Computer as Tool, Tutor & Tutee
TOOL
Computer functions as a tool to make the learner's task easier
TUTOR
Individualization tailors its tutoring to each individual to allow optimum learning
TUTEE
Shifts focus from end product to process, from acquiring facts
to manipulating and understanding them
Computer functions as a tool to make the learner's task easier
TUTOR
Individualization tailors its tutoring to each individual to allow optimum learning
TUTEE
Shifts focus from end product to process, from acquiring facts
to manipulating and understanding them
Computer as Tool
We can identify that the role of the computer here is to provide some functionality that makes the learner's task easier. The three examples we suggest for software of this type are statistical analysis programs, super calculation and word processing. The key here is that some of the 'routine clerical tasks of a tedious, mechanical kind' can be transferred to the computer.
Hence, the use of the computer in tool mode may teach the user something during use, but any such teaching is most likely accidental and not the result of an design to teach.When we go on to claim that most people involved in computers in education assume that a great deal of the time when computers are being used in education they are being used in Tool mode, but that few people would advocate this mode of use as being the most important.
Computer as Tutor
A good Tutor software can tailor its performance to cater for a wide range of different learner needs. Hence we can identify a number of issues about using computers as tutors instead of using human tutors. Two of the focuses are on:
Computer as Tutee
Three main advantages of using the computer as a tutee:
we can say, using the computer as a tutee qualitatively changes the learning experience and the role of teachers within school it does not downgrade the role of the classroom teachers.
we can believe that the Tutee mode is educationally better than the other two modes. For example :
Extended use of the computer as tutee can shift the focus of education in the classroom from end product to process, from acquiring facts to manipulating and understanding them.
and
To use the computer as tutor and tool can both improve and enrich classroom learning, and neither requires student or teacher to learn much about computers. By the same measure, however, neither tutor nor tool mode confers upon the user much of the general educational benefit associated with using the computer in the third mode, as tutee.
We can identify that the role of the computer here is to provide some functionality that makes the learner's task easier. The three examples we suggest for software of this type are statistical analysis programs, super calculation and word processing. The key here is that some of the 'routine clerical tasks of a tedious, mechanical kind' can be transferred to the computer.
Hence, the use of the computer in tool mode may teach the user something during use, but any such teaching is most likely accidental and not the result of an design to teach.When we go on to claim that most people involved in computers in education assume that a great deal of the time when computers are being used in education they are being used in Tool mode, but that few people would advocate this mode of use as being the most important.
Computer as Tutor
A good Tutor software can tailor its performance to cater for a wide range of different learner needs. Hence we can identify a number of issues about using computers as tutors instead of using human tutors. Two of the focuses are on:
- The length of time it takes to program a good computer tutor, due to the amount of detail that you need to include, particularly about the ways in which to respond to different student reactions. You would not need to specify this level of detail to a human tutor because they would improvise as they went.
- There is a greater need for individualization when using the computer as a tutor than when a human is teaching. Humans tend to teach a whole group whereas a computer tutor tends to work with one individual at a time and thus has to tailor its tutoring to each individual.
Computer as Tutee
Three main advantages of using the computer as a tutee:
- You will learn what you are trying to teach the computer, because you can't teach something you don't know about yourself.
- As the computer can only operate within narrow confines this will force you to think about how to teach the computer and in so doing will force you to think about how your own thinking works.
- Teachers can save time and money by using computers as tutees because they don't have to locate and pay for tutor or tool software.
we can say, using the computer as a tutee qualitatively changes the learning experience and the role of teachers within school it does not downgrade the role of the classroom teachers.
we can believe that the Tutee mode is educationally better than the other two modes. For example :
Extended use of the computer as tutee can shift the focus of education in the classroom from end product to process, from acquiring facts to manipulating and understanding them.
and
To use the computer as tutor and tool can both improve and enrich classroom learning, and neither requires student or teacher to learn much about computers. By the same measure, however, neither tutor nor tool mode confers upon the user much of the general educational benefit associated with using the computer in the third mode, as tutee.