OK, wait one darn minute there. Two things to consider:
a) When was the last time you used a grammar check program and found it to provide impeccable assistance? The suggestions can range from the robotic to the comical -- a far cry from flawless. Applied to a chat room situation, where comments are volleyed back and forth, such a programmed check system could create discontinous mayhem and unfortunate misunderstandings.
b) You've just unwittingly (I think) illustrated the problem -- namely, hyper-reliance on technology to spoon feed the "answers." Grammar, like most knowledge, requires a clear understanding of context, as well as a cushion of time to 'imprint' on the learner's mind.
Computer-prompted corrections happen fast and can be very arbitrary in nature. Even if the learner takes a moment or two to absorb the grammatical lesson (assuming the lesson is correct!), it's highly likely that the reason for the correction will be forgotten as soon as the next prompt appears. Or -- even worse -- the recall will float in the learner's mind stripped of context or subtlety, and they may develop a bad grammatical habit based upon a mistaken "rule!"
If this becomes widespread I, for one, will have to give pink slips to the 2-dozen monks slaving away in my basement monastery...
what are they going to do then, make novelty liquer?
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Spam as Poetry
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· Score: 1
I'm glad someone here is taking time to salute the sheer poetry that wafts through the filters.
My all-time favorite subject line in the 'composed' category is "Drunken Christmas Orgy! Girls vs. Santa Claus". A recent randomly-generated favorite was "Lgiusti short order cook 519 toothpicks" (this was for discount Rx).
Excuse me, but I suspect said 'psychologist' was either hand-picked by MS for his willingness to assume all human perception can be pigeon-holed into a single pattern OR he is a mole from their tech-support area, aiming to rationalize their arbitrary and often inane predictions about human reasoning when they design tech support 'playlists.' One's job becomes much easier if you have some hard-set parameters, no?
The Cambridge example is an interesting counter-example to demonstrate elasticity of perception, but I'm sure there are some entirely different, equally conclusive counter-examples. My own limited experience in teaching reading and in being off the neuro-typical spectrum is that there are layers of perceptual tools that different people use to varying degrees depending upon their particular brain functioning.
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OK, wait one darn minute there. Two things to consider:
a) When was the last time you used a grammar check program and found it to provide impeccable assistance? The suggestions can range from the robotic to the comical -- a far cry from flawless. Applied to a chat room situation, where comments are volleyed back and forth, such a programmed check system could create discontinous mayhem and unfortunate misunderstandings.
b) You've just unwittingly (I think) illustrated the problem -- namely, hyper-reliance on technology to spoon feed the "answers." Grammar, like most knowledge, requires a clear understanding of context, as well as a cushion of time to 'imprint' on the learner's mind.
Computer-prompted corrections happen fast and can be very arbitrary in nature. Even if the learner takes a moment or two to absorb the grammatical lesson (assuming the lesson is correct!), it's highly likely that the reason for the correction will be forgotten as soon as the next prompt appears. Or -- even worse -- the recall will float in the learner's mind stripped of context or subtlety, and they may develop a bad grammatical habit based upon a mistaken "rule!"
If this becomes widespread I, for one, will have to give pink slips to the 2-dozen monks slaving away in my basement monastery... what are they going to do then, make novelty liquer?
I'm glad someone here is taking time to salute the sheer poetry that wafts through the filters. My all-time favorite subject line in the 'composed' category is "Drunken Christmas Orgy! Girls vs. Santa Claus". A recent randomly-generated favorite was "Lgiusti short order cook 519 toothpicks" (this was for discount Rx).
Excuse me, but I suspect said 'psychologist' was either hand-picked by MS for his willingness to assume all human perception can be pigeon-holed into a single pattern OR he is a mole from their tech-support area, aiming to rationalize their arbitrary and often inane predictions about human reasoning when they design tech support 'playlists.' One's job becomes much easier if you have some hard-set parameters, no? The Cambridge example is an interesting counter-example to demonstrate elasticity of perception, but I'm sure there are some entirely different, equally conclusive counter-examples. My own limited experience in teaching reading and in being off the neuro-typical spectrum is that there are layers of perceptual tools that different people use to varying degrees depending upon their particular brain functioning.