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Page 4AThe BattalionAThursday, August 11,1988
Back to school in the future
Cash For Used Books A&M specialist envisions computer-guided learning system
Northgate
(across from Post Office)
Redmond Terrace
(next to Academy)
By Victoria Larroca
Reporter
a&M Steakhouse
108 College Main
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No more pencils and no more books in school.
Sounds like a great idea, but it’ll never happen,
right? Wrong, according to a Texas A&M learn
ing technology specialist.
Dr. Lynn Stevenson says the schools of the fu
ture will not have any pencils or books. Even
though there will still be teachers, she says, they
will be called educational engineers, and their
purpose will not be to teach but to monitor the
progress of students as they learn at their com
puters.
Stevenson foresees the entire educational sys
tem revolving around computers and all the
learners (students) being completely computer-
literate.
Schools of the future will focus on the concept
that the end of learning is the end of life, Steven
son says.
Although this school of the future may be
years away, an instructional management pro
gram designed by Texas A&M educator Dr. Mi
chael Burger is already being used by Stevenson.
“An instructional and administrative manage
ment system called HeadMaster has been de
signed to assist educators in the planning and
evaluation of instruction,” Stevenson said. “The
software provides teachers and administrators
with a tool which will reduce paperwork yet in
crease their ability to monitor instructional infor
mation and improve the planning and evaluation
of instruction and instructional programs.”
The HeadMaster progam will free the instruc
tional staff from technical time-consuming duties
such as grading and lesson planning and allow
them to interact more with the learners, Steven
son said.
“Many people charge that such a system with
so many computers could only be impersonal,
but the result is just the opposite,” she said. “The
system is specifically designed to meet the needs
of each individual student, and student profile
information will help to continuously revise the
programs to keep up with the current level of the
student.”
The physical aspects of the learning system
will change as well, Stevenson said. An example
facility would resemble the hub of a wheel with a
bubble atrium encasing the center’s instructional
core, she said. Lush foliage in a cobblestone
courtyard and plants suspended from the convex
sides of the bubble would add a natural
sphere to the learning environment.
Inside the bubble, an engineer at the ten
data base will monitor each student's acta
while a second engineer moves aroundprotj
assistance to the learners, said Stevenson
computers will he able to tap into such restn
as chief executive officers and Fortune 500t
panics through the use of teleconferencing
surrogate travel, she said.
“Some learners will be receiving correciiij
formation from consultants or educationalt
neers and will be revising projects," she*
“Others will be involved in teleconferences!
corporate contacts, information retrieval am
view, surrogate travel options or the Jr
opment of product or text.”
Stevenson said the current system of edna
is very inefficient because it advances at sue
slow rate.
“A student’s individual learning abilityis
located by the present structure,” she said "S
dents progress on different levels. The com
of the school of the future would allowthta
move at their own rate and finish their school
much sooner.”
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Budget Board uses
execution authority
to relieve prisons
AUSTIN (AP) — The Legislative
Budget Board, using the new budget
execution authority for the first
time, on Wednesday approved most
of Gov. Bill Clements’ emergency
plan to help relieve prison and jail
crowding.
Included was approval of a $9.2
million transfer for construction of
five Texas Department of Correc
tions trusty camps that will each hold
200 inmates.
In a separate action, the board ap
proved the transfer of $31.7 million
that the Department of Mental
Health and Mental Retardation will
use to meet standards set in the set
tlement of lawsuits challenging the
way the agency runs its state schools
and state hospitals.
All of the LBB actions came in re
sponse to proposals made by Clem
ents under the so-called budget exe
cution authority approved by voters
in November 1985 and imple
mented by the 1987 Legislature. Un
der the system, a governor can pro
pose spending changes when the
Legislature is not in session. The
proposals must be approved by the
LBB, which includes five members
from each chamber of the Legis
lature.
The money for the trusty camps,
which will be minimum-security
prisons, comes from unexpended
TDC appropriations. The new facili
ties should oe ready before August
1989.
LBB members also approved
Clements’ proposals for increased
funds for the Adult Probation Com
mission and Board of Pardons and
Paroles. The probation commission
will get $2 million to use for additio
nal employees and increased use of
electronic monitoring of probation
ers. The money was transferred
from funds appropriated for other
probation purposes, but not spent.
The Board of Pardons and Pa
roles was authorized to spend $1.7
million to expand its programs. That
money also came from unexpended
funds previously allocated for the
agency.
The LBB balked at a Clements
proposal in which the old Bexar
County Jail, which was replaced in
the spring by a new jail, would be
used to house parole violators who
otherwise would go back to TDC.
The facility would be operated by a
private company.
Board members had a variety of
questions about the plan. They voted
to put $3.3 million for the program
on hold, and said they would recon
sider it at their September meeting.
“There are a lot of ifs,” said
House Speaker Gib Lewis, an LBB
member. “We’re concerned about
giving approval when there are so
many unanswered questions.”
Clements wants $13.9 million
transferred for the Bexar County
proposal, including $2 million from
a $12 million emergency fund given
to his office by the Legislature last
year.
Sen. Bob Glasgow, D-Stephen-
ville, rapped Clements for not
spending the money sooner to help
solve the prison problem.
Scott said every effort has been
made to find more prison space, in
cluding reviews of abandoned air
ports, old radar facilities and British
ships that had been used in the Falk
land Islands war.
Oversupply of cotton spurs price drop
By Gina Rumore
Reporter
Texas cotton farmers are sur
viving the drought, but an over
abundance of cotton is causing
market prices to fall, a Texas Ag
ricultural Extension Service econ
omist said.
Carl Anderson said the dam
age from the drought is located in
the coastal bend and South Texas
regions.
“About 50 percent of the cot
ton grown in Texas is produced
in Lubbock and the surrounding
counties,” Anderson said.
“They’ve been lucky with the rain
this year and have produced fa
vorable crops.”
Anderson said cotton is suffer
ing because the cotton crop
twice as large as normal, demau
for domestic apparel fii!
dropped, and exports have dt
creased.
“T here has been a loss in«
port markets for 1988 becaus
China and Pakistan also had goo
crops for the year,” Andem:
said. “T hey were able to delut
cotton to other nations for be
prices than the U.S., atleasil
cents less in some cases."
Anderson said the market;
very unstable, and weatherconJt
lions over the next seven
months will decide which w
market prices move.
It’s just the fax for doctoral candidate
By Allison Seale
Reporter
For a Texas A&M doctoral
candidate working on his disser
tation in Saudi Arabia, College
Station and graduation are only a
few “fax” away.
Tom Heilman of Houston has
been in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
since last September, working to
upgrade the medical technology
program at Abul-Aziz University
while writing his dissertation.
With the use of a facsimile ma
chine, Heilman transmits his dis
sertation, “Predicting Academic
Success in Medical Laboratory
Technician Programs in Texas
Public, Community and Junior
Colleges,” one chapter at a time
to Dr. Gayle Schmidt, associate
professor of health and physical
education and Heilman’s doctoral
committee chairman.
Schmidt reviews the pages,
adds her comments and returns
the chapter by facsimile a wed
later to Heilman.
“This method of communio
tion is not foolproof,” Schnt:
said. “There are bugs in them
tern.”
Schmidt said that one tiiK
Heilman did not realize thank
receiving machine had runoutd
paper and when she received!
chapter, it was missing seven!
pages.
Another disadvantage
Schmidt said, is Heilman's ak
sence when she has a questiot
making misinterpretation a ret
possibility.
“It’s a real test of writtenc®
munication when you caww
communicate face-to-face
Schmidt said. “You're forcedi
depend the words and the word
alone.”
Heilman will return toC
Station in August and shouldte
ceive his Ph.D. in December
Blind listeners like what they hear on
station that broadcasts comics, books
DALLAS (AP) — When more
than 2,000 area residents want to en
joy a good book after a long day,
they settle into their favorite chairs,
close their eyes and turn on the ra
dio.
A special radio station in Dallas —
with what may be the state’s smallest
but most faithful audience — deliv
ers 13 hours of material from books,
newspapers and magazines daily to
the visually impaired.
“Our main goal is to give them in
formation they can’t get anywhere
else,” explained Dawn Filomena, sta
tion manager for the North Texas
Radio Reading Service.
The station, which prefers to be
known as NTRB (North Texas Ra
dio for the Blind), is one of 101 simi
lar reading services nationwide. The
only other Texas station serves the
Houston area.
Relying on a pool of 250 volun
teers to develop and record its pro
gramming, the station has a minus
cule annual budget of less than
$70,000.
Only those with a special receiver
who live within about 80 miles of
Dallas can hear the station, whose
signal is broadcast piggyback along
side programming from KERA-FM.
The receivers are purchased with
donations, mainly from United Way
sources, then distributed free to
qualified individuals.
“We figure it costs $40 a year per
receiver to run the station,” Filo
mena said. “Once a year, we ask our
listeners to make a donation. Some
of them can only afford to give $3 or
$5. They give what they can.”
Dallas Times Herald and the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram.
Other readers provide listeners
with the day’s newspaper editorials,
local columns and horoscope list
ings, a collection the station calls its
“Newspaper of the Air.”
The service is critical, Filomena
said. The 12-year-old station doesn’t
just rehash the day’s news, some
thing listeners could get elsewhere,
but gives them information other
wise denied to them by their lack of
sight, she said.
For instance, one of the most pop
ular offerings is a one-hour Sunday
night show in which a volunteer re
ads and describes the day’s comics
from the Dallas Morning News, the
The station also has daily one-
hour readings from three different
books selected from the New York
Times best-seller list.
And, possibly because more than
60 percent of the audience is elderly,
one of the biggest attractions is a da
ily review of newspaper obituaries.
quests. That is why it beganm® cc
reviews of local plays, somethin:
one had previously provided foi
visually impaired.
“People just assume blind pe
don’t go to plays and movici
watch TV,” Filomena said
that’s wrong, especially for (host
teners who were sighted before
“I had one little old lady call me a
couple of months ago and remind
me how important they were,” Filo
mena said. “She said, ‘You know, I
can’t die until I know all my friends
have died.’ And she was serious.
When you’re that age, it’s embarrass
ing to try and call a friend and find
out that way they are dead.”
The station occasionally adds to its
programming because of listener re-
Another highly valued feaiurt
5 a.m. show on Saturday, inwii
volunteer sifts through what"
appear to be junk mail. Fori
blind listeners, who often shop 1
ot hers, it is the only chance the'
to become familiar with grocer
pharmaceutical prices and
often-tight budgets.
T he station’s format apparf
might he popular with sighted!
pie as well. Station manager
ine Garrison used to have one
problem: “Every time I loaned
one of our receivers so people®
see what we are doing, I wouldk
trouble getting it back.”
9 OUT OF 10 PUPPIES
PREFER THE BATTALION
Authorized Reseller
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