On Mon, 16 Jun 2008, Olin Lathrop wrote:

> Apptech wrote:
> > It's very very very hard for an expert
> > to realise how very very hard some "utterly trivial" matters
> > can seem.
> 
> Those of us who know this stuff all learned it at some point.  And us old
> farts had to do that without the internet with its enourmous library and
> world wide experts to answer questions.  As a result, we had to sit down and
> actually *think* about a problem and maybe experiment instead of blurting
> out a question the moment we got stuck.
> 
> Now don't get me wrong.  I think the internet can be a great learning tool
> and should be used as such, but a infinite amount of immediately available
> information is not in itself a teacher.  In fact, it can sometimes prevent
> or delay true learning because it's too easy to just look up a answer when
> needed.  That gets you the answer, but it doesn't mean you have learned the
> principles to come up the answer yourself next time.
> 
> All too often today's students try to short cut their assignments by asking
> for answers at the first sign of trouble.  They seem to have forgotten the
> purpose of the assignment is not the end result, but the process which is
> intended to foster learning.

Hi Olin,

Speaking as an "old fart" myself I understand exactly what you mean. 
However I think you are missing one very important point - computer 
related stuff was much less complicated when we were young. We were able 
to learn the basics and build on this as technology advanced. We were not 
presented with the bewildering mess that many students face today. Trying 
to learn something from scratch on your own seems to be a bigger challenge 
now than it used to be 30 years ago. For one thing, reference books were 
incredible works compared to most of the junk that comes out today.

It is easy to find an incorrect explination and for that to hamper you as 
you are trying to learn.

Yes there are some students who just want you to do their assignments but 
there are also people that are not lazy and really are genuinly bewildered 
and need help.

Regards
Sergio Masci
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