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The Plato II SystemRoberta StockPublished online: 15 Apr 2008.

To cite this article: Roberta Stock (1982) The Plato II System, Educational Media International, 19:1,15-16, DOI: 10.1080/09523988208549047

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523988208549047

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The schools should get started right away! Teachersneed help. You cannot just buy. the system, give someinstructions and leave them alone. They needadditional advice and support through resourcecentres and computer advisory services to give themconfidence in what they are doing. A lot of goodeducational courseware is needed. Currenteducational packages leave a lot to be desired. Theadministrators and decision-makers must beconvinced that computers in schools can do a job. It isnot the teachers who block the way, it is the peoplewho spend the money. Teachers must be given theproper tools and the knowledge to use them.

In response to questions Dr Charp commented onfour issues:Class size: iUvas thought using computers could saveteacher time and, experimenting with increasednumbers in the class, it was found that a teacherworking with a computer could manage morestudents.Cost-efficiency: this is a question that can beinterpreted in different ways. If a school has terminalsthat can be used for many different purposes, thehourly cost could be 20 cents. At the earlier stage withreally expensive equipment the system was not cost-effective. Microcomputers are so cheap, costs are nota worry. To answer the question one has to look atwhat the system is really used for. Even then it is not

possible to say this or that system will cost 10 cents anhour and another 20 cents. How can the costs andresults of a computer literacy course be measured?How can the costs of an art education project beevaluated? If I am really convinced that every studentshould learn about computers and every schoolshould have microcomputers, can I say 'provided itdoesn't cost more than so much'? What can be done,once it has been decided what the computers arerequired for (because it is still the educator'sresponsibility to fix priorities), is to obtain a price andestimate how much the system will cost.

Programming by children: during the computerliteracy program for the 9-10 year olds, part of thecourse, after they have learnt BASIC, involves pupilsin playing and developing their own programs. At thehigh school stage the computer is used to teachstibjects in the regular timetable, but the computerroom is open during breaks, lunch hours and after

,s,chool and students can, in many schools, use a"computer at will. ;Teacher training: This is a very sore point. It is feltuniversities and teachers' colleges are not doingenough to train teachers in computer use. Resourcecentres and support systems are doing their part, butit is hoped that more and more teachers will graduatewith knowledge of programming and the use ofcomputers in education.

*Direc(or, Instructional Systems Division, School District of Philadelphia, USA

THE PLATO II SYSTEMROBERTA STOCK*

Dr Stock emphasised that the main thesis of thepresentation was that the implementation system andwhat you do with it are one and the same thing: youcannot first specify educational objectives and subjectcontent and then look for an adequate computersystem. CAI is not an educational philosophy initself, it is a means of individualising learning. What iscrucial is that the chosen medium of implementationdoes what it is supposed to do. The speaker considersthat the PLATO II has the minimum requirementsfor success. There are many considerations that areignored. People talk about prices of microcomputersbut fail to take into account that some systems hurtthe eyes, or have unsatisfactory resolution. Othersystems cannot be used to collect data, or have limited

'School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Israel

memory, and most importantly, do not haveavailable enough diverse programs.The basic requirements for CAI, believes Dr Stock,are:1. A system that is physically not irritating, ispleasant to look at, does not hurt the eyes, has goodresolution, adequate screen size, no blur or fading,and has available parts and programs.2. The response time should be adequate and easyto work with, but also the student should not have towait for run-in, run-out time or to share it withsomebody else.3. The equipment should not be bulky.4. The company involved must be dependable andnot likely to go out of business in the next five years.5. The company should have a definite commit-

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ment to education and a willingness to help educatorsdevelop programs. From the beginning Control Datawent into a partnership with the University of Illinoisto develop its system and prepare programs.6. As the development of courseware is a very costlyprocess, the equipment company should provide thisas part of its service. Even to learn how to program iscostly and should be done by people whose solebusiness it is.7. Modifications, such as improved versatility,should be done within the system by the same peoplewho devised it in the first place in response to ourneeds as educators and programmers.8. In time there is a decrease in student motivation,especially with the question-answer-question type ofCAI operatian. Innovations which PLATO II has,such as graphics, animation, touch-response screenwith immediate feedback, together with adequatebranching, are important in maintaining motivation.9. The programming language must be easy toensure minimum teacher resistance. In 1982 ControlData is bringing in 'programless programming' — wewill just have to tell the system what we want it to do.Even feeding in graphics will be easy.10. The system should be cost-effective.11. A good supply of well-proven courseware isessential.

12. Computer Managed Instruction is an importantaspect of a large system. One of the initial advantagesof the computer was the ability to collect statistics onthousands of students, run tests, check results, do allsorts of comparisons — all quite important for

educators. Most microcomputers do not havefacilities for this. There are some compromisespossible such as PLATO II's ability to link into amajor system.

Finally another word on cost-effectiveness. Costs areno longer an issue. The University of Leyden hasundertaken research that showed this system to bemost adequate for their needs in terms of general,developmental, maintenance and operating costs,student and faculty satisfaction, CAI applicability,and so on. PLATO aside, they came out generally infavour of large systems. Certainly microcomputersare going down in price, but Dr Stock reminded theConference of the initial thesis — in education youcannot separate what you want to do from what youare going to do it on.

In response to questions, Dr Stock added thatPLATO had been available for 20 years. Initialresearch was done by the University of Illinois as aneducational venture and only after the system hadbeen proven to work did it become a business yenture.Control Data maintains a network of resource andlearning centres for its system. Applications ofPLATO in Israel include the Army and Air Force, aswell as some industrial complexes. The disadvantagesof PLATO II are that it cannot store more than 20students' records, and one cannot author on it; to dothis involves calling in a larger system. The inability tocommunicate with other authors and educators is ageneral disadvantage of microcomputers. If onewants to have a program on different machines,different versions have to be prepared.

A MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MIS) FOR EDUCATIONM TELEM*

Educational administration is an area of overlapbetween education and management. While schooladministration is more or less looked after, there is alack of attention given to the need of the educationalsystem for information. This is a curious situation, asin my view educational administration is by definitionmostly information processing: getting messages,processing them, reacting to them, getting feedback

-again and so shaping behaviour. The prevailingsituation is that every educational unit — whether atthe national, regional, local or individual school level— is 'an island' of hardware purchase, programming

*School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Israel

activities and data collection. Each unit has a separatedata bank without communicating much with theothers; so a great deal of redundant activity ensues.The central bodies, even in a centralised system,require cooperation and only give help in specificprojects. In these circumstances what is required is anintegrated management information system (MIS).This is easier said than done, and the morecomplicated the system, the more difficult it is todevise and maintain.

It is therefore imperative to create an awareness of theneed for an overall programme of coordination at anational level. This is what MIS should be aimed at; a

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