The evolution and redefining of ‘CAL’: a reflection on the interplay of theory and practice

Abstract

This article comments on how the core idea of the computer as an assistant to teaching and learning became reconfigured through changing technologies, pedagogies and educational cultures. Early influential researchers in computer assisted learning (CAL) made strong but differing links to theories and representations of learning, showing a relevance to pedagogy through innovative projects. Amid controversy, the educational potential of CAL became recognized and hardware-software developments stimulated the involvement of teachers in shaping applications and practices within contexts that favoured a constructivist student focus. Further advances in technology gave students greater autonomy in the style and management of learning, and enabled CAL to be redefined as a participative and collaborative enterprise. Institutions responded through supports and structures in ways that suited their wider educational policies. Technological developments (and controversies) continue to extend and reshape the applications of CAL, and this reflection points to the significance of the interplay between theory and practice in this evolving and redefining process. BeginningsIn the 1960s, developments in computer technology brought the expectation that its capabilities in storage and presentation, interaction and decision-making could enrich and enlarge the teaching-learning enterprise in ways that would be difficult to achieve by other means. In the UK, this was a time of expansion and optimism triggered by the 1963 Robbins Report, and the Hale Report which noted the potential of technology for higher education. Several prominent research groups responded, but took differing perspectives, on computer assisted learning (CAL) depending on the learning and instructional theories that acted as catalysts to guide particular applications. For example, projects with a behaviourist approach developed adaptive programs directed at practice and skill improvement; those taking a pedagogical view considered ways that educational content could be structured and represented in ways which gave students greater control over the navigation and management of learning: cognitive perspectives developed software tools that enabled students to construct and reflect on tangible models which represented their understanding. Continuing developments in technology and greater experience with CAL encouraged a wider range of applications in which researchers, teachers and students formed collaborative associations. This article is a partial and personal reflection on the evolution of CAL research (with a UK perspective) and, indirectly, on its reporting in the journals -particularly drawing on JCAL as a source for monitoring developments. It seeks to point to influential factors in the redefinition of CAL as a participative process, to the characteristics that enabled applications to be successful, and to some general conclusions about the research enterprise. Behaviourist influencesA strong influence on early ideas of computer assistance in learning came from...

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