HORRORS!
Posted on 05/08/2006 8:49:27 AM PDT by FerdieMurphy
hogwash - what's the diff between carrying a book under your arm, or on your laptop? The media isn't the message - some teachers fear losing their jobs to technology.
people aren't stopping reading simply because there is new technology to deliver it to them.
Do younger people even read? I have my doubts.
The computer is just a tool. It does not educate. I use one all day long, but I read real, genuine books, leath-bound books, Limited Edition books.
A machine won't respond to questions of dissent or different viewpoints.
There is only one right answer. Read and repeat.
Can you buy those anymore? I've been looking for a nice Lord of the Rings collection for a while now.
as a side note: does anyone here know how to get a book bound in leather. My friend wrote a suprisingly decent book book and I want to bind it for her.
HORRORS!
I want kids to learn to do research by reading books, using card catalogs, and periodical guides.
The internet has a short memory and it is prone to changing the "past" with revised webpages. And research done by "word search" isn't the most effective (although it can be effective at getting a quick hit).
There are people who won't watch a movie because it is in black and white. Do you want to see a society that won't read any text longer than 2 paragraphs because it isn't electric?
Go to your local Catholic bookstore. If they don't do it themselves, they can tell you where to get it done.
If teachers are a vanishing species, it's partly because most schools and colleges are dumbed down and politically correct. That goes double in England, where education was an elite process not long ago, but where Shakespeare is being replaced by TV.
Nothing can replace a good book and a good teacher in a good school. But there aren't a whole lot of good schools around any more.
I put in a year as a visiting scholar in Cambridge in 1974-75, and I could see beginning to happen back then. Dumbing down, political correctness. Oxford and Cambridge University Presses have both been overcome by the disease, and are following the path blazed by Berkeley and Duke.
My children and grandchildren all read a ton of books. But they got the habit at home, and they read because they have learned to like it. The schools are deteriorating. The teachers are deteriorating. That includes the British public schools and American prep schools, regretably.
Young people do read. And type. They text and send/receive email.
And there seems to be a trend in slang, movie titles, and band names to deliberately engage in "Creative" spelling (or even using numbers for letters).
to me it doesn't matter whether someone reads paper or a screen as long as they read. transitioning from paper to screen isn't going to effect those who won't or can't read, but it does open a lot of doors to new stuff to read, such as FR :-)
Several state prison industries are involved in rebinding books. We had some books cut down and rebound at Fort Madison, IA after they were damaged in a fire years ago.
From my meanderings through the various schools in my town,I have found that by an overwhelming majority the favored research site is this little obscure dot on the information highway called Myspace.com!
Could it be that the students are finding out what their compatriots in other schools know about Shakespeare,the Pythagorean Theory and Manifest Destiny?
Nah,I'm not THAT naive!
I share your doubts but also believe that it depends on the family. If, for example, the mother and father read to the children early on, the children will likely want to learn to read and to enjoy the magic of books.
And, yes,the computer is simply a tool, but unlike a book it can present a lot of distractions. I would not like to depend on the computer to present a reading assignment to my child on the internet. There is always the possibility that the child might end up in a "chat room" and "today's lesson" would be lost, not to even mention that the child's morality might be damaged.
My 4-YO can surf the net like the best of them, but he'd still rather sit down and read (yes I said READ) a book, or have me or my wife read to him, than anything else. I know it will change, but I hope that we have instilled enough love for REAL print media, that it will always be there for him.
A book you have to read. A laptop can highlight all information specified, and through voice technology can read the book to you. The whole concept of computers in the classroom is idiotic since the person surrenders his thinking ability to an electricity based machine. What happens when the lights go out and you don't know how to think for yourself?
Ask 90% of the people in New Orleans.
oh I agree - there is no real evidence that the expense of puitting computers in the classroom is anything other than an expensive distraction - i have long held that view.
but most people don't use voice technology - they actual;y read what is on the screen. and that's fine with me.
all the money spent on computers in the classroom would be better spent sending kids to schools where teachers teach rather than play with the latest technogadget.
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