A second look at computers

In June of this year the Computer Board published its first report and the National Council for Educational Technology produced an action paper, Computer based learning: two documents which do much to identify and illustrate the present confusion surrounding the role of the computer in education in this country. The Computer Board, set up in 1966 under the chairmanship of Professor (now Sir) Brian Flowers in direct response to the recommendations of the Flowers report on Computers for Research, has a specific primary concern with ‘the central computing facilities for research purposes in universities’. Within this brief it must plan, provide and, to a disturbing extent, supervise the installations. Beyond the provision of individual university needs, planning extends to the establishment of regional centres, (initially at London, Manchester and Edinburgh with possible additions in the South‐West, the Midlands and the North‐East) to provide large back up computer power for comprehensive area networks. At both provision and supervision levels, however, this has proved slower than anticipated.