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The Microcomputer in the Instruction of Hearing-Impaired Students: Tool or Distraction?
- American Annals of the Deaf
- Gallaudet University Press
- Volume 128, Number 5, 1983
- pp. 515-520
- Article
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This paper discusses the current enthusiasm for applying the microcomputer to the instruction of hearing-impaired students, setting it in the context of earlier movements in programmed and computer-assisted instruction and suggesting that we should retain the best from these movements and profit from their mistakes. The author notes that in spite of these and other educational innovations, the academic performance of most hearing-impaired students has remained disappointingly static over several decades. He is optimistic that appropriate applications of the microcomputer can help lead to significant and perhaps even dramatic gains in the future if used in concert with the best prevailing practices. He suggests four questions in identifying appropriate applications for the microcomputer: (a) Does the application stem from a problem? (b) Is it conducive to solving the problem? (c) Do we have the appropriate software? (d) Does it work?