I observed this in my design major as well – students who read online about their topic and spent a lot of extra time learning the material not only came in better prepared to absorb the material but also came out ahead at the end. The classes certainly improved everybody, but it became clear that independent learning was at least as helpful as the class instruction. One girl I knew came in expecting to be hand-taught everything she needed to know, with no prior experience, and she was consistently one of the worst students in our year –despite dedication to all her classwork. She was clearly aware of what happened and was trying, but didn't get enough guidance from the teachers. I know I struggled with incorrect expectations some as well, though at least I came in with some prior knowledge.
I'm currently studying New Media Design, which is proving to be largely about putting as much fluff into pages as possible. The more I look at Flash websites, the more I'm amazed at how little content there often is, and how frustrating they can be compared to a plain HTML page. Okay, the graphics are awesome, but I don't really like the trade-off with usability on many sites.
I took Web Design and Implementation recently, and I was appalled at the reactions of my teammates on our term project. Everyone was so distressed that the teacher wasn't letting us use Flash! Maybe because this was a class about implementing things like CSS and JavaScript?
Sometimes I wonder if I'm in the right major, because I like good ol HTML pages better.
I was homeschooled, and I grew up talking about math, science, and literature at the dinner table all the time. With an engineering professor for a father, and a graduate of library science mother, it was a great place to do that, and I'll always love those subjects. One movie that made a great impact on me in terms of math was "Stand and Deliver." Watching science tv programs like Nova or Bill Nye over dinner, and visiting the planetarium frequently were also major parts of my education. I read and watched a lot of science fiction, and then talked to my parents about the legitimacy of the technology. My dad had a subscription to Scientific American, and I loved looking at the pictures (and reading the articles when they looked interesting).
No of course I'm not saying I didn't like them! I loved them, and I grew up on them too! And they were very educational. (i kind of knew the quote marks there were a bad idea...)
I know I've got a problem with how much I use the computer now. However, when I was younger, I was only allowed one hour of TV every day, and even that tended to be limited to "educational" shows like Bill Nye and Wishbone. I was strongly encouraged to read (which I did a lot) and to play outside. I think this helped me grow a lot more than many of my current high school friends.
Now I use the computer almost all of the time when I'm not in school or sleeping, and I enjoy it a lot. I do think that it's kind of unhealthy though.
I'd say limit your kid's computer/TV/video game time to an hour a day, and perhaps change that as they get older. Let them have some normal extracurriculars before you give them the opportunity to spend that time on the computer.
I'm working on collecting old Macs - I've gotten a couple from the chem lab at school when they died, and one from the loft at summer camp (it had been dead for years - I got to take it home). Certainly not as cool as having a Cray, but visitors think it's about as weird. It's my Home for Unloved, Dead, and Dying Macs - kind of a funeral home for them.
No, I don't like the crippled-ness of iPod's calendar. I was just throwing that in because it decreases the ability to use the iPod as a PDA. I wonder how played-with those pictures are on Apple's website are, whether they fit pictures to the screen of the iPod, but they don't actually look that good in person. Having a way to transport your pictures will be nice for those who take tons of digital pictures but have nowhere to save them while they're traveling. I have often wondered what iPods would be like if they had color. But why do they have to make it look like XP, and not keep with the OSX look? I realize they're trying to appeal to Windows users, but if this whole advertising the iPod everywhere thing is supposed to be getting people to switch to Mac, wouldn't it make sense to get people accustomed to seeing that interface? And how well will people be able to see the pictures on the little tiny iPod screen? Reasonably well, I guess, but if it's not good, I expect people will be disappointed.
Maybe breaking in your headphones is, but when I got my iPod, it took my ears a while to get used to the earbuds, so I think that your ears have to reshape or lose some nerves or something before you get comfortable with the earbuds.
As long as I'm posting, I think that this is a bad idea - the thing that appeals to me about the iPod is its very simplicity. There's none of this PDA-ness, the calendar is fairly crippled, and you just use it for *music* - not keeping track of your pictures and a million other things. iPods are a symbol of coolness, simple music, just being able to relax. When you add that other junk, it brings in the PDA factor - images of a busy, suited person dashing around trying to get to their next appointment.
I hate the movies so much, because they tell the book in *such* a different way - the books are like this grand, epic tale, like a norse myth or something, but the movie is just a piece of American Crap (like standard american movies). Everything has to be P.C., we have to have strong women characters, things have to be realistic in places where they aren't in the book and unrealistic in places where they are in the book, we have to mutilate the story and add in stuff that was *not* in the book, etc.
It just takes away from the majesty so much. So instead, they put in thousands of helicopter shots and everyone says "ooooh! Isn't it wonderful? Isn't Legolas HOTT?"
I've read the whole series many times, and really love them, but I just can't stand the movies. And the "strong women characters" suck, even though I'm a woman and I guess they put them in for us to have good role models or something
I used internet cafes whenever I could during my trip to Germany in summer '03. Since I didn't have any other way of sending emails to my family and friends, I used email-providing websites from these cafes. I also know a lot of people who play games in an internet cafe on campus - they seem to think it's the best thing in the world to do on an afternoon after classes.
Well, M$ recieved a patent for double-clicking, as was discussed in a previous./ article. The GUI was, I believe, developed at PARC, under Xerox, along with the mouse, etc. Apple basically stole the whole idea from them. If you want to learn more, read _Insanely Great_ by Steven Levy. It's an excellent book (I just finished reading it today), and very educational.
Many people use IE just because it's easy and it works well enough for them. Unfortunately, I doubt Firefox will take care of these people's usage of IE unless it becomes the default browser on new computers. I would guess that many people who are actually attentive enough to features to dislike IE will probably already _not_ be using IE anyway.
I'll take any Mac that runs at 1GHz or more (...not saying that 2 or 3GHz wouldn't be nice...). The family computer is shared by 4 people and runs at 800MHz. I want to get my own computer, so I can fill it up with my junk instead of everyone else's.
We've got such a problem with overpopulation already - why do we really need to keep people alive even more? Doesn't anyone see the sci-fi stuff where the culture with an infinite life span just stagnates?
Okay, okay already!
It sounds like it depends on how strict your defintion of a "programming language" is. Some people count it as one, others with stricter definitions don't. Some people might just not know that there's a difference. I think HTML is a really good *start,* (even if it's not a programming language per se) because it easily produces a nice, visual result quickly, and you can do so much with it really easily. That's what I started with, and I hope to learn more about *programming* languages in the future. But HTML is a good starting place. You don't have to spend tons of time on it, but it's nice to learn what some code (even markup) looks like and just get used to the idea.
Shorah,
erockett
Slashdot Mirror
I observed this in my design major as well – students who read online about their topic and spent a lot of extra time learning the material not only came in better prepared to absorb the material but also came out ahead at the end. The classes certainly improved everybody, but it became clear that independent learning was at least as helpful as the class instruction. One girl I knew came in expecting to be hand-taught everything she needed to know, with no prior experience, and she was consistently one of the worst students in our year –despite dedication to all her classwork. She was clearly aware of what happened and was trying, but didn't get enough guidance from the teachers. I know I struggled with incorrect expectations some as well, though at least I came in with some prior knowledge.
I'm currently studying New Media Design, which is proving to be largely about putting as much fluff into pages as possible. The more I look at Flash websites, the more I'm amazed at how little content there often is, and how frustrating they can be compared to a plain HTML page. Okay, the graphics are awesome, but I don't really like the trade-off with usability on many sites.
I took Web Design and Implementation recently, and I was appalled at the reactions of my teammates on our term project. Everyone was so distressed that the teacher wasn't letting us use Flash! Maybe because this was a class about implementing things like CSS and JavaScript?
Sometimes I wonder if I'm in the right major, because I like good ol HTML pages better.
I was homeschooled, and I grew up talking about math, science, and literature at the dinner table all the time. With an engineering professor for a father, and a graduate of library science mother, it was a great place to do that, and I'll always love those subjects. One movie that made a great impact on me in terms of math was "Stand and Deliver." Watching science tv programs like Nova or Bill Nye over dinner, and visiting the planetarium frequently were also major parts of my education. I read and watched a lot of science fiction, and then talked to my parents about the legitimacy of the technology. My dad had a subscription to Scientific American, and I loved looking at the pictures (and reading the articles when they looked interesting).
No of course I'm not saying I didn't like them! I loved them, and I grew up on them too! And they were very educational. (i kind of knew the quote marks there were a bad idea...)
Now I use the computer almost all of the time when I'm not in school or sleeping, and I enjoy it a lot. I do think that it's kind of unhealthy though.
I'd say limit your kid's computer/TV/video game time to an hour a day, and perhaps change that as they get older. Let them have some normal extracurriculars before you give them the opportunity to spend that time on the computer.
I'm working on collecting old Macs - I've gotten a couple from the chem lab at school when they died, and one from the loft at summer camp (it had been dead for years - I got to take it home). Certainly not as cool as having a Cray, but visitors think it's about as weird. It's my Home for Unloved, Dead, and Dying Macs - kind of a funeral home for them.
No, I don't like the crippled-ness of iPod's calendar. I was just throwing that in because it decreases the ability to use the iPod as a PDA. I wonder how played-with those pictures are on Apple's website are, whether they fit pictures to the screen of the iPod, but they don't actually look that good in person. Having a way to transport your pictures will be nice for those who take tons of digital pictures but have nowhere to save them while they're traveling. I have often wondered what iPods would be like if they had color. But why do they have to make it look like XP, and not keep with the OSX look? I realize they're trying to appeal to Windows users, but if this whole advertising the iPod everywhere thing is supposed to be getting people to switch to Mac, wouldn't it make sense to get people accustomed to seeing that interface? And how well will people be able to see the pictures on the little tiny iPod screen? Reasonably well, I guess, but if it's not good, I expect people will be disappointed.
As long as I'm posting, I think that this is a bad idea - the thing that appeals to me about the iPod is its very simplicity. There's none of this PDA-ness, the calendar is fairly crippled, and you just use it for *music* - not keeping track of your pictures and a million other things. iPods are a symbol of coolness, simple music, just being able to relax. When you add that other junk, it brings in the PDA factor - images of a busy, suited person dashing around trying to get to their next appointment.
It just takes away from the majesty so much. So instead, they put in thousands of helicopter shots and everyone says "ooooh! Isn't it wonderful? Isn't Legolas HOTT?"
I've read the whole series many times, and really love them, but I just can't stand the movies. And the "strong women characters" suck, even though I'm a woman and I guess they put them in for us to have good role models or something
*sigh* enough ranting now.
It's not a bug, it's a feature!
I used internet cafes whenever I could during my trip to Germany in summer '03. Since I didn't have any other way of sending emails to my family and friends, I used email-providing websites from these cafes. I also know a lot of people who play games in an internet cafe on campus - they seem to think it's the best thing in the world to do on an afternoon after classes.
Well, M$ recieved a patent for double-clicking, as was discussed in a previous ./ article. The GUI was, I believe, developed at PARC, under Xerox, along with the mouse, etc. Apple basically stole the whole idea from them. If you want to learn more, read _Insanely Great_ by Steven Levy. It's an excellent book (I just finished reading it today), and very educational.
Hasn't anyone seen the G4 commercial about Pentiums being harmless?
Many people use IE just because it's easy and it works well enough for them. Unfortunately, I doubt Firefox will take care of these people's usage of IE unless it becomes the default browser on new computers. I would guess that many people who are actually attentive enough to features to dislike IE will probably already _not_ be using IE anyway.
I'll take any Mac that runs at 1GHz or more (...not saying that 2 or 3GHz wouldn't be nice...). The family computer is shared by 4 people and runs at 800MHz. I want to get my own computer, so I can fill it up with my junk instead of everyone else's.
Shorah-
-erockett
Never knew vegetable oil could do that...
Okay, okay already! It sounds like it depends on how strict your defintion of a "programming language" is. Some people count it as one, others with stricter definitions don't. Some people might just not know that there's a difference. I think HTML is a really good *start,* (even if it's not a programming language per se) because it easily produces a nice, visual result quickly, and you can do so much with it really easily. That's what I started with, and I hope to learn more about *programming* languages in the future. But HTML is a good starting place. You don't have to spend tons of time on it, but it's nice to learn what some code (even markup) looks like and just get used to the idea. Shorah, erockett