Technology and Education

April 4, 2008 5:53 PM

Three columns on technology and eduction by Robert Cringely: the clash between those who grew up with computers and those who didn't in War of the Worlds, Amish Paradise looks for learning models in unexpected places and Ozzy knows best talks about how important digital games, not video games, could be to education.

If you're curious, Cringely is pseudonym

posted by Brandon Blatcher (7 comments total)

I churned butter once or twice, living in an Amish Paradise.
posted by The Bellman at 6:05 PM on April 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

oh there is too much goodness on the FP today and I have little hope of keeping up
Thanks, cool links.
posted by dawson at 6:56 PM on April 4, 2008

I used to respect Cringely. But I'm drunk now, and I'm amazed to find that these columns don't have a heck of a lot of coherence. I'm not sure he has anything useful to say any more.

*Loses pants in the Charles.*
posted by A dead Quaker at 7:28 PM on April 4, 2008

Dave Winer, back in 1996, came to the conclusion that it was better to bookmark information than to cut and paste it

Yeah, and how many of those bookmarks still work today?
posted by delmoi at 7:59 PM on April 4, 2008

MIT threw videos of all its lecture courses - ALL its lecture courses - up on the web for anyone to watch for free. This was precisely comparable to SGI (remember them?) licensing OpenGL to Microsoft. What is it, then, that makes an MIT education worth $34,986? Is it the seminars that aren't on the web? Faculty guidance? Research experience? Getting drunk and falling in the Charles River without your pants?

The same thing that makes MIT worth more then a state school networking. If you go to MIT the people around you are going to be the ones at the center of the tech world, and they'll already know you. When you work at microsoft and one job candidate has a degree from the University of Phoenix online, and another was your best programmer's roomate, who do you think is going to get the job?
posted by delmoi at 8:04 PM on April 4, 2008

This guy isn't actually very original, or very smart. I count two essays that miss the point of education (investment in capacities) and one that copies a Neal Stephenson novel.
posted by anotherpanacea at 8:35 AM on April 5, 2008

He used to say some interesting stuff, but something happened and he dropped off the radar.
posted by mecran01 at 11:08 AM on April 6, 2008