Teaching machine - American Education

Any of a wide variety of mechanical, electric and electronic equipment for displaying programmed instruction for selfteaching. Unlike audiovisual equipment, teaching machines are designed for (and operated by) the individual student rather than student groups. Moreover, they present data at a speed adjusted to the student’s own pace of learning. They also require student responses and, in turn, provide the student with immediate feedback about the accuracy of the responses. Hand-operated mechanical devices when they first appeared in the 1920s, teaching machines are now standard computers designed to operate a variety of learning programs for the full range of academic courses.

(See also computer-assisted instruction.)