education

Last night's Refresh-DC meeting featured local educator Jeffrey Brown talked a bit about the web design program he runs at Damascus High School and Montgomery County Community College.

One of the big points the talk drove home was that the educational institutions aren't quite sure what to do with all this web stuff. For those of us who've been neck deep in it since there was a Web to be seen, the idea of not knowing can be a bit foreign.

Came across the following really interesting bit of research through Bruce Sterling's blog.

Literacy, Communication, Design II

The Motofone is being marketed as a device that amongst other things aspires to "help bridge literacy gaps" including voice prompts to "guide the user quickly and easily through menu navigation, messaging and other functions". It's good to see illiteracy raised to the point where it becomes a marketing feature but I'm also highly aware of the non-trivial challenges that need to be overcome if they are to genuinely meet their stated aims. I've only seen the marketing blurb so I'll make an educated guess to how the feature will be implemented.

If someone can't read or write they'll understand audio prompts right? Well, not quite. Using audio prompts to read out what appears on the screen is unlikely to be the solution because it assumes a general level of technical competency - that what is read out can be comprehended by the listener. To someone without prior experience of using a mobile phone or computer what is a 'folder'? Or 'inbox'? Or 'operator settings'?

That last bit is something that Western culture in general has always been a bit slow to figure out.

Home chemistry under assault

Home science experimentation -- model rockets, chemistry sets and playing with explosives -- are a gateway drug to serious nerddom, having inspired the likes of Internet co-inventor Vint Cerf and Intel founder Gordon Moore. But the hobby is under assault from government agencies that are terrified of terrorists, from anti-fireworks campaigns, and from the war on (some) drugs. The result is that hobbyists and those who supply them are getting investigated, raided and even jailed.

I know I had a chemistry set growing up. Nothing too impressive, especially when put next to my father's old Mr. Wizard experimental suite that came all packed in a nice steel box. Just how far are we willing to go in the name of "safety"? How much of our childhoods are we willing to remove from our own children's futures?