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Control Technology and School Curricula in the Late 1980s in Australia

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Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies
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Synonyms

Machine control; Mechanized systems; Robots

Introduction

The term Control Technology can be defined as “an application involving the use of a computer, with the aid of suitable interfacing and software, to give its user control of some external process” (Tatnall and Tatnall 1987). Examples of control technology include devices such as robot vehicles and “turtles” (The Turtle was an early robot used in education by Seymour Papert), robot arms, industrial robots, equipment to monitor and control scientific experiments, process control equipment, computer numerically controlled lathes, and other automated machines (Tatnall 1990).

Although there had been some examples of control technology in schools before this, in some schools in Australia, it began to be treated seriously as an addition to secondary school curricula in the mid-late 1980s, and in primary schools a few years later. Although not many schools made use of control technology at the time, it was generally recognized...

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Correspondence to Arthur Tatnall .

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Tatnall, A. (2020). Control Technology and School Curricula in the Late 1980s in Australia. In: Tatnall, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10576-1_200

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