Program To
Alleviate Illiteracy
University Park, Pa. --
Teaching illiterate and
semi-literate young adults to
read while at the same time
providing them with career
information is the goal of a new
Pennsylvania State University
computer-assisted instruction
program.
Directed by Dr. Lester S.
Golub, professor of education,
the $119,479 U.S. Office of
Education-funded project is
aimed at the three million
Americans who are reading at or
below a third-grade level.
"We are not concerned with
fostering the kind of literacy
that makes people want to read
Shakespeare or even a
best-seller," Dr. Golub explains.
"We want to help these 16 to
26-year-olds read the
instructions their boss has just
handed out, the card that
explains how to operate the
machine in front of them, or a
technical book or manual."
Designed to appeal to
students with potential who
have been left behind, the Penn
State program will provide
specific career information at
several different levels. Potential
entrants, ranging from high
school drop-outs to prison
inmates, will take a pre-test to
determine in which phase of the
program to start.
Those with reading levels of
third grade or less will enter
LITE (for literacy) I. Here they
will find a phonics initial reading
program linked with a pool of
educational materials preparing
them for the job world. Simply
couched, general information on
how to read the want ads or fill
in applications forms will be
available as well as instructions
on answering a telephone,
procuring a birth certificate, or
obtaining a social security
number.
"The computer makes an
ideal teacher because it provides
one-to-one, completely
individualized instruction," Dr.
Golub points out. "Course
materials are projected on a
television viewing screen and
typewriter terminals permit the
student to test his understanding
by responding to questions.
There is also an audio unit and a
second screen to accommodate
slides.
"So personalized is the
instruction potential that in all
likelihood, no two people will
every see exactly the same
course."
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Once the student has reached
a third-grade reading level, he
enters LITE 11, where he finds a
description of 12 general job
areas. Although Dr. Golub does
not plan initially to put all of
them on-line, information will
eventually become available on
job opportunities in such careers
as building and heavy
construction work and general
and light industry. Materials will
also be programmed for
prospective city employees,
drivers, and hospital and medical
personnel, as well as for those
students interested in finding
work outdoors, in sales and
clerical positions, or in
communications and restaurant
services.
After a student selects a
particular category, the
computer will alert him to all its
possibilities. The person who
likes the idea of working as a
driver, for example, can learn
about buses, taxis, trucks, and
company cars.
LITE II is divided into three
reading levels. At grades four
through six, a student selects a
job category and then gets an
idea of the duties involved and
the training required. The job's
advantages and disadvantages, its
benefits and advancement
possibilities and national
employment opportunities are
spelled out.
More complicated materials
will be programmed at the
seventh and eighth-grade levels,
where students will be taught to
read training manuals describing
how to perform tasks for the
various jobs specified.
Level three is designed for
those reading as well as or better
than ninth-graders and will be
helpful to someone interested in
becoming a foreman or perhaps
in starting his own business.
By next Fall, Dr. Golub hopes
to bring in a sample population
to start trying out LITE I
materials at Penn State's
Computer-Assisted Instruction
Laboratory, whose director, Dr.
Keith Hall, is serving as project
coordinator. Carolyn Kendall, a
research assistant at the
University, is coordinating the
authoring and programming for
the project.
Four graduate students are
also assisting Dr. Golub. Ruby
Thompson and Patricia Mull are
authoring materials for LITE I,
while Donna Prall and Maura
Clancy perform a similar
function for LITE H.
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Anti-Pollution Program Outlined
"The long-run problem of
automobile exhaust emissions
will probably not be solved by
improving the internal
combustion engine. We must
eliminate it, and this means a
double-pronged program:
developing vehicles that operate
on other kinds of power, and
bringing into being whole new
concepts of mass
transportation."
This was the pronouncement
of William J. Moroz, director of
the University's Center for Air
Environment Studies and
professor of mechanical
engineering, in the June, 1970,
issue of Appalachia magazine.
Moroz laments that for 60
years automobile manufacturers
did nothing to reduce fuel
emissions from the gasoline
engine, and for this reason he is
adamant about the maximum
emission levels specified in the
Clean Air Act, sponsored by
Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-Maine).
"I would be inclined to put
them out of business for six
months," he told The Daily
Collegian in regard to the
possibility auto manufacturers
will not be able to meet the
1976 emission standards.
Professor of Chemical
Engineering, Robert H.
McCormick was thesis adviser
for several graduate student
research projects dealing with
emissions control of the internal
combustion engine. He cited
several prospects for reducing
emissions, but said, "It will be
very difficult, and probably
impossible to meet the 1976
standards."
The auto industry is testing
some pollution abatement
systems of its own and officials
have estimated that, although a
system has not yet been devised,
costs will run from $3OO to
$5OO per car. They also fear that
any new system will add
considerably to fuel costs and
will result in poorer engine
performance.
There is some investigation of
alternatives to the internal
combustion engine, the officials
claim, including the gas turbine
and the steam engine. But since
it would take from five to six
years to initiate mass production
of such alternatives if a decision
were made now to use them, the
officials conclude that the
existing internal combustion
engine must be modified if the
1976 federal emission standards
are to be met.
McCormick said some work
done in his department has
indicated that the diesel engine,
with a higher compression ratio
and flame temperature than the
gasoline engine, has the ability
to burn fuel much more
completely and so reduce carbon
monoxide and hydrocarbon
emissions. But he explained that
the higher flame temperature
also causes more nitrogen in the
air to "burn" and hence
increases nitrogen oxide
emissions.
According to the• National Air
Pollution Control
Administration, automobiles
account for 60 per cent of the
total carbon monoxide emissions
in the United States, along with
nearly one-half the
hydrocarbons and one-third the
nitrogen oxides. Present
emission standards, tightened in
1970 since their initial
enactment in 1968, cover only
carbon monoxide and
hydrocarbons. In 1973 the
standards will be tightened even
more and expanded to cover
nitrogen oxides.
By Bill Stuble
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
The standards for 1976 will
be approximately twice as
stringent as the 1970 standards,
with limits on particle emissions
to be added. Since 1970 heavy
duty trucks and buses also were
covered by emission limitations.
Legislation in 1970 also called
for the reduction of lead
additives in gasoline. This has
been accomplished with a minor
decrease in engine compression
ratios of new cars. Other fuel
additives such as nickel and
boron which are dangerous,
according to the NAPCA, still
are being used without
restriction.
Moroz said pollution
abatement equipment on new
automobiles presently is costing
the consumer about $5O. He said
he believes this equipment is
well worth the money, especially
because legislation passed this
year required representative
vehicles coming off factory
production lines to be inspected
for emissions output. Formerly,
vehicle manufacturers only
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the NAPCA for testing.
The general concensus seems
to be that the automobile holds
a problematical future even if a
pollution abatement system is
devised to meet the 1976
emission standards especially
as the automobile is used in
cities.
Moroz pointed out the
inefficiency of the automobile
lies not only in its fuel
combustion, but also in its basic
role of transportation. He said
this inefficiency can be
expressed in terms of the low
passenger-to-horsepower ratio
that the automobile has in
relation to other modes of
transportation.
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