russ@pyr.gatech.EDU (RUSSELL SHACKELFORD) (05/16/89)
The following is in response to several inquiries I have received over the net, suggesting that I provide some information about "OPTIMUS, The Teaching Information System". --------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPTIMUS: History and Dogma --------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPTIMUS grew out of a 3-year study (1983-86) in the Computer Supported Instruction (CSI) Project at Georgia Tech. The purpose of the study was to see how we might best use CHEAP technology to make an ACTUAL contribution to TRADITIONAL education RIGHT NOW. We were NOT blue-skying about what we could do if we had 10 years and $100 million to play with. We were trying to develop a model that could be applied in typical settings, college and pre-college, not just in big-buck universities. To make a long story shorter, we a arrived at a coherent perspective. A summary of conclusions relevant to OPTIMUS (I am responsible for the following statements; Georgia Tech is not): 1. Programmed Instruction, i.e., CBI, is neither cost-effective nor realistically do-able, at least not in this century. It has conceptual and practical holes big enough to drive a bus through, both technically and pedagogically. A key problem is the inability of CBI technology to support the processing of long/complex student responses, the kind that are crucial to education (we don't need MORE multiple choice tests!). 2. Like any other system, Education requires adequate feedback loops in order to self-regulate. Education has been attempting to function in the Information Age with self-regulatory feedback loops that date from the Industrial Age. Since these loops are obsolete and inadequate, widespread failure of self-regulation has occurred (and made headlines: "Incompetent Teachers!!", "Illiterate Graduates!!!", etc.). 3. An appropriate role for computers is to SUPPORT education by providing the information processing functionality necessary to ALLOW educators to self-regulate. Given appropriate information, educators will NATURALLY self-regulate, which will inevitably work better than reactionary efforts to CONTROL (bureaucracy-regulate) the system. 4. For this to occur, it is necessary that computers be incorporated into the PROCESS of education, i.e., it must achieve the status of an EDUCATOR"S BASIC TOOL. As long as computers are "in a room down the hall", they will not have significant impact. As long as they are deployed primarily for use by the CLIENT (student) and are not used by the PROFESSIONAL (teacher), nothing useful will happen. Observe: (a) Education is the only profession that deploys its limited computer resources primarily for Client use, not Professional use; (b) Education is the only profession where computers haven't done squat. 5. For Professionals to USE computers, computers must be a productivity aid, i.e. they must DO something useful FOR the Professional on a daily basis. Thus, we require computer systems that: a. Do something FOR the Teacher in terms of daily practice. b. Provide USEFUL information as required for self-regulation. c. Are cheap enough to be ubiquitous. Specifications for such a system were developed in 1985-86. GT is not in the microcomputer software development business, and thus no system was developed there. A few people who worked with that project decided it was worth doing, and have implemented the idea over the last 2 years (1987-88) as "OPTIMUS, The Teaching Information System". I served as Coordinator of Software Development in the CSI Project, and I have had extensive input into the design of OPTIMUS. I have not done any of the actual implementation myself, having been busy working on an unrelated research grant and finishing my Ph.D. However, the idea is near and dear to me, and I am very pleased with the OPTIMUS program. I think it is a very important thing for Education. It allows us to have a "window" into important aspects of the teaching-and-learning process and it has the potential to be very important in terms of BOTH research AND practice. Russell Shackelford russ@pyr.gatech.edu