Is Google Making Us Stupid? - Nicholas Carr. Illustration by Guy Billout "Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?” So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene toward the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bowman, having nearly been sent to a deep-space death by the malfunctioning machine, is calmly, coldly disconnecting the memory circuits that control its artificial “ brain.
“Dave, my mind is going,” HAL says, forlornly. I can feel it, too. I think I know what’s going on. For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. I’m not the only one. Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. Anecdotes alone don’t prove much. Reading, explains Wolf, is not an instinctive skill for human beings. Also see: Where does it end? Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Future of Reading - Literacy Debate - Online, R U Really Reading? - Series. New ‘Digital Divide’ Seen in Wasting Time Online. What games have to teach us about learning: an interview with James Paul Gee | Technology.
James Paul Gee is one of the primary proponents for games in education. Originally a theoretical linguist, he has become a literacy educator, emphasising the important aspects of learning in game playing. He wrote What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy and will be presenting at next week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Gamesblog caught up with him before the event to talk games and education. What stands in the way between current teaching practices and a system in which games are welcomed into the classroom? What stands in the way is what I call the "fact fetish". In what way are they educational? World of WarCraft and biology are both role-playing games. How is a consumer products like GTA or Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) educational? Why should computer games be encouraged in classrooms?
What does government need to know about computer games before they begin encouraging educationalists to use games? Extended Interview: Dr. James Gee | Watch Digital Media - New Learners Of The 21st Century Online. Aired: 02/13/201105:50Expires: 02/13/2015 Rating: NR James Paul Gee, Professor of Literacy Studies in the Department of English at Arizona State University, discusses how complex gaming environments can enrich problem-solving and drive innovation. Extended Interview: Dr. James Gee James Gee on how gaming environments can enrich problem-solving and drive innovation. 21st Century Literacies. Writing Memos. Summary: This handout will help you solve your memo-writing problems by discussing what a memo is, describing the parts of memos, and providing examples and explanations that will make your memos more effective.
Contributors:Courtnay Perkins, Allen BrizeeLast Edited: 2013-03-10 11:49:14 Memos have a twofold purpose: they bring attention to problems and they solve problems. They accomplish their goals by informing the reader about new information like policy changes, price increases, or by persuading the reader to take an action, such as attend a meeting, or change a current production procedure.
Regardless of the specific goal, memos are most effective when they connect the purpose of the writer with the interests and needs of the reader. Choose the audience of the memo wisely. Writing Tips : Writing an Evaluation Paper.