PLATO ( Programmable Logic for Automatic Teaching Surgery ) is the first general-purpose computer-aided teaching system. Beginning in 1960, it runs on the computer ILLIAC I University of Illinois. In the late 1970s, it supported several thousand graphics terminals distributed worldwide, running on nearly a dozen different mainframe computer networks. Many modern concepts in multi-user computing were originally developed at PLATO, including forums, message boards, online testing, e-mail, chat rooms, image languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer games.
PLATO is designed and built by the University of Illinois and serves for four decades, offering courses (SD to university) for UIUC students, local schools, and other universities. Courses are taught in a variety of subjects, including Latin, chemistry, education, music, and primary mathematics. The system includes a number of useful features for pedagogy, including text overlay graphs, contextual free answer text answers, depending on keyword inclusion, and feedback designed to respond to alternative answers.
The right to market PLATO as a commercial product is licensed by Control Data Corporation (CDC), the manufacturer on the mainframe computer where PLATO IV system is built. CDC President William Norris plans to make PLATO a force in the computer world, but finds that marketing the system is not as easy as expected. PLATO continues to build strong followers in certain markets, and the final production PLATO system was not closed until 2006, by chance just one month after Norris died.
Video PLATO (computer system)
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Before 1944 G.I. Bill who gave free college education to World War II veterans, higher education is limited to a minority of the US population, although only 9% of the population is in the military. The trend toward greater enrollment was important in the early 1950s, and the issue of providing instruction for many new students was a serious concern for university administrators. To that end, if computer automation increases factory production, it can do the same for academic instruction.
The 1957 USSR launch of the Sputnik I satellite provided energy to the US government to spend more on science and engineering education. In 1958, the US Air Force Scientific Research Office held a conference on the topic of computer instruction at the University of Pennsylvania; interested parties, especially IBM, presented the study.
Maps PLATO (computer system)
Genesis
Around 1959 Chalmers W. Sherwin, a physicist at the University of Illinois (U of I), suggested a computerized learning system for William Everett, dean of engineering colleges, who, in turn, recommended that Daniel Alpert, another physicist, engineers, administrators, mathematicians, and psychologists. After weeks of meetings, they can not approve a design. Before acknowledging the failure, Alpert mentioned the matter to laboratory assistant Donald Bitzer, who had thought about the problem, suggesting he could build a demonstration system.
Bitzer, regarded as Mr. PLATO, acknowledges that to provide quality computer-based education, a good graph is essential. This is when the 10-character teleprinters per second is the norm. In 1960, the first system, PLATO I, was operated on a local ILLIAC I computer. This includes a television set for display and a special keyboard to navigate the system function menu; PLATO II, in 1961, featured two users at once.
The PLATO system was redesigned, between 1963 and 1969; PLATO III allows "anyone" to design new learning modules using their TUTOR programming language, compiled in 1967 by graduate biology student Paul Tenczar. Built on CDC 1604, provided to them by William Norris, PLATO III can simultaneously run up to 20 terminals, and is used by local facilities in Champaign-Urbana that can enter the system with their special terminal. The only remote PLATO III terminal is located near the state capitol in Springfield, Illinois at Springfield High School. It is connected to PLATO III system by video connection and separate special line for keyboard data.
NSF engagement
PLATO I, II, and III are funded by small grants from a combined Army-Navy-Air Force fund, but by the time PLATO III operates, everyone involved is confident that the project is worth raising. Thus, in 1967, the National Science Foundation provided permanent funding to the team, enabling Alpert to establish a Computer Based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at the university.
In 1972, a new system called PLATO IV was ready to operate. PLATO IV terminal is a great innovation. This includes the Bitzer orange plasma display, which combines memory and bitmap graphics into a single view. This plasma display includes the ability to draw fast vector lines, and ran at 1260 baud, rendering 60 lines or 180 characters per second. The display is 512 Ã- 512 bitmap, with characters and vector plotting done by embedded logic. Users can provide their own characters to support an imperfect bitmap graphics. The compressed air is supported by a piston-driven microfiche image selector that allows colored images to be projected on the back of the screen under the control of the program. The PLATO IV screen also includes an infrared 16-16 touch panel, allowing students to answer questions by touching anywhere on the screen.
It is also possible to connect terminals to peripheral devices. One such device is Gooch Synthetic Woodwind (named after the inventor Sherwin Gooch), a synthesizer that offers a four-voice music synthesis to vote in PLATO courseware. It was subsequently replaced on PLATO V terminal by Synthesizer Gooch Cybernetic, which has sixteen individually programable sounds, or combined to create more complex sounds. This allows what today is known as a multimedia experience. A PLATO-compatible music language known as OPAL (Octave-Pitch-Accent-Length) was developed for this synthesizer, as well as compiler for languages, two music text editors, filing systems for music binaries, programs to play binary music in real time, and score music scores, and lots of debugging and compositional tools. A number of interactive composition programs have also been written. Peripheral Gooch is widely used for music education courses created, for example, by the PLATO Project of the University of Illinois Music School.
From 1970 to 1994, the University of Illinois School of Music explored the use of computer-based Computer-Based Computer Research Laboratory (CERL) systems to provide online teaching in music. Led by G. David Peters, music faculty and students work with PLATO's technical ability to produce instructional materials related to music and experiment with their use in music curriculum.
Peters started his work in PLATO III. In 1972, PLATO IV system was technically possible to introduce multimedia pedagogy that was not available in the market until many years later.
Between 1974 and 1988, 25 U of my music faculty participated in the development of the software curriculum and over 40 graduate students wrote software and assisted the faculty in its use. In 1988, the project expanded its focus beyond PLATO to accommodate increased availability and use of microcomputers. The wider scope resulted in a project renaming to the Illinois Technology-Based Music Project. Working in the School of Music continued on another platform after the CERL PLATO system closed in 1994. During the 24 years of music project life, many participants moved to educational institutions and entered the private sector. Their influence can be traced to many of the multimedia pedagogy, products and services used today, especially by musicians and music educators.
PLATO Music School University of Illinois Project (Technology and Research-Chronology )
PLATO III
In 1969, the PLATO III system was available on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The system is capable of supporting 20 time-sharing terminals.
Significant Start Effort
Pitch Recognition/Performance Calculation
In 1969, G. David Peters began researching the feasibility of using PLATO to teach trumpet students to play with high-pitched and rhythmic precision. He created the interface for the PLATO III terminal. The hardware consists of (1) a filter that can set the correct tone, and (2) the calculating device to measure the tone duration. The device accepts and assesses quick notes, two trilled notes, and lip slurs. Peters points out that assessing instrumental performance for tone and rhythmic accuracy is feasible in computer-assisted instruction.
Rhythm and Perception Notes
In 1970, a random access audio device was available for use with PLATO III.
In 1972, Robert W. Placek conducted a study using computer-assisted instruction for rhythm perception. Placek uses a random access audio device attached to a PLATO III terminal which he develops font and graphical music notation. Students majoring in basic education are required to (1) recognize the elements of rhythm notation, and (2) listen to the rhythm pattern and identify their notation. This is the first known app from a PLATO random access audio device to computer-based music instruction.
Study participants were interviewed about the experience and found it valuable and fun. The custom value is the direct feedback from PLATO. Although participants noted deficiencies in audio quality, they generally showed that they could learn the basic skills of rhythm notation recognition.
PLATO IV
In 1972, the PLATO IV terminal was introduced with capabilities that include a transparent plasma screen equipped with touch capabilities, graphics and programmable fonts, rear projection via display microfiche, Votrax (voice synthesizer), a four voice voice synthesizer, and a device that provides random access to previously recorded audio.
The random access projected image random microfiche device via the PLATO IV plasma screen enables laying of terminal-generated characters into slide images. This device can access 256 microfiche images in 0.2 seconds.
The random access audio device uses magnetic discs with the capacity to hold 17 minutes of total pre-recorded audio. It can take to playback every 4096 audio clips in 0.4 seconds. In 1980, the device was commercially produced by Education and Information Systems, Incorporated with a capacity of more than 22 minutes.
This device produces two famous music projects:
Visual Diagnostic Skills for Musical Instrumental Educators
In the mid-1970s, James O. Froseth (University of Michigan) has published training materials that teach instrumental music teachers to visually identify the typical problems exhibited by novice band students. For each instrument, Froseth develops a checklist that is ordered on what to look for (ie, posture, embouchure, hand placement, instrument position, etc.) and a 35mm slide set of young players showing the problem. In classroom exercises, trainees briefly view the slides and record their diagnoses on checklists that are reviewed and evaluated later in the training sessions.
In 1978, William H. Sanders adapted the Froseth program for delivery using the PLATO IV system. Sanders moves the slide to microfiche for rear projection via a PLATO IV plasma screen. In a timed exercise, trainees view the slides, then fill in the check list by touching them on the screen. The program provides immediate feedback and keeps aggregate records. Training participants can change the time of the exercise and repeat it whenever they want.
Sanders and Froseth then conducted a study to compare the traditional class delivery of the program to delivery using PLATO. The results showed no significant differences between the delivery methods for a) the students' post-test performance and b) their attitudes toward the training materials. However, students who use computers appreciate the flexibility to set their own hours of training, complete significantly more exercise drills, and do so in much less time.
Identification Music Tool
In 1981, Nan T. Watanabe examined the feasibility of computer-aided music instruction using computer-controlled pre-recorded audio. He observes the audio hardware that can interact with the computer system.
In 1967, Allvin and Kuhn used a four-channel tape recorder connected to a computer to present a pre-recorded model to assess a singing-vision show.
In 1969, Ned C. Deihl and Rudolph E. Radocy conducted computer-assisted learning studies in music that included aural concepts related to the phrases, articulations, and rhythms of the clarinet. They use a four-line ribbon tape connected to a computer to provide pre-recorded audio parts. Messages are recorded on three tracks and the signal is not heard on the fourth line with two hours of available playback time/record. This research further demonstrates that computer-controlled audio with four-track tape is possible.
In 1979, Williams used a digitally controlled digital cassette recorder that has been connected to a mini-computer (Williams, MA) A comparison of three approaches to visual-audit discrimination teaching, sight and music dictation for music students: A traditional approach, the Kodaly approach, and Kodaly's approach coupled with computer-assisted instruction, "University of Illinois, unpublished). This device works, but is slow with variable access time.
A random access audio device connected to the PLATO IV terminal is also available. There is a problem with the sound quality due to audio breaks. Regardless, Watanabe considers consistent quick access to audio clips essential for study design and selecting this tool for research.
Watanabe's computer-based practice and practice program teaches basic music education students to identify sound instruments. Students listen to the sound of randomly chosen instruments, identify the instruments they hear, and receive live feedback. Watanabe found no significant differences in learning between groups that learned through computer-assisted drill programs and groups that received traditional instruction in instrument identification. This study, however, shows that the use of random access audio in computer aided instruction in music is feasible.
Illinois-Based Music Technology Project
In 1988, with the deployment of their microcomputer and peripherals, the University of Illinois's PLATO Music School Project has been renamed the Illinois Technology-Based Music Project. The researchers then explored the use of emerging, commercially available technology for music instruction until 1994.
Influence and Impact
Educators and students use the PLATO System for music instruction at other educational institutions including Indiana University, Florida State University, and University of Delaware. Many PLATO School alumni of the University of Illinois Music Project gain hands-on experience in computing and media technology and move to influential positions both in education and the private sector.
The purpose of this system is to provide a tool for music educators to use in the development of teaching materials, which may include musical dictation exercises, automatic keyboard stage performances, envelopes and ear training of timbre, interactive examples or laboratories in musical acoustics, and composition and theoretical exercises with direct feedback. One ear training application, Ottaviano, became a mandatory part of a particular undergraduate music theory course at Florida State University in the early 1980s.
Another device is the Votrax speech synthesizer, and the "say" instruction (with "saylang" instructions for choosing a language) is added to the Tutor programming language to support text-to-speech synthesis using Votrax.
With the advent of microprocessor technology, newly developed PLATO terminals are becoming cheaper and more flexible than PLATO IV terminals. At the University of Illinois, this is called the PLATO V terminal, although there is never a PLATO V system (the system continues to be called PLATO IV). Intel 8080 microprocessors in this terminal makes them able to execute programs locally, such as current Java applets and ActiveX controls, and allows small software modules to be downloaded to the terminal to add PLATO courseware with rich animations and other advanced capabilities that are not available otherwise use traditional terminal-based approach.
Beginning in 1972, researchers from Xerox PARC were given a tour of the PLATO system at the University of Illinois. At this time, they are shown parts of the system, such as the Show Display generator for images in PLATO (later translated into graphics drawing programs on Xerox Star workstations), Charset Editor for "painting" the new character (later translated into "Doodle" program in PARC), and Term Talk and Monitor Mode communication program. Many of the new technologies they saw were adopted and improved, when the researchers returned to Palo Alto, California. They then transferred an improved version of this technology to Apple Inc.
In 1975, PLATO Systems served nearly 150 sites of the donated Cyber ​​CDC donated, including not only PLATO III system users, but a number of grammar schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities, and military installations. PLATO IV offers text, graphics, and animation as intrinsic components of courseware content, and incorporates shared memory constructs (common "variables") that allow TUTOR programs to send data among various users. This last construct is used for both the chat type program and the first multi-user flight simulator.
With the introduction of PLATO IV, Bitzer declared a general success, claiming that the purpose of general computer instruction is now available to all. However, the terminal is very expensive (about $ 12,000), so as a general system, PLATO should probably be reduced for cost reasons only.
In the early 1970s, some people working in the modern foreign language group at the University of Illinois began working on a set of Hebrew lessons, initially without the support of a good system for left-hand writing. In preparation for the PLATO demo in Tehran, that Bruce Sherwood would participate, Sherwood worked with Don Lee to implement support for writing to the left, including Persian (Farsi), whose writing system was based on Arabic. There is no funding for this work, done only because of Sherwood's personal interests, and no curriculum development for either Persian or Arabic. However, Peter Cole, Robert Lebowitz, and Robert Hart used the new system's ability to revisit the Hebrew lessons. PLATO hardware and software supports the design and use of self-made 8-by-16 characters, so most languages ​​can be displayed on the graphics screen (including right-to-left).
CDC years
When PLATO IV achieved production quality, William Norris became increasingly interested as a potential product. There are two interests. From a rigorous business perspective, he transformed Control Data into a service-based company rather than hardware, and increasingly convinced that computer-based education will become a major market in the future. At the same time, Norris was upset by the unrest in the late 1960s, and felt that it was largely due to social inequality that needed to be addressed. PLATO offers solutions by providing higher education to segments of the population who will never be able to afford university education.
Norris provided CERL with machines to develop their systems in the late 1960s. In 1971 he established a new division within the CDC to develop PLATO "courseware", and ultimately much of CDC's initial training and technical manuals. In 1974 PLATO operated in in-house machines at CDC headquarters in Minneapolis, and in 1976 they bought commercial rights in exchange for the new Cyber ​​CDC machine.
CDC announced the acquisition soon after, claiming that in 1985 50% of the company's revenue would be related to the PLATO service. Through the 1970s CDC tirelessly promoted PLATO, both as a commercial tool and another to retrain unemployed workers in new fields. Norris refused to give up on the system, and invested in several non-mainstream courses, including farmer information systems for farmers, and various courses for in-city youth. CDC even went so far as to put PLATO terminals in some shareholder houses, to show the concept of the system.
In the early 1980s, the CDC began to advertise this service on a large scale, apparently due to increased internal dissent over the now $ 600 million project, which took print and even radio ads promoting it as a common tool. The Minneapolis Tribune is unsure of their ad copy and initiates an investigation into the claim. In the end they concluded that although it did not prove to be a better educational system, everyone who used it at least liked it. Official evaluation by external testing agencies ends with almost the same conclusion, indicating that everyone enjoys using it, but basically the same as the average teacher of mankind in terms of student progress.
Of course, computerized systems equivalent to humans should be a great achievement, a concept pioneered by early pioneers in CBT. Computers can serve all students at school for maintenance, and will not break down. But the CDC charged $ 50 per hour for access to their datacenters, to cover some of their development costs, making it much more expensive than human beings on a per student basis. Therefore, PLATO fails in its true sense, although it does find some use in large corporations and government agencies willing to invest in technology.
The mass marketing effort of the PLATO system was introduced in 1980 as Micro-PLATO, which runs the basic TUTOR system on the "Viking-721" CDC terminal and various home computers. Versions built for Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, Atari 8-bit family, Zenith Z-100 and, later, Radio Shack TRS-80 and IBM Personal Computer. Micro-PLATO can be used stand-alone for regular courses, or can connect to CDC data centers for multiuser programs. To make it affordable, CDC introduces the Homelink service for $ 5 per hour.
Norris continued to praise PLATO, announcing that it would only be a few years before representing a major source of CDC revenue by the end of 1984. In 1986 Norris resigned as CEO, and PLATO services were slowly killed. He later claimed that Micro-PLATO is one of the reasons PLATO is off track. They had started TI-99/4A, but then Texas Instruments pulled the plug and they moved to another system like Atari, who immediately did the same. He felt that it was a waste of time, because the value of his system was in his online nature, which was not originally owned by Micro-PLATO.
Bitzer is more candid about CDC failures, blaming their corporate culture for problems. He noted that the development of courseware is an average of $ 300,000 per hour shipping, many times what CERL paid for similar products. This means that the CDC should charge a high price to cover their costs, the price that makes the system unattractive. The reason, he suggests, is because this high price is the CDC has established a division that should keep itself profitable through the development of courseware, forcing them to raise prices to keep their numbers up for a slow period.
In South Africa
During the period when the CDC was marketing PLATO, the system began to be used internationally. South Africa was one of the largest users of PLATO in the early 1980s. Eskom, South African power company, owns a large CDC mainframe at Megawatt Park in the northwest suburbs of Johannesburg. Especially this computer is used for management and data processing tasks related to power generation and distribution, but also runs PLATO software. The largest PLATO installation in South Africa in the early 1980s was at the University of the Western Cape, serving the "indigenous population", and at one time had hundreds of PLATO IV terminals all connected to a leased line of data to Johannesburg. There are several other installations in educational institutions in South Africa, among them Madadeni College in Madadeni town outside Newcastle.
This is probably the most unusual PLATO installation anywhere. Madadeni has about 1,000 students, all of them indigenous, indigenous and 99.5% of Zulu's ancestors. College is one of 10 teacher preparatory institutions in KwaZulu, most of them much smaller. In many ways Madadeni is very primitive. None of the classrooms have electricity and there's only one phone for the whole college, which should swing for a few minutes before the operator might come on the phone. So the air-conditioned carpeted room with 16 computer terminals contrasts sharply with the rest of the campus. Sometimes the only way a person can communicate with the outside world is through PLATO-talk terms.
For many Madadeni students, most come from rural areas, the PLATO terminal is the first time they have found electronic technology. Many first year students have never seen a toilet flush before. Initially there was skepticism that these illiterate students could effectively use PLATO, but the concerns did not arise. Within an hour or less, most students use the system proficiently, mostly to learn math and science skills, although the lesson that teaches keyboarding skills is one of the most popular. Some students even use on-line resources to learn TUTOR, the PLATO programming language, and some people write lessons about the system in Zulu.
PLATO is also used extensively in South Africa for industrial training. Eskom successfully used PLM (PLATO learning management) and simulation to train power plant operators, South African Airways (SAA) uses PLATO simulations for the training of cabin officers, and there are a number of other large companies also exploring the use of PLATO.
The CDC subsidiary of South Africa is investing heavily in the development of a secondary school curriculum (SASSC) at PLATO, but unfortunately as the curriculum approaches the final stage of settlement, the CDC is beginning to waver in South Africa - partly because of financial problems back home, partly due to increased opposition in the United States doing business in South Africa, and partly because of the rapidly growing microcomputer, a paradigm shift that failed to be recognized by the CDC.
Online community
Although PLATO is designed for computer-based education, perhaps the most enduring legacy is its place in the origins of the online community. This is made possible by the communication capabilities and interface of the PLATO interface, a feature whose significance has recently been recognized by computer historians. PLATO Notes, created by David R. Woolley in 1973, was one of the first online message boards in the world, and many years later became the direct ancestor of Lotus Notes. In 1976, PLATO has created new tools for online communication, including Personal Notes (e-mail), Talkpress (chat room), Term-Talk (instant messaging), monitor mode (remote screen sharing) and emoticons.
PLATO plasma panels are perfect for games, although I/O bandwidth (180 characters per second or 60 line graphs per second) is relatively slow. Based on 1500 shared 60-bit variables per game (initially), it's possible to implement online games. Since it is an educational computer system, most of the user community is very interested in gaming.
Just as PLATO hardware and development platforms inspire advancements elsewhere (such as at Xerox PARC and MIT), many popular commercial and Internet games have finally gained inspiration from PLATO's early games. As one example, the Castle Wolfenstein by PLATO alum Silas Warner was inspired by the PLATO underground game (see below), in turn inspiring Doom and Quake >. Thousands of multiplayer online games were developed in PLATO from about 1970 to 1980s, with the following important examples:
- Daleske's
(topplayer multiplayer game room based on Star Trek .Either Empire or Colley's Maze War is a multiplayer action game first network ported to Trek82 , Trek83 , ROBOTREK , Xtrek , and Netrek , and also adapted (unlicensed) to Apple II computers by fellow PLATO alumni Robert Woodhead (from Wizardry fame), as a game called Galactic Attack . - Original Freecell by Alfille (from Baker concept).
- Fortner's Airfight , may be a direct inspiration for Artwick's (PLATO alum) Microsoft Flight Simulator .
- Haefeli and Bridwell's
(a tankwar vector-based graphics game, anticipating Atari BattleZone ). - Many other first-person shooters, notably Bowery's Spasim and Witz and Boland's Futurewar , are believed to be the first FPS.
- Countless games inspired by role-playing games Dungeons & amp; Dragon, including Rutherford/Whisenhunt and Original Wood dnd (later ported to PDP-10/11 by Lawrence, who had previously visited PLATO). dnd is believed to be the first dungeon crawl game and is followed by: Moria , Rogue , Dry Gulch (western style variations), and Bugs- n-Drugs (medical variations) - all MUD (Multi-User Domains) and MOOs (MUDs, Object Oriented) as well as popular first-person shooters like Doom and Quake , and MMORPGs (Online massively multiplayer role-playing games) such as Everquest and World of Warcraft . Avatar , the most popular game PLATO, is one of the world's first MUDs and has over 1 million usage hours. Doom Game and Quake can be track down part of their lineage back to PLATO programmer Silas Warner.
PLATO communications devices and games form the basis for the online community of thousands of PLATO users, lasting over twenty years. The PLATO game became so popular that a program called "The Enforcer" was written to run as a background process to set or disable game play on most sites and predecessor times for parental style control systems that manage access based on content rather than security considerations.
In September 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration stopped its PLATO system, the last system running PLATO software system on mainframe CDC Cyber, from active duty. PLATO systems like now include NovaNET and Cyber1.org.
In early 1976, the original PLATO IV system had 950 terminals that gave access to over 3500 contact hours of courseware, and additional systems were operating at CDC and Florida State University. Finally, more than 12,000 hours of courseware contact developed, largely developed by university faculty for higher education. PLATO courseware includes a wide range of high school and college programs, as well as topics such as reading skills, family planning, Lamaze training and home budgeting. In addition, the authors at the University of Illinois Medical School (now, the College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign) designed a large number of basic science and self-test lessons for first-year students. But the most popular "courseware" remains a multi-user game and role-playing video game like dnd , although it seems that CDC is not interested in this market. Because the value of CDC-based solutions disappeared in 1980, educators interested in transmitting the first machine to an IBM PC, and then to a web-based system.
Later attempt and other version
One of the biggest commercial success CDCs with PLATO is the online testing system developed for the National Association of Securities Dealers (now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), the private sector regulator of the US securities market. During the 1970s Michael Stein, E. Clarke Porter and PLATO veteran Jim Ghesquiere, working with NASD executives, Frank McAuliffe, developed the first "on demand" commercial testing service. The testing business grew slowly and was eventually separated from the CDC as Drake Training and Technologies in 1990. Applying the many PLATO concepts used in the late 1970s, E. Clarke Porter led the testing business of Drake Training and Technologies (today Thomson Prometric) in partnership with Novell, Inc. far from the mainframe model to the LAN-based client server architecture and changing the business model to implement testing done in thousands of independent training organizations on a global scale. With the emergence of a vast global network of testing centers and IT certification programs sponsored by, among others, Novell and Microsoft, online testing business exploded. Pearson VUE was founded by PLATO/Prometric veterans E. Clarke Porter, Steve Nordberg and Kirk Lundeen in 1994 to expand the global testing infrastructure. VUE improved the business model by becoming one of the first commercial companies to rely on the Internet as an essential business service and by developing self-service test registrations. The computer-based testing industry is constantly evolving, adding professional licensing and educational testing as an important business segment.
A number of firms associated with smaller testing also evolved from the PLATO system. One of the few survivors of the group was The Examiner Corporation. Stanley Trollip (formerly of the University of Illinois Aviation Research Lab) and Gary Brown (formerly of Data Control) developed the System Test Prototype in 1984.
In the early 1970s, James Schuyler developed a system at Northwestern University called HYPERTUTOR as part of MULTI-TUTOR's computer-aided learning system from Northwestern. It runs on some CDC mainframes on various sites.
Between 1973 and 1980, a group under the direction of Thomas T. Chen at the Medical Computation Laboratory of the School of Basic Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign transferred the PLATO TUTOR programming language to the MODCOMP IV mini computer. Douglas W. Jones, A.B. Baskin, Tom Szolyga, Vincent Wu and Lou Bloomfield do most of the implementation. This was TUTOR's first port to a mini computer and largely operated in 1976. In 1980, Chen founded the Global Information Systems Technology Champaign, Illinois, to market this as a Simpler system. GIST has finally joined the Adayana Government Group. Vincent Wu continues to develop the PLATO Atari cartridge.
CDC finally sells "PLATO" trademark and some marketing courseware right to the newly created Roach Organization (TRO) in 1989. In 2000 TRO changed their name to PLATO Learning and continued to sell and serve PLATO courses run on PCs. By the end of 2012, PLATO Learning brings an online learning solution to the marketplace by the name of Edmentum.
CDC continues to develop a basic system under the name CYBIS (CYBER-Based Learning System) after selling the trademark to Roach, to serve its commercial and government customers. CDC then sells their CYBIS business to Online University, which is a descendant of IMSATT. Online University then renamed VCampus.
The University of Illinois also continues the development of PLATO, eventually establishing an on-line commercial service called NovaNET in partnership with University Communications, Inc. CERL was closed in 1994, with the maintenance of the PLATO code forwarded to UCI. UCI was later renamed NovaNET Learning, which was purchased by National Computer Systems (NCS). Shortly after, NCS was purchased by Pearson, and after several name changes now operate as Pearson Digital Learning.
Cyber1
In August 2004, the PLATO version associated with the final release of the CDC was revived online. This PLATO version runs on the free and open source software emulation of the original CDC hardware called Cyber ​​Desktop. Within six months, word of mouth alone, over 500 former users have signed up to use the system. Many students who used PLATO in the 1970s and 1980s felt special social ties to the community of users who came together using powerful communication tools (speech programs, record systems, and notes) in PLATO.
The PLATO software used in Cyber1 is the final release (99A) of CYBIS, with the permission of VCampus. The underlying operating system is NOS 2.8.7, the latest release of the NOS operating system, with permission from Syntegra (now British Telecom [BT]), which has acquired the rest of the mainframe CDC business. Cyber1 runs this software on the Cyber ​​Desktop emulator. The Cyber ​​Desktop â € <â € Cyber1 offers free access to the system, which contains over 16,000 original lessons, in an effort to preserve the original PLATO community growing on CERL and on CDC systems in the 1980s. The average load of this raised system is about 10-15 users, sending personal notes and notes, and playing inter terminal games like Avatar and Empire (a Star Tracks -like games), which have collected over 1.0 million contact hours on the original PLATO system at UIUC.
Innovation
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