GB1298551A - Teaching aid - Google Patents

Abstract

1298551 Teaching machines TONESCRIPT PRODUCTIONS Ltd 5 Dec 1969 [5 Dec 1968] 57825/68 Heading G5G In a programmed question-and-answer teaching machine a medium such as a card has a number of questions and of answers visibly recorded on it and when the card is in position on the machine all the questions and answers are visible, the user being required to decide which answers belong to which questions. However, the machine determines the sequence in which the questions are to be tackled. Fig. 1 shows the housing of such a machine: L1 to L2 are question.indicating lamps and RS1 to RS12 are answer-selecting switches. In use, a card (not shown) bearing written questions and answers has an aperture adjacent each question and answer, the apertures being in a pattern corresponding to the lamps and switches of the machine. When the card is placed on the machine's top panel with its apertures in register with the lamps and switches, the machine presents questions by sequentially illuminating different lamps and the user responds by means of the switches. More than one question lamp may be lit simultaneously, in which case the correct response is the operation of all the switches of the corresponding answers, and no others. When a correct response has been made to a single or multiple question, the machine automatically proceeds to another in a predetermined programme controlled by a rotary stepping switch. In particular, the machine shown may present five of the twelve possible questions and the user presses five switches, all of which are held in if they correspond to correct answers (the question lights going out one by one as their corresponding answers are entered), but all the switches depressed are released as soon as one wrong answer is entered and all five questions are re-presented. If all five answers are correct, the switches unlock, the stepping switch advances and a different set of five questions is presented. In a full programme, individual questions are repeated several times but are grouped with different questions each time. When a programme has been completed, it may be automatically repeated. Eventually however, a new programme is called for, and for this a new card must be used. This will in general call for a different sequence of contacts to be made by the stepping switch: a switch SS on the panel is operated to make the necessary changes in internal circuitry of the machine. This circuitry is depicted in Fig. 2 (not shown). In alternative machine constructions, the question lamps and answer switches may be placed in parallel columns for use with a card to be located in the space between these columns. It is also possible to replace the separate lamps and switches by a single set of push-button switches with lamps built into them so that each is a combined question indicator and answer selector (though not in general relating to the same question and answer pair).