Thread: The loss of basic skills in school

Originally Posted by commiecat

Well I was talking about students in a general term, not you specifically.



I can see lots of reasons for a student to buy and use a tablet in lieu of their laptop: they're quicker to start up, lighter, smaller, more quiet when typing, etc. That isn't to say that everyone should do so, but I got the impression that you're questioning why anybody would choose one over a desktop or laptop.

It would have to depend on the situation. In my case, there was no need for me to get a tablet if they were available at that time I was enrolled in my online college. But going to a campus for class, a tablet would work based on your explanation.

Here's an idea: if everything is going electronic, how are kids supposed to develop good writing skills?

Originally Posted by Bruno

Here's an idea: if everything is going electronic, how are kids supposed to develop good writing skills?

Do you mean penmanship, or writing style and grammar?

Originally Posted by Bruno

Here's an idea: if everything is going electronic, how are kids supposed to develop good writing skills?

I think when the time comes they just won't.
I'm sure at one point people were worried how kids are going to develop good hunting skills, but the lack of those doesn't seem to bother most people anymore.

More recently there was concern about kids learning basic arithmetic. Electronic calculators have been available for many decades now, but still kids are taught how to do long division because it's important not as a skill, but as a developmental tool. Probably the same thing with basic writing, but as far as I can tell calligraphy has been obsolete for decades already with no dramatically ill effect.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Here's an idea: if everything is going electronic, how are kids supposed to develop good writing skills?

I have read reports and emails from people where the writing skills were horrible in spite of MS Word and other word processing applications. I even catch my own errors and I use MSWord at work and Pages at home on my iMac.

Well, the quality of the writing is not affected by the use of technology. In fact the technology makes it much easier to improve it, since it allows for much faster editing than using, for example, chisels and stone.
For me there are no better word processors than vi and emacs, and no better publishing software than LaTeX. MSWord/Pages/etc. are for those who don't mind that their documents look like those of a first grader.

Originally Posted by gugi

Well, the quality of the writing is not affected by the use of technology. In fact the technology makes it much easier to improve it, since it allows for much faster editing than using, for example, chisels and stone.
For me there are no better word processors than vi and emacs, and no better publishing software than LaTeX. MSWord/Pages/etc. are for those who don't mind that their documents look like those of a first grader.

Exactly Gugi. The word processor programs are only good as the person using it.

I meant actual penmanship.
My oldest daughter is learning cursive writing in first grade. I was told that in some US schools, that isn't even taught.
But penmanship is important. And important documents should still be hardcopy imo.

We have writing of thousands of years ago. Writing is what allowed us to pass information from generation to generation, even if that information was being suppressed at the time. Sometimes even across millenia (dead sea scrolls). Hard copy is robust. Electronic data however is extremely fragile. The risk of abandoning penmanship means being completely dependent on electronics.

Btw, this is even more important with eastern languages. The youngest generation of Japanese has an affliction that is called waapuro baka, meaning 'wordprocessor stupid'. Youngsters are forgetting their kanji because they are not writing it anymore, and their i-whatever has gotten very good at input prediction. They'll type the word phonetically, and the device will substitute with kanji. But when they have to actually write it themselves, they have problems trying to write the kanji correctly.