[editor : Carl T. Helmers Jr.] [publisher : Virginia Londoner, Gordon R Williamson] [art : Holly Carmen LaBossiere, Deborah Porter] #Magazine
#Abstract #Education
Our cover this month, Computers in Education, by Robert Tinney, is a fanciful version of a personal computer "playground." Computers are becoming fixtures in our schools, and this month's BYTE takes a look at some of the implications of this new wave in education. For more details about the education articles in this issue, see the guest editorial by Dr Ludwig Braun beginning.
Computers in Learning Environments, An Imperative for the 1980s
[author : Dr Ludwig Braun] #Edito
Extract : «
The computer has had a role in education in the United States for two
decades. Until recently its role has been minimal for a number of reasons.
Among these reasons are:
• The lack of adequate amounts of high-quality courseware.
• A lack of training among teachers and administrators in the uses of computers
in education.
• The cost of providing computing, which frequently has been far beyond
the budget even of the very interested school.
Because of the advent of the large-scale integrated (LSI) circuit technology in this country, the last inhibitory factor above has been decreased dramatically. It now is possible for schools to buy quite powerful microcomputers at prices in the order of $500 to $1000, with the possibility that these costs will decrease by a factor of two within the next five years. Now that the cost of computing is within the reach of most schools, there is an urgency for the elimination of the other two principal inhibitors cited above.
There are several compelling arguments in favor of immediate and dramatic intervention in our educational system in order to take advantage of the many benefits which the computer can contribute. [...] »
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Steve presents three schemes to conveniently send control data to the computer.
[author : Steve Ciarciq] #Electronic #Listing #BASIC #Robotics
Extract : « Remote control is on the minds of many people these days. The Busy Box AC remote-control interface for household appliances I presented in January has been received with great interest. (See "Computerize a Home" January 1980 BYTE, page 28.) It probably just whetted the appetites of most experimenters.
The Busy Box interface, which connects the BSR X-10 Home Control System (as sold by Sears) to a personal computer, is intended to facilitate inexpensive AC remote control. When attached to a computer such as a Radio Shack TRS-80, it can easily turn on the television set precisely at 7 o'clock as you flop in your easy chair after a hard day at the office. (Delivering slippers is still the dog's job.) By using a sufficient quantity of the remote output modules and coordinating software, the appearance of a completely computercontrolled home can be obtained. [...] »
Hardware and software link a Sony Betamax with an Apple II or TRS-80.
[author : Dr Richard C Hallgren] #Electronic #Algorithm #Listing #Assembly #BASIC #Video
Extract : « The use of computers in education is not a new concept. Many colleges have effective time-sharing systems for use by both students and faculty. However, the recent widespread acceptance of small personal computers has opened up many opportunities for increased use of computers in education. One such use is for computer-aided instruction (CAI).
This article describes the method used to interface a Sony Betamax videocassette recorder, Model SL0-320, to two popular computers, the Radio Shack TRS-80 and the Apple II computer, so that a low-cost, lecture-supplemented, computeraided instructional system is achieved. The system was originally designed for medical students, but it has a wide range of applications.
Medical colleges make considerable use of videotaped lectures. These allow a student to review material presented at a lecture which the individual was not able to attend, or to review material in preparation for examinations. Often the student does not need to review an entire lecture, but needs to be concerned only with specific segments. [...] »
Here's how to write a preprocessor in Pascal that translates the target language's source code into Pascal source code.
[author : David Mundie] #Language #Programming #Pascal #Listing
Extract : « PILOT is a simple but entertaining language which is useful for introducing beginners to computing and for writing computer-aided instruction (CAI) programs. I recently decided to add it to the repertoire of languages available for UCSD Pascal systems. [...]
By now you are probably wondering how I accomplished this magic in less than a day of development effort. The trick was actually quite simple. Instead of writing a PILOT/P interpreter or compiler, I wrote a preprocessor that accepts PILOT/P source code and translates it into Pascal source code. The translated program may then be run like any other Pascal program. [...] »
BYTE brings you pictures and comments about this record-breaking show!
[author : Chris Morgan] #Event
Extract : « CP/M programs running on your Apple computer? How about a Japanese character set for your TRS-80 - or maybe a $298 pocket computer from Sharp that runs Tiny BASIC?
These are no fantasies because the future was definitely on view at this year's West Coast Computer Faire, and a record audience of about 20,000 people jammed San Francisco's Civic Center last March to get a good look at it . What they saw was encouraging to hobbyists, business people, and computer scientists alike. The industry is rapidly maturing, and products only dreamed of a short time ago are now being offered matter-of-factly for sale. [...] »
The development of "intelligent" computer game programs, such as Othello, is traced from the early studies of human subjects to the final strategy.
[author : Peter W Frey] #GameBoard #Book
Extract : « [...] Recent developments in computer chess have led to steady improvement in the quality of play. The ironic circumstance, however, is that this newly evolved machine intelligence has not resulted from a more sophisticated simulation of human thought processes. Instead, the quest for the elusive chess brilliancy has focused on a purely mechanical strategy: finetuning the α-β (alpha-beta) minimax algorithm to run at an incredible speed on advanced hardware. Computer programs making an exhaustive search of many thousand potential positions have consistently outplayed rival programs which are designed to emulate the selective search process used by humans. [...] »
A successful author presents the case for publishing a new breed of personal computer books.
[author : Tom Dwyer] #GeneralQuestions #Education
Extract : « There are a number of predictions being made about the future of computers in education. One goes something like this:
By the year 1984 there will be millions of general-purpose microcomputers in schools, colleges, and universities, with an even greater number available for educational use in the home.
A second common-but somewhat less optimistic- statement about the future of educational computing can be paraphrased as follows:
The potential of microcomputers for education will never be realized unless a massive effort is immediately undertaken to produce educational software and courseware. [...] »
A brief history of computer-aided instruction is followed by speculation on its future.
[author : Lou Frenzel] #GeneralQuestions #Education
Extract : « Education is rapidly emerging as one of the most important applications of personal microcomputers. Microcomputers are showing up both in schools and in homes, and they are becoming the central focus in school courses that teach computer operation, programming, and applications. But perhaps just as important, the computer is being used as an effective tool to teach varied subjects in schools and in the horne. One term that has been used to describe the process of teaching by computer is computer-aided instruction, or CAL CAI is a system of individualized instruction that uses a program presented by a computer as the learning medium. While computer-aided instruction is widely known and acclaimed as an effective teaching technique, it has never been extensively used nor has it lived up to its expectations. But now, thanks to the small, low-cost personal computer, CAI is getting a new lease on life. Personal computers may be what is needed to make computer-aided instruction practical. [...] »
More people need to know how to use computers.
[author : Arthur Luehrmann] #GeneralQuestions #Education
Extract : « Computing plays such a crucial role in everyday life and in the technological future of this nation that the general public's ignorance of the subject constitutes a national crisis.
The ability to use computers is as basic and necessary to a person's formal education as reading, writing, and arithmetic. As j obs become increasingly oriented toward the use of information, society demands and rewards individuals who know how to use information systems . The American computer industry, which leads the world today, depends for its future upon a mass market of computer-literate workers and consumers.
[...] As a nation we depend more and more on computer technology, on computer applications, and on the success of our computer industry. However, we are also a nation of computer illiterates. The means exist to set in motion education programs that will change the situation. All we have to do is decide to do it. »
Putting together a system by economical buying and building can be done.
[author : J C Johnson] #ComputerKit #Build #Tips
Extract : « About four years ago I decided that I wanted to obtain a microcomputer. I had done some programming on an IBM 370 and on a Texas Instruments 960 minicomputer at Cleveland State University.
Those who are starting in microcomputers have a problem in deciding what equipment they want, what to get, and how much to spend. When I began to obtain my machine, I figured on building the SwTPC (Southwest Technical Products Corp) CT-1024 video terminal for about $200, and spending only about $400 on the minimum computer system. [...] »
The current status of the microprocessor in colleges is assessed.
[author : W N Hubin] #Experience #Education #Physics #Electronics
Extract : « The inevitable confrontation between science student and computer is occurring in today's colleges and universities. In this article I provide a biased perspective on the current use of computers in science education, try to awaken any latent interest you might have in number crunching (by presenting formulas that could be used to construct a realistic race track simulation}, describe a simple microprocessor interface project for the student laboratory, and summarize the action at a recent conference on the use of computers in education. Since I teach physics, a physics flavor is inevitable, but other disciplines will be granted honorable mentions. [...] »
Science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle begins a semiregular column of hardware and software reviews.
[author : Jerry Pournelle] #Experience #OperatingSystem #Software #Storage #Languages
Extract : « [...] I'm collecting accounting systems and other business software, and we'll have a column on those also. I'm also open to suggestions and always interested in programs that can run on my systems and would be valuable to BYTE readers; if you're curious about software, let me know. Chances are I'll be as interested as you are, and we'll both learn something. »
Here are some valuable tips on designing your own Adventure game.
[author : Robert T Nicholson] #GameAdventure #Method
Extract : « Although personal computer owners have devised a remarkable number of applications. for their machines, game playing probably still ranks as the number-one use. Besides providing entertainment, games can be challenging and educational; in addition, games are often fascinating programming problems. The most mind-stretching computer games yet devised may be the fantasy-adventure games which have become popular in recent years. All of the current fantasy-adventure games, including Adventure and Zork, seem to be based on Dungeons and Dragons. Dungeons and Dragons is a noncomputerized game developed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in the late 1960s. In Dungeons and Dragons, as in its computerized counterparts, the player represents a character in a fantasy world, taking part in great adventures, slaying monsters, and accumulating treasures. [...] »
The BASIC program presented here simulates a very simple stored-program digital computer with its own assembly language.
[author : Robert T Pickett III] #Listing #BASIC #Programming #Assembly
Extract : « In this article we present a program in BASIC which simulates a very simple digital computer and the assembly language which runs on it. The program is called MICRO8. MICRO8 was developed as a teaching tool to give students some idea of computer architecture and how to write in assembly language. The emphasis is on programming procedures and information flow, without the complexities of number-system conversions and fixed-point arithmetic. [...] »
[author : Christopher Morgan] #Review #ComputerDesktop
Extract : « This past May at the National Computer Conference in Anaheim, California, the Apple Computer Company introduced "Sara" (its code name for the Apple III), the long-awaited new computer from this closely watched company.
We spent some time recently at Apple getting a firsthand look at a product that has been the object of industry speculation and anticipation for nearly a year. [...] »
#Book
Extract : « Introduction to Microprocessor System Design by Harry Garland, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1979, Textbook, $10.95 [...]
The Nature of Human Consciousness Robert E Ornstein, Editor W H Freeman, 1973, Softcover, $8.95 [...] »