Computer-Based Instruction: Will It Improve Instructional Quality

摘要

The dramatic and increasing availability of relatively cheap computer power has led people to tout microcomputers as the solution to the problems of education and training. Like earlier, acclaimed panaceas for educational problems, this solution does not address the real ingredients for successful instruction or the problems of large-scale implementation. Improvement in instruction, computer-based or not, will be a relatively slow, evolutionary process. Four reasons for this assertion are discussed in this paper: (1) Attempts to improve instructional quality using systems approaches have revealed major difficulties; (2) the use of computer-based instructional tools is in a rudimentary state of development; (3) improvements in instructional design technology depend on still developing changes in the scientific base provided by the cognitive and computer sciences; and (4) any widespread use of computer-based instruction requires the acquisition and standardization of programs, provision for their distribution, and incorporation of the programs into schooling. Therefore, the prospects for attaining large increments in instructional effectiveness depend not on the availability of computers and programs, but on the understanding of instructional psychology and cognitive science and on the ability to implement it on any scale big enough to make a difference. Progress will be made, but it will not be rapid or revolutionary.