Curriculum Development in Public Administration: The Demise of the Diploma in Municipal Administration

Abstract

Is there a future for the book in the computer age? We address this question obliquely by reporting on the development of an on‐line learning support system called CYCLOTEXT. This system makes use of a fairly modest level of technology to provide a dynamic browsing environment in which the student can move easily among an unstructured, open‐ended set of topics, each headed by a ‘keyword’, and thereby build up a model of a universe of discourse. It has a use as a powerful study support facility which, we argue, is not adequately catered for by the traditional codex book. We believe that, unlike more familiar programmed instruction systems, CYCLOTEXT offers a type of learning technology which could, with further development, represent an important aid to study in the sometimes intransigent field of humanities. We offer a preliminary report on both its theory and practice ‐‐ though we conclude that the book is safe for the time being.