Slashdot Mirror
Improving Education?
Shepherd Book asks: "Not long ago there was a spirited discussion, in the usual Slashdot style, about education, touched off by an article about the value of homework. Even more recently, there was a discussion about the value of grammar. This inspires the following Ask Slashdot question: What, in your opinion, would make primary and secondary education as good as possible? I have no experience of education outside the US, but I can say confidently that public education in my country sucks. And it may always suck. However, what can we do to make it suck less?"
"For the purpose of this question, the following are givens:
1. I know that there is a strong libertarian faction in this community, who might like to see public education disappear. Let's assume, though, that that isn't going to happen any time soon, and that there will be a public school system for the foreseeable future.
2. Similarly, many Slashdot readers are brilliant people who have educated themselves to a large extent. Let's further accept that most people are not capable of doing this, or at any rate need help reaching that sort of educational self-sufficiency.
Thanks in advance, folks."
1. I know that there is a strong libertarian faction in this community, who might like to see public education disappear. Let's assume, though, that that isn't going to happen any time soon, and that there will be a public school system for the foreseeable future.
2. Similarly, many Slashdot readers are brilliant people who have educated themselves to a large extent. Let's further accept that most people are not capable of doing this, or at any rate need help reaching that sort of educational self-sufficiency.
Thanks in advance, folks."
"that's entirely different than having a kid do a powerpoint on WW2"
" >Wynia.org</a>
<p>
Yes. That is a problem even for adults. Given the wide range of functionality in Powerpoint or Word, there's too much "stuff" other than the writing to focus on. It's far too easy to spend 20 minutes setting up fonts, margins, etc. instead of actually forming your thoughts. Of the x hours available to dedicate to the project, half of them are on things other than learning the topic or conveying what you've learned.
<p>
For the novel I'm going to try to write this fall (during NaNoWriMo), I'm setting up a totally stripped down environment, including a little Javascript/HTA editor I made for myself*. All of it is aimed to give me basic editing capability (including centering, bold, italics, etc that DO help when writing a novel) without any of the other distractions being present.
<p>
I've done a bit of editing in that environment and find it surprisingly liberating. Rather than having all of the distractions (web browser, email, IM, extra menu options), I can focus on the writing itself, am happier with the results and finding that writing takes far less time than in the "normal" computer environment. I couldn't, however, go back to handwriting as it long ago deteriorated to the point of unreadability.
<p>
While a cliche, the 3 R approach is really the gateway to any other learning, especially when combined. When you have to write about what you've read (and do the practice with math), you really see whether you've learned the material. I've said for a long time to other programmers that until you've tried to explain something to someone else, you don't know whether you know it or not. Additionally, if you really know how to read for comprehension and can write clearly, along with an ability to problem solve (the 3 R results), you can learn the rest of the stuff far more easily.
<p>
*NanoNotepad and a description of the setup are at <a href="http://www.wynia.org/wordpress/?page_id=110
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things