Workstation-assisted education at MIT

Abstract

MIT launched a major new initiative called Project Athena in 1983 to improve the quality of education through the introduction of a high-quality computing infrastructure throughout the campus. Implementation of the Project Athena computing environment required eight years, cost about $100 million, and was sponsored by Digital Equipment and IBM in addition to MIT. The Athena computing environment is based almost entirely on workstations from these two vendors using the Unix operating system. Project Athena is now complete. The resulting computer system has been turned over to the campus computing organization for ongoing operation and maintenance. The computing environment available at MIT for education has been significantly improved. Students are graduating today that have never known life at MIT without the ubiquitous availability of high-quality computing. This article provides an overview of the initial objectives and strategies of Project Athena at MIT relative to its educational use. The specific strategies that MIT employed in the use of work-stations in educational are then described. These strategies are contrasted with other available strategies. Specific examples of the use of workstations are presented. An important element in current and future education delivery is multimedia. Athena in conjunction with the MIT Media Lab has one of the largest efforts in multimedia development of any of the universities, and MIT is using multimedia in education on a daily basis. A new laboratory, the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives, has been established with a major focus on multimedia. Finally the lessons learned from Athena relative to its primary objective — that of improving education — are reviewed.