Wanted to ask you about this article, how do you remember the early days of the internet (I was sadly too young at that time). Do you wish it back? And do you think it can ever be like that again? I would be very interested

  • Threadbane@newsie.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    @tony @bstix @Provider
    Computers are far more efficient than libraries of books, obviously, but that is not the point. The content of a HS math text does not need updating, nor a history book, a book of literature. One doesn’t “search” a textbook, one learns the material. You have changed the context to suit your vision of what I was talking about. We’re not talking about research, we’re talking about K-12 schoolbooks. You don’t need to update how to add and subtract or Shakespeare’s poems.

      • Threadbane@newsie.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        @tony @bstix @Provider
        A school situation is EXACTLY what we’re talking about, elementary and grade school especially. Children using remote learning during covid fared miserably. And you CAN search textbooks by underlining, bookmarking with tabs, etc. For some subjects, say history, using different colored markers to emphasize certain paragraphs heading, names, dates, etc. made it possible for me to memorize the essential facts in a history book in a day or two before an exam.

      • Threadbane@newsie.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        @tony @bstix @Provider
        Why update elementary math texts, to give “educators” something to do and keep the publishing industry afloat? In 1976, a friend asked me to teach her 15 yo daughter about lowest common denominators and prime numbers. The textbook, unlike the one I used in high school, was gobbledygook. No wonder she couldn’t understand it! I couldn’t figure out what they were saying and I have a masters in radio engineering! Within an hour she understood it and made an A on her test.