Computers Add Up, Teachers Are Told

Computers are as revolutionary in education today as the printing press was 500 years ago, a UC Irvine professor said Monday at a teachers’ seminar.

Owen Thomas, a professor of English, linguistics and education, gave the keynote speech at the opening of the state-funded Summer Technology Training Institute at UCI. About 200 high school teachers from throughout the state are taking part.

Quicker Changes

“It is, I believe, only a slight exaggeration--if it is, indeed, an exaggeration at all--to say that in the history of the human race computers will have the same impact that the printing press had,” Thomas said.

He said world history shows that society and education change inexorably to adapt to new inventions.

Education will change to adapt to computers much more quickly than it adapted to the availability of printed books, he predicted: “I don’t know what totally different kind of education computers can help deliver. I simply don’t know. Still, I have faith that whatever it is, it will change the world, just as books have changed the world.”

Though computers have so far been used by educators mostly for storing records and grading tests, Thomas said, it’s inevitable that classroom structuring and learning will change because of the technology.

Many of the current teaching programs for computers are not very good, Thomas said, because today’s educational software “was designed to fit into the traditional classroom and, more importantly, to fit into the traditional manner in which we deliver education.”

He said a totally new system of “delivering” education must evolve to use computers wisely.

The computer revolution is not a theoretical issue, Thomas said: “In the last few years we have come to a major point in the history of education--a point, like very few others before it, that requires change.”

During a question-and-answer session, one of the high school teachers asked Thomas: “Will computers make our profession obsolete?”

Thomas responded: “Yes and no. In the future, there will probably be fewer teachers than we have today. . . . Teachers will have larger classes, but teaching is going to be more attractive (because of new technology).”

Another teacher asked Thomas about the necessity for students to have access to computers. He said students absolutely must have computers available, because students who are computer illiterate will not be able to get jobs as good as those available at fast-food outlets.

The Summer Technology Training Institute is being held at UCI for the next four weeks. The institute is funded with a $1-million grant from the state Department of Education. The grant pays for the entire cost of the 200 teachers’ rooms, board and expenses, said Carol Booth Olson, a UCI professor who is director of the program.