1401 structured language(ID:7558/one002)

Pedogogical language for IBM 1401 

Educational language
References:
  • Ray, J.R. review of Tondow view details Abstract: Basically, this is a report of a pilot instructional program for several fifth-grade classes in Palo Alto, California, during the Spring of 1964. Approximately 80% of the participants managed to write a workable program for the course, organized around the " '141' programming language" and using an IBM 1620/1311 computer. The students were required to master such concepts as "storage location," "operand" and "print location." After completing the course, approximately 75% of the students stated they understood how the computer worked, more than 80% felt comfortable with the new vocabulary and 50% felt they could write a program without assistance. (The author notes that all students had been taught the binary system in the fourth grade.)

    General reactions were favorable from the three teachers involved and an evaluation of student reactions led to the following conclusions:

    1) the experience gave concrete meaning to the binary system;

    2) the students learned something about computers and how they operated;

    3) the students increased their vocabulary with a considerable number of new and meaningful words; and

    4) for the first time, students had some formal procedures in problem-solving which were not related to a specific discipline.

    The author asserts that the importance of the experiment lies not in the teaching of computer programming to elementary school children, but in "interjecting newer concepts and technologies into the curriculum at times when they can reinforce the basic instructional program by giving meaning and deeper understanding to what has been taught." Finally, it is noted that this project is another example of how "all knowledge interacts" and why "important results of a learning experience need not be the most direct and obvious aspect of what has been taught."



          in ACM Computing Reviews 8(06) November-December 1967 view details
  • Tondow, Murray "Computer programming in the elementary school" J. Educational Data Processing 4(2) pp82-85 Spring 1967 view details
          in ACM Computing Reviews 8(06) November-December 1967 view details