Examining the educational potential of computer-based technology in statistics

We need to look beyond the view of computer-based technology as a means of enhancing the teaching and learning of current curricula; the end result of such activities is often no more than a translation of what are essentially pencil-and-paper-based activities onto a computer screen, albeit often done in an exciting and enlightening manner. As we move into an era in which computer-based technology becomes the new pencil and paper, such developments will become of historical interest at most (Kaput, 1992). Although there is undoubted benefit in using computer-based technology to reduce the time students spend on statistical computation, or in using it to illustrate the Central Limit Theorem, for example, the ultimate power in the technology lies in its ability to reshape the nature of intellectual activity in the statistics classroom. To see why this might be, we need to look generally at the ways in which interacting with technology of this sort has the potential to affect human intellectual performance. We will do this by using a theoretical framework proposed by Salamon, Perkins, and Globerson (1991) which has implications for both future classroom practice and research.