Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Early understandings
Two surprisingly early UNDERSTANDINGS of technology from the same 1923 issue of Radio World.
FDR's first fireside chat:
He understood the proper use of radio in 1923, when other politicians were just letting the microphone pick up their standard stemwinder orations.
(Is that really him? A check of Google verifies that he did look like that in 1923.)
= = = = =
And the first MOOC:
Radio isn't the point. There's no advantage in Mr Leyenborger reading stuff to several classrooms. Miss Hastings is at the blackboard, so she could read the text with more clarity and more direct feedback; or she could delegate the reading to a smartass student. The important tech here is the adding machines in the classroom. Those teachers understood the proper use of machines. Even now, many teachers refuse to allow calculators because .... ????? I have no idea. It's so abysmally stupid that I can't imagine any possible reason.
For clarity: Allowing a cellphone or laptop with web access is a more ambiguous choice. Instant lookup of raw facts may be good; instant lookup of pre-written answers to the questions in the textbook is bad. If you can't firmly filter out the latter, the device should be forbidden.
¶ 3:08 AM 
He understood the proper use of radio in 1923, when other politicians were just letting the microphone pick up their standard stemwinder orations.
(Is that really him? A check of Google verifies that he did look like that in 1923.)
= = = = =
And the first MOOC:
Radio isn't the point. There's no advantage in Mr Leyenborger reading stuff to several classrooms. Miss Hastings is at the blackboard, so she could read the text with more clarity and more direct feedback; or she could delegate the reading to a smartass student. The important tech here is the adding machines in the classroom. Those teachers understood the proper use of machines. Even now, many teachers refuse to allow calculators because .... ????? I have no idea. It's so abysmally stupid that I can't imagine any possible reason.
For clarity: Allowing a cellphone or laptop with web access is a more ambiguous choice. Instant lookup of raw facts may be good; instant lookup of pre-written answers to the questions in the textbook is bad. If you can't firmly filter out the latter, the device should be forbidden.
¶ 3:08 AM
