Alexander the Great benefited by having a king, Philip of Macedon, as his father. The king was astute and had the power and foresight to recruit the brightest person in the known world, Aristotle, as the private tutor for his son. No one knows how much Alexander gained by having this unique instructor, but his teacher provided a solid foundation for his accomplishments later in life. Not everyone can have a king for a father, but each student today can have a private tutor with even more knowledge than Aristotle. This tutor is a computer. Of all the advantages that computers will deliver to education, the foremost will be their capacity to act as individual tutors.

An ideal tutor can provide exceptional advantages for learning. Let's suppose that each of us could choose a perfect mentor for our child. We would select one who was knowledgeable in all subjects and who could tailor courses to the individual needs wherever the child's abilities might lead. We would want a tutor who would be aware of precisely what the child knew to prevent undue repetition, while ensuring that all necessary instruction was provided. We would want a tutor with enough time to give the pupil individual attention whenever needed without holding up other students. We would want this idealized teacher to have the flexibility to instruct a little differently sometimes when the child forgot something or had difficulty in grasping a point. Our child, of course, would never fall behind because of sickness or absence; the private tutor would always start the next class exactly where the previous one had ended.

We would want an additional virtue in our ideal tutor: an encouraging attitude. A story told by President John Kennedy illustrates how his father used this trait to help him to develop his self confidence. Kennedy spoke about his father shortly after the first of his famous TV debates with Richard Nixon. He said that if he had walked out on the stage that night and had stumbled and fallen flat on his face before forty million viewers, his father's only comment would have been, "The way you picked yourself up off the floor was spectacular!"

The story may have been fabricated. Nonetheless, it strikes a resonant note and grabs at our emotions; we recognize that psychologically, it aids our development when we work with someone eager to praise, hesitant to find fault. Unfortunately, avoiding criticism is often difficult: a tone of voice or body language may sometimes unconsciously betray feelings. When a teacher finds that a student has forgotten something that has been repeated many times, reacting slightly and almost imperceptibly is an understandable human response. Somehow the pupil often interprets this correctly to mean, "You must remember. We've been over that again and again and again!"

Our model private tutor would never chastise us when we were less than perfect including the inevitable occasions when we stumbled and fell on our face. Our hypothetical paragon, while pointing out our mistakes, would be forever congratulating us on our accomplishments and encouraging us to proceed further.

All these powerful characteristics we would choose for our child's private tutor are those that make a non-critical and eminently patient computer, endowed with almost unlimited knowledge, the ideal instructor. This teaching marvel can repeat and review a lesson as often as necessary and never betray the slightest feeling of exasperation, while simultaneously praising each forward step. Above all, the computer tutor can adapt to the needs of each student instead of requiring individuals to fit into a mold based on the average capabilities of many students.

Teaching to differing levels of ability, background and interests has posed an eternal dilemma to educators. Instruction that is appropriate and beneficial for one student may have a negative effect on another. Teachers with a classroom of children know it is impractical to try to tailor lessons to each student. Personal attention, however, would be immensely helpful because of the varied needs of pupils. Some students require additional explanations, while others have grasped the material and are ready to go on. Since having forty million private instructors is impossible, compromises are necessary and teaching usually progresses at the average level of the class. Poorer students are left hanging in their confusion, and the brightest students miss exciting challenges. With computers as tutors, the learning of one individual will never be hindered by the abilities or weaknesses of others. Each student will move at his or her own pace, unaffected by the rate of learning of any other student.

Lack of intelligence may be the reason a student is unable to grasp material when it is first presented, but a host of other causes are also possible: previous learning, background, physical condition or simply a personality conflict with the teacher. The results, however are the same: whenever a student fails to learn new material, he or she falls behind.

Difficulties compound afterwards for the individual, but also for teachers who have the student in subsequent grades. Pupils who lack a foundation in basic mathematics are helpless trying to understand advanced math. Students who don't know basic grammar will benefit little from a class in advanced writing.

Theoretically, any student can ask questions in today's classes. In reality, students who are confused may not know enough to make an inquiry. Even when pupils know they need help, they are often embarrassed and don't wish to reveal their ignorance. Often only the most intelligent students dare to ask questions because they know that if they don't understand, neither does anybody else.

With individualized computer instruction, students can always immediately request help if something is unclear. They can continue to show their lack of understanding until the problem is resolved without fear of appearing dumb before their peers. After the request for help, the computer can help pinpoint where the flaw lies. Then it can explain again the precise part of the lesson that bears on the student's weakness. Sometimes the computer may find a different explanation in its memory and present the material to the student in another way. Computers can always go back as far as necessary to ensure the student has a solid foundation on which to build.

When students are unaware of their poor learning or may not know the questions to ask, the computer itself will recognize their weakness through its constant evaluations and assessments. Whenever a pupil has not grasped a major point the computer will automatically review or repeat whatever is necessary. No student will feel disgraced or even embarrassed. Other pupils will be unaware of who requires more attention at a particular level, or when a hurdle is slowing a fellow learner.

In today's classes, an individual student who falls behind often stays there. This inability to catch up is the crux of the dilemma of students, after years in schools, knowing little when they leave. They falter early, and additional classes only add to their confusion. They never have another opportunity to get the essential foundation they missed. Lacking the basics, they are unable to profit from advanced subjects.

With computers as tutors, no student will be overwhelmed because he or she is missing fundamentals. The computer will repeat material until each lesson has been sufficiently mastered; only then will it move forward. Since today's computers have speech synthesis capability, they can start any place, even at the educational beginning, and teach pupils to read at the pace that is appropriate for each individual.

Computers will assist even before a course commences. They can test and evaluate the underlying knowledge of each student before the first lesson. For example, at the beginning of calculus, pupils can be tested on knowledge and understanding of the basic math and algebra necessary to master the subject. If anyone has a deficiency, the computer will provide a remedial lesson or course for that individual. The review can be given for as short or as extended a period as is necessary to bring the student up to standard. Lengthy reviews will be needed primarily at the onset of computerized education since later, the machines will ensure that pupils have mastered the prerequisites before they enter a new class. They might, however, need brushing up on material forgotten since the previous course was completed. The computer can easily provide help. No student will ever have to enter a class with a lack of basic knowledge. No one will find his or her class delayed because of a few students who need a refresher on previous material. The computer will not demand perfection, but it will require that the fundamentals necessary for the course be present before continuing. No student will ever again be shoved into a hopeless struggle trying to learn without the needed foundation.

As beneficial as individualized instruction will be for the poorer and average students, it will often be even more valuable for the brighter students. These have unique capabilities, and special attention and challenges often help them reach their intellectual limits. These students will be discussed further in Chapter 11.

All students, whether breathtakingly brilliant or woefully dull, or anywhere between these extremes, will benefit from individualized instruction. The immense power and versatility of computers as tutors will aid and simplify all learning for all students in all classes.

While individualized teaching represents the foremost advantage of computerized education, it is also the foundation for many other enhancements of learning that will follow when computers are allowed to operate unhindered. The next eight chapters will detail some added benefits.

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A frightening aspect of the current crisis in education in America is that it has generated only a modicum of national anxiety, and very little is being done about what is arguably the worst part: at least twenty-five million illiterates threaten the well being of the nation, and this figure is increasing continually.

Strange as it seems in a country that has made many of its greatest advances in the face of adversity, this crisis is worsening. With apologies to Browning, it may be apt to paraphrase him to describe the outlook for the nation's educational system today. "Grow sick along with me. The worst is yet to be." That appalling certainty stems from population predictions. The census bureau now estimates that the population of the United States will rise to 383 million by 2050 - a fifty percent increase in less than sixty years. Today, a little more than twenty percent of the population is from African-American or Hispanic backgrounds. In 2050 over forty percent of the population will come from these same groups. These are the cultures undergoing the worst deprivation in current schools. Unless some truly revolutionary action is taken, the nation will look back longingly to the days in the late 1990's when only twenty-five million illiterates lived in America.

Since everyone must go to school it appears that anyone in America can have an education. This assumption is only partially true. Hordes of children come from disadvantaged living environments. They grow up in families where adults can't read well, where books are scarce or non-existent, and where an appreciation of education is lacking. Naturally, these children grow up without any true regard for scholarship.

Youths from these families may attend the same schools as other children. Nonetheless, their chance to gain an education and to develop their own desire for academic learning, is lessened because of how they were raised. This deficiency debilitates students. These intellectually impoverished youths are behind the day they enter school, and few ever manage the excruciating feat of catching up. The majority remains always behind with ever diminishing self esteem. In turn, their pitiful schooling ensures that the cycle will continue in the next generation.

Children who come from these impoverished households are in an inferior position when they enter school; they are classified and in effect, branded, as "slow" students from the beginning of their educational experiences. Although Head Start programs can help to alleviate this problem and need to be expanded, the basic impediment remains.

These "slow" students begin with handicaps that they didn't cause. When they attend school, additional obstacles, also beyond their control, intensify their difficult position. Even barriers that are quickly denied may be involved. Few educators today would dare admit publicly to a belief that certain students are genetically inferior, but Lewis Terman, a leading psychologist and designer of I.Q. tests in the early twentieth century, was less hesitant. He said of immigrants, "Their dullness seems to be racial.... Children of this group should be segregated in special classes."³⁷ Terman was basing his judgment on what he had seen. Some educators today may also base their judgments on what they perceive. When they observe that more slower students in schools come from certain races, their conclusions on inferiority may be similar, if unspoken, to those of Terman who saw poorer students coming from immigrant families. If so, add another obstacle for children from disadvantaged homes.

Realistically, even if administrators were completely impartial, slower students exceed the capabilities of schools today. Since classes must proceed at a pace that is faster than some students can grasp, these poorer students fall further and further behind. They are passed on to the next grade because research indicates that holding students back is harmful to them. They enter a new grade without mastering the lessons of the previous one. The gap widens. Hope of catching up vanishes. Worse still, they quickly begin to feel that they cannot learn, and their fellow students feel the same about them because they are always behind.

These students who are confronted by so many innate hindrances often face yet another: they get caught up in a practice that is widespread throughout school systems called "tracking" where students are grouped by perceived ability. Instructors feel strongly and vigorously defend this pattern because it is much easier and perhaps in some ways, more effective, to teach students who are in tracks. Groups with widely diverse abilities present multiple hindrances not present when students have more equal talents.

One supposed benefit of tracking is that students in lower tracks avoid classes where they will be compared with better students. Theoretically that avoids damage to their self perception. Reality is different. Slower students and brighter students are fully aware of discrepancies between tracked classes, between "dumb" kids and "smart" kids. The conclusion of everybody must be the same - the "dumb" kids are inferior. The contention that tracking is an aid to developing or protecting the self esteem of bottom track students is patent nonsense.

In actuality, the worst effects of this program fall to slower students whose educational problems are intensified under tracking. Their education is different from, and inferior to, that of students in other tracks.

Moreover, some teachers also look with disdain on students in these lower tracks and they are not alone in their low opinions. Even at the highest level, evidence of disparagement is available. Thomas Toch, who has studied and written extensively about education, quotes from school catalogs that denigrate these students by devastating descriptions: "English 284-285: for sophomores who are very slow learners and poor readers" and "English 283: for sophomores of below average ability."³⁸

In tracked classes today, both the caliber of courses and the quality of teachers are manifestly inferior for slower students. These conditions are understandable. Since slower students are already the weakest academically, it doesn't seem prudent or cost effective to administrators to burden them with material that they apparently can't absorb. Therefore schools provide less challenging classes for these pupils. Moreover, schools carry this reduction of standards to its logical conclusion and give them truly insipid subject matter. Poorer teachers can also be expected because instructing slower students provides less personal satisfaction. Consequently teachers who have a choice will usually opt for classes with brighter pupils. Substitutes or teachers who are only marginally qualified are often forced into classes of slower students.

Pupils in bottom tracks enter a situation where little is expected of them. Then in a form of self fulfilling prophecy, these students are given pathetic and inadequate education. Writing by influential authors in recent years pointing out the evils of tracking has proliferated.³⁹ The National Governors Association took a position opposing it in its national education goals. A Carnegie Foundation task force voiced the same opposition in 1988. Despite this powerful opposition the system remains virtually intact in most school districts.⁴⁰ Tracking has had widespread use in schools for at least sixty years. The chances of eliminating tracking under the present educational system are slim.

For the sake of argument, however, imagine that the teachers who support tracking suddenly allowed the system to vanish. What then? Opponents seem to suggest that if tracking were ended, poor education of slower students would also be eliminated. This contention is simply false. The problems are much deeper. Railing against the acknowledged disorder of tracking is like residents of Pompeii complaining about the noise of the rumblings of Vesuvius. Neither the noise nor tracking is the critical destructive force. Eliminating tracking would leave the underlying tragedy in place.

At present, no way out of the miasma exists for these disadvantaged students. If children who are lagging hope to catch up, they need help to begin again wherever they got behind. That, however, requires individualized teaching, or that students return to the class where their deficiency first appeared. Neither option is realistic in present classrooms.

Enough money will never be available to make private tutoring by teachers available to all who need it. Returning youths to the class where they first fell behind is even less realistic. They were passed to the next grade originally on the assumption that keeping children back damages their self esteem. To return them now to a level with students below their age would, of course, be even worse.

That discipline problems are rampant and cause disorder in schools should surprise no one. Everybody tries to protect his or her own self-worth. When protection is impossible in the usual ways, other means are used. Expressing utter contempt for education is a form of ego preservation. If education is valueless, failing the educational system may not impinge on self-esteem. Unfortunately, the students who use this disruptive strategy need jobs when they leave school. The technological revolution in the workplace continues with accelerating speed, and education becomes ever more important. These pupils stumble from classrooms without skills and with few prospects except for menial jobs. These are the students who are potentially future welfare recipients, as many of them are being supported by welfare payments to their parents today. In time, children of these frustrated pupils will be confronted with the same dilemmas. Without a fundamental revamping of education, the results will be the same.

Reformers outside education talk about needed social changes today. They often suggest replacing welfare with "workfare." Under "workfare" everybody on welfare would be forced to take a job after an initial period. Regrettably, it will be impossible to carry out these changes unless students are educated enough to hold jobs. Today's quandary is often not that people want to avoid work, but that they cannot find a job.

Reformers within education tout a solution: excellence. A Nation At Risk, supported the need for "excellence" in education. This has been a constant rallying point among reform minded educators in recent years. They maintain that all students must participate in improved schooling, and that standards for everybody must be raised, including those of slower pupils. Unfortunately that ideal isn't being met. Bottom track students are being included in name only. School authorities have changed the types of courses making it appear that the poorer students are gaining. In their zeal to have students progress through the system and then to graduate, schools are playing semantic games with class names instead of making beneficial changes. The result is a mishmash of virtually worthless courses, all sufficiently anemic that even students who cannot read can pass them. For these courses, schools spew out credits with as much value toward graduation as those given for advanced mathematics or science. By this subterfuge by authorities, students accumulate enough credits to graduate. That "accomplishment" delights administrators.

Consequently, slow students stumble along and continue to take poor courses. Many drop out, sometimes because of their own discouragement at being a "dumb" kid. Even when they do manage to finish school they are woefully undereducated. Consequently, though they receive a high school diploma, they have learned little. This ridiculous practice allows American schools to graduate a higher percentage of students from high schools than any other country including Germany and Japan. When these "graduates" enter the job market, however, industry finds them hopelessly unprepared. Companies must then provide remedial education for employees who have been in a system supposedly dedicated completely to their education for twelve years. Need for these remedial courses is a condemnation of schools. The worst part is that present remedial education programs can't possibly educate the illiterate youths and adults that schools are producing: the numbers are too massive.

Computerized education will bring an improvement of gargantuan value for the nation and for millions of individuals: better education for slower students who suffer the worst deprivations under the present system.

Supporting the theoretical conclusion that computerized education can alleviate the monstrous problems of tracking are the results of the programs for at- risk students in Florida schools. Although no one has analyzed the tracks of these students, many were probably in the bottom tracks, at least toward the end of their regular school careers. Students can't enter these programs unless they are behind appreciably in academic achievement.

An overriding difficulty in schools today is that millions of students are unable to read at a seventh grade level. Even in the dropout programs in Florida, many potential candidates fail to qualify because of an inability to read well enough.

Another smaller but graphic tragedy, the sinking of the Titanic, provides an analogy. The school system has rammed an iceberg, and authorities struggle to keep the music playing while the ship sinks deeper into the unforgiving depths of illiteracy. Obviously, schools today are unable to teach all students to read at a suitable level since millions of present and former students remain illiterate. Students fall behind in the first or second grade because they don't learn to read. Catching up is hopeless. Somehow the schools must stop the gaping leak by improving reading skills. With today's system, however, they have about as much chance of succeeding as did the captain of the first Titanic.

Computers can teach almost every child to read, even those who are severely handicapped. When every student in every classroom can read, American education will have undergone a monumental metamorphosis.

Computers are being used in a few adult programs to teach reading with excellent results. Annabell Thomas is an example of someone who was unable to read despite her years in the New York City school system. The Wall Street Journal in its issue of November 16, 1992, carried her story. After leaving school, she had been taught by tutors and had enrolled in library literacy programs and adult education classes trying to overcome her handicap. Nonetheless, she never learned to read. Finally, Ms. Thomas, now 56, enrolled in a computer program and was taught to read and write by a computer.⁴¹

Computers are notably effective with slower students because the machines have the vital characteristic of unlimited patience. This trait is necessary in someone teaching a subject demanding frequent repetition and painstaking attention to details that are unnoticed by readers, but frustrate non-readers. Computers can teach reading using either phonics or whole language learning, or both if one doesn't work well.

An unbiased onlooker, uninvolved in education, has to wonder, "What is going on? Why are millions of students like Jimmy Wedmore, the General Motors employee mentioned in Chapter 3 and Annabell Thomas, unable to master basic skills when subsequent results prove they can learn? Why aren't schools using tested and effective methods of instruction? Why are only a handful of at-risk students profiting from what computers can accomplish while millions of others remain uneducated? Why are our schools ignoring computers and trashing the lives of millions by allowing them to remain illiterate?"

Since computers can teach reading and language to students at every level and with any background, they can go far toward overcoming the years that intellectually deprived students have spent in school with no results. Computers could do what is now unthinkable, and could do it rapidly and effectively: wipe out illiteracy in the nation.

When this happens, poor students will have made a beginning. The school Titanic will have its gaping hole of poor reading skills plugged. Then the rest of the boat can be repaired. All children can become educated.

When computers are finally allowed to teach, "dumb" kids will begin to understand that they can learn and can become "smart" kids. After that, schools will be totally unlike present institutions with their large numbers of unlearned and unresponsive youth. Present students will profit, but their children will be the foremost beneficiaries. That next generation will grow up in a totally different home environment. They won't begin school burdened by a belief that education is only for others. Children from these homes will know that their parents received an education and they can do the same. Their educated parents will insist on it.

Thomas Edison had an unusual academic career. He started school when he was seven years old. Three months later the schoolmaster expelled him. "Retarded" was the master's chilling diagnosis. Fortunately for that school dropout, a private tutor was available - his mother. She took on the task of trying to impart some knowledge to this apparent failure. For three years she was his teacher. Edison in later years said of his mother that "She instilled in me the love and purpose of learning."

When he was ten, this tutor gave him an elementary physical science book. Young Edison read it avidly, and the world was forever changed.

Edison's experience in education was extreme. He wasn't, however, the first nor the last talented youth to appear out of step with ordinary procedures and to cause consternation among teachers.

Since bright students can master lessons easily, they should have little difficulty. Learning should be enjoyable for everyone, but should be particularly pleasurable for those who are unusually intelligent. Buoyed by their strong curiosity, they should pass through their schooling with few snags. This doesn't always happen; many students with high I.Q.'s fail to achieve their academic potential. A surprising number of those who drop out of school are above average in intelligence and are capable of doing the work necessary to graduate. At times, up to forty percent of dropouts are enrolled in college- preparation courses. Their elders find it easy to issue platitudes and to say they should remain in school, but tens of thousands of brighter students aren't listening; they leave school before graduating.

Other talented students face other obstacles. As happened to Edison, sometimes their good qualities are unappreciated. They can be difficult to teach, and sometimes instructors find it easier to avoid stimulating their intellectual powers. Moreover, teachers often lack sufficient time to fathom the real strengths and weaknesses and needs of their pupils.

Many smarter students have a characteristic that is negative, but can be a positive if cultivated properly. They are easily bored. They find that learning is an intriguing challenge and they work diligently to succeed. When they reach one goal, they need another or tedium will follow. Often subsequent challenges are delayed because other students in the class need more time to learn. The interest of those who have immediately understood wanes rapidly. This ability of bright pupils to grasp new material quickly can be used positively if sufficient challenges can be provided. Boredom is distasteful, and bright students will avoid it by taking up new undertakings. Keeping these pupils gainfully occupied is difficult, however, when thirty other students in the same class also need the attention of the teacher.

This propensity to become bored can be a decided negative. Sometimes their failure to progress rapidly hinders only themselves. At times, however, they turn their talents to disruption, and others also suffer: these bright youths find an antidote for their boredom by baiting and upsetting their teachers.

Slower students use disruptions to defend their self worth when they fall behind. They act out to cover their frustration. Bright students use disruptions to dispel their boredom when they can't go ahead. They act out to offset their ennui. Just as schools must often bear some responsibility for episodes of acting out by slower students, schools must also take some blame for bright students who act out. Intelligent pupils crave interesting projects, and by provoking teachers, they can fill that need.

Unfortunately for schools, the native ability of bright students often helps them devise ingenious ways to disrupt classes and upset teachers. Authorities, faced with unacceptable behavior, tend to blame the pupil. Edison's schoolmaster felt completely justified in his appraisal of this baffling student.

Of course, not every child with higher intelligence is a problem for teachers. Nonetheless, many bright students who conform to the system do not meet their potential because they are seldom challenged in ordinary courses. Schools must establish curriculum requirements at a level that most students can reach, but below the capabilities of truly bright students. Their talents lie unused. They suffer, but the nation also suffers.

"Honors" programs are often set up for these pupils. Nonetheless, American schools lag behind schools in other nations as shown in Chapter 3. Therefore, many Honors programs probably fail to carry all bright students to their full potential. These can be improved.

Honors courses have additional problems. Acceptance into them is often based on success with an I.Q. test, or some similar accomplishment. Intelligence is not, however, a unitary trait that is easily quantified despite the ease of scoring standard I.Q. tests.

Even after being accepted into Honors courses, students may fail to reach their full potential. Certain students with extraordinary talents in one area may be held back in that subject by other bright students with different talents or interests. Also, teachers may be ill equipped to help those with superior qualities. One education official told me that the major problem in her highly respected Honors Program was the school's inability to give more training to instructors.

Even with exceptionally fine Honors programs, other difficulties can still thwart very talented students. They may be overlooked when their outstanding qualities are specific. A unique brilliance in one area may receive less attention than a series of high grades. Sometimes real genius can be well hidden and require unbiased judgment and patience to bring it out. When hidden, it is easily overlooked,and sometimes lost. Perhaps Thomas Edison might still have achieved success if his mother had allowed the opinion of the schoolmaster to go uncontested - perhaps not. Probably his self esteem, at least, would have been injured.

Computers can be programmed to spot exceptional talent in one subject or in many. They can compare age and subject matter finished at the conclusion of every section; they can note when a student goes through a subject faster than expected. Both these accomplishments are easily quantified and recorded by computers. Either could represent outstanding talent. At least, they would show that additional investigation was warranted. High ability students need to be located, encouraged and given the chance to proceed as far as their talents can take them.

Even a recognized "slow" student may also be a brighter student whose intelligence is misunderstood by instructors. Being bright doesn't eliminate psychological scars that may have been inflicted in home situations or elsewhere. Students with those scars may have difficulties in showing their talent. Teachers in computer schools will have more time to get to know students well and to assess them more accurately. In the at-risk programs in Florida, an invaluable part of the programs is the personal attention that teachers can give students.

Bright students may encounter another hindrance. Sometimes topics intrigue them before they reach the classes in school. At times they will delve into these subjects but without a coordinated plan for learning. They stumble around and fail to become truly knowledgeable in the subject. Being bright, however, they absorb enough to be totally bored when they encounter the course in school. With computers, students who finish one area can go on to another immediately. This opportunity to advance rapidly will allow them to enter many studies at a much earlier age. As challenges continue in their ongoing courses, they will be less likely to go off into other subjects by themselves. Even if they do, they can pass rapidly through the basic material when they finally meet the course in school. Computers will be unconcerned by numbers of days spent in classes. They can present new challenges and advanced material whenever it is helpful.

That powerful innate desire to learn that is obvious in bright children will trigger vast gains through full use of computers. Later, as adults, these bright students may increase the total knowledge in the world. These are pupils that the country needs to encourage, and to bring along at a fast pace.

With computer instruction, learning possibilities for students can be expanded beyond what is conceivable in present courses. Since classes can be individualized for each student according to interest and ability, limits will vanish. Students will have the prodigious resources of constantly developing computer programs. Moreover, as software is being developed, scholars in various fields can join programmers to provide avenues for exceptional learning for the brightest pupils.

Many other learning opportunities will also flourish. An example is study of foreign languages. One prominent shortcoming of American education has always been the weakness in teaching a second or third language when students are very young and more adept at learning linguistic skills. Not only are languages usually available only in later years, they are often taught by Americans who have an accented pronunciation and less than complete ease with a language they learned primarily in school. With computers teaching foreign languages, instruction can begin at an early age, perhaps in kindergarten. The pronunciation that the child hears will be that of speakers for whom it is the first language, and who know and speak the language exactly.

For highly intelligent students, computers will provide ideal conditions. These pupils will be able to advance at their individual pace starting when they study basic subjects. This capability alone will mean incredible advances over present time schedules. The at-risk students in Florida dropout programs sometimes finish two or three years of work in one year. Imagine what highly intelligent students could accomplish in one year or five years with complete computerized education! Without the constraints found in present classrooms, many bright students could finish their basic class materials in fewer than the twelve years they squander in schools today. They would then spend the remaining years in other studies. If schools, today, advanced their better students more rapidly, they would face a jarring dilemma: nothing would remain for the pupils after completing the requirements of even an upgraded curriculum. In computerized education, advanced lessons will always be available. When they are ready, students will have almost unlimited access to additional learning. Few boundaries will hinder their curiosity and intellectual prowess. Brighter students are also those who will take fullest advantage of the capacity of computers to foster self directed learning. Consequently, many will find an area that corresponds to their talents as Edison found his book on physical sciences.

Despite their advanced learning, maturation of their social skills will continue in the usual way. These children will remain with others in their age group.

Brighter students will also benefit because teachers will have more time in computer schools. Instructors enjoy interacting with intelligent pupils, which is one reason the better ones gravitate to teaching these pupils in the Tracking system. In computer schools, teachers will not only be able to interact, but will be able to generate new learning experiences for top students. Enthusiasm of teachers about their subjects will continue to rub off on pupils, and especially on the smarter ones. With their additional time, mentors will be better able to emulate Edison's mother, and instill more powerfully "the love and purpose of learning."

I will show in Chapters 19 that a vital and enormously productive part of computerized education will be seminars and workshops that teachers will conduct. These learning activities will be further enhanced because regular classes will not require uninterrupted attendance. Groups of brighter students from different schools will be able to attend workshops or seminars for a week or longer. The whole emphasis could be centered on a specific area intriguing to participants. Some new methods that creative teachers will devise to aid bright children can't even be imagined now.

Since many computers will have modems, students will further their education by interacting with their peers throughout the nation and world. They will have telephonic access to the Internet and to vast stores of information in today's databases. When pupils have reached a defined level in their own schools, they will be able to enter regional or national groups through the phone lines. These opportunities will provide them with additional stimuli to advance, and ideas on which to build. All students will find new and enhancing enticements for continued learning from these exchanges, but the brightest will profit most.

Even games can be used by brighter students to sharpen some skills. New games requiring intellectual acumen will be developed for computers. Students will participate, but only if they keep up with their other scholastic activities. Interscholastic competitions based on intellectual endeavors might someday take place and excite other pupils to watch play action through their computers. The interest that was generated by the chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in 1992 may have presaged that possibility. Thousands of subscribers to Prodigy, a national computer network, followed a move by move account accompanied by a commentary by chess experts. In 1996, the chess match between Gary Kasparov and Deep Blue, the IBM computer was again carried to thousands of fans, this time through the Internet.

Chess is viewed by some critics as a tediously slow game that could never develop a major following as a sport in America. Apparently in Russia, however, where a widespread knowledge of the game exists, intellectuals are fascinated by public matches. Perhaps new computer games might be developed that could rival the excitement of watching a football game for at least some students.

Certain students will find exciting challenges in writing computer programs. Competition will add a further stimulus. Students will be presented with a problem, unsolved until then, and asked to find a programming solution. At other times, they will be presented with software in existence and asked to find an improvement. Criteria for success might be speed or reduced numbers of instructions. Students will submit their solutions, which will be judged by computers. These competitions could be national or international, and will present additional learning opportunities because all solutions will be available to participants; students can investigate how others attacked and unraveled the problem.

In computerized education few limits will impede advanced students. Vast reservoirs of knowledge will be readily available. Computers will not only provide access to those storehouses of learning, but will guide and prepare students to use them well.

Although all students will benefit from computerized education, bright students will probably reap the most impressive gains.

Actors and actresses obviously need success. When they don't achieve it, the outcome is predictable. Visualize an actor giving a one person performance before a live audience. Imagine that at the conclusion the spectators fail to applaud and parade out of the theater unconcerned with what they had seen. The actor would be devastated. If a smaller and smaller audience showed up on the following nights, and the reaction was always the same - dead silence - only an unusual performer would dare to continue. Incidentally, it would be useless for the authorities of the theater to exhort him to try harder.

Making a protracted effort without some success or prospect of achievement is guaranteed to bring discouragement and frustration. This principle is apparent with actors and actresses, but applies to everyone, everywhere, at every age level. Definitions of success and acceptable time frames may differ. Nonetheless, the basic need to succeed is present in everyone. If it is never fulfilled in a specific endeavor, further attempts in that area will eventually cease.

Students who had learned in school, but then suffered an injury that lessened their intellectual powers can remember that they once learned. Despite difficult odds, they may continue to make efforts to learn again because they have experienced earlier successes.

Adults can sometimes strive for long range goals without immediate gratification. They have reached earlier objectives. Consequently, they believe they can again succeed even if the reward is delayed. If, however, they lose that hope or belief, they will find it impossible to continue striving. They won't even begin if they have no hope for success.

Millions of students have never succeeded. They are, and have always been behind. If they ever thought they could learn, they lost that idea quickly. Teachers are faced with the impossible problem of getting them to work at their studies, but the pupils can't do this until they know they can succeed. An unending cycle cripples their schooling: they don't succeed; this failure destroys their will to keep trying; they can't succeed if they don't try.

No exit from this cycle is possible for most of these failing students today. It is useless for authorities to exhort them to try harder. The result is frustration for teachers, students and officials.

Instructors know the value of success and want to find some way to make slow students succeed. They can't be faulted if they don't achieve their goal. Their time is limited, and they must attempt to help all students at the same time. Sometimes they have students who are unable to read, and thus have no hope at all.

It is counter productive for a teacher to try to encourage poor students by telling them that they have done well, but give a D or F at the end of the semester. Students realize they are deficient when they see their grade, and may consider their instructor untruthful.

This inability of schools to enable poor students to succeed is one crucial reason educational reforms have had only minimal effect despite monumental efforts in the past ten years.

Computers can break this impasse. They will enable every student, without exception, to attain success in school. They will provide one small achievement followed by another and another. Each accomplishment, no matter how insignificant it may seem to onlookers, is vital to that one individual, and encourages him or her to continue.

Computers can provide universal success by dividing lessons into segments - as small as needed to guarantee that every student can always accomplish something. Pupils who are unfamiliar with success in academic activities tend to disbelieve even the possibility that they can do well. They need to be told immediately when they have succeeded, and computers can do this easily because they tutor children individually.

Knowledge of personal success is rewarding to the student, and a well documented psychological principle says, "Whatever is rewarded tends to be repeated." Each activity that is rewarded will lead to another effort, and the computer can ensure that this additional effort will again result in success.

Although segments can be as small as necessary to assure that every student can accomplish something, they will differ according to student needs. Software can adjust lessons according to many variables including the rate of progression of the pupil. Bright students will remain stimulated though they can speed through sections that might be difficult for slower students. They will quickly reach challenges appropriate for their abilities and will be encouraged to go further. Success energizes everyone.

Computers can be programmed to enhance rewards further by adding a bit of pizzazz when appropriate. Rewards are part of the success of video and computer games. When a player makes a spectacular laser shot and destroys the dastardly incoming alien space ship, the machine may acknowledge the feat in many ways. These rewards may seem unsophisticated, but properly used, they are important elements in the fascination that video games have exerted on everybody who has enjoyed them. I remember waiting in an out-of-the-way airport many years ago in the early days of video games before they had become commonplace. Flight delays were extended, and ways to kill time were scarce in that airport on that day. As a result, business men began to try to help Mario rescue a princess. They quickly became entranced by the game, and a line formed. Delivering an imaginary princess from an equally unreal adversary was insignificant in the lives of the players. Nonetheless, these supposedly unsophisticated rewards were enough to keep the business men pumping quarters into a hunk of inanimate machinery. They seemed chagrined when they ran out of quarters and had to hand the machine on to the next one in line. I know I was, when my horde of coins was exhausted. Many school programs would delight if they could develop a similar intensity by students to master academic subjects even for brief periods of time.

One element of rewards can multiply or diminish their value: the speed with which they are delivered. The closer the connection between the action and the reward, the more valuable and more effective is the reward. Conversely, the value is diminished as the time between the action and its outcome is extended.

In today's schools, immediate rewards are infrequent. Whenever teachers give a written test, it must be collected and corrected before the student knows the result. Prolonged delay of rewards is evident in grades given at the end of a semester. Students must work toward their grades for weeks before they learn the results.

In class recitations an immediate acknowledgement of a correct answer meets the criterion for speed. Ordinarily, however, only a few students can seize the available opportunities on any single occasion. Except for these public sessions, an interval always interrupts the action and its effect.

Just as in video games, the reward for succeeding in a segment in computerized education is rapid. A computer can test frequently with no difficulty. The machine evaluates answers instantaneously and immediately notifies students of their accomplishments. Delays are virtually nonexistent. If the results are unfavorable, the computer might even legitimately accept blame for failing to explain the material well. It can also emphasize any small accomplishments of the student. Then it will begin to teach again what the student missed. As students learn more, praise will always follow quickly.

Accolades bestowed by the machine can be augmented by another important reward: the approval of a human teacher. Although not as prompt as that of the machine, it will add a valuable human element. This will be discussed below when speaking of teachers in Chapter 19.

Teachers have always understood the importance of rewards in classrooms; they hang good papers on the wall for everyone to see; they add well deserved complimentary comments on a composition before they return it; they are delighted when they can give a high grade. Computers will add nothing new since rewards have always been an integral part of education. Computers, however, will make them more frequent and more closely connected with their cause. They will allow them to be universal and available to everyone. Rewards will have different degrees of subtlety, but they will be frequent, legitimate and rapid. That combination will always generate results.

Authorities sometimes hope that the objective of being educated will stimulate hard work by students. The status or high value of the goal is unable to induce efforts. Many of us might find the prospect of being a high paid major league ball player an inspiring goal. If, however, the local Little League ball club had only used us as a third string replacement, and the high school team had spurned our ardent advances, our enthusiasm would dissipate. Long range goals need intermediate success to endure.

When students are unable to get passing grades, they are understandably unmoved by the contention that good grades will mean more pay later. As I noted above, in the Florida at-risk programs students were indifferent about graduation before using computers. The potential benefits were meaningless; even if they wanted to qualify, they couldn't. When they began to learn in the computer classes and felt they might be able to graduate, their outlook changed dramatically. They began to work zealously toward that goal. Future potential gain from a diploma became a driving motivation because it was coupled with present achievements.

Continual lack of classroom accomplishment weighs heavily on youngsters, and they revolt against the school system. Success has different forms. To a school authority, academic accomplishments are the hallmarks of achievement. Some students find success through their athletic abilities. Those who have neither athletic nor academic achievements still crave success. They seek it elsewhere. Their inclinations can run counter to what authorities believe is ideal. Graffiti sprayed on a clean wall may appear ugly to a neat and prim authority figure. It might be beautiful to a youth who is rewarded when he sees an immediate and dramatic change, caused by his efforts. Watching a disliked teacher become irritated and exasperated can be a form of reward. The upset teacher might reject it as an admirable accomplishment, but the reactions of the teacher and fellow students could be highly stimulating for the perpetrator. The immediacy of that reward makes it a more effective prod for future actions aimed at a similar result. Society, schools and teachers will benefit when students achieve success by school work rather than by creating disturbances.

In the Florida at-risk programs, teachers are unanimous in their appreciation of the value of success to students. Accomplishment of a task is vital in changing bored, disruptive, and seemingly unconcerned classroom occupants into determined learners. Once students find they can achieve some success, they seek and find other avenues of academic accomplishment. The at-risk students keep close track of how many segments they have finished each day. Teachers can even encourage a bit of bragging and listen attentively. They can honestly add their own praise for these accomplishments, and these compliments delight and further stimulate the students.

While computerized education can assure that every student without exception can succeed, our present system can never achieve that ideal. Until pupils can enjoy accomplishments in their studies, herculean efforts by millions of dedicated teachers and school officials to make them appreciate education must remain futile.

Those who are attempting to improve education face a difficulty that has afflicted schools since long before the current crisis: successful research has generated only tepid follow through. Many studies have been carried out by scientists to unearth more effective ways of teaching. Better methodologies have been uncovered, but they have resulted in little change in instruction by teachers and thus few improvements in education.

Some classic examples illustrate this phenomenon. As far back as 1924, the value of using tests as a learning tool was discovered: testing can have a more important duty than merely ascertaining the amount of lesson material that a student has retained. Testing, effectively used, can also serve as a valuable teaching aid. Despite a lapse of about seventy years since the first study and follow up reports indicating the same outcome, many teachers think of testing only in a traditional way. Instructors have good reasons why they hesitate to make broader use of tests. It places an additional burden on them because they must not only devise the tests, but must also spend precious hours of their limited time correcting them. This time expenditure obviously becomes more burdensome than can be justified at some point, whatever the intrinsic benefit from testing.

Evidence for the value of another methodology can be traced back even further than that on testing. This finding has been known for over a century, and has apparently been used in the Soviet Union, but it has never generated much enthusiasm in American schools. This technique is the so-called "Spacing Effect." Studies have shown that presentations of material for learning are much more effective if the material is spaced rather than massed. For an equal amount of study time, a lesson taught in small sections instead of in massed amounts is more effective. Many teachers are unaware of the phenomenon and its corroborating research.⁴²

These two examples illustrate a fundamental difficulty for education: research findings are unused in classrooms. This lack of follow through is understandable. If classroom instruction is to incorporate research, the new method must be carried out by each individual instructor. Here, again, the unique characteristics and teaching agendas found in millions of teachers create insurmountable roadblocks. This problem has been pointed out in the difficulties of creating software and audio-visual materials for teachers to use in individual classrooms. It will arise again with the difficulties of replication in Chapter 25. Teachers have their own way of teaching and they must evaluate new methods in the context of their individual instruction. These, however, are not the only impediments to the use of research.

Before any teacher can use a finding, he or she must know of its existence and must be convinced of its efficacy. Neither is automatic. Many teachers aren't aware of educational research. Even when they do know of a new study, a conviction that it is suitable may be elusive since research often brings results that can be interpreted differently when used by different teachers with varied skills.

Even if teachers think new ideas will help, they also must know how to apply the findings in the classroom and must remember the research when the proper circumstances are present. Overlaying these difficulties is another that accompanies human nature in every activity: inertia. It is easier to do something as it has been done before instead of undertaking a new procedure.

Research results will be easily brought into classrooms with computerized education. The two examples of frequent testing and spacing will pose no problems for computer programmers. Software developers will build a series of tests into their programs. Computers will test to make sure that the student understands the material and will also use testing to enhance learning. Neither testing nor correction of the exercises will be difficult for the machines. Spacing, also, can be easily put in place through software.

Computer programmers can use present and future research. Millions of individual teachers will not be required to learn about it nor to try to put it into practice in their unique situations with their special talents. Only scholars and other experts, employed by software companies, will need to be aware of it. These authorities can study research to decide how it will be used effectively. They can then pass their conclusions with suggestions for implementation to programmers, who will incorporate the ideas in software and present the results for further comments and evaluation.

When this analysis is completed, the new advancements will be made available immediately through modems to software throughout the country. Upon receipt in schools, the new research will become part of programs then in use. It will immediately enhance the software of every student studying the course. As pupils use the new programs, the familiar computer feedback will again provide benefits. Learning results will be returned via the modems to the programmers and educational experts. After sufficient data have been received, those who are assisting the programmers will be able to decide if the new methods are effective.

Where results are less than absolutely positive, changes can be made easily and quickly. Under present conditions, when a new method is devised, a researcher will try it out in a limited area. After the necessary trials, results can be published in a journal. This procedure may have consumed years from the first idea to its publication when other researchers receive the information. If the results seem promising, other researchers may embark on their own studies of the new method. They will often try variations. Their results may corroborate the first studies or may add other questions. More time has passed. A slow process then becomes even less effective because results have little impact in classrooms.

In computerized education, when programmers have different possible approaches, they will be able to try one method in some schools, and simultaneously, another in equivalent locations. Results can be compared to find the better teaching method. Companies producing software can be continually upgrading their programming. Students will be the beneficiaries.

Computers will be the source of new investigations because researchers will accumulate vast quantities of valuable data with little additional expenditure of computer time. They will pass their conclusions to programmers who will be able to upgrade and improve their software.

Since computers, under the direction of companies developing software, will be responsible for research, the numbers of individuals working in separate schools and developing research projects will be lessened. That may be thought of by some as a regrettable result, but is no different from what happens frequently in scientific fields today.

In other industries, technical research is carried out in large companies with ample staffs. Sometimes, more people create additional chances that a detrimental bureaucracy will arise and hinder research. Nonetheless, well trained staffs working on a coordinated project can hasten scientific advances. Benefits are apparent from the technological advances that are made continually in companies throughout America and other nations. Relatively few individuals working alone make major scientific breakthroughs today. Research can be done more efficiently and can be carried out more readily as a group undertaking. Ideas of individuals will always be essential, but they will be carried forward by larger staffs with greater resources. Software companies will employ educational researchers exactly as other technological companies employ experts in their fields.

As a result of improved research, teaching will become more of a science than an art. Education will assume its rightful position among the sciences.

Computers can add another element that is connected with research. The machines can use individual methods with different students. Teaching styles can vary according to the needs of pupils. The speed of computers will enable analysis to be made not only of patterns of learning throughout school systems, but also of individuals. They can keep track of what type of teaching is effective in a specific environment and watch for similar circumstances. When these conditions appear, the method that is probably the best can be used. If it is unsuccessful with an individual student, other varieties of computer teaching can be tried until an effective one is found. The students will always be treated as unique individuals, but their similarities are also important.

The speed and analytical capability of computers can also be used to discover and address basic shortcomings in any lesson. Computers can be programmed to detect problems and to allow students to make their difficulties known to research staff who can carry out further study. Improvements in software will again result.

Computerized education will mark the beginning of massive new study into teaching methods that are impossible today. The final and more important outcome will be that improved and expanded research in education will not lie fallow in technical journals, but will make the transition from a purely theoretical activity, to classrooms where it can affect learning. In the future, research results will bring better teaching, and students and schools will benefit.

Some teachers make lessons interesting; some don't. Those who are skilled in theatrics have an advantage: they can conduct classes that grab and hold the attention of their students. Since no one can require teachers to add this talent to their teaching repertoire, schools have to adopt the attitude that children must accept teaching as it is, even if it is sometimes uninteresting. After all, students are the ones benefiting from education. They ought to be willing to put up with a little discomfort in return for what they are receiving.

This idealistic but naive attitude means little in a classroom. Whenever students are bored, learning is lessened appreciably. In the mass media world of today, instructors face an additional obstacle when they try to keep the attention of students: they must indirectly compete with highly talented actors and writers who bombard pupils with entertaining films and TV programs outside school hours. These shows keep the attention of pupils with material that is cleverly written and superbly delivered. The contrast between these professional media presentations and normal classes increases the apathy that students suffer in classrooms. Children have grown accustomed to being entertained. They are not at fault because they are presented with a constant outpouring of technically magnificent programs outside school.

Nor is it the fault of teachers when their attempts to compete fall short. They chose to be teachers, not actors or actresses. They can't be criticized for failing to excel in knowledge and in delivery skills at the same time. Even writers and actors aren't skilled in both. Nonetheless, teaching must contend against these clever shows that students see daily on television and in movies.

Teachers sometimes improve their classes by incorporating audio-visual, or A-V, materials into their lessons. These programs make use of films, recordings and video productions to instruct, and many of these displays can compete technically with the media fare that students see outside the classroom. A-V lessons can enhance education, but this technology furnishes the same difficult challenges to teachers that bedevil them when they use computers:

• They must schedule times to show films or videos.
• They must ensure that the necessary teaching materials and equipment will be available.
• They must sometimes contend with mechanical problems in projectors or video machines.
• They must harmonize the audio- visual lesson with their teaching skills, and integrate it with requirements of the curriculum.
• They must provide the audiovisual display simultaneously to all their students, although the pupils are unequally prepared to learn.
• They can't identify the individual needs of all their pupils and some of their students might learn more if certain parts were repeated.
• They can't repeat the showing for part of the class while the rest moves on to other lessons and they can't provide the same show for all pupils without boring many of them.
• Another difficulty that is absolutely insurmountable often occurs: on the day that the presentation is made, some of students may be ill and be absent, and miss the film or video.

Teachers who have difficulties are not alone. Companies that produce audiovisual materials for schools also labor under the same handicaps that confront firms developing computer programs for schools today: their products must be filtered through the instructional agenda of individual teachers, and must fit these unique teaching styles. Purchase of audiovisual programs is dependent upon the desires and requirements of teachers, not on the inherent worth of the program. It is of little value to producers to design superb A-V teaching tools if teachers don't buy them.

The consequence of these difficulties for teachers and manufacturers of audio-visual materials is inevitable. Despite their many valuable features, A-V presentations have been unable to make significant improvements in education after many years of use.

When personal computers first appeared, writing and figures on the screen could only be in one color. Users chose among white, green or amber when they selected their monitor. Forever afterward, the color of their characters on the eternal black background of that screen was unchanged.

The history of computers is replete with rapid improvements. Those original restrictions lasted only briefly. Manufacturers quickly introduced full color monitors, and viewing became more pleasant and less tiring to eyes. Some movement was always possible on computer screens, but originally it was restricted, usually to simple creations of programmers like stick figures or bouncing balls. As computer memories grew more massive, color pictures of photographic quality were practical, and movement of images improved dramatically. The addition of sound provided a further enhancement. Computers can today show regular films of a quality that is good, and is continually becoming better.

Color, sound, and movement under the total direction of a computer are the components of multimedia. As an educational tool, it can make learning more appealing and more effective than ever previously imagined. It will enable education to compete with the outstanding shows that are produced on TV and in theaters. Computers can control multimedia for each student on his or her own screen, and can use and integrate the technology into lessons. Multimedia has all the valuable features of audio visuals, but it adds at least three additional benefits for education:

1. Individualized Instruction

Many difficulties that teachers now confront when they use A-V shows will disappear because of a computer's ability to provide lessons geared to the precise needs of each student. This individualizing will begin before the presentation is made. Computers will often be able to determine what type of multimedia presentation is appropriate for a particular student. The material will be delivered when the student is prepared to receive it. Either during or immediately after a presentation, the machine will test the student and evaluate results. If the pupil missed something important, all or part of the presentation can be repeated. Sometimes computers will be able to provide a different exhibit to overcome the deficiency.

2. Use of Presentations of Varying Lengths

A major advantage of multimedia over today's audio-visual format is the ease with which it can be employed in lessons. Teachers today are unable to interject short film clips to accentuate a point. Scheduling and setting up the equipment waste too much valuable teaching time. With multimedia, however, it will be equally possible for the computer to provide one minute or one hour of instruction using films or clips, and to use them as frequently as will be helpful. No tedious delays will bore students while separate equipment is set up, and no distracting transitions from one medium to another will hinder learning.

3. Interaction Between Student and Computer

Despite the use of moving pictures, audiovisual materials have a static feature: the content of a movie or a video is unchangeable in the classroom and students cannot interact with it except in a passive role. Computers eliminate these constraints. The sequence of multimedia displays can easily be altered. Computers are able to adjust programs according to the reactions of pupils. Students and machines will respond to each other, and each response will stimulate further interaction.

Presentations will never be fixed and unchanging. A student will be able to ask questions about almost anything pertinent to the material being taught. The machine will answer, and perhaps use the question and its response to make or enhance a point with a different display or film clip or demonstration. The machine may propose questions of its own to involve the student more fully during the show. The reactions of the pupil will determine the direction the computer will take to reach the goal of teaching the essential material while the graphics entice and involve the student. Interchange between student and computer will allow pupils to participate intensely while they learn. This capability, of course, differs from today's audio-visual presentations where interaction between students and the teacher must occur before or after the show. At either time, the teacher is forced to confront the always present difficulty of interacting with thirty different students simultaneously.

This interactive capability of multimedia will open many new avenues to learning. Lessons incorporating and using the latest equipment can be provided and students will feel as if they were operating the machines. They will receive responses from the computer simulation as they would from the actual gear.

A simple example is use of telescopes or microscopes, which will behave as if they were present on the student's desk. Pupils will be able to focus and zoom in on features that they are examining as if they were peering into an actual microscope or telescope before them. Concurrent with the displays will be explanations, both verbal and written.

Additional pertinent benefits will follow. Instruments will always be up-to-date, and every student will have an individual piece of equipment. Today, the expense precludes those possibilities. Even if schools were wealthy enough to afford hardware for each pupil, finding and retaining qualified teachers would be impossible. Moreover, computers will have their usual advantage of personal attention and instruction of each student.

The federal government has been able to make extensive use of the interactive features of computers in education. The conclusion of one review from the Department of Defense is worth noting. Researchers examined forty- seven studies. They summarized results saying,

Interactive videodisc instruction was more effective the more the interactive features of the medium were used. It was equally effective for knowledge and performance outcomes. It was less costly than conventional instruction. Overall, interactive videodisc instruction demonstrated sufficient utility in terms of effectiveness, cost, and acceptance to recommend that it now be routinely considered and used in Defense training and education.⁴³

Multimedia is in its infancy, but is advancing rapidly. In January 1993, IBM emphasized the increasing importance of this new approach by forming a separate unit within the company to direct future developments. They named the new unit Fireworks Partners, an unusual name, but appropriate as an indication of the possibilities in this field.

Multimedia programs available today give glimpses into the educational possibilities of the technology. Microsoft has brought out a program called Beethoven, an in-depth study of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony complete with laser duplication of the music, and accompanied by a measure-by-measure commentary by an expert on the composer. Explanations appears on the screen as the music comes through the earphones. The disk includes an introduction to the musical structure of the piece and to the instruments that are used in the rendition, always with sound and video accompaniment. These features are enhanced with a history lesson on the social, cultural and political happenings that were taking place and influencing Beethoven as he composed this musical work. Viewers can move about in the program, unhampered by a predetermined arrangement. If a student is intrigued by one aspect, he or she could pursue that further. By adding appropriate testing, the program could allow great flexibility to the student's approach to learning, but ensure that all important matter was covered. The interest generated when students follow their inclinations aids retention. Although this disk is intended for the general public it could easily fit into many school programs on music appreciation, and some on history.

Although schools can adapt many programs for their use, most manufacturers direct their sales efforts at other markets, especially families. Companies thereby avoid the problems that software producers have encountered when they created software for classrooms. Nonetheless, these firms are aware of the educational possibilities of this technology. Microsoft, in the promotional piece advertising their multimedia encyclopedia maintains that, "It brings learning to life with words, images, animations, and sounds that work together to create a fascinating universe of knowledge. [It] sparks curiosity, opens the door to wonder, and starts a learning adventure that never ends." Later, the brochure adds, "It helps you find the joy of learning" (emphasis added).

The full potential of interactive multimedia presentations is awesome. Even an old standby that has existed in various forms in education for centuries, lectures, can partake of its power. Although only a few people can speak with sufficient force, appeal and wit to keep listeners spellbound, a few modern versions of that renowned orator of ancient times, Demosthenes, can be found among professional actors. They could be employed, and their material could be written by experts in the subject matter, aided by educators and others.

Students will watch these presentations on their screens with the voice coming over their earphones. Frequency of talks will vary depending on subjects and pedagogical considerations, but when circumstances are opportune, an occasional professional lecture can be a valuable learning device. This technique is seldom used today in A-V displays. It would seem superfluous; teachers also give oral presentations at times, and they might justifiably view use of professional speakers as unfair competition. These market limitations lessen the monetary incentives of companies to develop dramatic talks.

The listeners to the modern counterparts of the orators of old will enjoy added features undreamed of by the original speakers or their audiences. These modern lecturers will be integrated with the interactive capability of computers.

A lecture will be carried for some minutes, and then pertinent film clips can be interjected to maintain interest. The computer will then return to the lecture. If the student doesn't understand something, he or she can interrupt the lecture or the film clip to ask a question or request more information. The computer will either provide information that was requested, or retain the question and return to it later. For a teacher to individualize a lecture in this way is impossible; for a computer it is simple.

The powerful features of multimedia will be used in many subjects. A geography class can give pictures of the country and interviews with the people as ongoing parts of the presentation. These additions can be as frequent as helpful and will be integrated completely into the lesson.

History courses can provide accurate portrayals on film to accompany the bare facts of dates and events. Parts of historical movies could be culled, always under the direction of historians who could choose only the episodes that were accurate. Hollywood has magnificent technology, but has a tendency to take liberties with historical facts. Multimedia presentations in schools will adopt only scenes that are accurate and helpful.

Science lessons will be able to provide pictures to go with the scientific material that is taught. For example, on a lesson on electromagnetic forces, a film could reenact the original discovery of the phenomenon. Then additional clips could show actual uses of the principle as it evolved over many years. Finally, demonstration of present research will generate additional interest.

Multimedia learning, along with the rest of computerized education, will reach its full potential only when computers can understand spoken language better. That capability is now weak, but is progressing rapidly. The vast profits that will flow from verbal communication in business and industry will hasten advances in this area. Ultimately, its effects will accrue also to education.

Through these improvements, multimedia can eliminate the many shortcomings of A-V materials and present a new learning experience. Coming technical improvements in multimedia will dwarf even today's notable successes. The future will bring not only simple upgrades, but new eras. Learning and retention will improve appreciably for all youngsters because the material will be presented in an engaging form.

The elements that make up multimedia - sound, pictures and animation - are the same elements that have always been present in audio- visual materials in classes. When A-V displays were first made available to schools, the potential value to learning seemed to be immense. The final result fell short of original hopes, and education improved only slightly with this new technology. The same danger could sabotage multimedia. If schools try to use multimedia without complete computerized education, they will waste one more potent educational assistant. Without this computer direction, multimedia, despite its potential for education, must remain in the same position as audiovisual materials today - a powerful tool with little effect in classrooms.

When, however, computers are allowed to direct multimedia, a new age in education will appear. This technology will make lessons come vibrantly alive through sound and pictures. Future generations may look back on present teaching as we look back on the "little red school house." Since those impoverished one room learning environments were the only possibilities in some areas, they were necessary and they had to suffice at the time. Computers manipulating multimedia presentations were fantasies until recently. Before this, schools did well considering what they had. The old fashioned one room school house is now an anachronism. Schools without integrated computer and multimedia capabilities will arrive at the same status.

Since computerized education can captivate students, repeating a counsel of Plato many centuries ago is fitting:

knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.... do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to find out the natural bent.48

Plato would have been delighted by education capitalizing on the advantages of multimedia, which can amuse and fascinate students beyond anything he could have imagined.

The differences between the memories in computers and those of humans are never more striking than when considering the genesis of prejudice or bigotry. Computers store only information; human memories keep much more, including feelings. Software must tell computers what to retain; any happening that occurs within the sensory range of humans may remain willy-nilly. Anything in a computer memory can be easily and completely erased; information in minds can only be "forgotten." This forgetting may leave an influence on future actions, a hidden residual, which can be a cause of prejudice and a deterrent to its elimination.

Youths have memories that are especially receptive. Children absorb and retain learning, which remains immediately available to them throughout their lives. An adult requires no thought to answer "What is five times two?" No one has to think about how to ride a bicycle many years after first learning. Unfortunately, no conscious thought is needed to act on learned prejudices either.

During their early years if persons or events suggest to children that people with other characteristics are inferior, they may carry that idea permanently because they cannot erase their memories. Years later, their actions may be influenced by what they originally learned, or thought they learned, about different kinds of people.

Prejudiced adults may be unaware that anything is askew with their thinking. Almost everybody acknowledges that prejudice exists, but seldom does anyone admit that he or she is infected. Lewis Terman was cited above with his comments about the genetic inferiority of immigrants. Terman would have denied that he was bigoted toward this class of people. He thought he was merely stating facts. Supposed "facts" form an almost impermeable shield that hides prejudice and enables bigots to deny personal culpability. Denial is intensified because of the origin of the prejudice - happenings long forgotten, but not completely erased.

Fervent and sincere disavowal of prejudice by those who are tainted is neither uncommon nor surprising, but the denial changes neither the condition nor the consequences. Teachers resent accusations of prejudice since they recognize how detrimental it is for pupils. Nonetheless, with millions of teachers from diverse backgrounds and training, bigotry interferes in our schools as it does in the nation. Prejudice is a force in America. Its extent may be debatable; its existence is not.

Bigotry is hidden not only from those who are infected, but sometimes even from others who watch their actions. Rather than wearing a sign saying "I am prejudiced," most people try to avoid giving any indication that they are infected. A destructive force is no less damaging because it is hidden.

An incident that was supposed to have happened in the life of playwrite turned diplomat, Clare Booth Luce, was written up in press reports in 1954. Her biographers downplay the event, but it provides an analogy to illustrate the problems of prejudice. In 1954, President Eisenhower named Ms. Luce American ambassador to Italy. Although she had been in good health when she began her duties, she became seriously ill after a few months in her position. Extensive testing discovered that she was being poisoned. Nobody could understand how or why. Investigators finally determined that paint from the ceiling in the dining room of the old Italian villa she had leased was flaking in microscopic amounts, and was dropping into her food as she ate. Over a period of time, the cumulation of these minute bits of toxic paint had sickened her. Hidden prejudice is an evil that also poisons. Though it may be in tiny amounts and be hard to detect, it is lethal. Its disguised nature makes it difficult to discover and remove.

Prejudice has another powerful impact in schools: it is self-perpetuating, because its casualties are those who are already behind. When a bigoted teacher subtly treats a weak student with some disdain, the victim is pushed down even further. The possibility of success by the child becomes even more difficult. The instructor thereby sees an additional failure by this pupil, and has another of Terman's "facts" to justify, and perhaps increase, the existing prejudice. A destructive negative cycle results: prejudice exists; prejudice increases the likelihood that the objects of prejudice will do poorly; poor performance then increases prejudice.

Unfortunately, another and still worse consequence follows: this inferior progress is seen by other students. When students see that members of certain races do poorly in school, they have a tendency to believe they have found a "fact" about members of these races. Consequently, they will often carry negative ideas about that group with them into their outside lives. As adults, they may be prejudiced because of events in their early years, their school experiences. Under present conditions where poor scholarship is frequent in some races or nationalities, development of bigotry toward these groups is an inevitable result.

Any rational examination of the evils of prejudice shows that it must be eliminated, particularly in schools. Computerized education will reduce prejudice as no other system can. Since memories of computers are not influenced by what takes place around them, they have no prejudice, bias or bigotry. Computers are unconcerned whether a student is black or white or Indian or Latino or Asian or a combination. They don't distinguish male students from female students. It is even irrelevant to computers whether a pupil is bright or dull. The machines, through their programming, merely adjust their teaching to meet needs of the individual learner who is using the machine. Computers can teach each student at the student's own level without regard to any of the multiple concerns that could trigger prejudice in a human teacher.

Computerized education will eliminate bias and prejudice in teaching, but it will go further. It also will destroy the basis of future prejudice among students who are influenced by seeing their fellow classmates of a particular type among the poorest students. This benefit will develop in two ways.

Those who are less adept at academic subjects will not stand out prominently. Each student will be working at his or her individual computer. Students will cease competing and comparing themselves against each other as frequently as today. They will be concentrating on their own learning. This will appreciably reduce derogatory comparisons with other groups of students. Pupils will work together in seminars and workshops, as I will show later, but they will be better able to do the work because they will not enter the cooperative projects until they are sufficiently prepared.

The more important way that computers will reduce future prejudice is by ensuring that all students can and will learn. As academic achievement improves for certain students, especially minority groups, the seeds of prejudice in the minds of other pupils will be lessened.

Computers, of course, cannot eliminate all prejudice. Some bigoted instructors who have been influenced by their early learning will remain. With computerized education, however, attitudes of these teachers will be less damaging. In Chapter 19 I will show how each student will have an individual Leader teacher. Students will have only one teacher for at least a year at a time, and will be able to choose whom they wish. They will be better able to select teachers without prejudice toward them. The evil will be reduced because bigoted teachers will be less likely to deal with students who are objects of their prejudice.

Bias or prejudice against different races, religions and patterns of ethnic customs is often glaring, but a more subtle form also exists. It is directed against females in certain subjects, particularly mathematics and science.

Bias against women is sometimes considered to be an evil out of the murky past that has been eliminated. The American Association of University Women, however, put out a scathing report in February 1992.⁴⁴ This group had studied conditions confronting females in classrooms and concluded that hindrances to their scholastic success have not been eliminated or even begun to be addressed properly.

Before girls begin school, they test higher than boys. By the time they graduate from high school they are behind. Myra and David Sadker in their 1994 book Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls, complain that, "Sitting in the same classroom, reading the same textbook, listening to the same teacher, boys and girls receive very different educations." In their extensive studies of schools these authors found repeated problems: girls are given less time to answer; boys are offered more detailed and constructive criticism; teachers interact with boys eight times more frequently than with girls; often when boys shout out an answer, it is accepted, but girls in the same class get reprimanded for that type of spontaneity.

Many, perhaps most teachers, even if they are unaware of their bias and deny it emphatically, are infected. Their negative attitudes may have begun when they, themselves, were students.

Girls, subject to this discrimination may develop hesitations about their own talents. The result is prejudice directed at one's own sex that remains even when its causes have been long forgotten. This self doubt may explain why females are often the first to say that they have no ability in math and science, although girls consistently get grades equal or better than boys in these subjects. This is probably an important reason why only three percent of science and engineering graduates are female. If they become teachers, they will in turn communicate these basic but hidden ideas to their students.

Boys, seeing the discrimination against girls, easily pick up the thought that males are superior in academics. Thereafter, they don't like to be equalled by females in subjects where feel they are, or should be, better. Sometimes, they are so brazenly protective of their position that they intimidate girls into accepting it. Years later, as adults, the actions of these males may be unknowingly influenced by what they originally learned, or thought they learned, about females.

Girls, therefore, confront a huge hurdle in education. Massive numbers of instructors teach with some form of bias. Even under ideal conditions, changing teachers' attitudes toward women's abilities would take many years. Since most teachers don't know they are affected, simply telling them to change won't solve the plight of girls. Another answer is needed. Otherwise, sexist teaching will remain in schools.

Many difficulties that girls face in classrooms can be addressed more easily by learning through computers than by any other means. Girls will have for the first time, equal opportunity in all basic learning. Computerized education also will destroy a basis of future prejudice among students who might be influenced by seeing their female classmates belittled, however subtly, in today's classes.

Girls will be learning all their basics through computers. Later, when their foundation is secure. they will join in cooperative projects with boys. The danger that females will again be demeaned in these cooperative undertakings will diminish appreciably: girls will understand their own abilities and will have developed a basic confidence in their own talents.

Traditionalists might object that girls will feel uncomfortable with computers. That is a foolish objection, reminiscent of the ideas of earlier ages that girls should not go to school. Neither girls nor boys will be intimidated by computers. The machines will teach all children to feel at ease with this form of education.

All prejudice, whatever its form, and against whomever it is directed, may be compared to cancer that eats away at the structure of the nation. Computerized education is essential in its eventual elimination in America.

An unfortunate practice in education today is the necessary use of substitute teachers. A teacher, absent from a class, must be replaced by someone who attempts to fill the void, but with little knowledge of the class members, and usually with less skill than the regular instructor. Alternatives don't exist.

The normal reaction of most people hearing about this condition is "Of course. What is unusual or sinister about substitutes?" This type of reply epitomizes a frequent, but woeful condition in education today. Educational tragedies are ignored because they have been around for many years, and people have grown accustomed to them. Having substitute teachers is an acute obstacle to improving education. The disorder is getting worse, yet it arouses little concern among parents or educators.

The number of classes requiring substitutes has been increasing sharply in recent years. The number of sick days allowed regular teachers has increased together with absences of teachers. This growth may be due simply to the additional days available, but may result from the additional stress that teaching is placing on teachers, forcing them to require more days away from classrooms.

As the need expands, quality of substitutes decreases further from its already poor condition. Schools must grapple with the need to find sufficient numbers of temporary replacements. They are forced to lower their standards. Toch complains of

the lax credentialing standards that most states have for day-to-day substitutes. Only a handful of states require the same subject- matter background of secondary school substitutes as they do of regular teachers, while many issue licenses that allow substitutes to teach any high school subject, and many more set no standards for substitute teachers at all. Of the states that do issue licenses to daily substitutes, half don't require a bachelors's degree, according to the [National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification] survey. Such standards are troublesome because teacher absenteeism is a tremendous problem in the public schools. It's not uncommon to find high schools with 10 percent, 15 percent, or even 20 percent of their teachers absent each day. As a result, thousands of the nation's public school classrooms are staffed by ill-trained substitutes daily.⁴⁵

Even allowing for some outstanding subs, the poor general quality is understandable. The problem begins with funding. Substitute teachers are paid less than regular teachers. This alone suggests that many subs will have poorer training and be less effective in classrooms than the permanent teacher.

Even if a specific substitute teacher happens to be talented and capable, effective teaching is not assured. Qualifications are only the beginning of the difficulties. A study of the history of the typical substitute teacher shows the genesis of problems. Subs sign up with a central office in the school system. They must provide a record of their credits and teaching endorsements. A potential substitute with good qualifications in one subject may be allowed to go on the list for many more subjects that are only remotely related. School systems need substitutes and want as many subs as they can corral to be on their list. The system loses nothing if a sub is never used in a school. If, however, the day comes when a substitute is unavailable, the principal suddenly confronts a formidable problem. Classes must be covered, and almost any living, breathing body may be acceptable if no one else is available. No class can be left unattended. I know a sub who was once assigned to a photography class because she was certified for chemistry, although she knew nothing about photography.

This signing up process usually ends the substitute's preparatory work toward becoming a sub. Some morning at the bright and cheerful hour of 6:00 AM, the phone rings and rouses the sub from what we hope was a sound sleep because he or she will need the strength that comes from a restful night. The necessary information is communicated to the substitute: the school, its location, and the subjects for which the permanent teacher is responsible. The day's saga for the temporary instructor and the thirty members in each of his or her classes is about to begin. Frequently, it is a true adventure for both teacher and students.

The substitute hopes to find a lesson plan for that day, prepared by the regular teacher. Under ideal circumstances, the regular teacher has provided a detailed plan. This sometimes happens; often it does not. On occasion, the teacher not only fails to leave a suitable lesson plan, but may leave only the barest outline, and sometimes no lesson plan. Regular teachers often feel that the sub will accomplish little, and that they will have to repeat the lesson. Under these conditions, teachers have little incentive to spend a lot of extra effort trying to make sure that a detailed lesson plan is prepared. Motivation for the teacher to prepare the students for the sub is also lacking. Substitutes are often referred to by regular faculty members as "expensive baby-sitters."

Sometimes regular teachers know that they will be gone, as, for example, when they are going to a conference. When that occurs, teachers are more likely to leave detailed instructions for the substitute. Often, of course, a teacher awakes feeling ill at 5:30 AM, and the principal's office must arrange for a sub at 6:00 AM. Without a detailed lesson plan, the substitute teacher enters that class at an intimidating disadvantage.

The biggest problem confronting substitute teachers is the attitude of class members. One teacher, whom I know, did some subbing while she worked on an advanced degree in another town. She is an excellent teacher and never had a difficulty with discipline when she taught full time. Nonetheless, she said she wasted an undue amount of her time trying to establish discipline in classes where she was a sub. She described her experiences that year as providing students with a "license to raise hell."

The substitute is unfamiliar with the class and unaware of what has taken place and which students may cause difficulties. When the sub arrives, the students know that their relationship with this instructor is temporary. Their grade will be unaffected by their behavior while this teacher, who will have nothing to do with grading, is present in the class. Even skilled substitute teachers find this a difficult predicament. Maintaining discipline is more important than teaching because without discipline, everything else is futile.

Frequently the classes that require many substitutes are those that have the poorest discipline even while the regular teacher is present. Teachers are human and suffer normal psychological stress. Those who have classes with the unruly students will find teaching agonizingly difficult. They will often be those who will need frequent relief from the rigors of a classroom. A substitute going into class that is accustomed to poor discipline with the regular teacher will find conditions that day in that class to be horrendous. Even when regular teachers have a disciplined class, subs must still struggle to maintain that condition.

If substitutes are those who are less qualified or are taking on classes for which they are poorly trained, students will spot the deficiencies quickly. A few students will understand and pounce on any indications of teacher weakness. The day's contest begins to unfold, and the students have the position of strength.

This reliance on subs creates an immediate and obvious difficulty. About eight percent of teachers across the nation are absent on any given day; almost one school day in twelve may be less than ideal. Considering this, how can anyone, who seriously considers the stress that use of substitutes inflicts on education, airily dismiss the practice?

The problem is not new, only worsening. Substitute teachers have meant poorer education for students for many years. A study was done in New York schools in 1974. The findings were conclusive, and showed that substitute teachers were significantly less effective in teaching than regular teachers.⁴⁶

Many educators understand these problems. They write frequent articles in educational journals suggesting means of improving substitute teaching.⁴⁷ Making substantial changes is challenging, however, because of many inherent problems. A major one is the high turnover rate among substitutes. Subbing is an unpleasant job and pays poorly. Why keep on if you can find another job? Many articles on improving the lot of substitute teachers advocate more training by school systems, but if schools develop an elaborate system for training subs, the effort is wasted when the substitute leaves.

The practice is absolutely unchangeable in the present system of education in which instruction is totally dependent upon an individual teacher who has full responsibility for supervising learning of a specific subject. In computerized education, there will be no substitute teachers since the computer will be teaching. A human monitor will be required in most classrooms, but without needing to be knowledgeable in any particular subject. Monitors will assist, encourage and support students, but will not provide academic material. Professional teachers will sometimes be monitors. It will give them additional opportunities to interact with the students. Often, however, monitoring will be done by paraprofessionals, equivalent to today's "teacher's aides." When a regular monitor is absent, others on staff, either teachers or paraprofessionals, will be able to step into that position.

Wiping out the involvement of substitute teachers will by itself bring massive benefits to education. Up to one day in twelve will no longer be wasted.

Computerized education also will provide other peripheral benefits. I have mentioned some, but not all of these elsewhere in this book. Each by itself may not be immensely significant, but their cumulative value is considerable.

1. Students will not be penalized by ordinary absences. Most students miss some days during their schooling because of illness. At least inconvenience, if not more severe difficulty, hinders students when they return and try to catch up. In the computer schools, lessons will always begin where the previous class ended, regardless of the time lag. Vacations will not have to be predetermined and taken by everybody simultaneously. Whenever a parent wishes to remove a student from class to travel with the family, the student will fit in exactly when the trip is completed. Workshops, seminars and field trips, which will be vital in computerized education, can be scheduled without concern about missing classes.
2. The need for records and paperwork with the accompanying possibility of errors will be less burdensome to school systems. Paperwork will be drastically reduced. Computers will develop and keep necessary records, and print them or transmit them instantaneously and accurately to other files when needed.
3. Teaching will not be bound by current time constraints. Computers are tireless and can work and instruct at anytime and under virtually any circumstances. They are not limited to an eight hour day or forty hour week. They don't need vacations and are never hampered by physical illness or psychological problems. Burnout for a computer can be remedied by simply replacing either a part of the machine or the whole computer.
4. Time spent learning in school can be increased. Students in the United States attend school about 180 days each year. Competitor nations including Germany, Japan and England have many more days in their school calendar - up to 240 days in some industrialized nations. This time differential is piled atop the other shortcomings in American education, but no solution is available under present conditions. To extend schooling today would require tens of thousands of additional teachers. Schools are unable to find them especially in the critical areas of math and science. Even if they could be located, they could not be employed: school budgets which have trouble supporting present expenditures could not find the added revenue needed to increase schooling by thirty- three percent. Although the additional learning that will follow from computerized education may obviate the necessity of extending the school year, schools will be able to provide the additional schooling. The machines will be available with little additional cost for schools. Moreover, increased time could be provided in diverse ways. Schools could be open on Saturday or Sunday for some students, while others continue a Monday to Friday schedule. Classes could be available twelve months a year, and students and their parents could decide when to attend. Computers would easily track attendance and ensure it met school requirements.
5. Computerized education will always be current. As information in the world explodes, teachers find it difficult to absorb all developments. Keeping students abreast of new advances is particularly important in scientific fields. It is much easier to update one computer program that will be used in thousands of classrooms than to update the working knowledge of thousands of teachers now in those classrooms.
6. Important additions to learning that are now overlooked in most schools can be added easily.. Every student will learn to type soon after learning to read. Pupils will acquire a skill that will remain with them for the remainder of their lives and provide many benefits. Another important addition that will be universally included will be instruction in reading faster with improved comprehension. Speed reading courses have often been available outside formal education for fees, but few schools devote much time to cultivating this talent. This omission may be due to the lack of training of teachers or to the wide diversity of reading skills within a class. Computers have neither limitation and are ideally suited to develop faster reading because they can easily increase or decrease the rate that words appear on the monitor. The machines will test understanding immediately and develop the students' facility with printed text. Rapid reading with high comprehension is a skill that can be learned, and will be a basic competency that students develop early, improve periodically and retain throughout their lives.
7. Computers used by students during the day will be available in the evening for ongoing adult education programs. Lifetime learning fulfills the basic desire and is popular in many retirement communities. AMERICA 2000 encouraged this movement stating: "The president is urging every American to continue learning throughout his or her life." This document asked Americans to become a "Nation of Students." This lofty goal is difficult to attain because increased learning is usually dependent on instructors who are costly. Computerized education will be as valuable for older students as for younger ones. Software can be available that will instruct the learners about use of the machines and use of other software without the need for human instructors.

Many parts of society will profit from the use of computerized education in the schools. Taxpayers will gain because the cost of education will be reduced. American business will benefit since the work force will be better educated and will not require remedial education. School administrators will rejoice when they have fewer discipline problems. Since crime and illiteracy are so intimately connected, a literate society will lessen lawlessness, to the benefit of all, but especially to law enforcement officials.

The greatest delight of parents of course, will be that their children are better educated. Teachers will benefit since they will find more personal satisfaction in their profession. Their work will be more exciting, challenging and enjoyable; they will see more accomplishments from their efforts. Moreover, they should be better paid since their jobs will be even more important. The new role of teachers will be covered more extensively in the following chapters. The whole nation will benefit from computerized education. Its citizens will be better prepared to compete with other nations in the global economy that envelops the world today.

Students, however, will be the foremost beneficiaries of computerized education exactly as they are the ones who suffer most from the educational debacle of today. Their gains are recounted throughout this book.

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GO TO :SECTION V

FOOTNOTES

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