Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ernie.Berkeley.EDU!elm
From: elm@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (ethan miller)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Does `computer literacy' destroy `computer rabidness?'
Message-ID: <6617@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 19 Oct 88 19:01:11 GMT
References: <25018@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: elm@ernie.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (ethan miller)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 44

In article <25018@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) writes:
->His teacher made the observation that my friend and a couple of other
->kids from the following year were the last students who had the
->`computer bug.'  That is, there is still a (growing) pile of hardware
->available for use at the school, and it gets used.  But it seems that
->there aren't any students who show up early in the morning, nor do
->they hang out in the computer lab at noon, nor does anyone show any
->interest in significant after-school activities.
->
->The teacher further observed that this seemed to happen about the time
->that students started showing up at high school with a reasonably
->`computer literate' background.  They knew how to use PCs of various
->flavors, can run editors without a second thought, know a spreadsheet,
->maybe know some programming, one or two understand what's going on via
->having learned a little assembler and tweaking idly at various weird
->registers in the machines they've used.
->
->But none of them are really hyperactive about computers like such
->students used to be.
->
->So I'm wondering: Is the trend toward making students `literate'
->causing them not to have any real interest in them after all?  Or is
->this lone data point completely out of the norm?  Corroboration or
->refutation?
->
->--Karl

Well, a possible reason is the number of computers in students' homes.
I just had my five year HS reunion last summer, so I was in HS at the
same time as this person.  I know that, when my parents got an Apple ][+,
I was much less interested in spending time on the school computers with
their cassette tape drives and long waits to use them.  Instead, I worked
at home.  Same happened for other friends of mine who got computers.  Why
go to school early or stay late when you can use the computer at home.
This argument is supported by the observation that students are computer-
literate.  How did they get that way?  By using computers they had at home
or at friends' homes.  Why, then, go to school to hack?

ethan

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ethan miller (EECS graduate serf)      | "Quod erat demonstrandum, baby."
bandersnatch@ernie.berkeley.edu        | "Oooh, you speak French!"
They're my opinions; don't abuse them. |    - Thomas Dolby, "Airhead"