Using computers to teach

Considerable resources are being channelled into new technologies for teach ing. To benefit from this investment, civil engineering teachers, employers and their students should be aware both of the potential benefits and inhe rent dangers. This paper first discusses what constitutes and promotes lear ning and then sets out to identify what: computer technologies are availabl e and how they can best be used to promote learning. Examples given in the paper include geotechnical reference software, simulations, computer-based assessment, virtual reality and integration of computer-aided learning with physical experiments.