Re: SEUL: Re: Are teachers really so unwilling to learn?

[Doug Loss <dloss@csrlink.net>]

bickiia@earlham.edu wrote:
> 
> Doug Loss <dloss@csrlink.net> wrote:
> >We have enough variations to be able to have separate
> >combinations for all the capital letters, all the lowercase letters,
> >the numerals from 0-9, all the punctuation marks, and various other
> >useful meanings like carriage return, new page, etc.  And we still have
> >combinations left for other uses like special instructions to the
> >computer itself.
> 
> That last part is something that would need to be expanded on.  Things
> like newlines, form feeds, and the like don't fit with the rest.  They
> aren't characters you can see and understand like you can letters, or
> even spaces and tabs.
> 
> [...] but they don't understand the
> notion that there's this new character that can't see but can delete,
> that seperates the paragraphs.  A lot of people come to understand
> what's going on, but a lot of people don't quite get it -- even after
> they've become proficient with a word processor, they don't understand
> *why* they are doing what they do.
> 
> This notion of representation and abstract symbols, of which the newline
> is a good example, is not intuitive and really deserves more attention.
> Especially since it doesn't get nearly any attention at all.
> Representation as a whole is a big part of computers, and not well
> understood.
> 
I agree with you that this is something that deserves more attention.  I
didn't intend my short snippets to be final drafts but jumping-off
points.  Do you (all of you) think the approach I've roughed out is
worth pursuing?  If so, I'd like to see more people pointing out weak
points they see and more importantly proposing ways to strengthen those
points.  If this approach isn't worth pursuing, let's find out and then
move on.

-- 
Doug Loss                 The difference between the right word and
Data Network Coordinator  the almost right word is the difference
Bloomsburg University     between lightning and a lightning bug.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Mark Twain