n012  0725  19 Apr 85
PM-HARVARD
By EDWARD B. FISKE
c.1985 N.Y. Times News Service
    NEW YORK - Criticizing what he termed the ''exaggerated claims'' and
''media hype'' that have accompanied the arrival of computers on
college campuses, Derek Bok, president of Harvard University, urged
fellow educators Thursday to adopt an attitude of ''cautious
enthusiasm'' toward the new technologies.
    The best current evidence is that computers are ''mere vehicles that
deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more
than the truck that delivers our groceries causes changes in our
nutrition,'' he said in his annual report to the university's Board
of Overseers.
    Bok said that computers could provide better access to information,
eliminate drudgery and provide new learning situations through
simulations. At their best, he said, computers can challenge students
to ''think for themselves.'' On the other hand, he continued, the
costs of computers ''seem likely to remain high for the foreseeable
future,'' and they have limited applications outside the natural
sciences.
    In the last analysis, he suggested, the most promising aspect of
computers in academic life is their potential to inspire ''work and
thought about teaching methods and the processes by which human
beings learn.''
    ''It is embarrassing that professors, who spend so much time
evaluating and criticizing other institutions,'' he said, ''devote so
little effort to finding ways to improve their own methods of
instruction. If technology can help in encouraging such an effort,
that is reason enough to welcome its appearance.''
    Over the last few years Bok has used the annual President's Report
to synthesize his thinking about educational issues, including
business, legal and medical education, and to offer his own
suggestions for change.
    In his 1983-84 report, made public Thursday, the 55-year-old
president addressed the proliferation of computers on college
campuses, noting that they were altering academic life in areas
ranging from computerized library catalogues to the manipulation of
financial data in graduate business programs. ''In theory, at
least,'' he said, ''the new technology has the power to transform the
nature of the university.''
    Bok warned, however, that experience suggested skepticism about
''dramatic claims'' for new technologies. ''Thomas Edison was clearly
wrong in declaring that the phonograph would revolutionize
education,'' he said. ''Radio could not make a lasting impact on the
public schools even though foundations gave generous subsidies to
bring programs into the classroom. Television met a similar fate in
spite of glowing predictions heralding its power to improve
teaching.''
    He cited numerous benefits of computers in an academic setting.
''Well-crafted'' programs of computer-assisted instruction, for
example, may allow students to work at their own pace and offer
''feedback of a kind rarely available'' in conventional courses, he
said.
    On the other hand, he said, computerized instruction often forces
students to choose from a ''limited number of responses'' that appear
on the screen. ''There is no room in this format for challenging
students to define the problem for themselves, explore a new
hypothesis of their own, or speculate about the material under
study,'' he said.
    
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