Patent GB-1247363-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to teaching machines
Inventor: BALAZS BELA
IPC: G09B7/04
Filed: 1968-09-18
Abstract: 1,247,363. Teaching machines. LICENTIA TALALMANYOKAT ERTEKESITO VALLALAT. 18 Sept., 1968, No. 13064/68. Heading G5G. A teaching machine for teaching one or more students any of a plurality of different lessons in accordance with a predetermined programme has means for audio-visual communication of the subject-matter content of the lesson to the or each student and a separate visual display by which the student is presented with additional information relating to the programme itself, as distinct from the subject-matter being taught in accordance with the programme. The additional information display consists of a set of panels 040201 to 040213, Fig. 1b each of which contains a symbolic or other indication, e.g. identifying a stage in the programme being followed. As each item of lesson material is presented by the audio-visual means (soundreproducing and picture-transmitting means, not shown), a response is required of the student and these responses are recorded. The response required includes actuation of a control switch 01 and this completes circuits by which units 0301, 0302 and 0303 are actuated and these units perform further switching functions leading to the energization of units 0308 to 0321. The last-named set of units control such functions as the presentation of further audio and/or visual lesson material and recording the answers entered by students in response to such material. The student's progress through the programme may be made to depend on the character of his responses, and at each stage in his progress the information displayed by the panels 040201 to 040213 is changed. The panels each contain, permanently, a representation of a piece of programme (as distinct from lesson) information, but the contents of any given panel are not visible until it is illuminated. The display is changed by changing the illumination pattern. Thus, in use, the student is taken through a programme of instruction in a given subjectmatter and at the same time is made aware of the nature of the programmed-instruction technique by which he is being taught. For group teaching, a central processor controls the operation of a set of peripheral teaching devices: each such device provides a single student with lesson information and additional (programme) information and has the requisite means for entering responses. The response-entering and recording means may include a means generating light signals and an associated photo-sensitive strip which moves past the signal lights in steps as the programme advances. The machine may also include a medium on which the student can write answers to questions or record answers given audibly. If the required response to a given step in the programme is to write or speak, the control switch 01 is prevented from operating until the fact of having written or spoken is sensed by appropriate elements of the machine. In general, the control switch 01 when operated effects a forward step to the next stage of the programme, but it is prevented from doing so if an appropriate response by the student has not been registered by the recorder. Instead, the same step may be repeated or there may be a step back to an earlier part of the programme. The units 0301, 0302 and 0303 perform this aspect of the control, being respectively a forward-stepping, a repeater and a back-stepping switch.