Marcus Carr wrote:
>
> That said though, there is truth to what you say - the real
question is
> whether it matters. In my parent's day, neat cursive
handwriting was
> very important. It was arguably less important in my day
and for my
> daughter, it will be of little importance, as in her life,
she will
> unquestionably use a keyboard or some other device far more
than she
> ever writes with a ballpoint. The same is true of
mathematics - you can
> do complex calculation on your phone now, so it's not
critical that you
> understand logarithmic tables and the like. I don't think
that it's
> better or worse, just different.
If legible cursive writing was the sole measurement of
ability, I'd be in the same boat as many doctors - floating
off to oblivion.
However, I'd qualify Marcus' comment about using one's phone
for complex calculations. If you don't have the knowledge to
derive a statement of a need for calculating a solution by
using observation, experience, and analytic thinking, and lack
the knowledge to present the problem statement to the
calculating device, then, unless the device itself has the
intelligence to do it for you, and is willing to do it (think
"I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that") it's whether it's the
original calculus (stones used as counters), abaci, or
iPhones, it's useless.
My mother's criticism of the multiplication table matrix
printed on the back cover of my grade-school composition books
was, "You'll never learn to multiply by yourself, if you can
just look it up!"
Interestingly, on "60 Minutes" today, there was a segment on
Nicholas Negroponte's "One Laptop Per Child" project.
"MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's dream is to put a laptop
computer into the hands of every child. Lesley Stahl reports
on his progress in Cambodia and Brazil."
In those countries, government subsidies bring the cost of
these computers down to $100. When they become available in
the U. S., they'll cost $200, because for each one you buy,
one is given to a child in a country where they're really needed.
The video's available at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2830221n
One of the sequences bore out the premise that even young kids
can figure a lot of this (learning to use the computers to
write, look for information and learning to use it) out for
themselves, and help others to do it.
________________
Regards,
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
_______________________________________________
You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe send a blank email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
or visit
http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com
Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit
http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
