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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1984)
leys m m The Battalion Thursday, January 19, 1984 Video computer course ‘fills the bill’ l United Press International For no frills learning, hunker down in front of the television set and pick up the nuts and bolts of an introductory course on computers — for college credit. Thousands nationwide are doing just that since the debut this month of “The New Litera cy,” a state-of-the art Public Broadcasting Service Adult rhea is L earn j n g Service telecourse 1 esntti jva i| a iji e ove many PBS sta- ron g J ftions. To get credit, a viewer must ign up with a college. Text irtunitfi woks, tests, the works are hi ke fortli luded. People not wanting cre- litcan view and develop compil er smarts, too. From San Mateo, Calif., to Durham, N.H., and dozens of . ilaces in between educators are id tunc; ipp| au ding the newest entry in men!In Recourses for college credit, of dollas practice. oney, present At the College of San Mateo in San Mateo, Calif., Michael Kimball, director of instruction al services, said those signing up include timorous students, the handicapped and housebound mothers of small children — people who can’t come to campus. The televised computer course also is helping San Mateo, as other schools, to make up a shortfall in a very impacted course on campus — introduc tion to computers. An impacted course, as Kim ball told it, is one in which de mand exceeds a school’s ability to supply enough places for stu dents. On hundreds of campuses this academic year the big shor tage is in introductory computer courses. A part of the problem is a dearth or qualified instructors. The $1.2 million TV course, “The New Literacy: An Intro duction to Computers,” was two yeais in the making, produced by the Southern California Con sortium, and funded by the Annenberg-Corporation for Public Broadcast Project. “Understanding computers no longer is considered the ex clusive turf of computer science and engineering majors at uni versities or an exotic hobby of games-players and futurists,” said Sally V. Beaty, executive producer and director of the Consortium. “This knowledge has become a necessity, for computers are now serving every facet of society.” The course consists of .26 half- hour units grouped into six learning modules covering con cepts, data flow, applications, programming, enhancing sys tem capability and impact on society. A pilot test of “The New Literacy” was conducted among college students and adult lear ners in Arizona, Illinois, Texas, Michigan, and California. Parti cipants were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. “Students in the experimental group using ‘The New Literacy’ materials scored significantly better on their knowledge of computers than those in the con trol group taking a computer course without those materials,” reported Dr. Robert La Rose, vice president of research for the ELRA Group that ran the study. The Southern California Consortium includes Chicago City Colleges; Coast Community Colleges; Dallas County Com munity College District; Depart ment of Education, State of Florida; Suburban Community College Television Consortium; and the Wisconsin Foundation for Vocational, Technical, and Adult Education. The Annenberg-CPB Project was founded in 1981 to provide grants for developing quality college-level materials using the new technology and demon strating the use of telecommuni cations to address higher educa tion problems. Why a course on computers? Experts agree that literacy today is not only a capability to read, but an ability to understand and use computers. The number of computers in operation in the U.S. today, 2.8 million, is ex pected to more than double by 1985. The course gets away from the stereotype of television in struction — a professor in a clas sroom lecturing, scribbling or sketching on a blackboard or de monstrating equipment. Sequences were videotaped in a computer camp for children, an attorney’s office, a daily newspaper, a plumbing busi ness, an insurance company, a grocery chain, a fire depart ment, a bank, hospital, compu ter manufacturer, swine farm and homes. For contrast, there also is a sequence in a one-room school house that was the center of community life in Beloit, Kans., in 1979. Interviewed during the course were more than 100 who develop or use computer tech nology, including authors Isaac Asimov and Michael Crichton. Asimov calls computers the “high-tech horses of the future.” :d in iropeme the Boa. 1 ' tiate vtn lis lawt of Hoi if Law tinue tla : Bryit of Wes ■re he« hip. work (j :ticed I? : firnid I, who in e Grim >mmen! : Grim iommerc i 1974 Panel wants longer school day Wellborn 2818 lions, last Df- 3 rej states®: rget of 2 rigg in ?' ling, » ig invest Zeringu y Distit iicials# ntil aftf at he Supp ic the 1983. lilable fa United Press International DALLAS — A subcommit tee of Gov. Mark White’s blue- ribbon panel on public school reform Wednesday recom mended school days be leng thened to nine hours and ex tracurricular activies be li mited to only students passing all their courses. The school day and acade mic recommendations were among a list of proposals which nave been approved by the Select Committee on Pub lic Education’s subcommittee on educating the child. Other proposals included: — Sanctioning extracurri cular competitions on Sunday afternoons. — Requiring tutoring programs for students not passing all courses. — Making school facilities available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. five days per week. —Estab lishing a “community school” concept allowing school dis trict facilities and staff to be used to educate people beyond school age. The proposals all will be submitted to the full commit tee in the form of formal re commendations for inclusion in the panel’s March 1 report to White. The proposal to lengthen the school day would require that classes commence at 8:30 a.m. daily and continue until 5:30 p.m., with a short break foi lunch, said Dr. Jon Flem ing, president of Texas Wes leyan College and head of the subcommittee on educating the child. “We have many students who go home and home is an empty house with a television set and a warmed-over ham burger,” Fleming said. Fleming said that under the proposal, students from mid dle school on would concen trate on core academic sub jects from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with the remaining two hours of the day set aside for “life enriching” activities like tutoring, seminars, sports and teacher-student conferences. “And all students engaged in extracurricular activities would be required to maintain a grade of 70 or higher in all subjects,” Fleming said. The recommendations fol lowed the philosophy espoused by Dallas computer magnate H. Ross Perot, chair man of the select committee and a staunch opponent of non-academic activities dur ing the school day. Perot has repeatedly lashed out at acti- vites like sports and vocation education for stealing the school day from the student. “Thirty cents of school dol lar is spent for academics,” Perot said. “Thirty cents goes for electives and 40 cents goes for extracurricular activities, administration and retiring the school debt. “When you realize that 30 cents of every dollar is going for electives, there’s a lot of room for play there.” DELTA UPSILON a non-secret, non-hazing Fraternity announces Spring Rush: Friday, January 20 _ Thursday, January 26 Friday, February 3 Parties 8-12p.m. at Doubletree Condominiums Clubhouse, 1901 West Holleman. -For more information call Nigel 693-6515 or Chip 693-6365- 1st Right West Hollemar JAY’S GYM ♦TOTAL FITNESS FOR MEN & WOMEN* Clean, spacious, professional atmosphere ^ Individualized Instruction & Evaluations Circuit Training Bodybuilding/Powerlifting Carpeted Locker Rooms/Showers Over 6000 lbs. of free weights Nautilus principal machines Variable resistance, muiti-cam equipment Open 6 days a week to men & women Special Spring Semester Rate Call For More Info 3609-A S. 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