From: Jonathan Robie (jonathan@texcel.no)
Date: Fri Jan 23 1998 - 22:34:38 EST
At 08:23 PM 1/23/98 EST, Vernicus@aol.com wrote:
>There is something to be said about the struggle
>that comes from digging through the material in learning to discern and think
>critically.
There is fruitful struggle, and there is overhead. The goal, of course, is
to expose people to the *right* struggle. In the Little Greek 101 course,
for instance, I try to simplify whenever possible, but I still make people
*produce* the Greek words for examples I am illustrating. If you can't
write it or say it, you are not as likely to remember it.
>My experience has been that those who worked their way through engineering
>classes using a slide rule and a notepad, tended to have a better perception
>or mental picture of the problem at hand. Please do not misunderstand me,
this
>does not mean that present day engineers who cut their teeth in math by using
>a computer are somehow less in producing answers. What seems to be the
>difference, in my opinion, is the younger engineers tend to think more so in
>2-D, because the computer provided all the graphs and pictures that were
>needed.
Depends on the problem domain. For logarithms, sure, since slide rules
provide a useful concrete way to visualize them. For Fourier Analysis, no
way: with MathCad, I was able to learn Fourier transforms and how to apply
them to signal processing by typing in formulas and creating whatever kinds
of graphs I needed to visualize things. The visual metaphor is helpful.
>Let me ask you: Could it be that this stuggle builds discernment and patience
>that for the most part is lost with the speed of computers? Could it be that
>the struggle of going through, let's say a word study, without the use of a
>computer builds mental musles that are mostly overlooked when using a
>computer?
The computer speeds access to the individual examples - I can click on a
reference and see the verse in context. The struggle that builds mental
muscles is not the overhead of looking things up, but the process of
looking at the verse and figuring out what everything means. The computer
doesn't change that part all that much.
>Jesus is Wonderful,
You betcha!
Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________
Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com
Little Greek Home Page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/koine
Little Greek 101: http://sunsite.unc.edu/koine/greek/lessons
B-Greek Home Page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek
B-Greek Archives: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek/archives
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