LESSON 10 – The Computer as a Tutor

       The computer is one of the wonders of human ingenuity, it has become affordable to small business, industries and homes. They saw its potential for individualization in learning, especially as individualized 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 ( CAI )

         The computer can be a tutor in effect relieving the teacher of many activities in his personal role as classroom tutor. However, 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 that 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 instructions 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, plays its roles as it:

• Acts as a sort of tutor ( the role traditional played by the teacher )
• Provides a learning environment.
• Deliver learning instruction.
• Reinforces learning through drill-and-practice.
• Provide feedback.

Today, educators accept the fact that the computer has indeed succeeded in providing an individualized learning environment so difficult for a teacher handling whole classes, 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 students total performance.