1983 School Magazine

In the meantime while Accounting, Computer Awareness, and Administration were the original users of the PDP 11,/23 system, the Mathematics Department has taken the challenge of the computer and is demanding more time on the existing facilities. Three Mathematics courses have been successfully introduced with classroom use of micro- or personal computers,

Our bacK-up computer facility

COW{PUTER R.EPORT Apparently the animals are breeding. tr-ast year we had 9 terminals at ts.G.G.S. With the addition of 4 TR.S 80's we now have 12. With the exciting plans for the new 4 storey building next to the Flumanities block we can look forward to some more classrooms fitted with terminals. What computers we get will be a matter of choice much closer to the completion date. Frices for the primitive micros have already started copying the American scene where competition has reduced costs radically. Japanese micros are now appearing on the local market and will challenge the Apple which has led the field in the educational micro area. The B.E.C. rnicro also looks promising but the problem as always is the dearth of suitable software compatible with a particular system. During the year we had a B.ts.C. Micro on loan in the Iibrary and staff and students were able to have hands-on experience. Later we had an Apple for a week for staff familiarisation and a number of teaching programs were investigated. Software is certainiy the bottleneck as programmers cannot eiucidate exactly what teachers require, and teachers have difficulty in communicating the precise expectations they have of a program. There is still the idea rampant amongst those who know a little but not very rnuch about computers that all you have to do is "press the right button". It has been estirnated that to make a really worthwhile half-hour teaching prograrn takes 40 to 80 hours of consolidated effort and even then the program needs to be adjustable to the requirements of the individual teacher. The few comrnercial programs we have so far seen have on the whole proved unsatisfactory. 40

The Grade tr2 Mathematics II students studied one sernester of fairly involved mathematical applications of the computer. Two classes of Grade 12 Mathemaiics I students have pursued an integrated course involving mainly Financiai Mathematics and Computing with sorne Statistics and ,Algebra. This has been a very interesting course for the 26 students involved and we are hoping that more students wil gain the experience of this practical approach in the new Mathematics in Society course. In addition, all Grade 9 classes have continued their ideas from the Grade 8 Computer Awareness course with a two week BASIC language computing unit. It has been fascinating to see these students revel at the opportunity to extend their computational skills with the computers in their classrooms. They have seen computers as a natural tool of Mathematics, and that it is their ideas which the computer obeys to solve the problem. ,A.ccounting students are now being introduced to the conrputer at ihe beginning of their course in Year 11. It is intended to use the computer in conjunction with their practical work in order to provide students with an awareness of the implications for accounting of electronic data processing. ,As time, facilities, and familiarity with computers allows, other subject areas will follow these examples.

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