[Edu-sig] Another update from the field...

[Michael]

On Monday 21 August 2006 02:17, kirby urner wrote:
> I find this an interesting discussion because it recapitulates a
> central theme on edu-sig over the years:  how much hand-holding versus
> how much "they just need to learn it too"?

Actually, no, you miss my point. That's completely tangential to what I was 
saying, and totally irrelevant. I wrote a long reply to this, but realised I 
can shorten it dramatically.

Knowing how something works so you can change it? Good (necessary even - up
to the limit the person is capable of understanding (bell curves and all 
that)). Being forced to always use nuts and bolts because it "liberates you" 
from useful [1] tools that you can change [2] to suit your needs? Not so 
good. (Especially you merely want tools fit for purpose)

   [1] Useful is in the hand of the user and what they want to do with their
       time.
   [2] Assumption, but having chosen to write a wysiwyg wiki, blog and local
       editor because I've been bored of writing markup (wiki or HTML) after
       years of doing so, I'm happy to make that assumption :-)

Put another way:

> don't market pure XML/XHTML as "the right solution for everybody" any more
> than "computer programming for everybody" means we all program the same
> way, or all have to use Python.

A much more fun way of making your main point (which I think boils down to 
being able to get under the hood when you want/need to and being able to 
easily change systems) is to merely point at the film "Robots".

Makes the point in a much more fun way :)

(especially if you notice some possible references to a particular hardware
manufacturers, who could be said to successfully "infantalize" (to use
your derogatory term) technology in a way that millions of people want,
demonstrably so by buying said technology by their millions...)

Regards,


Michael.