The development of rudimentary programing skills during preservice and inservice teacher education programs appears to have substantial personal, educational, and professional benefits for teachers. This paper argues for the inclusion of programing skills as part of the effort to reform the teacher education curriculum. (Author/MT)

This paper explores three components of academic computing--programming, productivity tools, and computer-based education--by reviewing the past, evaluating the present, and considering the future possibilities of the field. It is suggested that the future growth of academic computing depends upon the resolution of a number of issues: (1)…

The first of three parts of this booklet, which assumes no previous knowledge of computers or programming, explains what computers are and briefly describes the components of a computer system. The second section examines the different ways in which the computer can be used in higher education, including its use: (1) as a "super calculator"; (2)…

Explains how modern programming systems empower beginning college students taking computer literacy courses; provides suggestions for designing courses and on the selection of appropriate software; and gives examples of course content and of approaches to course development using the Visual Basic programming environment. (22 references) (LRW)

Education courses in BASIC remain a foundation of teacher training for computer use. Such courses do little more than re-invent programming structures that are already available in such educational programming languages (EPLs) as PILOT and TEACH. While BASIC is the only general programming language that is both simple and powerful enough to enable…

A Northern Illinois University elementary teacher education program in which certain courses are taught with the use of self-paced courseware packets is described, and the technique's usefulness in promoting and integrating computer literacy in the curriculum is discussed. (MSE)

Discusses the use of computer conferencing in education; addresses difficulties involved in conferencing software, including computer literacy, the communications technology, the conferencing interface, integration with other software, and limitations on access; and describes FICS (Friendly Interface to Conferencing System) that was developed at…

Benchmarking information technology services has become a vital activity for colleges and universities. The COSTS Project (http://www.costsproject.org/) is an ongoing quantitative effort to benchmark the costs of providing IT services in higher education; the project helps institutions understand their IT budgets and staffing relative to peer…

Describes a computer applications course developed for undergraduate biology students (primarily sophomores) to teach word processing, database and spreadsheet programs, graphing programs, telecommunications, and file transfer procedures. AppleWorks software is discussed, course content is explained, and the microcomputer laboratory is described.…

This paper argues that teachers and students should be creators as well as consumers of computer software, not only so that they might better appreciate the skills involved, but also to improve teacher effectiveness in the classroom. As part of their own class work, 13 second-year student teachers developed a branching program using simple basic…

Due to the implementation of a credit-based system in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, it is anticipated that a large number of students will be taking some popular common service computing subjects. These subject modules may be taught by different teachers; thus there is a need to ensure that students are taught uniformly with the same…

Examines the use of technology by college faculty and the importance of going beyond the technology itself. Topics include computer literacy, building students' confidence in technology, real-world readiness, presentation software, word processing, e-mail, spreadsheets and databases, and information access. (LRW)

Designed to examine the academic computing programs of six liberal arts colleges that received funding from the Exxon Education Foundation for introducing or expanding academic computing between 1981 and 1983, this report first describes each college's program proposals. It then examines the progress of the colleges to date on their projects and…

This paper describes one educator's experience with creating multimedia presentation materials for a college computer literacy class. The paper discusses: selecting software--the decision between authoring software and presentation software; selecting hardware--what type of computer systems to select, and issues when classrooms are equipped with…

Describes results of a survey of secondary school and college teachers that was conducted to determine subject matter that should be included in educational computing journals. Areas of interest included computer applications; artificial intelligence; computer-aided instruction; computer literacy; computer-managed instruction; databases; distance…