Computer-Based Science Instruction

ANDRE JONES As everybody knovs, the computer has been used for over ten years in education. Since the first conference at Irvine "The computer in physics instruction" (1965). various meetings on this subject have been organized in many places, which dealt with very different subjects. Work groups have been set up at international level (by the UNESCO, OECD, ... ) and at national level in various countries. Of the prominent extra-European meetings, we will only keep the most important ones. for example those held in the U.S.A. on the "Computer Use in Undergraduate Curriculum" and in Canada, "The Canadian Symposium on Instructional Technology" (1972). As a matter of fact, there have been quite a lot of conferences on this subject in Europe too. For example, the OECD entrusted us with the organizing of a center called U.C.O. 0.1. which would be aimed at two Objectives. On the one hand, to set up a aata bank on the experiments made in the field of the computer use in education; and on the second hand, to stimulate research in this field.