Computers,
Chemistry, 
What triggered this phenomenon? What sustains it? How is its evolution managed? The answers to these questions have their roots in DARPA-sponsored research in the 1960s into a then-risky new approach to data communication: packet switching. The U.S. government has played a critical role in the evolution and application of advanced computer networking technology and deserves credit for stimulating wide-ranging exploration and experimentation over the course of several decades.
Communication on the Internet - and the alternative social space constructed by the act of communicating electronically - has emerged as a hot topic in several popular and intellectual circles. Its creation in 1971 proved completely unanticipated. After email's debut, however, the perceived function of the ARPANET shifted to encompass human communication. ARPANET email garnered stunning popularity and in the process changed the definition of what computer networks were good for. I hope to show that a unique space of social interaction, mirroring larger cultural changes in American society of the 1960's, sprang up around email and was widely embraced by its users. Electronic mail caught on due to its profound relevance to the social needs of those who first took hold of it and used it to communicateToday's computer communication networks are based on a technology called packet switching. This technology, which arose from DARPA-sponsored research in the 1960s, is fundamentally different from the technology that was then employed by the telephone system (which was based on "circuit switching") or by the military messaging system (which was based on "message switching").
Another DARPA effort of the early 1970s involved research at Stanford to design a new set of computer communication protocols that would allow multiple packet networks to be interconnected in a flexible and dynamic way. In defense settings, circumstances often prevented detailed planning for communication system deployment, and a dynamic, packet-oriented, multiple-network design provided the basis for a highly robust and flexible network to support command-and-control applications.
The first phase of this work culminated in a demonstration in July 1977, the success of which led to a sustained effort to implement robust versions of the basic Internet protocols (called TCP/IP for the two main protocols: Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol). The roles of DARPA and the Defense Communications Agency were critical both in supplying sustained funding for implementing the protocols on various computers and operating systems and for the persistent and determined application of the new protocols to real needs.
By the mid-1980s there was sufficient interest in the use of Internet in the research, educational, and defense communities that it was possible to establish businesses making equipment for Internet implementation.
An experimental electronic mail relay was built and put into operation in 1989, and shortly thereafter Compuserve, ATTMail and Sprintmail (Telemail) followed suit. Once again, a far-sighted experimental effort coupled with a wise policy choice stimulated investment by industry and expansion of the nation's infrastructure. In the past year, commercial use of the Internet has exploded.
One of the major forces behind the exponential growth of the Internet is a variety of new capabilities in the network -- particularly directory, indexing, and searching services that help users discover information in the vast sea of the Internet. Many of these services have started as university research efforts and evolved into businesses. Examples include the Wide Area Information Service, Archie (which spawned a company called Bunyip in Canada), LYCOS from Carnegie Mellon, YAHOO from Stanford, and INFOSEEK. Aiding and stimulating these services is the recent arrival of a "killer ap" for the Internet: the World Wide Web.
Developed at the European Center for Particle Research (CERN), the World Wide Web was first used in experimental form in 1989. Around 1992 it came to the attention of a young programming team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois. This team developed a graphical browser for the Web, called Mosaic. In accordance with NCSA policies, this software was made widely available on the Internet for free. It took the world by storm. The excitement of being able to provide images, sound, video clips and multifont text in a hypertext system was irresistible. Between 1992 and 1995 a number of commercial versions of Web browsers and servers emerged, among them Netscape Communications, which was founded by the former chairman of Silicon Graphics, Inc., who instantly realized that the Web would dramatically magnify the utility of the Internet by replacing its rather arcane interface with something anyone could do ("point and click").
There is every reason to believe that the Internet will transform education, business, government, and personal activities in ways we cannot fully fathom. Virtually none of this would have happened as rapidly, or in the same open and inclusive fashion, had not the federal government consciously provided sustained research funding and encouragement of open involvement and open standards, and then wisely stepped out of the picture as the resulting systems became self-sustaining.
The Internet
is truly a global infrastructure for the 21st century -- the first really
new infrastructure to develop in nearly a century.
Making use of computer´s processing power, realization of complex calculus became possible. Without their aid, it would take us much more time to do them, if it didn´t make them impossible. Besides that, with the continuous improving processing capacity, now virtual simulations allow money and time saving .
Several techniques such as capilar electrophoresis, liquid and gaseous cromatography, voltammetry, infrared absorbtion and X-ray diffraction, computers are used in data processing, as well as specific software in the interface between the equipment and computer itself.
It could also be important to a chemist if he knew how to develop new software to his own area. For instance, a biochemistry's software was developted by professors from USP's and UNICAMP's Chemistry's Institutes, in order to predict the behavior of oxygen's free radicals.
There are several
ways of spreading news about our own work, and nowadays, with the growing
e-commerce, the chemist, as every professional should addapt to it, in
order to supply its demand. So, there's nothing better than learning how
to make a good site in order to draw those who have granted access to the
internet.
An ideal tutor can provide exceptional advantages for learning. Let's suppose that each of us could choose a perfect mentor for our child. We would select one who was knowledgeable in all subjects and who could tailor courses to the individual needs wherever the child's abilities might lead. We would want a tutor who would be aware of precisely what the child knew to prevent undue repetition, while ensuring that all necessary instruction was provided. We would want a tutor with enough time to give the pupil individual attention whenever needed without holding up other students. We would want this idealized teacher to have the flexibility to instruct a little differently sometimes when the child forgot something or had difficulty in grasping a point. Our child, of course, would never fall behind because of sickness or absence; the private tutor would always start the next class exactly where the previous one had ended.
We would want an additional virtue in our ideal tutor: an encouraging attitude. We recognize that psychologically, it aids our development when we work with someone eager to praise, hesitant to find fault. Unfortunately, avoiding criticism is often difficult. A tone of voice or body language may sometimes unconsciously betray feelings. When a teacher finds that a student has forgotten something that has been repeated many times, reacting slightly and almost imperceptibly is an understandable human response. Somehow the pupil often interprets this correctly to mean, "You must remember. We've been over that again and again and again!"
All these powerful characteristics we would choose for our child's private tutor are those that make a non-critical and eminently patient computer, endowed with almost unlimited knowledge, the ideal instructor. This teaching marvel can repeat and review a lesson as often as necessary and never betray the slightest feeling of exasperation, while simultaneously praising each forward step. Above all, the computer tutor can adapt to the needs of each student instead of requiring individuals to fit into a mold based on the average capabilities of many students.
Teaching to differing levels of ability, background and interests has posed an eternal dilemma to educators. Instruction that is appropriate and beneficial for one student may have a negative effect on another. Teachers with a classroom of children know it is impractical to try to tailor lessons to each student. Personal attention, however, would be immensely helpful because of the varied needs of pupils. Some students require additional explanations, while others have grasped the material and are ready to go on. Since having forty million private instructors is impossible, compromises are necessary and teaching usually progresses at the average level of the class. Poorer students are left hanging in their confusion, and the brightest students miss exciting challenges. With computers as tutors, the learning of one individual will never be hindered by the abilities or weaknesses of others. Each student will move at his or her own pace, unaffected by the rate of learning of any other student.
Theoretically, any student can ask questions in today's classes. In reality, students who are confused may not know enough to make an inquiry. Even when pupils know they need help, they are often embarrassed and don't wish to reveal their ignorance. Often only the most intelligent students dare to ask questions because they know that if they don't understand, neither does anybody else.
With individualized computer instruction, students can always immediately request help if something is unclear. They can continue to show their lack of understanding until the problem is resolved without fear of appearing dumb before their peers. After the request for help, the computer can help pinpoint where the flaw lies. Then it can explain again the precise part of the lesson that bears on the student's weakness. Sometimes the computer may find a different explanation in its memory and present the material to the student in another way. Computers can always go back as far as necessary to ensure the student has a solid foundation on which to build.
When students are unaware of their poor learning or may not know the questions to ask, the computer itself will recognize their weakness through its constant evaluations and assessments. Whenever a pupil has not grasped a major point the computer will automatically review or repeat whatever is necessary. No student will feel disgraced or even embarrassed. Other pupils will be unaware of who requires more attention at a particular level, or when a hurdle is slowing a fellow learner.
Lack of intelligence may be the reason a student is unable to grasp material when it is first presented, but a host of other causes are also possible: previous learning, background, physical condition or simply a personality conflict with the teacher. The results, however are the same: whenever a student fails to learn new material, he or she falls behind.
Difficulties compound afterwards for the individual, but also for teachers who have the student in subsequent grades. In today's classes, an individual student who falls behind usually stays behind. The inability to catch up is the crux of the dilemma of students, after years in schools, knowing little when they leave. They falter early, and additional classes only add totheir confusion.They never have another opportunity to get the essential foundationthey missed. Pupils whoare deficient in basic mathematics are helpless trying to understand advanced math; students who don't know grammar will benefit little from a class in composition; students whocannot read are hopeless in virtually every worthwhile class.
With computers as tutors, no student will be overwhelmed because he or she is missing fundamentals. The computer will repeat material until each lesson has been sufficiently mastered; only then will it move forward. Since today's computers have speech synthesis capability, they can start any place, even at the educational beginning, and teach pupils to read at the pace that is appropriate for each individual.
Computers will assist even before a course commences. They can test and evaluate the underlying knowledge of each student before the first lesson. For example, at the beginning of calculus, pupils can be tested on knowledge and understanding of the basic math and algebra necessary to master the subject. If anyone has a deficiency, the computer will provide a remedial lesson or course for that individual. The review can be given for as short or as extended a period as is necessary to bring the student up to standard. Lengthy reviews will be needed primarily at the onset of computerized education since later, the machines will ensure that pupils have mastered the prerequisites before they enter a new class. They might, however, need brushing up on material forgotten since the previous course was completed. The computer can easily provide help. No student will ever have to enter a class with a lack of basic knowledge. No one will find his or her class delayed because of a few students who need a refresher on previous material. The computer will not demand perfection, but it will require that the fundamentals necessary for the course be present before continuing. No student will ever again be shoved into a hopeless struggle trying to learn without the needed foundation.
As beneficial as individualized instruction will be for the poorer and average students, it will often be even more valuable for the brighter students. These have unique capabilities, and special attention and challenges often help them reach their intellectual limits.
All students, whether breathtakingly brilliant or woefully dull, or anywhere between these extremes, will benefit from individualized instruction. The immense power and versatility of computers as tutors will aid and simplify all learning for all students in all classes.
While individualized
teaching represents the foremost advantage of computerized education, it
is also the foundation for many other enhancements of learning that will
follow when computers are allowed to operate unhindered.
Businesses and other organizations throughout the world have made gigantic strides as a result of better applications of technology. Schools, despite their acquisition of millions of computers, waddle along as they have for eons. They waste the power of these machines and reap negligible educational benefits as shown by the lack of improvement in overall test scores. Meanwhile, fervent pleas from parents for improved schools result in verbal agreement from educators and politicians, but no effective action follows. This dialogue has continued for years. The difficulties in education remain virtually untouched. Hope of major improvements under present conditions is little more than a fantasy.
Today's technology, if used differently, could bring advances that would improve education dramatically. Ordinary students would make massive gains and restraints on bright students would dissolve. Wherever illiteracy is a problem, it would be eliminated, and handicapped students would have immense new vistas opened to them. If computers are to be effective in schools, however, overthrowing present practices must occur, and that frightens many people. Opposition is therefore inevitable. Some human instructors will object emotionally, fearing that more extensive employment of technology will seriously degrade their position. Their trepidation is understandable but groundless. Although teachers will have to alter their accustomed practices, they will reach a new level of importance, will accomplish more, and will have greater job satisfaction when schools take advantage of the power of computers. Some parents may also object to technology fearing that an Orwellian world will engulf their children. This fear is also false. Computerized education, properly used, can provide a personal side to education that is impossible today.
Despite the present retarded pace of change in schools, a real revolution can happen. Compelling evidence of the power of effective computerized education is available in a few places. When parents become aware of this evidence, and when they become cognizant of what computers can do under still better conditions, they, together with other concerned citizens, can force schools to use computers properly. Schooling will become both enjoyable for children and supremely effective. Thereafter, the dire weakness of much of today's education will vanish.
Effective computerization in education will happen eventually, simply because the advantages are monumental. Unfortunately, the longer the change is delayed, the more present students are deprived of the benefits that could accrue to them. The necessary prerequisite for this change to occur is thorough discussion by educators, parents, politicians, and concerned individuals of what can and should be done.
Computers can
remake education. It is time to begin.
contact phone
numbers:
9799-2882 (Ivan)
9378-1407 (Guilherme)