Career data base

Press, 4 September 1989, Page 2

Career data base

A computer-assisted career guidance data base for educational institutions is being developed, the Minister of Education, Mr Goff, says.

The data-base would be available to educational and training institutions, Access and Maori Access providers, community groups, libraries and maraes, Mr Goff told the Computer Education Society’s annual conference.

In a speech delivered on his behalf, Mr Goff said the data base would contain information on job availability, education and training prerequisites and availability.

The use of computers in education was growing after their introduction to schools in the early 19705.

Teachers had reported that computers had changed the nature of classroom interaction. Group-based activity learning worked better with a computer than did a teacher-dominated class. The potential for electronic communication in education was exciting, particularly for rural schools, Mr Goff said. Children at Duvauchelle School had recently communicated via electronic mail with 40 children in an urban school in Warwick, London. The electronic mail network, in which subscribers are charged for “reading” an electronic “bulletin board,” could be desirable for both curriculum and administrative

uses, he said. A feasibility study would be done into such a network, Mr Goff said.