Citizens of PLATO Digital Archive

Title

New Directions for the Teaching Computer: Citizen Participation in Community Planning (1972)

Creator

Lamont, Valarie C.

Language

English

Subject

PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations)

Environmental Activism

Community Planning

Citizen Participation

Community Programs

Computer-Based Education

Sustainability

Environmental Issues

Computer Programs

Community Engagement

Public Affairs

Public Policy

Local Government

Description

Report by Valarie Lamont on an experiment conducted using the PLATO computer system for community oriented environmental activism. Lamont created an interactive PLATO program which presented information about the Boneyard Creek local environmental issue through text, photo slides, maps and graphs on the PLATO terminal and promoted community engagement through user feedback by computer program participants using 'comment mode' to offer suggestions, ask questions, or critique the program information or complete a digital questionnaire.

Relation

Sponsoring Agency: Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD), Washington, DC

Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation, Washington, DC.

Contract Number: NSF-C-723.

Contract Number: NSF-65-29981.

Contract Number: ONR-Nonr-3985(08).

ERIC Note: Not available in hard copy due to poor print in original document.

Publisher

ERIC Clearinghouse

Date

1972

Identifier

Finding Aid

Source

CERL-R-X-34

Coverage

Computer Based Education Research Laboratory (CERL)

University of Illinois

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of using the teaching computer as a medium for involving people in community planning. A program on environmental issues was presented on the PLATO system to a non-random sample of citizens of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Civic and government leaders and interested citizens attended demonstrations related to a local environmental issue. Data collected from the experiment suggest that people are willing to work through such a program and would like to see more issues presented this way. Participants found the computer useful for presenting concise and relevant information, and they found particular advantage in being able to make comments and responses to questions. Suggestions were made for including more information on costs, sources of information, political considerations, and views of the various interest groups. Criticisms primarily concerned the inconvenient location of computer terminals and the presence of some bias in the program. (CH)

Bibliographic Citation

Lamont, Valarie C. New Directions for the Teaching Computer Citizen Participation in Community Planning. CERL-R-X-34, Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, 1972.

Contributor

Educational Resources Information Center (U.S.)

Computer Based Education Research Laboratory (CERL)