General > General Technical Chat
An observation on homework problems
coppice:
--- Quote from: tggzzz on August 26, 2020, 06:49:29 am ---Clearly you weren't alive in the 70s, and can't appreciate the scarcity and expense of duplication technology.
--- End quote ---
Very much so. Duplication of most things is so trivial these days that young people really have no grasp of what a )*(&^@#()*$&^(*&%^(*#%^( PITA getting a copy of most things used to be.
tggzzz:
--- Quote from: coppice on August 26, 2020, 09:07:41 am ---
--- Quote from: tggzzz on August 26, 2020, 06:49:29 am ---Clearly you weren't alive in the 70s, and can't appreciate the scarcity and expense of duplication technology.
--- End quote ---
Very much so. Duplication of most things is so trivial these days that young people really have no grasp of what a )*(&^@#()*$&^(*&%^(*#%^( PITA getting a copy of most things used to be.
--- End quote ---
The key skills have changed in the past 25 years.
Before:
* locate possible source of information - go to library and look up the few books available in the catalogue
* obtain source - delay of a week to a month
* read source to gain information
* reread several times to glean all possible information in that source
Now:
* on a whim, google and get hundreds of possible sources
* obtain all sources - delay of seconds
* glance to see if each source might help
* speedread the better sources
* move to next source and repeat
The TL;DR (incidentally a concept that didn't exist and couldn't have existed before):
* key skill was extracting information from any source you could get your hands on
* key skill is deciding which sources to ignore
Then you were thirsty and a tap dripped. Now there's a firehose. Behaviour is different, unsurprisingly.
tggzzz:
--- Quote from: mc172 on August 25, 2020, 11:51:34 pm ---
--- Quote from: mc172 ---The best lessons I had would be the ones where any notes required were given at the start and I could refer to them throughout the lesson (and of course after) but most importantly I could concentrate on what was being taught. I also had faith that the notes were correct after the fact when I referred to them during assignment problems or revision.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: tggzzz on August 25, 2020, 11:34:59 pm ---That luxury wasn't practical.
I didn't need faith that notes were correct. After writing up my "scribbles" I knew they were right, and why. That was a very important advantage of how I did things, as I mentioned.
--- End quote ---
How wasn't it practical?
--- End quote ---
This was the available technology: https://www.woorillacaught.com/roneo-machines/ Read it and weep. I still have one example, but the purple ink has almost completely faded.
For bonus points tell us why the standard editing operations are "cut" and "paste". That's how I produced my final year report.
coppice:
--- Quote from: tggzzz on August 26, 2020, 10:03:51 am ---This was the available technology: https://www.woorillacaught.com/roneo-machines/ Read it and weep. I still have one example, but the purple ink has almost completely faded.
--- End quote ---
Xerox machines were available technology, but they were rarely available for most people's use. They came with locks in those days, as using them quickly ran up a large bill.
tggzzz:
--- Quote from: coppice on August 26, 2020, 10:35:53 am ---
--- Quote from: tggzzz on August 26, 2020, 10:03:51 am ---This was the available technology: https://www.woorillacaught.com/roneo-machines/ Read it and weep. I still have one example, but the purple ink has almost completely faded.
--- End quote ---
Xerox machines were available technology, but they were rarely available for most people's use. They came with locks in those days, as using them quickly ran up a large bill.
--- End quote ---
Yes.
Photocopiers weren't available in school, and using the one in the university library required payment in advance!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version