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Calculator metaphors, and goals for calculator education in elementary schools

Published:01 February 1977Publication 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.

References

  1. 1 Weizenbaum, Joseph: Computer Power and Human Reason, W. H. Fr-eman and Company, 1976. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library

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  1. Calculator metaphors, and goals for calculator education in elementary schools

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
      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
      • cover image ACM Conferences
        SIGCSE '77: Proceedings of the seventh SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
        February 1977
        187 pages
        ISBN:9781450374071
        DOI:10.1145/800104

      Copyright © 1977 ACM

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 1 February 1977

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