> Let me offer a perspective from the 'outside'.
>
> We don't teach kids to play computer games, yet they develop gaming
> literacy
> just fine on their own. They can figure out the rules, learn on their own,
> from their friends, try and err and ultimately play these games. There is
> no
> class for Warcraft and we don't send kids to class learn how to play Sims.
Yeah, but this is stuff they *want* to do.
And sometimes you need formal training in the things you want to do. Some
kids can pick up piano by ear while others need formal lessons. And while
being able to play by ear is a coveted skill in itself, those who have it
could still benefit from formal lessons to take them to "the next level." I
speak as one of those ear-players who had a little guidance at the right
time in chords and such, but never enough of the right type of lessons to
put me where I wanted to be in terms of keyboard skills.
Having learned those "lessons without a context" like scales and intervals,
and getting my speed and coordination up, would have allowed me to be the
pianist I wanted to be, and might even have given me a different career.
You can't always learn even the things you want to know by teaching yourself
or learning from your friends.
This isn't to say 'skills' are unimportant. Complex human activities require
> skill, but I would suggest that these skills can and should be developed as
> an integral aspect of the learning activity and not separate from it.
>
> There is nothing sacred about having skills in Microsoft Word, Excel,
> Photoshop or Insert-your-favorite-software. Today's Word is tomorrow's
> Wordstar.
>
I agree here. However, once you learn that a right-tab setting exists in
Wordstar or that there's a way to put your name, the title of your paper,
and the page number at the bottom of every page in XyWrite, you'll know to
look for that feature in MacWrite, WriteNow, Word, or whatever else comes
down the pike.
> We should be teaching writing, not wordprocessing. We should be applying
> math, not teaching Excel. We should be blogging, not teaching Wordpress.
Ah, but as I implied before, none of my English or History teachers taught
us typing. They told us what format the typed document should be in, and
assumed that someone else had taught us typing. Even then, the kids who
hadn't taken that class struggled with getting things just right because
they didn't know how to make the best of the tool. And the simple fact of
the matter here is that the end results looked pretty much the same - the
paper typed by the kid who didn't know about setting margins or tabs looked
pretty much the same as mine, it just took them longer to do it.
It would be absolutely wonderful if English and History teachers (I pick on
them because they're the most writing-intensive classes) took the time in
the first couple of classes to go through the same writing mechanics with
word processing that they used to do in the longhand days. But they're
loathe to do that because it takes time away from *their* content.
As I was sitting around the house thinking about this whole thing, it
occurred to me what my issue is. Everyone thinks of me as the "computer
guy." But to me the computer is simply a tool that allows me to get the
things I love done more easily. I'm a writer who uses the computer as his
tool, and as a result, my big thing here has been giving everyone the word
processing skills they need to make writing easier. I'm a composer who uses
the computer as his tool so that I can actually hear the notes I'm writing
down. I'm the artist who uses the computer as his tool when I need to draw a
picture for the family newsletter or a class handout. I'm the publisher who
uses the computer as his tool to create the family newsletter. I'm the model
train aficionado who found that Excel is a great way to convert sizes from O
scale to N scale. I've found ways that the computer is useful for what I
want to do, but I'm not one of those people who love the computer in and of
itself.
I haven't done blogs or wikis or podcasts because they're the latest thing,
but only when I've decided that they're the best way to do what I want to
do.
But for the most part, I'm the *writer* who uses the computer as his tool,
and wants to show everyone the easy way to do this, and all that word
processing of any kind has to offer. I want them to appreciate it now as
much as I did when I learned it in typing class.
I'm getting the impression that this makes me a dinosaur.
--
keg
========================================
Keith E Gatling
mailto:keith@gatling.us
http://www.gatling.us/keith
The fact that I'm open-minded doesn't mean that I have to agree with you.
========================================
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