Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 27th Aug 2009 19:08 UTC
A complaint you hear quite often is that the Linux desktop environments, which mostly refers to KDE and GNOME, are trying too hard to be like Windows and Mac OS X. Now, even James Bottomley, Distinguished Engineer at Novell, Director of the Linux Foundation, and Chair of its Technical Advisory Board (put that on your business card) states in an interview that he believes the Linux desktop is too much like Windows and Mac.
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Member since:2006-10-08
Spot on. It is somewhat ironic that most courses for the ECDL (European Computer Driving License) that I'm aware of teach the participants to operate the computer in the same concept-less way that you describe and that can be successfully applied in the process of training a horde of monkeys to play Mozart:
a.) hit the right key on the keyboard
b.) Profit! / Bananas!
a.) hit the right key on the keyboard
b.) Profit! / Bananas!
I'm not talking of conceptlessness, but of independence of specific concepts. This can also be achieved by integrating different concepts into the teaching process, such as different programming languages can be used to illustrate different programming concepts and paradigms.
Of course, people mostly don't learn for theirselves, but in order to achieve a positive confirmation right away. As you described: Hit the correct button and win a banana. For teaching, it would be more important to teach the advantages of WHY something should be learned. Even long term effects are possible, but people don't see them. Maybe they are unable to, I do consider this to be possible. Because PCs can be considered tools, it's obvious that they should be treated that way. Maybe if you have a look at some handcrafting tools: If you know how to handle them - and you learn this by working with them, handling them, and taking time to practice - you can achieve good results with them, you can produce pieces of art or get things fixed by yourself without paying an expensive repairman. It's quite similar with PCs: If you understand (!) how things work, then, no matter in which particular environment you are at the moment, you'll be able to find your way by yourself. For example, if you understand what hierarchical concepts are, including files, directories, and maybe references (symlinks), you do understand this concept on Linux, on Solaris, on OS/400 and even on VMS. Things that are useful AND universal should be emphasized.
if click(wrong_window) then play("ding.wav");
and then retry();
:-)
Member since:
2007-11-17
Spot on. It is somewhat ironic that most courses for the ECDL (European Computer Driving License) that I'm aware of teach the participants to operate the computer in the same concept-less way that you describe and that can be successfully applied in the process of training a horde of monkeys to play Mozart:
a.) hit the right key on the keyboard
b.) Profit! / Bananas!