Schools receive suggestions only

Press, 14 May 1985, Page 30

Schools receive suggestions only

The Department of Education has chosen not to recommend specific computer models in its latest advice to schools on purchasing computers. A nine-page paper has been sent to all school principals by the department to provide assistance to schools considering the purchase of microcomputers. A covering letter explains that the 1983 evaluation which named five computers as being suitable for schools is now considered to be out of date. The latest document lists key issues in software, hardware and networking that should be considered. It finishes with a section on requesting proposals and evaluating proposals. Noting that many popular 8 bit microcomputers use operating systems unique to the brand of computer, it suggests that schools look at the advantages of a portable operating system. “There is a growing base of commercial educational programs written to run under PC-DOS and MS-DOS in the 16 bit field,” says the document. Under hardware, the document recommends disc storage rather than cassette storage, 80 column displays rather than 40 column, and the ability to connect to external data bases. It suggests that interesting educational opportunities will be provided when a computer can be connected to video disc, videotape and speech generation systems. Schools have obviously found that networking computers together can have pitfalls, as well as advantages. The document lists in some detail the necessary features for a networking system.