A panel session - Computer - assisted instruction

The expression "computer-assisted instruction" (CAl) is generally used to describe situations in which the computer is used as a teaching surrogate in some sense--whether as drill instructor, tester, or specialized tutor. ~Tost applications of this kind have had specific, limited, and modest educational goals. When used to administer drills or branching tests, a computer is not called upon to be intelligent-only useful. Yet it is interesting and important to ask whether the computer can become an intelligent artificial teacher, and more generally, whether there are valuable ways of using computers for teaching and learning. In artificial teaching, the computer controls the interaction with the student. There are applications of the opposite kind, where the student controls the machine. The most common one is the teaching of computer programming itself. Another is the use of a computer to simulate a "real" laboratory. And, there is a potentially rich spectrum of intermediate arrangements-strong instructional interactions-in which the student and the computer share control and direct each other. As an example, student programming and artificial teaching might be coupled by having the computer monitor a student's work as he uses a programming language to perform a simulated experiment or to solve a problem. No significant experiments in this direction can be done without a great deal of work; but we do know, in principle, how to make a program follow the steps of a student who is not constrained by a stereotyped pattern and how to diagnose his difficulties on the way. We shall argue that computers will make deep contributions to education in all three areas: