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Operating Systems and EducationChapter One: Computers in EducationBecause of digital operating systems and the applications that run on them, the basic summary of core school curriculum was first transformed in the 1980's by the personal computer from the three Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic to the three C's of communication, composition and calculation. In the 1990's, adding the Internet to this mix took this one level further, to the three P's. This online book teaches the application of these three P's as the core of an intellectual operating system (IOS) that provides the inner process of all of the content or subject areas that we study and teach in school, the operating system for problem processing.  The
graphic to the right provides a summary of this process. Clicking the graphic
leads to a series of clickable graphic images that zoom in on details. These
details show the relationship between the basic elements of problem processing
for all subjects and actual computer applications.
The core problem process is made up three major elements: finding, framing and solving problems. The term 'processing' instead of problem solving is used as the major heading because the term 'solving' generally means that the problem or question is known and refers to the last step in the problem process. In fact, the problem process starts with the discovery of the problem, not the solving of a question. In the interest of both speeding up and simplifying education, too much curriculum has skipped two-thirds of what is needed in the rapidly changing and complex world of the 21st century. The greater the rate of change and the greater the complexity, the greater the need for the creative work of problem finders and the critical thinking work of problem framers. This absence of attention to these needs in the curriculum requires study by researchers both in terms of current intellectual functionality and educational motivation. Some solutions to filling this hole will be examined in the chapters ahead. Through the concept of problem processing, these chapters provide broad application to learning and teaching at different grade levels and within different areas of content. These chapters teach you what is in your digital toolbox, and give you mental models for organizing and using those tools to both support and transform the educational experience. Taking the link to the reading about the CROP site is a first step in furthering this understanding. This course of study will provide you with in-depth knowledge of the concepts and skills that continue to transform our culture and consequently our curriculum, educational systems, economics, and politics. With each chapter there is a conceptual focus and a technical focus. That is, this book also explores the relationship between different educationally relevant features of computer systems and their conceptual relationship to significant educational thought and activities. Many existing educational activities have patterns that are built around the prior intellectual technologies of simple tools and gesture, then speech and then writing. These prior technologies brought new ways to communicate and compose. Each of those technologies in their time became the themed Lego bricks of their millennia for the construction of new culture and renewed educational systems. In the same way, computer technologies are contributing to the formation of new culture and new ways to teach and learn in the 21st century. The very design of this online book is a continuing exploration of how the digital age enables the transformation of prior concepts. Each chapter is a study in ways that one can transform the concept of books as they have been implemented in paper technology to cyberspace designs. For our first chapter of study, the technical focus is
on Hardware and Operating Systems. In computer-speak the phrase "operating
system (OS)" refers to the first software application that is automatically
loaded after the computer's on-button is pressed.
Copying the design lead of Xerox and Apple Computer, later creators of operating systems such as Microsoft have made the differences between operating systems relatively small. With a few simple changes that any computer owner can carry out, their opening desktops can operate almost identically. In the OS system version Mac OS 9, the upper left hand corner contains an Apple icon from which aliases or shortcuts are placed to reach the applications loaded on to a given computer. This makes sense for Western culture as we begin reading by looking in the upper left hand corner.
What has emerged is a generally standard set of symbols and functions across different kinds of computer systems. For example, the symbols for the hard drive, the trash can, and the main Documents folder (and other icons) can be found anywhere on the desktop or hidden deeper inside one of the other display areas. The conceptual focus of the chapter seeks a wider view of educational meanings for operating systems. This concept of a master set of rules or guidelines has interesting parallels in education. Our educational perspective can be used to broaden this narrow computer based definition to include educational operating systems that are important to learners and teachers. There are also other systems of operation important to teachers which serve as the basis for much higher levels of activity. Educators in effective schools need to know and integrate many different scales of OSs:
These are all operating systems, or systems of operation. In different historical periods, different systems have been used to address different problems. Some were effective and some were failures. In each cultural period, effective schools must find and redefine the best systems of that day and time. In addition to exploring the basics of computer operating systems, this
chapter's study and future chapters will touch on many of these other "operating
systems". It should also be noted that there are several comprehensive
learning and teaching systems that have been designed.
Can you think of other "educational operating systems" with which you are already familiar? How would you define the levels of operating systems active in your school? Do some work better for beginning teachers or experienced teachers? (Image Credits: Click the images above and below for their reference/credit sites.) Like the The verb for this act of immersion in high levels of cyber technologies might become "cybercate" (e.g., like the grammar of educate or medicate). That is, instead of asking, "Did your lesson plans ask your students to practice reading and writing?" The question might be, "Did your lesson plans ask your students to practice cybercating?" Just as the best response to the first question is to explain the kind of writing that is required, the best response to the second question is to explain the kind of cybercating or computer use that will be included. A significant degree of change in language and thinking occurred as written culture emerged after thousands of years of oral culture. Thousands of years later, cyber culture is now emerging from written culture. This chapter is the doorway to understanding and furthering cyberspace ways of thinking. This brief introduction is finished. It is time for further exploring. Next: In the left column of this page find the link titled Course OS, which is the first link underneath the heading titled Course Overview. Click the link and read. After completing the reading or activity at one link, keep clicking the links down this left column like rungs on a ladder until you have reached the bottom. It is a requirement that you "do" every link unless the word "optional" appears next to it. Also note the Q1, Q2, etc. links do the upper right column; this question system is just one more example of the power of web books. The terms "do, read, click" or other such imperative statements sometimes mean to read and take notes and in other cases will lead to hands on activities and the creation of data files that must be saved to disk. This pattern will generally continue in later chapters. Updated July 11, 2007 | Parent
Frame of Chapter | Page author: Houghton
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This software OS establishes
a master set of rules by which all other functions and applications are
activated and guided and through which they share and store information.
For example, the computer OS establishes a uniform procedure by which different
applications such as a spreadsheet or word processor provide commands and
save or print files. This is the common meaning in current use. 
Microsoft Windows designers, probably to avoid copyright fights, moved
the icon for access to programs to the bottom left hand corner of the screen
and labeled it Start. Linux operating systems have similar desktop designs.
explorers in the picture to the left, things always seem a
little dark at first when passing through the doorway to a new area of
study. They are carrying physical flashlights. What kind of intellectual
flashlights do you use? One helpful strategy is to focus your study light on the vocabulary
that is new to you. Keep a list. Participants will become increasingly
aware of speaking what might be called "cyberian", a system of vocabulary,
grammar and syntax that is emerging to help communicate the unique nature
of "cyberia" or what is often referred to as cyberspace. By cyberia, I refer to the
emerging operating system of cyberspace, the mental and physical space in which
we seamlessly integrate activity, organize and communicate ideas, and calculate
measurement while incorporating the full range of electronic or computer
based resources.