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Calculator metaphors, and goals for calculator education in elementary schools

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David MoursundAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 1

Pages 100 - 103

https://doi.org/10.1145/382063.803368

Published: 01 February 1977 Publication History

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Abstract

Computers are not easy to understand. Even a computer scientist who devotes full time to the field cannot hope to fully comprehend the capabilities, limitations, applications, and implications of these machines. Joseph Weizenbaum, in his recent book Computer Power and Human Reason (1), suggests that most people “understand” computers via what he calls a computer metaphor. Weizenbaum quotes I. A. Richards, who says a metaphor is “fundamentally a borrowing between and intercourse of thoughts, a transaction between contexts.” That is, a metaphor is an analogy, a simile, a model; it is designed to relate the unknown to the known.

There are many possible computer metaphors. Weizenbaum makes the point that many people have accepted one particular computer metaphor, and that it is a particularly misleading one. Computer scientists think of a computer as a machine that can carry out an effective procedure. The words procedure and effective procedure have meaning to non-computer scientists. They can see that humans carry out procedures, or that many activities of humans can be thought of as execution of effective procedures. The effective procedure computer metaphor thus leads to the belief that humans and computers are quite similar in their capabilities and in the way they solve problems.

Reference

[1]

Weizenbaum, Joseph: Computer Power and Human Reason, W. H. Fr-eman and Company, 1976.

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Calculator metaphors, and goals for calculator education in elementary schools
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 9, Issue 1

Special issue seventh technical symposium on computer science education

Feb 1977

187 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/382063

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '77: Proceedings of the seventh SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
February 1977
187 pages
ISBN:9781450374071
DOI:10.1145/800104
Chairman:
Richard H. Austing

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 February 1977

Published in SIGCSE Volume 9, Issue 1

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