anytime religion comes up, a majority of people around here love to spout off how much they hate religious people because they are religious.
I have yet to see any slashdotter post that say they hate religious people, well except Muslims who are all terrorists (NOT!!!). Can you provide one example or did you make that up? On the other hand as an Agnostic, "a" without and "gnosis" knowledge, I've heard from a few Atheists that I'm just too scared to admit I believe there isn't a "God" and by Christians that I haven't made up my mind. The first is wrong whereas the second is exactly right, I don't know if any deity exists or not but I am open minded and willing to learn.
The christian religion has served a vital role in the development of the advanced civilization that has given you the philosophical tools and freedom to criticize it as 'terrible, awful.'
Really? The Christian church didn't persecute scientists and others striven by progress? Quite the contrary, the advancement of western civilization owes more to the Ages of Enlightenment and Reason, which both fought against religion. Hell Jews and Muslims gathered and retained more knowledge than Christians. When Queen Isabella of Castile, who united the different kingdoms and tribes of the Iberian Peninsula into a united Spain, forced the Sephardic Jews and Moors to either convert to Christianity or leave Spain Spain suffered a massive brain drain. Most of the the educated people of Spain were Jews and Moors.
How about the high violent crime rate? The fact that people don't stop at lights out of fear? Those are most definitely not wrong. Its better to let robbers have their victims kneel at the corner of the street and be executed than to have a surveillance system.
Would you think the same if you lived in NAZI Germany, the Soviet Union, or Iran today?
Did it ever occur that if surveillance was open and all video was available to all people that it may actually prove beneficial?
And stalkers would love it too. Instead of following their subject on foot and by car, they could track them by cameras. With the facial recognition software already debated on Slashdot, stalkers wouldn't even need to constantly watch the cameras. What cops could use, so can criminals.
As this system leaves in the human factor for actually deciding if an action is necessary (ie: sending cops), and then leaves the cops deciding what actions to take, it doesnt seem any more open for abuse than the current surveillance system in place.
Except that you left something out, the system is partially paid for with forfeitures. The more forfeiture the bigger the system can be made. We've already been having problems with law enforcement forfeitures. "For example, between 1989 and 1992, the Sheriff's Office in Volusia County, Florida, seized $8 million in cash in roadside stops of motorists. Although the office returned about half of the money in settlements, it still retained $4 million over the three-year period." Today Texas police seize black motorists' cash, cars. Or Asset Forfeiture: Austin Police Use of Seized Funds Probed. Law enforcement makes a lot of money from forfeitures.
If I make any kind of assertion I have to prove it not you. This is not really related at all.
Do you not recall what you said? Or do you not understand? I included it in my post. Specifically "I pointed out that if you make assertions of any kind you have to provide proof." If I assert you did not give me a million dollars, a negative assertion, I can not prove it.
If your argument is that given the right games, computers could entirely replace studying,
That is not my argument, and I've never suggested it was. My argument is that technology can help people learn, that it's not all bad or distracting. For many years I've said "everything in moderation, including moderation itself." Meaning moderation is good but occasionally people need to get extreme. Tiger Woods would not have become as good a golfer as he did if he didn't spend hours a day for years practicing golf. That's true with most pros I bet.
I'd say that just becomes the new studying -- and again, the problem becomes that kids will be wasting time on Facebook or WoW instead of the more educational uses of a computer.
If the child does not have the self control to study instead of being on Facebook all day, then it's the parents' responsibility to correct that. Instead of having the computer in the child's room, have it in the family room where use of the computer can be monitored. Parents need to spend tyme and effort with their children. And saying the parents have to work 2 jobs to make ends meet doesn't work either. If the parents couldn't afford to take care of a family then they should not have had one. In college I had two female friends get married before finishing their degree. When I was told they were getting married I suggested they wait until they get their degree before the wedding. I told them that if they did not wait they probably would drop out of college. Both did. If the feelings are strong enough most people should be able to wait, though one of my friends married a Navy sailor. It's likely he would have been transferred to another base if she waited. But most of the tyme people want instant gratification. I'm that way myself too often.
You're right, my mistake. Rereading your post see that I somehow switched what you said around or something. I wish I were better even if nobody is perfect.
>>Have you ever heard of Repetitive Sprain Injury?
Repetitive STRAIN Injury? Sure. My wife has it, and it has really messed up her ability to work (as a pharmacist, she needs to be able to type).
I on the other hand am a computer science guy, and have never had any problems, and I have spent most of my life in front of a computer.
When I take hand notes, though, my forearms cramp up almost immediately.
I too have spent a lot of my life sitting with a keyboard in front of me. Occasionally my fingers or the back of my hands near the knuckles cramp up but when they do I stop typing, as I just did. It helps wiggling my fingers and shacking my hands though. Also I never continuously type for hours, most of the type I take a short break every few minutes. And I don't get cramps or pain from using pen and paper.
But the fact is is some people can do something almost all day without problems whereas others will have them.
you always have kids making the same mistakes over and over.
But everybody, well many people, repeat mistakes. There's a chance your grandparents told your parents the music they listened to was bad, evil, or sinful and your parents may of said the the same to you.
And adults aren't going out of their way to tell them either.
That's the parents' fault. As Sidney Poitier's character in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner tells his father parents owe their children everything they can do to make their lives better.
All of this talk about test scores wont help.
On it's own, no. But the first step in rationally solving a problem is recognizing there is a problem.
All tools have to be used to better oneself
No they don't, tools can but don't have to better one's self. I garden and use tools. Those tools don't better myself, they are so I can do what I love doing. This computer might not better myself but it's a tool I use anyway.
In previous generations being a hacker was literally how you learned. They weren't any books in the library to teach you some things. You couldn't afford classes in college to learn. The only way to learn was to do.
I know. My first access to computers was on TRS-80s at Radio Shack and dumb terminals in my high school library used for college searches. The workers at the closest Rad Shack to my home allowed me, and others, to sit there playing with them. So I'd sit there learning to program by writing graphics programs and games. That and though the library workers said it wasn't possible a few of us figured out how to use the terminals to chat with each other at different schools. The terminals were connected to the county school district's mainframe, an IBM System 360 downtown.
So no in todays environment the laws and rules aren't the same, the standards aren't the same, and so I don't think children should expect to be able to accomplish the same with the same resources when their environment is much more harsh and far more risky, even if you are a computer nerd you can find yourself behind bars.
Again I know. Way back when, while playing with Trash 80s, the IBM, and Apples, I enjoyed reading the vintage magazines like Byte, the Micro and Homebrew computer magazine. That was before hacking was dirty and hackers were criminals. Actually a search of slashdot for hackers falcon will return posts of mine like this one or this one. However back then it was much harder to gain access to any of the technology we enjoy today. Computers were exotic machines occupying floors of buildings if not entire buildings and were operated by white jacked priest. Networking was sneakernet and BBSes before CompuServe, Prodigy, GEnie, and AOL came along. Well not CompuServe, CompuServe was started in 1969 as a subsidiary of an insurance company and was called Compu-Serv Network, Inc.
No I don't want a world where children of the future have to be more resourceful than my generation had to be. If the future is worse than the present then we adults are doing something wrong and need to change
It's ironic but today is both better and worse than it was in say the 1970s. I'm trying to think what issue it was, let me dig out old editions of Reason magazine which I subscribe to... I didn't find it but googling I found Are We Freer? on CATOs website. Ah, Google gave me a "Reason" article like the one I was looking for, "Now for the Good News: Mankind has never been healthier, wealthier or freer. Surprised?" Both TFA I was looking for and the CATO article say it depends on how you look at as to whether we were freer in the past or are freer today.
As for being more resourceful, I don't want the children of the future to be forced to be more resourceful, but I do want them to be so.
I don't really think kids are interested in how things work at this stage
At that age, 6 to 8, I was taking things apart to see how they worked. Of course I didn't really learn much, I ended up with a bunch of junk parts, but that curiosity stayed with me. As an adolescent I built my first radio by wrapping stripped wire around a paper roll, a paper towel or toilet paper roll.
My parents couldn't teach my anything about computers.
They couldn't or they didn't? There is a difference. Though I knew it before then, it was reinforced for me in the Army that having to teach a subject could cause the person to learn it. When I was in I spent about 1/2 of my tyme in training and part of that training was that we had to train others. For instance my CO, Commanding Officer, sent me to train for NBC, Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical, decontamination. He sent me there so that when I came back I would train the others in the unit the same thing. There were other things we had to learn on our own before teaching others as well. Even though I didn't use them myself, using manuals I had to learn how to field strip, clean, and reassemble a.45 (only those who fired morters, and I didn't, used them) and an M60 so again I could teach others how to.
If I were a parent without experience or knowledge of computers, I'd try to learn it so I could teach my own children them too. The same with foreign languages. I knew some Chinese, French, and German and I am willing to take classes to relearn them so I can teach them to my own children. Actually my sister's daughter is learning Chinese and my sister wants me to work with my niece to help her learn Chinese.
I was way ahead in math starting school(and because of that ever onwards right through university) because of a simple little math game
Why dig up that math game? Check out Hot Dog Stand. In it the player runs a stadium concessionary stand, the goal being to make money. Given a beginning amount of money you, the player, go through a to-do checklist. Checking the calendar schedule you see what activity is planned, a baseball, football, or soccer game for instance. Then going by previous such events you see what sells and what doesn't. For instance at football games hot dogs sell a lot but at soccer games turkey dogs sell more. Also checking history you set prices for each item, is more money made setting hot dogs prices at $2 or at $2.50 for instance. Or how many sodas are sold at what price?
Not only does the game help learning math, but it also helps with decision making and other executive thinking skills. Amazon's product description says:
"Students improve math, problem-solving, and communication skills in this real-life business simulation where they manage a busy concession stand in a big-city stadium. Students interpret information, keep records, determine prices, and plat marketing strategies."
"By gathering information from a variety of sources in the Office, students can make purchasing and pricing decisions. Students see if their plans yield profitable results when they open the Stand for business! Will they be able to reach their goals? With access to an assortment of tools students can accomplish their goals. An electronic checkbook, a calculator, a franchise report, a bulletin board of stadium events, and a daily weather report are among the resources available. To add to the realism of the simulation, students encounter unexpected events-both opportunities and potential pitfalls-that they handle while working in the Office and running the Stand."
a smarter approach is to spend some of the education budget in guiding kids to self-educate.
I compleatly agree. And it doesn't have to cost more. In elementary school for 2nd grade I had a brand new teacher and in class for some subjects such as math, reading, and vocabulary, she had teaching aids like flash cards. In those subjects she had us go at our own speed, self-paced. Then students who got ahead helped slower students.
So was mine. But that was years ago. Now I had a niece, she just graduated, in kindergarten attending a Chinese Immersion School, and my sister wants me to help her daughter with Chinese. I told her she, my niece, would blow me away. I hardly recall any Chinese. Maybe by working with her I can improve my own Chinese???
What really gets me is that to meet my college general education requirements I took French and my niece trounces me in French too. So far beside her native tongue of English, my niece has learned Chinese, French, and American Sign Language, ASL.
It's not the technology, it's the children not knowing how to use the resources they have. I had less resources than most of these kids and I made it through school,
You got by without the technology but today's students can't? What makes them less capable? Stupidity?
Thanks for that, it looks great. Unfortunately it's Windows only for now and it'll take more than that for me to install Windows on my computer. Maybe it can run in Crossover or WINE.
"If you type 40 words a minute : you press 12,000 keys per hour or 96,000 keys per 8-hour day."
"Approximately 8 ounces of force is necessary to depress one key."
"Almost 16 tons of force will be exercised by your fingers."
"Note on computer users and typists: Repetitive typing and key entry is highly associated with missing work due to CTS. The risk for CTS in this group, however, is still much lower than with occupations involving heavy labor. One small 2001 study reported that nerve conduction tests on frequent computer users showed the same rate of CTS (3.5%) as in the general population. However, 10% of the computer users complained of CTS symptoms and 30% reported tingling and burning in the hand. The typing speed may affect risk. For example, the fingers of typists whose speed is 60 words per minute exert up to 25 tons of pressure each day."
I've just finished writing a dissertation for which I had several hundred pages of research and by the end I was wishing I had OCRed everything. Trying to find one specific quotation from somewhere in three ringbinders of notes and photocopies is exactly the sort of thing that's hard - and boring - for a human, but easy for a computer.
Maybe but there's a difference between note taking and writing a dissertation. Using a computer/word processor to write a paper is much faster than using pen and paper. Once written, editing a digital file is simple whereas editing pen and paper requires the paper to be compleatly rewritten.
In a way I'm in a similar situation. I've got hundreds if not thousands of photos on film, going back more than 10 years, and am in the process of scanning them. Would I give up the enjoyment of working in a darkroom by shooting digitally in order to avoid scanning? Not at all. I however would like to shoot digitally and on film, take a photo and have it on film as well as in a digital file.
I, and you, could make it easier too. As I shoot and develop a roll of film I could scan them. And after you've written notes, you can scan or type them in a new doc. I, and you, will have both then. Of course you may not want the hand written notes, then you can toss it. Me, I love gardening and making my own compost, so I compost some paper while recycling the rest.
Slashdot Mirror
Who watches the watchers?
Any system that can be abused will be.
Falcom
anytime religion comes up, a majority of people around here love to spout off how much they hate religious people because they are religious.
I have yet to see any slashdotter post that say they hate religious people, well except Muslims who are all terrorists (NOT!!!). Can you provide one example or did you make that up? On the other hand as an Agnostic, "a" without and "gnosis" knowledge, I've heard from a few Atheists that I'm just too scared to admit I believe there isn't a "God" and by Christians that I haven't made up my mind. The first is wrong whereas the second is exactly right, I don't know if any deity exists or not but I am open minded and willing to learn.
Falcon
The christian religion has served a vital role in the development of the advanced civilization that has given you the philosophical tools and freedom to criticize it as 'terrible, awful.'
Really? The Christian church didn't persecute scientists and others striven by progress? Quite the contrary, the advancement of western civilization owes more to the Ages of Enlightenment and Reason, which both fought against religion. Hell Jews and Muslims gathered and retained more knowledge than Christians. When Queen Isabella of Castile, who united the different kingdoms and tribes of the Iberian Peninsula into a united Spain, forced the Sephardic Jews and Moors to either convert to Christianity or leave Spain Spain suffered a massive brain drain. Most of the the educated people of Spain were Jews and Moors.
Falcon
How about the high violent crime rate? The fact that people don't stop at lights out of fear? Those are most definitely not wrong. Its better to let robbers have their victims kneel at the corner of the street and be executed than to have a surveillance system.
Would you think the same if you lived in NAZI Germany, the Soviet Union, or Iran today?
Did it ever occur that if surveillance was open and all video was available to all people that it may actually prove beneficial?
And stalkers would love it too. Instead of following their subject on foot and by car, they could track them by cameras. With the facial recognition software already debated on Slashdot, stalkers wouldn't even need to constantly watch the cameras. What cops could use, so can criminals.
Falcon
As this system leaves in the human factor for actually deciding if an action is necessary (ie: sending cops), and then leaves the cops deciding what actions to take, it doesnt seem any more open for abuse than the current surveillance system in place.
Except that you left something out, the system is partially paid for with forfeitures. The more forfeiture the bigger the system can be made. We've already been having problems with law enforcement forfeitures. "For example, between 1989 and 1992, the Sheriff's Office in Volusia County, Florida, seized $8 million in cash in roadside stops of motorists. Although the office returned about half of the money in settlements, it still retained $4 million over the three-year period." Today Texas police seize black motorists' cash, cars. Or Asset Forfeiture: Austin Police Use of Seized Funds Probed. Law enforcement makes a lot of money from forfeitures.
Falcon
Yea, I bet the Gestapo and MVD or Ministry of Internal Affairs would have loved it.
Why, what could possibly go wrong?
Loss of freedom.
Falcon
If I make any kind of assertion I have to prove it not you. This is not really related at all.
Do you not recall what you said? Or do you not understand? I included it in my post. Specifically "I pointed out that if you make assertions of any kind you have to provide proof." If I assert you did not give me a million dollars, a negative assertion, I can not prove it.
Falcon
If your argument is that given the right games, computers could entirely replace studying,
That is not my argument, and I've never suggested it was. My argument is that technology can help people learn, that it's not all bad or distracting. For many years I've said "everything in moderation, including moderation itself." Meaning moderation is good but occasionally people need to get extreme. Tiger Woods would not have become as good a golfer as he did if he didn't spend hours a day for years practicing golf. That's true with most pros I bet.
I'd say that just becomes the new studying -- and again, the problem becomes that kids will be wasting time on Facebook or WoW instead of the more educational uses of a computer.
If the child does not have the self control to study instead of being on Facebook all day, then it's the parents' responsibility to correct that. Instead of having the computer in the child's room, have it in the family room where use of the computer can be monitored. Parents need to spend tyme and effort with their children. And saying the parents have to work 2 jobs to make ends meet doesn't work either. If the parents couldn't afford to take care of a family then they should not have had one. In college I had two female friends get married before finishing their degree. When I was told they were getting married I suggested they wait until they get their degree before the wedding. I told them that if they did not wait they probably would drop out of college. Both did. If the feelings are strong enough most people should be able to wait, though one of my friends married a Navy sailor. It's likely he would have been transferred to another base if she waited. But most of the tyme people want instant gratification. I'm that way myself too often.
Falcon
As someone with ADD and memory issues I too can attest to the immense value to my life my mobile phone's calendar has provided :)
The person I work with that's helping with my rehabilitation wants me to use my phone's calendar to remind myself to check my notebook planner.
Falcon
How is that the opposite?
You're right, my mistake. Rereading your post see that I somehow switched what you said around or something. I wish I were better even if nobody is perfect.
Falcon
No, you are the confused one. Verify it yourself, read the Constitution of the USA. Article 1 - The Legislative Branch lists the House and Senate as part of the legislature. The second part is The Executive Branch, and the last part of the federal government is The Judicial Branch.
Falcon
>>Have you ever heard of Repetitive Sprain Injury?
Repetitive STRAIN Injury? Sure. My wife has it, and it has really messed up her ability to work (as a pharmacist, she needs to be able to type).
I on the other hand am a computer science guy, and have never had any problems, and I have spent most of my life in front of a computer.
When I take hand notes, though, my forearms cramp up almost immediately.
I too have spent a lot of my life sitting with a keyboard in front of me. Occasionally my fingers or the back of my hands near the knuckles cramp up but when they do I stop typing, as I just did. It helps wiggling my fingers and shacking my hands though. Also I never continuously type for hours, most of the type I take a short break every few minutes. And I don't get cramps or pain from using pen and paper.
But the fact is is some people can do something almost all day without problems whereas others will have them.
Falcon
you always have kids making the same mistakes over and over.
But everybody, well many people, repeat mistakes. There's a chance your grandparents told your parents the music they listened to was bad, evil, or sinful and your parents may of said the the same to you.
And adults aren't going out of their way to tell them either.
That's the parents' fault. As Sidney Poitier's character in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner tells his father parents owe their children everything they can do to make their lives better.
All of this talk about test scores wont help.
On it's own, no. But the first step in rationally solving a problem is recognizing there is a problem.
All tools have to be used to better oneself
No they don't, tools can but don't have to better one's self. I garden and use tools. Those tools don't better myself, they are so I can do what I love doing. This computer might not better myself but it's a tool I use anyway.
Falcon
In previous generations being a hacker was literally how you learned. They weren't any books in the library to teach you some things. You couldn't afford classes in college to learn. The only way to learn was to do.
I know. My first access to computers was on TRS-80s at Radio Shack and dumb terminals in my high school library used for college searches. The workers at the closest Rad Shack to my home allowed me, and others, to sit there playing with them. So I'd sit there learning to program by writing graphics programs and games. That and though the library workers said it wasn't possible a few of us figured out how to use the terminals to chat with each other at different schools. The terminals were connected to the county school district's mainframe, an IBM System 360 downtown.
So no in todays environment the laws and rules aren't the same, the standards aren't the same, and so I don't think children should expect to be able to accomplish the same with the same resources when their environment is much more harsh and far more risky, even if you are a computer nerd you can find yourself behind bars.
Again I know. Way back when, while playing with Trash 80s, the IBM, and Apples, I enjoyed reading the vintage magazines like Byte, the Micro and Homebrew computer magazine. That was before hacking was dirty and hackers were criminals. Actually a search of slashdot for hackers falcon will return posts of mine like this one or this one. However back then it was much harder to gain access to any of the technology we enjoy today. Computers were exotic machines occupying floors of buildings if not entire buildings and were operated by white jacked priest. Networking was sneakernet and BBSes before CompuServe, Prodigy, GEnie, and AOL came along. Well not CompuServe, CompuServe was started in 1969 as a subsidiary of an insurance company and was called Compu-Serv Network, Inc.
No I don't want a world where children of the future have to be more resourceful than my generation had to be. If the future is worse than the present then we adults are doing something wrong and need to change
It's ironic but today is both better and worse than it was in say the 1970s. I'm trying to think what issue it was, let me dig out old editions of Reason magazine which I subscribe to... I didn't find it but googling I found Are We Freer? on CATOs website. Ah, Google gave me a "Reason" article like the one I was looking for, "Now for the Good News: Mankind has never been healthier, wealthier or freer. Surprised?" Both TFA I was looking for and the CATO article say it depends on how you look at as to whether we were freer in the past or are freer today.
As for being more resourceful, I don't want the children of the future to be forced to be more resourceful, but I do want them to be so.
Falcon
I don't really think kids are interested in how things work at this stage
At that age, 6 to 8, I was taking things apart to see how they worked. Of course I didn't really learn much, I ended up with a bunch of junk parts, but that curiosity stayed with me. As an adolescent I built my first radio by wrapping stripped wire around a paper roll, a paper towel or toilet paper roll.
Falcon
Okay, you got by with less resources, why do you think today's students can't do the same?
Falcon
My parents couldn't teach my anything about computers.
They couldn't or they didn't? There is a difference. Though I knew it before then, it was reinforced for me in the Army that having to teach a subject could cause the person to learn it. When I was in I spent about 1/2 of my tyme in training and part of that training was that we had to train others. For instance my CO, Commanding Officer, sent me to train for NBC, Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical, decontamination. He sent me there so that when I came back I would train the others in the unit the same thing. There were other things we had to learn on our own before teaching others as well. Even though I didn't use them myself, using manuals I had to learn how to field strip, clean, and reassemble a .45 (only those who fired morters, and I didn't, used them) and an M60 so again I could teach others how to.
If I were a parent without experience or knowledge of computers, I'd try to learn it so I could teach my own children them too. The same with foreign languages. I knew some Chinese, French, and German and I am willing to take classes to relearn them so I can teach them to my own children. Actually my sister's daughter is learning Chinese and my sister wants me to work with my niece to help her learn Chinese.
Falcon
Computers and the internet can help people learn a lot. Just because you don't see it, or won't acknowledge it, does not mean it's not true.
Falcon
I was way ahead in math starting school(and because of that ever onwards right through university) because of a simple little math game
Why dig up that math game? Check out Hot Dog Stand. In it the player runs a stadium concessionary stand, the goal being to make money. Given a beginning amount of money you, the player, go through a to-do checklist. Checking the calendar schedule you see what activity is planned, a baseball, football, or soccer game for instance. Then going by previous such events you see what sells and what doesn't. For instance at football games hot dogs sell a lot but at soccer games turkey dogs sell more. Also checking history you set prices for each item, is more money made setting hot dogs prices at $2 or at $2.50 for instance. Or how many sodas are sold at what price?
Not only does the game help learning math, but it also helps with decision making and other executive thinking skills. Amazon's product description says:
"Students improve math, problem-solving, and communication skills in this real-life business simulation where they manage a busy concession stand in a big-city stadium. Students interpret information, keep records, determine prices, and plat marketing strategies."
"By gathering information from a variety of sources in the Office, students can make purchasing and pricing decisions. Students see if their plans yield profitable results when they open the Stand for business! Will they be able to reach their goals? With access to an assortment of tools students can accomplish their goals. An electronic checkbook, a calculator, a franchise report, a bulletin board of stadium events, and a daily weather report are among the resources available. To add to the realism of the simulation, students encounter unexpected events-both opportunities and potential pitfalls-that they handle while working in the Office and running the Stand."
Falcon
a smarter approach is to spend some of the education budget in guiding kids to self-educate.
I compleatly agree. And it doesn't have to cost more. In elementary school for 2nd grade I had a brand new teacher and in class for some subjects such as math, reading, and vocabulary, she had teaching aids like flash cards. In those subjects she had us go at our own speed, self-paced. Then students who got ahead helped slower students.
Falcon
So was mine. But that was years ago. Now I had a niece, she just graduated, in kindergarten attending a Chinese Immersion School, and my sister wants me to help her daughter with Chinese. I told her she, my niece, would blow me away. I hardly recall any Chinese. Maybe by working with her I can improve my own Chinese???
What really gets me is that to meet my college general education requirements I took French and my niece trounces me in French too. So far beside her native tongue of English, my niece has learned Chinese, French, and American Sign Language, ASL.
Falcon
It's not the technology, it's the children not knowing how to use the resources they have. I had less resources than most of these kids and I made it through school,
You got by without the technology but today's students can't? What makes them less capable? Stupidity?
Falcon
http://www.fas.org/immuneattack/
Thanks for that, it looks great. Unfortunately it's Windows only for now and it'll take more than that for me to install Windows on my computer. Maybe it can run in Crossover or WINE.
Falcon
how can you consider typing more stressful for your hands than writing with a pen?
Have you ever heard of Repetitive Sprain Injury? While writing can cause it I bet more people get it from typing. Some statistics:
"If you type 40 words a minute : you press 12,000 keys per hour or 96,000 keys per 8-hour day."
"Approximately 8 ounces of force is necessary to depress one key."
"Almost 16 tons of force will be exercised by your fingers."
"Note on computer users and typists: Repetitive typing and key entry is highly associated with missing work due to CTS. The risk for CTS in this group, however, is still much lower than with occupations involving heavy labor. One small 2001 study reported that nerve conduction tests on frequent computer users showed the same rate of CTS (3.5%) as in the general population. However, 10% of the computer users complained of CTS symptoms and 30% reported tingling and burning in the hand. The typing speed may affect risk. For example, the fingers of typists whose speed is 60 words per minute exert up to 25 tons of pressure each day."
I doubt cursive writing uses that much force.
Falcon
I've just finished writing a dissertation for which I had several hundred pages of research and by the end I was wishing I had OCRed everything. Trying to find one specific quotation from somewhere in three ringbinders of notes and photocopies is exactly the sort of thing that's hard - and boring - for a human, but easy for a computer.
Maybe but there's a difference between note taking and writing a dissertation. Using a computer/word processor to write a paper is much faster than using pen and paper. Once written, editing a digital file is simple whereas editing pen and paper requires the paper to be compleatly rewritten.
In a way I'm in a similar situation. I've got hundreds if not thousands of photos on film, going back more than 10 years, and am in the process of scanning them. Would I give up the enjoyment of working in a darkroom by shooting digitally in order to avoid scanning? Not at all. I however would like to shoot digitally and on film, take a photo and have it on film as well as in a digital file.
I, and you, could make it easier too. As I shoot and develop a roll of film I could scan them. And after you've written notes, you can scan or type them in a new doc. I, and you, will have both then. Of course you may not want the hand written notes, then you can toss it. Me, I love gardening and making my own compost, so I compost some paper while recycling the rest.
Falcon