An observation on homework problems

[coppice]

Clearly you weren't alive in the 70s, and can't appreciate the scarcity and expense of duplication technology.

Very much so. Duplication of most things is so trivial these days that young people really have no grasp of what a )*(&^@#()*$&^(*&%^(*#%^( PITA getting a copy of most things used to be.

[tggzzz]

Clearly you weren't alive in the 70s, and can't appreciate the scarcity and expense of duplication technology.

Very much so. Duplication of most things is so trivial these days that young people really have no grasp of what a )*(&^@#()*$&^(*&%^(*#%^( PITA getting a copy of most things used to be.

The key skills have changed in the past 25 years.

Before:

• locate possible source of information - go to library and look up the few books available in the catalogue
• obtain source - delay of a week to a month
• read source to gain information
• reread several times to glean all possible information in that source

Now:

• on a whim, google and get hundreds of possible sources
• obtain all sources - delay of seconds
• glance to see if each source might help
• speedread the better sources
• move to next source and repeat

The TL;DR (incidentally a concept that didn't exist and couldn't have existed before):

• key skill was extracting information from any source you could get your hands on
• key skill is deciding which sources to ignore

Then you were thirsty and a tap dripped. Now there's a firehose. Behaviour is different, unsurprisingly.

[tggzzz]

The best lessons I had would be the ones where any notes required were given at the start and I could refer to them throughout the lesson (and of course after) but most importantly I could concentrate on what was being taught. I also had faith that the notes were correct after the fact when I referred to them during assignment problems or revision.

That luxury wasn't practical.

I didn't need faith that notes were correct. After writing up my "scribbles" I knew they were right, and why. That was a very important advantage of how I did things, as I mentioned.

How wasn't it practical?

This was the available technology: https://www.woorillacaught.com/roneo-machines/ Read it and weep. I still have one example, but the purple ink has almost completely faded.

For bonus points tell us why the standard editing operations are "cut" and "paste". That's how I produced my final year report.

[coppice]

This was the available technology: https://www.woorillacaught.com/roneo-machines/ Read it and weep. I still have one example, but the purple ink has almost completely faded.

Xerox machines were available technology, but they were rarely available for most people's use. They came with locks in those days, as using them quickly ran up a large bill.

[tggzzz]

This was the available technology: https://www.woorillacaught.com/roneo-machines/ Read it and weep. I still have one example, but the purple ink has almost completely faded.

Xerox machines were available technology, but they were rarely available for most people's use. They came with locks in those days, as using them quickly ran up a large bill.

Yes.

Photocopiers weren't available in school, and using the one in the university library required payment in advance!

[IanB]

Clearly you weren't alive in the 70s, and can't appreciate the scarcity and expense of duplication technology.

This is something of a tangent, but you have just caused me to remember the word "Gestetner".

[Edit: I see the thread has already gone off on this particular tangent]

[Sal Ammoniac]

On some forums, EDABoard is a good example, 75% of the traffic in some of the subforums is students asking for someone to solve their homework problems. I don't find that surprising, but what I do find surprising is that many people on these forums, including old timers, take the bait and actually answer these people. Most of these homework question askers seem to come from a certain subcontinent.

[coppice]

This is something of a tangent, but you have just caused me to remember the word "Gestetner".

Its depressing how many successful technology companies I used to walk past regularly as a kid which have long since gone, but I don't think I'll ever miss Gestetner.

[tggzzz]

On some forums, EDABoard is a good example, 75% of the traffic in some of the subforums is students asking for someone to solve their homework problems. I don't find that surprising, but what I do find surprising is that many people on these forums, including old timers, take the bait and actually answer these people. Most of these homework question askers seem to come from a certain subcontinent.

The objection I have to edaboard and stack exchange is that they deliberately limit subtle - and therefore interesting - conversations, by only allowing very limited context to be quoted.

That condemns the conversations to be little more than "which button do I press to squaff the zirdle?". That is boring rote learning, best accessed via google - and then forgotten.

[paulca]

I had courses where the lecturer wrote so fast that we spent the entire lecture trying to keep up with writing our own notes. and had no time to think about and properly absorb what was being said.

I did my degree with the Open University.  Most of my friends at local "brick uni's" where complaining about having to take hand written notes and getting handed dodgy photocopies of course materials, which they had to clip into ring binders.

My courses arrived by mail with full colour, full gloss, shiny, printed textbooks.  Lecturers were presented on VHS (and then later DVD and in come cases Multimedia interactive things).  All software provided.   By the time I finished my degree in 4 years I had a pile of course textbooks 4 feet high.

Some courses provided the actual 3rd party textbooks, but some required you go buy your own copy.  Luckily these only cost me about £100 for the whole degree.

There were "Tutorials" which was once a fortnight with the tutor face to face classes at a local school in the evenings.  I went to 2 of them at the start and then never bothered.

[coppice]

This is something of a tangent, but you have just caused me to remember the word "Gestetner".

I just had a fun 10 minutes explaining the horrors of life in the days of the Gestetner machine to my son. Its not easy for a 20 year old today to related to what the bad old days of the 1970s was like.