Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!samsung!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!limbo!taylor
From: krweiss@ucdavis.edu (Ken Weiss)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Student Writing: Can the Machine Main the Message?
Message-ID: <983@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 12 Jul 90 20:43:38 GMT
Sender: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com
Organization: University of California, Davis
Lines: 18
Approved: taylor@Limbo.Intuitive.Com

> Can a technology be too easy, too playful for young, immature writers 
> to use?  Can such a technology arrest their writing at a less mature 
> stage of development?

Good Lord, yes! We'd better start confiscating pencils. They're just
too goddam easy to use...

Is it possible that the students' choice of Mac or PC is non-random? It
seems like the Mac sections would be loaded with individuals with NO
previous computer experience, plus those with previous experience on
Macintosh. The PC sections would probably contain a preponderance of
students already computer literate. I have no problem with the
proposition that computer literacy is a predictor of literacy in
general. I can't believe that a GUI makes people less inclined to
run a spelling checker.

Ken Weiss