COMPUTER ENVIRONMENTS FOR CHILDREN AS REFLECTIONS OF THEORIES OF LEARNING AND EDUCATION (LOGO, SEYMOUR PAPERT, PATRICK SUPPS, PLATO SYSTEM, BASIC)

The computer's presence in society has created a new set of educational issues which emerge when we ask how children and their teachers learn to use these machines and what particular computing environments might be available to them. In exploring the relationship between people and computers I focus on two images of the computer: the computer as an interactive textbook in control of the user and the computer as an expressive medium under the control of the user. In particular I look at how the computer has been used in elementary school mathematics.;As examples of the computer as a textbook, I chose two different approaches. Patrick Suppes at Stanford University developed a system to provide students with sequenced drill and practice exercises while Robert Davis at the University of Illinois using the Plato System imbued the computer with a Socratic style of interaction. With regard to the computer as expressive medium, I again chose two approaches: Tom Dwyer and his Soloworks lab at the University of Pittsburgh where he developed a variety of programming activities around BASIC, and Seymour Papert and his Logo Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he developed new mathematics and new technology for children. I then discuss ideas from Logo and other areas of computer science as expressed in the work of the Atari Cambridge Research Laboratory. I conclude by suggesting a center where educators learn to use computers with children, conduct research, and develop new ideas.;The goals of this thesis are: to provide a foundation for serious discussion about educational uses of computers, to suggest one possible route into computing for educators, to suggest some images for future computer research, and to sketch out a plan for establishing a learning center for teachers and children.