Tabs tutorial & Ordinary Humans -- Long

[Eric Chatonet]

Hi Judy,

Thanks for your  thoughtful answer.
I have nothing to add but only one thing: gifts are very various on 
this earth.
Why force people to learn programming if there are so much better when 
painting or playing an (other) instrument?
Best,

Le 14 avr. 05, à 19:32, Judy Perry a écrit :

> Hi Eric,
>
>> Let me tell you very friendly that I do'nt agree your position.
>> Beginners are surely as clever as you and me put together ;-)
>> Only they don't already know... And have to learn.
>
> --I take your comments in the friendly spirit in which they were
> offered... but I still disagree.  They only HAVE to learn if you are 
> in a
> position of power (e.g., they are taking your class, you are the 
> teacher
> and what you say goes).  A real life example from my master's program 
> in
> instructional design and technology:
>
> Our group consisted of 23 students (yours truly included).  One taught
> Director at his university.  One or two others had a slight geek
> background.  The bulk of the remainder were public school teachers and
> the like.  Of the last group, one only sorta, kinda, figured out what a
> URL was (that is, if you sent her one, she knew what to do with it and 
> if
> you asked her for one, she could identify it in her browser window and
> send it to you; in the beginning, she couldn't even do that) after two
> years.  Didn't know what a browser was.  Didn't know what kind of 
> computer
> she used (NOT uncommon!  I did a little survey of 75 or so future 
> teachers
> at a job fair that queried them on what they would like to be able to 
> do
> with a computer, what kind of computer they had, etc.  Similar 
> results).
>
> Okay, so we were forced to use Director.  Director, which sorta-kinda 
> has
> a verbose, Hypertalk/Transcript-like mode.
>
> For our final m.s. project, we could use whatever we liked.
>
> AFAIK, there was only one or two Director-based projects.  With the
> exception of me using Rev, the rest of them used FrontPage(!) to create
> an instructional module for their public school class. If
> normal people perceive a software product to be overly geeky or
> confusing, and IF they have a choice, they WILL use something else.
>
> Dreamcard *could be* the tool of choice for public school teachers to 
> use
> to create interactive courseware.  But, unfortunately, the state of
> computer literacy/preparedness for public school teachers in the U.S. 
> is
> truly pitiful.
>
> I tested my m.s. project out on a buch of Reading master's candidate 
> who,
> again, were largely women and largely public school teachers seeking a
> master's degree in reading.
>
> Fully 1/3 or more self-identified as 'technophobes' and 'stupid about
> computers' and the like.  Only one or two indicated any confidence 
> about
> using a computer to create things using *PowerPoint*.  More than half 
> had
> serious modality problems with respect to Rev's new,  improved cursors
> that allow you to switch between editing/browsing modes.  More than a 
> few
> had modality problems in that they clicked outside Rev's areas, fell 
> back
> into the operating system, and considered *that* a roadblock.
>
> The most techie thing that they had done during the course of their 
> m.s.
> program was to do the occasional PowerPoint presentation.  That's the 
> edu
> mindset here in the U.S.  The literature further shows that surveys of
> even college professors' software usage tends not to go beyond using a
> word processor, a spreadsheet (maybe!), email and a web browser.  I can
> dig it up if you are interested.
>
>> I think that it 's always better for them to take the right way 
>> without
>> waiting.
>> Here, using the menuPick message (1 line handler versus 12 lines: Rev
>> is sometimes verbose, sometimes so simple...) is the right way.
>> Adding some good explanations about parameters would complete the job.
>
> I think that this *could* be done later, once you've got this group
> hooked.  I've got a master's candidate in music who's taking my class
> right now.  After three weeks of going over it with him, having an 
> example
> stack and PDF, he STILL can't quite get his head wrapped around the
> concept of a variable such that he can actually create and use one.
>
> Life in the trenches...
>
> Judy

Amicalement,

Eric Chatonet.
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