Santa Paula Daily Chronicle
Friday, September 7, 1962
Way back in 1962, nearly 50 years ago, Santa Paula High School tested the Didak 501, a “Teaching Machine”. Today, that conjures an image of some sort of computer, but it appears that the Didak 501 used paper tapes and students wrote their answers on a sheet of papers. It also appears that answers were somehow transferred to a punch sheet by the student. Although there is some information on the device to be found on the Internet, it’s not really clear how it is better than a book and a multiple choice quiz (although the Didak 501 includes a “clue” feature).
Unfortunately the reproduction of the photograph that accompanied the Santa Paula Daily Chronicle story was too dark and grainy to see anything. The photo accompanying this post is from the October 1961 issue of Popular Mechanics and gives an idea of what the device looked like.
“Didak 501” will never replace the classroom teacher according to SPUHS instructor Joe Richards.
Purchased by the school district as an experimental project in the area of programmed instruction, the teaching machine has been set up in Ricards room in the science department.
In actuality, Ricard’s feels the machine requires a greater effort on the part of the teacher. No books or science courses have as yet been developed commercially to fit the machine, so Ricards has written his own material, using it in conjunction with both commercial slides and some the science department has taken. They are projected from a carousel-type slideholder.
The questions are geared to a 95 per cent correctness in score. They are presented in logical sequence in order to produce a step-by-step-mastery of a learning goal. If the student is in doubt as to the answer, a clue can be unmasked and the student’s answer is only half right.
No Attention Lapse
Among the advantages are the minimum in lapses of attention; in order to proceed through the program the student must respond actively. Each student can move at his own individual rate; the slow learner is not penalized. It is a convenient way to bring a student who has been absent up to date.
Richards particularly approves of the fact that this machine will allow students to venture into areas where they wouldn’t have an opportunity by staying with the total class section. And the machine is termed “cheatproof.”
It is not considered a great revolution, but an extra teaching device – another way of caring for individual differences.
Earth Science in Curriculum
Another high school innovation this year is in curriculum: a new course in earth science, to be taught by Richard Bryson. This class will utilize the natural environments of the area as a setting for teaching the topography and geology of this region as well as the general facts of earth science.
The students will study the stars in the solar system and the forces that shape the earth’s surface. During the recent summer session this class was introduced and was deemed successful in terms of enrollment.
The students did plane surveying and made topographical maps of the area surrounding the new Santa Paula Memorial Hospital.
(Original Story by Clara White)
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