[Edu-sig] RE: Concentric hierarchy / hypertoon (was pygame etc.)

[ajsiegel at optonline.net]

----- Original Message -----
From: Kirby Urner <urnerk at qwest.net>

> 
> > The problem though, in my view, is that it is on fourms like
> > edu-sig ( and debian edu list) that the exploration of these kinds
> > of "polemics" are both most relevant and least welcome.
> > 
> > Which says something in-and-of-itself.
> > 
> 
> Let's just put it this way:  I'm a technologist immersed in IT and 
> I don't
> consider myself a formidable obstacle to progress.  Nor do I feel 
> that my
> innovative programming is encountering any effective resistance.  
> Nor do I
> feel that I'm operating alone or in a vacuum.  
> 
> On top of this, I see a million ways to link up design science 
> (Fuller'sname for a disciplined approach to making headway) with 
> open source
> projects.  Of these million ways, I've so far exploited only about 
> 4.5% of
> them (bogus stat).  In other words, I'm loaded with "ammo" 
> (weapons of mass
> instruction) but have only lightly tapped what's in inventory.

I am also a technologist of a fashion.

But in the business world there are factors that converge toward 
appropriate use. There is cost and there is benefit, and there is a 
measuring scale - dollars.

I find the business world quite wholesome in that respect.

What I see at work in the realm of education and technology 
is the worst of both worlds - folks working within self-interested 
frameworks of various kinds and degrees (as in the business world),
but without a reasonable framework for defintions of goals, or measurement
of costs and benefits, and therefore no ecosystem that it is 
reasonable to believe will converge us toward a reasonable result.

The easiest shortcut, of course, being to simply define "educated"  - because
there is in fact a lot of leeway to be had in coming to a definition of that word
 - as fluent in working with computers.  In which case - by simple tautology -
working with computers becomes a centerpiece of the educational process.

Too easy, IMO. Way.

Art