COMPUTER IN EDUCATION

Effects of Computer in Education



Table of Contents

Abstract3

Mini Computers and Education3

Computer Toys Designed by Edmund Berkely4

Geniac5

Tyniac5

Brainiac5

Role of Government for Introducing Computing in Education6

Role of Media for Introducing Computing in Education6

Present Day Usage of Computing in Education7

Computers for Teaching7

Video Conferencing8

Web Technologies8

Software8

Communication9

Students' Portal9

Course Registration System of Universities9

Conclusion10

Effects of Computer in Education

Abstract

The education today is highly impacted by the use of computers and advanced information and computer technologies. The computers started to get introduce in school during periods of 1970's and 1980's. This was the period when the developments in minicomputers began to build the ground for the journey of computers in the education sector. As compared to large-scale mainframes, mini-based computers were easily fitted in the educational organizations' budget. In this paper, we will discuss the mini computers introduced for educational purposes during periods of 1970's and 1980's. We also highlight the present day usage of computers for educational purposes and dependence of universities on computers for teaching and course registration systems.

Mini Computers and Education

The size of minicomputer is in between micro computer and mainframes. In 1970's when microcomputer was not yet developed fully, and main frames were not considered to fit in the school environment, because of their huge size and budget requirement, mini computers undoubtedly gained much popularity in the education sector. The main reason for this fame was the low cost and small size of these computers as compared to large-scale mainframes (Barnes P., 1979). Using mini computers, education organizations could enjoy the computing capabilities at low cost, which easily fell into their budget.

In the period of 1968-1972, the minicomputer revolution began. It was the period during which the number of manufacturers of minicomputer rose significantly. The main manufacturers of mini computers included Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment Corp. and Data General. In this section, we will discuss briefly about the popular mini computers and their fame in the education sector.

The growing demand of standalone systems for the education sector and academic research was the main reason of mini computer's success in education. The mini computers offered advanced features of multi tasking and capability of handling multiple users at a time. Earlier the students had to wait in a long queue for entering their inputs via punched card. Development of mini computers helped the schools in effective time management for students and providing a better learning experience. The operating systems which were integrated with the mini computers such as UNIX and VMX, resulted in the innovation of the concepts of virtual storage and multiprogramming.

The education sector gained more interest in the development of computerized infra structure for the education due to the development of APRANET, using which the concept of computer communication and networking developed. The development of the mini computers including PDP-8, the IBM systems 3 and the Honeywell 200 and 1200encouraged the schools and higher level institutes to establish the computer infrastructure.

Digital Equipments Corporation developed the first successful minicomputer PDP-8. It consisted of a 12-bit ...