Saturday, August 09, 2003
At the end of the Second World War the average American needed only a fourth grade education to be in the 50th percentile in salary. In the 1990’s, a twelfth grade education is necessary to reach the same level. Today, a college graduate earns more than twice as much as someone iwth less that 12 years of education. We now suffer from the greatest gap between high and low income earners in the history of our nation. Reed Hundt (nassp) Oct 1996 - p.6
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Our children come into our schools today “Sesame Street” wise, Sea-circuited, and MTV-literate. They have watched thousands of hours of television and spent hundreds of hours playing electronic games even before they come to kindergarten. They receive 50-75 percent of their information from video and graphic sources. They are comfortable with technology. They grew up with it. It is the learning environment within which they have had the majority of their experiences. We adults, as parents, have provided them with that environment and, for the most part, left them on their own to explore and interpret it prior to entering the school system.
And then we send them into our schools, where 80-90% of the activities are still text-based. We take them out of the rich, multi-mediate enviroments of the home and neighborhood in which they have become interactively “literate” with their world and put them into the functionally mono-mediate environments of most classrooms and libraries where we attempt to dumb them down to what Symour Papert has called “letterate” learners.
“There are thousands of buildings in this country, will millions of people in them who have no telephones, no cable television, and no reasonable prospect of broadband services . They are called schools.”
Is Technology Working? (Technology & Learning - “Taking Stock: What’s the Research Saying?) by Judy Salpeter (May 1998) p24
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Our children come into our schools today “Sesame Street” wise, Sea-circuited, and MTV-literate. They have watched thousands of hours of television and spent hundreds of hours playing electronic games even before they come to kindergarten. They receive 50-75 percent of their information from video and graphic sources. They are comfortable with technology. They grew up with it. It is the learning environment within which they have had the majority of their experiences. We adults, as parents, have provided them with that environment and, for the most part, left them on their own to explore and interpret it prior to entering the school system.
And then we send them into our schools, where 80-90% of the activities are still text-based. We take them out of the rich, multi-mediate enviroments of the home and neighborhood in which they have become interactively “literate” with their world and put them into the functionally mono-mediate environments of most classrooms and libraries where we attempt to dumb them down to what Symour Papert has called “letterate” learners.
“There are thousands of buildings in this country, will millions of people in them who have no telephones, no cable television, and no reasonable prospect of broadband services . They are called schools.”
Is Technology Working? (Technology & Learning - “Taking Stock: What’s the Research Saying?) by Judy Salpeter (May 1998) p24
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“Technology is part of a child’s world - they have disregard for those who won’t or don’t use it.”
~ Missouri Department Of Technology - Susan Cole
------------------------
“Predicting the future is easy....getting it right is hard” - Authur Miller
------------------------
“Children are native to the digital age and adults are immigrants. Students grow up digitally and as a result they learn differently. The challenge to educatiors is in understanding what that means.” - Judy Salpeter
------------------------
PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE....George Washington University .... predicted with a 75% confidence in the outcome of these predictions. 1998 -
Note: there has been more information created in the last 30 years than in the previous 5,000 years.
2003 - information will double every month
2004 - Video conferencing will be widespread and commonplace
2006 - Distance Learning will be widespread....this will have a profound effect on
teaching....talking head.
2007 - Groupware and the internet will allow the sharing of document over a
network and collaborative writing.
2007 - On-line publishing will account for 75% of all books and magazines
(today there are 900+ newspapers and 2000+ magazines)
2007 - Voice and handwriting recognition will be common -
We have it now but with a 5-10% error rate.
2009 - Intelligent agents & knowledge bots will become our research librarians,
secretaries, mothers and caretakers.
2011 - Self learning and self programming computers (where the computer will
learn from our actions and queries) Note the Furby’s (1998).
Computers will logon, keep your O/S up to date, query, etc.
2012 - Foreign language translation will be fulfilled
2015 - factory workers will fall to 10% of the work force.
2019 - 85% of the US workforce will be telecommuters (work at home)
------------------------
~ Missouri Department Of Technology - Susan Cole
------------------------
“Predicting the future is easy....getting it right is hard” - Authur Miller
------------------------
“Children are native to the digital age and adults are immigrants. Students grow up digitally and as a result they learn differently. The challenge to educatiors is in understanding what that means.” - Judy Salpeter
------------------------
PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE....George Washington University .... predicted with a 75% confidence in the outcome of these predictions. 1998 -
Note: there has been more information created in the last 30 years than in the previous 5,000 years.
2003 - information will double every month
2004 - Video conferencing will be widespread and commonplace
2006 - Distance Learning will be widespread....this will have a profound effect on
teaching....talking head.
2007 - Groupware and the internet will allow the sharing of document over a
network and collaborative writing.
2007 - On-line publishing will account for 75% of all books and magazines
(today there are 900+ newspapers and 2000+ magazines)
2007 - Voice and handwriting recognition will be common -
We have it now but with a 5-10% error rate.
2009 - Intelligent agents & knowledge bots will become our research librarians,
secretaries, mothers and caretakers.
2011 - Self learning and self programming computers (where the computer will
learn from our actions and queries) Note the Furby’s (1998).
Computers will logon, keep your O/S up to date, query, etc.
2012 - Foreign language translation will be fulfilled
2015 - factory workers will fall to 10% of the work force.
2019 - 85% of the US workforce will be telecommuters (work at home)
------------------------
Favorite Quotations
regarding Technology
K.Forrest
------------------------
Technology makes it possible for
people to gain control over everything, except over technology.
~ John Tudor
------------------------
Computers are useless. They can
only give you answers.
~ Pablo Picasso
------------------------
Computers aren't intelligent, they only think they are.
------------------------
ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster.
------------------------
I think there is a world market for
maybe five computers.
~ Thomas Watson,
Chairman of IBM, 1943
------------------------
Less than 1% of the world population
has access to internet; 50% has never
used a telephone
~ Computerworld, 10 june 1996
------------------------
Less than 1% of the world population
has access to internet; 50% has never
used a telephone
~ Computerworld, 10 june 1996
------------------------
Less than 1% of the world population
has access to internet; 50% has never
used a telephone
~ Computerworld, 10 june 1996
------------------------
November 17, 1999 ~~ Newsweek reports that the World Wide Web now contains approximately 1.2 billion pages, and that around 38 new pages are added every second. That translates into 136,800 new Web pages every hour. Yet few people are doing anything to ensure that the information contained on the Web is accurate or trustworthy.
------------------------
If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.
~ Thomas Watson, Sr., founder of IBM
------------------------
Everything that can be invented
has been invented. (1899)
~ U.S. Commissioner of Patents
------------------------
Never measure the day
in minutes or hours but by
your accomplishments.
~ Thomas Edison
------------------------
The real danger is not that computers
will begin to think like men, but that
men will begin to think like computers.
~ Syndey J. Harris
------------------------
Knowledge doubles every
fourteen months
~ Anthony J.D’Angelo,
The College Blue Book
------------------------
There is no reason for any individual
to have a computer in their home.
~ Ken Olsen
Founder of Dec Computer 1977
------------------------
Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic.
~ Arthur C. Clarke
------------------------
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 1/2 tons.
Popular Mechanics, March 1949
------------------------
The best way to predict the future
is to invent it.
~ Alan Kay
------------------------
Technology: No Place for Wimps.
~ Scott Adams, Dilbert
------------------------
This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
~ Western Union internal memo 1876
------------------------
640K [memory] ought to be
enough for anybody
~ 1981: Bill Gates
------------------------
The World Wide Web (WWW)
as we know it was first created
in 1993.
~ Infoland 1999
------------------------
When the only tool you own is a
hammer, every problem begins
to resemble a nail.
~ Abraham Maslow
------------------------
Americans spend six times as much
on home video games ($5.5 billion)
as they do on school library
materials for their children.
~ Kids Connect - 1999
------------------------
The average American depends
on over 264 computers per day.
~ 1999 Coundown to Y2K
------------------------
regarding Technology
K.Forrest
------------------------
Technology makes it possible for
people to gain control over everything, except over technology.
~ John Tudor
------------------------
Computers are useless. They can
only give you answers.
~ Pablo Picasso
------------------------
Computers aren't intelligent, they only think they are.
------------------------
ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster.
------------------------
I think there is a world market for
maybe five computers.
~ Thomas Watson,
Chairman of IBM, 1943
------------------------
Less than 1% of the world population
has access to internet; 50% has never
used a telephone
~ Computerworld, 10 june 1996
------------------------
Less than 1% of the world population
has access to internet; 50% has never
used a telephone
~ Computerworld, 10 june 1996
------------------------
Less than 1% of the world population
has access to internet; 50% has never
used a telephone
~ Computerworld, 10 june 1996
------------------------
November 17, 1999 ~~ Newsweek reports that the World Wide Web now contains approximately 1.2 billion pages, and that around 38 new pages are added every second. That translates into 136,800 new Web pages every hour. Yet few people are doing anything to ensure that the information contained on the Web is accurate or trustworthy.
------------------------
If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.
~ Thomas Watson, Sr., founder of IBM
------------------------
Everything that can be invented
has been invented. (1899)
~ U.S. Commissioner of Patents
------------------------
Never measure the day
in minutes or hours but by
your accomplishments.
~ Thomas Edison
------------------------
The real danger is not that computers
will begin to think like men, but that
men will begin to think like computers.
~ Syndey J. Harris
------------------------
Knowledge doubles every
fourteen months
~ Anthony J.D’Angelo,
The College Blue Book
------------------------
There is no reason for any individual
to have a computer in their home.
~ Ken Olsen
Founder of Dec Computer 1977
------------------------
Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic.
~ Arthur C. Clarke
------------------------
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 1/2 tons.
Popular Mechanics, March 1949
------------------------
The best way to predict the future
is to invent it.
~ Alan Kay
------------------------
Technology: No Place for Wimps.
~ Scott Adams, Dilbert
------------------------
This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
~ Western Union internal memo 1876
------------------------
640K [memory] ought to be
enough for anybody
~ 1981: Bill Gates
------------------------
The World Wide Web (WWW)
as we know it was first created
in 1993.
~ Infoland 1999
------------------------
When the only tool you own is a
hammer, every problem begins
to resemble a nail.
~ Abraham Maslow
------------------------
Americans spend six times as much
on home video games ($5.5 billion)
as they do on school library
materials for their children.
~ Kids Connect - 1999
------------------------
The average American depends
on over 264 computers per day.
~ 1999 Coundown to Y2K
------------------------
Thursday, August 07, 2003
"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory." ~Mahatma Gandhi From: Bruce Frank Subject: THE ZEN OF COMPUTERS Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 09:12:39 -0500 THE ZEN OF COMPUTERS, THE ART OF ERROR--
In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft Error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry has strict construction rules.
Each poem has only three lines, 17 syllables: five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third. Haiku is used to communicate a timeless message often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity -- the essence of Zen.
Some examples follow:
Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
The Website you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.
With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.
The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao-until
You bring fresh toner.
Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft Error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry has strict construction rules.
Each poem has only three lines, 17 syllables: five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third. Haiku is used to communicate a timeless message often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity -- the essence of Zen.
Some examples follow:
Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
The Website you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.
With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.
The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao-until
You bring fresh toner.
Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
