3.588 CAI blues, cont. (79)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Sun, 15 Oct 89 18:20:06 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 588. Sunday, 15 Oct 1989.


(1) Date: Fri, 13 Oct 89 21:00:57 EDT (43 lines)
From: cbf@faulhaber.Berkeley.EDU (Charles Faulhaber)
Subject: Re: 3.582 CAI blues, cont. (103)

(2) Date: Sat, 14 Oct 89 16:05:09 EDT (16 lines)
From: unhd!psc90!jdg@uunet.UU.NET (Dr. Joel Goldfield)
Subject: "Is PLATO reasonably priced? CAI, continued"

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 89 21:00:57 EDT
From: cbf@faulhaber.Berkeley.EDU (Charles Faulhaber)
Subject: Re: 3.582 CAI blues, cont. (103)

Much as I would like to agree with the defenders
of CAI about its ease of use, I'm afraid I can't.
There are certain unspoken assumptions that they
seem to leave out.

For example, Roger Kenner says:

>If one is to compare CAI preparation time with the time needed to
>prepare a hand out for class, for example, one need only examine
>the time needed to prepare an activity for a mini-authoring system
>like QUARTEXT. A very fruitful activity could easily be prepared
>in less than an hour.

1. This presupposes that the instructor knows QUARTEXT. How
much time did that take to learn? Who acquired the system?
Who installed it? Who runs the laboratory where the students
use it?

Our hypothetical instructor preparing a handout for class
needs only a pencil, a ditto master, and a ditto machine,
or, at one step up, a xerox machine.

To ask even someone who is comfortable using a word processing
program to take on the task of preparing CAI materials is to
ask a great deal, particularly in the absence of any
institutional support. It requires a substantial commitment of
time and effort. I repeat: unless it can be shown that students
substantially better--that CAI does indeed make a difference--
then most of us are not going to make that effort.

I would love to be proved wrong. Are there studies, for example,
which demonstrate better learning through CAI?

Charles B. Faulhaber
Department of Spanish
UC Berkeley CA 94720
bitnet: ked@ucbgarne
internet: cbf@faulhaber.berkeley.edu
telephone: (415) 642-2107
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------28----
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 89 16:05:09 EDT
From: unhd!psc90!jdg@uunet.UU.NET (Dr. Joel Goldfield)
Subject: "Is PLATO reasonably priced? CAI, continued"

I'm encouraged by Norman Hinton's recent comments, especially those concerning
widened access to, and perhaps portability of, the PLATO system. Some
of us might like to know which authoring systems, including the low level
(meaning, more flexible) authoring software as well as templates (which are
high-level since farther "up" from the machine language core), are available
to make effective time use of this system. Of special interest are the
various pricing schemes. Whom would we contact to obtain this information?

Regards,
Joel D. Goldfield
Plymouth State College (NH)
J_GOLDFI@UNHH.bitnet