Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdahl!JUTS!lth00
From: lth00@ccc.amdahl.com (  205  Lawrence T Hardiman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: The Man in the Machine - Article
Message-ID: <038z02wv03qC01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com>
Date: 22 Oct 90 19:46:45 GMT
References: <16470@shlump.nac.dec.com> <1990Oct19.055541.1514@math.lsa.umich.edu>
Reply-To: lth00@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (  205  Lawrence T Hardiman)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 28

In article <1990Oct19.055541.1514@math.lsa.umich.edu> hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) writes:
>A lot of folks have been paying a lot of attention to Halio's article, even
>though the observations she makes were not made in a scientifically controlled
>setting...


Ms. Halio's paper does indeed say that the observations are not the
result of an academic study. The paper is based on an observation
made in an academic environment over several years of teaching freshman
english. I feel that she may have a real find, not in that people
who use Macs do lesser work than those who use an IBM PC, but the finding
is that "who chooses to use a Mac". In her paper, she describes a
lot of conditions that would lead you to believe that all the students
were more or less "equal in all respects". They all came from similar
highschool backgrounds; all had similar grades; all had to take freshman
english; none had any other distinguishing characteristics.

The only externally measurable difference is that the students got
to choose the section of freshman english they attended. The only
difference in sections of the class was the computer platform on which
they were to do the work (IBM PC or a Mac). Therein lies the observation.
I believe the conclusion should not be directed at the platform,
but at the participants; the conclusion I find is that students of
lesser ability choose to use a Mac rather than a computer that
requires them to think about how to use the platform as well as what
what is to be written.

Just my opinion, thank you.