Your hubris is that you believe a student isn't required to think to work the system.
You're right: I think a kid shouldn't be steered into thinking ways to work the system. A kid's only concern at school should be understanding and learning, and more importantly, learning well, and he should be certain that whatever he does at school is judged by a hard-to-deceive, hard-to-escape, but also impartial educational scale, so that his full attention is devoted only to getting a good education.
Working the system is a useful skill, yes, but students should only have to learn much much later, as they reach adult life.
A lesson from jujitsu. Do not oppose your enemy's strength. Turn it.
That's my whole point: why does the educational system have to be the enemy?
That's the great thing about math. If your reasoning is correct, you'll get the right answer.
That's where you're wrong. Example: say a kid is taught Pythagore's theorem but doesn't learn it well.
- At the MCQ exam, he is given a rectangle triangle with 2 sides measuring 2 and 3 respectively, and he's asked to calculate the hypothenuse. The given choices are 2.6-something,3.6-something,4.6-something: The student doesn't know how to go about it, draws the rectangle, measures the hypothenuse and deduces the right answer. Net result? he still doesn't understand Pythagore, but the exam doesn't reveal that.
- At a non-MCQ exam, he's asked to calculate the same thing. No escape there: the teacher knows the student didn't understand/learn the theorem and can go back to fix the problem. If the student had the answer wrong but the demonstration right, it can also direct the teacher to call the student's attention on not going too fast, or double-checking the answer, or something.
Notice that I didn't even talk about grades. What I'm talking about is making exams a good feedback tool for teachers. The grade is unimportant, and anyway, a good exam with minor errors here and there won't be flunked. It's not a matter of "earning credits", or BSing your way out of an exam. On the contrary, MCQs are the perfect tool to escape difficulties in exams.
Of course, that would require that (1) teachers had time to review every students' work with the attention they deserve, and (2) the schooling system didn't put so much importance on grades.
You'll still have to buy cartridges (for roughly the same price as today no doubt, that is, around a kajillion dollars per cubic inch of ink) but if the head is exhausted, you can kiss $150 bucks bye-bye and get yourself a new printer.
From the sound of it, I'd say your "sponges" are already too far behind for their ages. What I was talking about is pulling kids up, and encourage them to excell as early as possible, instead of levelling entire classes to the lowest common denominator achievable by everybody.
When the damage is done, when the kids enter teenage years, other teachers (whom I really feel sorry for) have to work around the pedagogical disaster, which sounds like what you have to do.
Teach the basics: reading, writing, history and math. Ditch the crap.
I'm sorry but I beg to differ. I say teach the basics ABSOLUTELY, yes, but I'm not sure what you call crap. A child's brain is like a sponge, it learns everything you put in it. If you wait till the child is older to introduce a child to other subjects, it's too late.
I think kids should take up 2 other foreign languages as early as possible. Propose them classical latin or greek too. No, they're not "useless in our modern world" as I sometimes hear, they are what differentiate a well-rounded education from a basic no-frills one. Get them to learn all kinds of sciences in fun ways. Get them to experiment. Teach them hard stuff early, but in fun ways... In short: take full advantage of a kid's ability to learn, the trick being not to bore him so he keeps on wanting to learn more.
The other thing is, for God's sake DITCH MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS! Exams aren't just to get grades, they're a test of a student's reasoning. A math teacher for example should grade a student's reasoning, not the final answer. Similarly, don't rate essays with machines, like it's been proposed recently. All that contributes to de-humanize studies, and only teach students to "work with the system", not to think.
Finally, ditch computers when kids are young. They don't need high tech to learn how to write and count, and school should spend their precious budgets on good teachers and on books.
you know leaving the house for 5 mins to interact with other humans [even if they work retail they're still human].
Uuh, last I checked, the blockbuster "human" you talk to after hours has a slot for entering your credit card, and another, larger one for spitting out VHS tapes or DVDs.
As for real humans behind the counter during working hours, well, if you like talking to pimply teenagers...
You can't send any bits over the internet without the possibility of them being watched in transit. They're carried over networks you can't trust.
The thing is, that wiretapping business is just another case of liberties given up in the name of (false) security. If I'm a terrorist, what can I do from an internet-enabled airplane?
1 - Send emails to osama@terrorists.org saying "the carrots will get cooked in 10 minutes"? Nah. Terrorists are smarter than that. They won't use in-flight internet.
2 - Plant a bomb in the airplane, remotely triggered by a judiciously sent IP packet? unlikely, because airport security would have (theorically) screened the bomb before it gets onboard, and if it does get onboard, it takes a fraction of a second between the packet and the explosion, so the wiretapping is useless.
The only reason I can think of that the FCC, or anybody else, would want to wiretap internet connections is for the sake of wiretapping internet connections and watching normal citizens. They just needed a "reichtag excuse" to implement it, and terrorists unfortunately give them plenty of opportunities these days...
All kidding aside, I would rather have a single eye-piece then this wrap-around your head design.
Apparently it's aimed at people who want to watch movies. I think it'd be very tiresome to watch a movie from one eye only. The binocular display makes sense for this purpose.
Great idea - replace a reliable US-controlled registrar with a bureaucratic Eurotrash controlled registrar.
I can't decide whether you're a troll, a bigot, or if it's a feeble attempt at sarcasm.
Sure, when it comes to this matter, the U.S. government may be called controll freaks (although I find it completely justified and, besides, I haven't noticed any negative impact of the current policy so far), but replacing that control with the European bureaucracy and laziness, that is even worse!
If you haven't noticed, the Europeans are also putting up their separate Euro-GPS system. It seems quite clear that the rest of the world wants alternatives to US technologies, even if they work, they're efficient and/or well managed. That should tell you something of the level of trust other countries have in future US foreign policies.
But problems in P2P make it bad for distribution of software which is updated regularly.
For big tarballs and things like that, they could just maintain torrents up for whatever file they want to distribute. When they make a new release, they post the torrent, first seed it, then let other BT clients help distribute it. The worst that can happen is that they maintain torrents to older releases that next to nobody downloads anymore, and they're the only seed for them, and they're not worse off than having to serve them themselves as they did before.
CVS updates?
Yes, they'd have to keep that. But then, do you think CVS traffic outweighs tarballed distributions in terms of network usage?
PHP based, contributable and regularly updated content on the site itself is what is being looked at.
As long as they're files to download, I don't see a reason not to distribute them with BT.
Last month, drupal.org alone served more than 3 million pages for 100 Gb of traffic (this does not include any of the other sites or services; non Drupal websites, Drupal mailing list traffic, etc).
Once they have a new box, why don't they distribute their software and docs up on P2P? surely that'll lighten the network load and cost them less.
If you RTFB, it says "Drupal is the leading open-source (written in PHP) content management system and is used to power tens of thousands of websites, blogs, community sites, etc."
Never heard of them though, and I still don't know what it means either:-)
Re-read my post (and the moderator who modded me as a troll too, by the way): I said if you're still undecided between the two... Not liking the way Microsoft does business and invades all markets it gets into can be a valid consideration between buying a Microsoft-equipped product or another one.
Of course, if PocketPCs do what you want, then go right ahead and buy it. Why not? If Microsoft answers your need, there's no reason not to buy it.
It's so strange how people can misread things, Jesus...
huh? why can't you use a laptop on a bus? assuming of course that the bus isn't so crowded that you are standing, I don't see any problem with using a laptop on a bus.
Truly spoken like someone who never rides the bus. Firstly, when you need one, it's always crowded, since you usually need it to go to/from work at peak hours, and secondly, even if you happen to ride a bus with no passenger facing you, it's next to impossible to work because it's sHaCkY, the bus always stops and goes all the time, and besides, you usually don't have time to do anything useful in the short time it takes to get where you're going.
For the technically minded: the Linux/QTopia-based Zaurus: The keyboard rocks, you can develop applications for it, and thousands of developers have already done so, so there are a lot of useful, free apps out there.
Even better, if you already own an iPaq, install Familiar and enjoy the stability and openness of Linux just like on the Zaurus.
Slashdot Mirror
Your hubris is that you believe a student isn't required to think to work the system.
You're right: I think a kid shouldn't be steered into thinking ways to work the system. A kid's only concern at school should be understanding and learning, and more importantly, learning well, and he should be certain that whatever he does at school is judged by a hard-to-deceive, hard-to-escape, but also impartial educational scale, so that his full attention is devoted only to getting a good education.
Working the system is a useful skill, yes, but students should only have to learn much much later, as they reach adult life.
A lesson from jujitsu. Do not oppose your enemy's strength. Turn it.
That's my whole point: why does the educational system have to be the enemy?
That's the great thing about math. If your reasoning is correct, you'll get the right answer.
That's where you're wrong. Example: say a kid is taught Pythagore's theorem but doesn't learn it well.
- At the MCQ exam, he is given a rectangle triangle with 2 sides measuring 2 and 3 respectively, and he's asked to calculate the hypothenuse. The given choices are 2.6-something,3.6-something,4.6-something: The student doesn't know how to go about it, draws the rectangle, measures the hypothenuse and deduces the right answer. Net result? he still doesn't understand Pythagore, but the exam doesn't reveal that.
- At a non-MCQ exam, he's asked to calculate the same thing. No escape there: the teacher knows the student didn't understand/learn the theorem and can go back to fix the problem. If the student had the answer wrong but the demonstration right, it can also direct the teacher to call the student's attention on not going too fast, or double-checking the answer, or something.
Notice that I didn't even talk about grades. What I'm talking about is making exams a good feedback tool for teachers. The grade is unimportant, and anyway, a good exam with minor errors here and there won't be flunked. It's not a matter of "earning credits", or BSing your way out of an exam. On the contrary, MCQs are the perfect tool to escape difficulties in exams.
Of course, that would require that (1) teachers had time to review every students' work with the attention they deserve, and (2) the schooling system didn't put so much importance on grades.
In short: yes.
You'll still have to buy cartridges (for roughly the same price as today no doubt, that is, around a kajillion dollars per cubic inch of ink) but if the head is exhausted, you can kiss $150 bucks bye-bye and get yourself a new printer.
Slick scam eh?
From the sound of it, I'd say your "sponges" are already too far behind for their ages. What I was talking about is pulling kids up, and encourage them to excell as early as possible, instead of levelling entire classes to the lowest common denominator achievable by everybody.
When the damage is done, when the kids enter teenage years, other teachers (whom I really feel sorry for) have to work around the pedagogical disaster, which sounds like what you have to do.
is our children learning?
Rarely is the question asked: has their parents learned any better?
Teach the basics: reading, writing, history and math. Ditch the crap.
I'm sorry but I beg to differ. I say teach the basics ABSOLUTELY, yes, but I'm not sure what you call crap. A child's brain is like a sponge, it learns everything you put in it. If you wait till the child is older to introduce a child to other subjects, it's too late.
I think kids should take up 2 other foreign languages as early as possible. Propose them classical latin or greek too. No, they're not "useless in our modern world" as I sometimes hear, they are what differentiate a well-rounded education from a basic no-frills one. Get them to learn all kinds of sciences in fun ways. Get them to experiment. Teach them hard stuff early, but in fun ways... In short: take full advantage of a kid's ability to learn, the trick being not to bore him so he keeps on wanting to learn more.
The other thing is, for God's sake DITCH MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS! Exams aren't just to get grades, they're a test of a student's reasoning. A math teacher for example should grade a student's reasoning, not the final answer. Similarly, don't rate essays with machines, like it's been proposed recently. All that contributes to de-humanize studies, and only teach students to "work with the system", not to think.
Finally, ditch computers when kids are young. They don't need high tech to learn how to write and count, and school should spend their precious budgets on good teachers and on books.
domain speculators and porn shops to gobble them up.
That sentence left me slightly sick...
These galls should apply for www.mobi
It seems quite clear that most European police officers massively read Slashdot while on the job.
I bet Intel is already bracing for another raid when the dupe is posted...
I am huge AMD fan myself
Well, they do require quite a lot of cooling, don't they?
you know leaving the house for 5 mins to interact with other humans [even if they work retail they're still human].
Uuh, last I checked, the blockbuster "human" you talk to after hours has a slot for entering your credit card, and another, larger one for spitting out VHS tapes or DVDs.
As for real humans behind the counter during working hours, well, if you like talking to pimply teenagers...
You can't send any bits over the internet without the possibility of them being watched in transit. They're carried over networks you can't trust.
The thing is, that wiretapping business is just another case of liberties given up in the name of (false) security. If I'm a terrorist, what can I do from an internet-enabled airplane?
1 - Send emails to osama@terrorists.org saying "the carrots will get cooked in 10 minutes"? Nah. Terrorists are smarter than that. They won't use in-flight internet.
2 - Plant a bomb in the airplane, remotely triggered by a judiciously sent IP packet? unlikely, because airport security would have (theorically) screened the bomb before it gets onboard, and if it does get onboard, it takes a fraction of a second between the packet and the explosion, so the wiretapping is useless.
The only reason I can think of that the FCC, or anybody else, would want to wiretap internet connections is for the sake of wiretapping internet connections and watching normal citizens. They just needed a "reichtag excuse" to implement it, and terrorists unfortunately give them plenty of opportunities these days...
All kidding aside, I would rather have a single eye-piece then this wrap-around your head design.
Apparently it's aimed at people who want to watch movies. I think it'd be very tiresome to watch a movie from one eye only. The binocular display makes sense for this purpose.
Great idea - replace a reliable US-controlled registrar with a bureaucratic Eurotrash controlled registrar.
I can't decide whether you're a troll, a bigot, or if it's a feeble attempt at sarcasm.
Sure, when it comes to this matter, the U.S. government may be called controll freaks (although I find it completely justified and, besides, I haven't noticed any negative impact of the current policy so far), but replacing that control with the European bureaucracy and laziness, that is even worse!
If you haven't noticed, the Europeans are also putting up their separate Euro-GPS system. It seems quite clear that the rest of the world wants alternatives to US technologies, even if they work, they're efficient and/or well managed. That should tell you something of the level of trust other countries have in future US foreign policies.
we can't just open this all the way up to hackers, but do we really need to establish our internet penis in this fashion?
I am not offering my internet penis to hackers, thank you very much.
What is the funny thing about bulgaria?
Q: What's the difference between one dollar and one lev?
A: One dollar.
Here. He can't count too good though, Norwegian blues stun easily....
But problems in P2P make it bad for distribution of software which is updated regularly.
For big tarballs and things like that, they could just maintain torrents up for whatever file they want to distribute. When they make a new release, they post the torrent, first seed it, then let other BT clients help distribute it. The worst that can happen is that they maintain torrents to older releases that next to nobody downloads anymore, and they're the only seed for them, and they're not worse off than having to serve them themselves as they did before.
CVS updates?
Yes, they'd have to keep that. But then, do you think CVS traffic outweighs tarballed distributions in terms of network usage?
PHP based, contributable and regularly updated content on the site itself is what is being looked at.
As long as they're files to download, I don't see a reason not to distribute them with BT.
Last month, drupal.org alone served more than 3 million pages for 100 Gb of traffic (this does not include any of the other sites or services; non Drupal websites, Drupal mailing list traffic, etc).
Once they have a new box, why don't they distribute their software and docs up on P2P? surely that'll lighten the network load and cost them less.
Why do i care about this project?
It needs your money.
What was its place
drupal.org
and its goals?
Collect $3000.
If you RTFB, it says "Drupal is the leading open-source (written in PHP) content management system and is used to power tens of thousands of websites, blogs, community sites, etc."
:-)
Never heard of them though, and I still don't know what it means either
Re-read my post (and the moderator who modded me as a troll too, by the way): I said if you're still undecided between the two... Not liking the way Microsoft does business and invades all markets it gets into can be a valid consideration between buying a Microsoft-equipped product or another one.
Of course, if PocketPCs do what you want, then go right ahead and buy it. Why not? If Microsoft answers your need, there's no reason not to buy it.
It's so strange how people can misread things, Jesus...
huh? why can't you use a laptop on a bus? assuming of course that the bus isn't so crowded that you are standing, I don't see any problem with using a laptop on a bus.
Truly spoken like someone who never rides the bus. Firstly, when you need one, it's always crowded, since you usually need it to go to/from work at peak hours, and secondly, even if you happen to ride a bus with no passenger facing you, it's next to impossible to work because it's sHaCkY, the bus always stops and goes all the time, and besides, you usually don't have time to do anything useful in the short time it takes to get where you're going.
For the technically minded: the Linux/QTopia-based Zaurus: The keyboard rocks, you can develop applications for it, and thousands of developers have already done so, so there are a lot of useful, free apps out there.
Even better, if you already own an iPaq, install Familiar and enjoy the stability and openness of Linux just like on the Zaurus.
If you are after small and stylish devices with good battery life, simple interface and simple PIM apps, go with PalmOS.
If you're still undecided between a Pocket PC and a Palm, consider that PalmOS isn't made by Microsoft.