Project Comptown: educational intervention and action research

The introduction of computers into education raises questions such as: are computers in education effective? If they are, in what sense? What are the most effective strategies for using computers in education? How should teachers be encouraged to use them? To answer these questions a large‐scale experiment (Project Comptown) was carried out in Israel, to test ways and means under real rather than laboratory conditions. This project is a research‐oriented educational intervention, applying massive computerisation of schools and their ‘close environment’ to two localities in Israel (Arad and Ashkelon). Our starting point was the premise that computerisation of education is an inevitable process. Consequently, turning the computer into a ‘cultural tool’ in schools becomes a major challenge, aiming to narrow the gap between ‘school culture’ and ‘real‐world culture’. The main objectives for Project Comptown are: [1] To create a computer culture in schools; [2] To use the computer's potential for innovative teaching and learning, both inside and outside schools. To achieve these, we identified a number of principles which we considered pre‐conditions for an ‘appropriate’ computer strategy in schools.