply that for a course to be genuinely <i>computerbased</i> the full information content within its study tree should be accessible through computers. When we have gotten the information into such a form, then computing is in the starting gate.</ref> For instance, most reading these remarks will have once been undergraduates at quality colleges and they will recall struggling with the knowledge structure of a tough liberal arts course: a book a week, that is, 1-2 megabytes, or a total of about 20 megabytes of required reading, plus a serious term paper, which would require careful study of another 5 megabytes, two or three further books, along with more cursory perusal of a good deal more data, all different from one student to the next. Let us say there were twenty students in the course. The information capacity of the study tree would be the following:</p>

	<ul class="sl"><li>20 meg—Required materials worked with by each of the twenty students</li>		<ul class="numsoff"><li>20 meg—Required materials worked with by each of the twenty students</li>

	<li>100 meg—Primary materials drawn on in writing papers, 5 meg per student</li>		<li>100 meg—Primary materials drawn on in writing papers, 5 meg per student</li>
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	<p>Be that as it may, the point here is not to find the exact quantity of information included in either the teaching tree or the study tree of the typical course, whether high school, college, or graduate school. In all cases the structure encompasses a very large amont of information, especially relative to the storage capacities of available academic computing systems. One might imagine a not terribly demanding high school course generating a study tree comprising the following amounts of information:</p>		<p>Be that as it may, the point here is not to find the exact quantity of information included in either the teaching tree or the study tree of the typical course, whether high school, college, or graduate school. In all cases the structure encompasses a very large amont of information, especially relative to the storage capacities of available academic computing systems. One might imagine a not terribly demanding high school course generating a study tree comprising the following amounts of information:</p>

	<ul class="sl"><li>2 meg—Required materials worked with by each of thirty students</li>		<ul class="numsoff"><li>2 meg—Required materials worked with by each of thirty students</li>

	<li>45 meg—Primary materials drawn on in writing papers, 1.5 meg per student</li>		<li>45 meg—Primary materials drawn on in writing papers, 1.5 meg per student</li>

Robbie at 16:37, 1 December 2024

2024-12-01T16:37:18Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:37, 1 December 2024
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	<p>If the education machine will be a knowledge-based system, not an objective-based p ogram, what then will be its purpose and use? The proponents of traditional objective-based methods of instruction will surely ask this question. The answer is fundamental: expression-self-expression, cultural expression, human expression. A library, a curriculum, the education machine, does not imprint on its users the explicit objectives held dear by those who design it. A library serves the formation and expression of all manner of different purposes brought to it by its users. So too will the education machine. Knowledge-based systems are generative, not determinative; they impart tools, not finished structures, tools that people can use to form conviction, to empower action, to sustain reflection, to nurture hope. The purpose of culture is to empower human expression and a fully computer-based education will do that with effect, enabling people to use the tools of expression to pursue their aims in life.</p>		<p>If the education machine will be a knowledge-based system, not an objective-based p ogram, what then will be its purpose and use? The proponents of traditional objective-based methods of instruction will surely ask this question. The answer is fundamental: expression-self-expression, cultural expression, human expression. A library, a curriculum, the education machine, does not imprint on its users the explicit objectives held dear by those who design it. A library serves the formation and expression of all manner of different purposes brought to it by its users. So too will the education machine. Knowledge-based systems are generative, not determinative; they impart tools, not finished structures, tools that people can use to form conviction, to empower action, to sustain reflection, to nurture hope. The purpose of culture is to empower human expression and a fully computer-based education will do that with effect, enabling people to use the tools of expression to pursue their aims in life.</p>

			<h3>Notes</h3>
	<references/>		<references/>

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Into the Starting Gate
On Computing and the Curriculum

Published in the Teachers College Record, Vol. 88, No. 2, Winter 1986, pp. 191-215.This article has been prepared with support from The Center for Intelligent Tools in Education and indirectly from IBM. For this assistance I am most grateful; responsibility for the resulting ideas and opinions, of course, lies solely with me. I..."

2024-12-01T16:36:08Z

Created page with "__NOTITLE__ {{Setup|tick=Texts}} <div class="cent"> <h1>Into the Starting Gate<br>On Computing and the Curriculum</h1> <blockquote>Published in the <i>Teachers College Record</i>, Vol. 88, No. 2, Winter 1986, pp. 191-215.<ref>This article has been prepared with support from The Center for Intelligent Tools in Education and indirectly from IBM. For this assistance I am most grateful; responsibility for the resulting ideas and opinions, of course, lies solely with me. I..."

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Texts:1986 Into the Starting Gate - Revision history

Robbie at 16:41, 1 December 2024

Robbie at 16:37, 1 December 2024

Into the Starting GateOn Computing and the Curriculum

Into the Starting Gate
On Computing and the Curriculum