Abstract
In Kubrick's sci-Ii film2001: A Space Odyssey the spaceship's computer, named HAL, is made out to be a perfect machine though with human emotions and human fears. It can guide and plan with precision and also lip• read, sing, and conspire to take control. As its machine life systems are switched off, it cries out, 'I am afraid; I can feel it.'
HAL is a popular image of the hopes and fears that beset contemporary Western man in the face of the computer in government, business, science and education and the family. The hope is that the drudgery of work and study will be eased, leisure enriched, and knowledge and learning advanced. The fear is that man can lose control of the 'thinking machine' he himself has created. Massive unemployment in 'post-industrial' societies is only one of the symptoms of this loss of control.
Children of the more affluent families in these societies are taking to the microcomputer and word-processor in ever-increasing numbers at home and at school, as excitedly perhaps as to television, the cassette player and video in earlier times. What are the social, cultural and educational implications of this micro boom? How is it changing concepts and structures of teaching and learning, and indeed of education itself? How is the skewed diffusion of micros widening the gap between information-rich and information-poor families, within nations and among nations?
This issue of TRENDS highlights the major approaches to the introduction of computers into the schoolroom, reviews the literature, and suggests questions for further research.
Recommended Citation
(1986)
"Children, Computers and the 'New' Literacy,"
Communication Research Trends: Vol. 7:
No.
2, Article 1.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/crt/vol7/iss2/1
