LESSON 10: The Computer as a Tutor

      The computer is one of the wonders of human ingenuity, even in its original design in the 1950s to carry out complicated mathematical and logical operations.  With the invention of the microcomputer ( now also commonly referred to PCs or personal computers), the PC has become the tool for programmed instruction.

     Educators saw much use of the PC.  It has become affordable to small business, industries and homes.  They saw its potential for individualization in learning, especially as individualized learning is a problem since teachers usually with a class of forty or more learners.  They therefore devised strategies to use the computer to break the barriers to individualized instruction.

Computer-assisted Instruction

       The computer can be a tutor in effect relieving the teacher of many activities in his personal role as classroom tutor.  It should be made clear, however, that the computer cannot totally replace the teacher since the teacher shall continue to play the major roles of information deliverer and learning environment controller.  Even with the available computer and CAI software, the teacher must:

• Insure the students have the needed knowledge and skills for any computer activity.
• Decide the appropriate learning objectives.
• Plan the sequential and structured activities to achieve objectives.
• Evaluate the students' achievement by ways of tests the specific expected outcomes.

   On  the other hand, the students in CAI play their own roles as learners as they:

• receive information.
• understand instruction for the computer activity.
• retain/keep in mind the information and rules for the computer activity.
• apply the knowledge and rules during the process of computer learning.

     During the computer activity proper in CAI the computer, too, play its roles as it:

• acts as a sort of tutor ( the role traditional played by the teacher)
• provides a learning environment.
• delivers learning instruction
• reinforces learning through drill-and-practice
• provides feedback

     Today educators accept the   fact that the computer has indeed succeeded in providing an individualized learning environment so difficult fo a teacher handling whole classes.  This is so , since the computer is able to allow individual students to learn at their own pace, motivate learning through a challenging virtual learning environment, assist students through information needed during the learning process, evaluate student responses through immediate feedback during the learning process, and also give the total score to evaluate the student's total performance.



REFLECTION

     The computer can be a tutor in the sense that the educators used computers only to served them as their instructional materials to supply the needs of the learners in terms of their cognitive development.  But we can not say that computer can automatically replaced the teachers, of course not because the teacher should still continue to play the major roles of information deliverer and learning environment controller.