Call to standardise school software

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 26

Call to standardise school software

More than 100 post-prim-ary schools have installed computer hardware systems for the use of pupils, according to the president of the Computer Society, Mr C. J. Potter,- in an interview in Christchurch. The computers are used by seventh-form pupils studying applied mathematics. Officials of the Education Department and the State Services Commission have been drawing up specifications for both the hardware and programmes for secondary schools, and the Computer Society has given advice to a Government-ap-pointed consultative committee on computers in schools.

Mr Potter said that it was important to standardise the software. It did not matter so much about the hardware.

What was lacking was an over-all plan, he said. “The committee has come up with a, .plan,”,.he. said. “What we want to know is if it is going to be acted upon.” The schools which were better off financially were the first to get computer systems. “If there is no national subsidy the disparity' between the haves and the have-nots is going to become more marked;” he said. The society believes that pupils from the fourth form up should be able to see what it is like to work a computer. “They should ,be able to use the keyboard and read what it says on the screen,” he said. “They have got to be able to recognise that not everything that the computer churns out has to be used in that form. The computer is a

tool, not a controlling, malevolent thing." To be able to provide adequate computer awareness for its fourth-formers, a school would have’ to buy eight or 10 visual display units, at a cost of $30,000 to $50,000. A cheaper way would be for a central institution such as a teachers’ college, to install about 20 video display units, which could be used both by trainee teachers and by groups of school pupils. Because of the time span before, the pupil entered the world of work, coupled with the rapid rate of change in computer technology, it would be ill-advised for schools to try to take up the role of training pupils for jobs with computers, said Mr Potter.