Dan Triplett wrote:
-> For instance, the internet may provide the user with a variety of
-> sources for information but it is hardly as useful as a dual speed cd
-> Rom with an encyclopedia.  Multi-media cdroms can provide information
-> so much faster and images can be down loaded to be included in
-> student's "electronic" reports.  The internet is slow and all too
-> often a search takes many, many tries.
I'd agree with the above, if you were only planning to use the Internet
as an encyclopedia. Someone else (maybe it was in a different newsgroup
I was reading?) wrote about how slow it is to sometimes wait for
retrieval of info on the Net, and that it's faster to simply look in a
book, or as you mention, use a CD-ROM encyclopedia. I agree.
However, there are many things that you can do on the Net which you
can't do with an encyclopedia. I'd say what you have to do first is to
decide what you hope to accomplish and then see if the Net is the best
tool for the job. For simply encylopedia use, I'd agree, it's not the
best tool. But don't overlook the many opportunities the Net affords you
that cannot be done by other means.
-> I know of educators that spend too much time exploring the novelties
-> of the WWW.
Well, I possibly fall into that category. It's true that it's easy to
spend a lot of time on the Web. But if these people are doing it in
their free time, time that would normally be spent on other hobbies and
amusements, then what's the harm in it? How can you say it is "too much"
time?
-> "Modern technology advanced in such tiny increments for so long that
-> we never realized how much our world was being altered, or the
-> ultimate direction of the process.  But now the speed of change is
-> accelerating logarithmically.  It is apparent that developing a
-> language and set of standards by which to assess technological
-> impact, and to block it where necessary, is a critical survival skill
-> of our times".
-> Thoughts anyone??
I think this last quote is certainly making a valid point. Technology is
advancing so rapidly that we don't even have time to evaluate its
appropriate use before something new has already been invented to take
its place. It's getting to be impossible to keep up with the new
advances.
Sheila
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