The internet effect

[Margaret Pilkington]

Well during the school holidays on the fine days, himself has been taking the tinlids down to Mercer Park...which has been a hive of activity and juvenile energy......with the swings and the other recreational equipment being fully used.
Even on the damp days they have usually walked along the Canal banks and fed the ducks.
They have made a den out of a huge cardboard box that our new fridge came in.
This box has been a house, a submarine, a fort, and is now in the process of being transformed into a space ship,with a panel of instruments and buttons(all coverein in shiny foil).
We have briefly looked at some interesting things on the internet......Spindles is interested in Weather.....hurricanes, tornadoesand that kind of thing.....so it has been fun but also educational.

The internet is a tool......it can be used for good or evil depending on the person using it.......a bad person will use it for evil intent, but most of us use it to enlighten ourselves.

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

I think kids shouldn't use the internet till they start secondary school. The idea that you learn more using it I think is a total myth!

I must agree with you here on the second count. My experience with the teenagers I teach over here is that they don't think they need to study anything in depth any more because they already know everything and can just click on the internet and look it up. This is possibly a negative to be considered -we may risk losing experts in many specializations, or at least progress being made in certain fields because of this sort of inverse logic!
It would be practically impossible to keep kids off the internet till the age of 11 though - they probably use it in Primary school these days anyway..

[MargaretR]

I would struggle to survive without internet shopping.
I buy everything on line. Yes - I mean everything!

Being sensitive to petrochemicals is a bind -
...exhaust fumes, air fresheners, perfumes/deodorants etc.

Shops, people, transport - all of them use them and/or generate them.

I didn't choose to be a recluse but have grown to like it - hassle free!
with the help of 'ignore list' here

[Less]

Originally Posted by mobertol

I must agree with you here on the second count. My experience with the teenagers I teach over here is that they don't think they need to study anything in depth any more because they already know everything and can just click on the internet and look it up. This is possibly a negative to be considered -we may risk losing experts in many specializations, or at least progress being made in certain fields because of this sort of inverse logic!
It would be practically impossible to keep kids off the internet till the age of 11 though - they probably use it in Primary school these days anyway..

Or perhaps you lack the imagination to use the internet to enhance Your teaching?

Surely now that so much knowledge is at the click of a button, the teaching could be so much more exciting if only you point them in the right direction?

[kestrelx]

Originally Posted by mobertol

I must agree with you here on the second count. My experience with the teenagers I teach over here is that they don't think they need to study anything in depth any more because they already know everything and can just click on the internet and look it up. This is possibly a negative to be considered -we may risk losing experts in many specializations, or at least progress being made in certain fields because of this sort of inverse logic!
It would be practically impossible to keep kids off the internet till the age of 11 though - they probably use it in Primary school these days anyway..

Yes well it's every where now so I think maybe it's beyond the point of no return. Also the level of communication though you can cover more subjects and have a wider range of people to communicate to how it is over all of lower standard and as it's not face to face you can behave in away that you would not do so if you were face to face!

[garinda]

Perhaps pupils could use the internet to plug a few of the gaps in their education, that their teachers hadn't filled particularly well.

'24,000 poor teachers may work in the state system'
'Bad teachers letting down children' - Telegraph

[kestrelx]

Originally Posted by garinda

By smut do you mean pornography? So I take it these days you are always looking for smut on line

[garinda]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

By smut do you mean pornography? So I take it these days you are always looking for smut on line

No.

When I was thirteen I collected saucy seaside postcards.

It would mean I was searching for them online nowadays, rather than having to physically hunt for them, as I used to do.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

By smut do you mean pornography? So I take it these days you are always looking for smut on line

I know age is a bit of a touchy subject on here at the moment, but actually...I'm no longer thirteen.

[katex]

Originally Posted by garinda

No.

When I was thirteen I collected saucy seaside postcards.

It would mean I was searching for them online nowadays, rather than having to physically hunt for them, as I used to do.

Hey, Garinda .. thought you may have received one of those E-mails that are circulating. Received one the other day with lots on (the one you have posted is there). If you give me your E-mail address, will forward to you. It's part of a collection by Ian Wallis .. you may have already ?

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by garinda

A classic Rindi reply

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

Yes well it's every where now so I think maybe it's beyond the point of no return. Also the level of communication though you can cover more subjects and have a wider range of people to communicate to how it is over all of lower standard and as it's not face to face you can behave in away that you would not do so if you were face to face!

My other half has invigilated for the GCSE exams at here local secondary school for the last five or six years and it astounded me when I heard that kids are allowed to take calculators into examsthe only thing we were afforded was logarithms back in my day

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by jaysay

back in my day

What, a clay tablet & stylus ?

[garinda]

Originally Posted by katex

Hey, Garinda .. thought you may have received one of those E-mails that are circulating. Received one the other day with lots on (the one you have posted is there). If you give me your E-mail address, will forward to you. It's part of a collection by Ian Wallis .. you may have already ?

Ok, thanks, will do.

(He posted, hoping she wasn't about to send him tons of XXX rated spam.)

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by Less

Or perhaps you lack the imagination to use the internet to enhance Your teaching?

Surely now that so much knowledge is at the click of a button, the teaching could be so much more exciting if only you point them in the right direction?

What i was trying to convey (and perhaps didn't manage) was that the mere accessability of facts does not equal "knowledge" -that is an acquaintance with facts, truths and principles acquired over time through direct experience or the application of study or investigation, it is a state of "knowing". For example we can read about the symptoms of a disease on a web-site, we acquire the facts but that doesn't make us a doctor, in fact our own GP who notes our symptoms then refers us to a specialist in a specific field -his own knowledge being less than that of a Gynaecologist or Oncologist etc. This conviction that it is enough "to just look something up when you need it" is where the error lies, it takes years of experience and study to reach excellence in any field.
That is what I was trying to get at - we live in a "get rich quick"/"have it all society" and that is reflected in the conviction of a lot of young people that school is a waste of time and there's no need to put in more than the minimum effort in anything they do. I am a great believer in education as the answer to many evils -you may have gathered that already, but when society rewards football players, show-girls or X-Factor winners and judges with massive cheques and flaunted luxury lifestyles what can you expect your average teenager to aspire to -excellence or the easy way out?