Y. Karp? Why Not!

Today I want to explore the idea of bringing modern technology into classrooms. It would seem that in the modern world, where Internet, computers, and connectedness are growing as important parts of our lives, we would want to give our children a head start and gear-up their schools with technology. Is that what we really want for our kids? Thanks to our sponsor, the Ramat Beit Shemesh Aleph Tzedakah Fund - helping families trapped by financial crises, where 100% of every donation goes directly to those in need. Donate now at www.rbstzedaka.com . Click here to listen on Stitcher:  http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=152797&refid=stpr Click here to listen on iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/il/podcast/y-karp-why-not/id1291793305 Click here to listen on TuneIn:  https://tunein.com/radio/Y-Karp-Why-Not-p1038454/ Or play the episode directly from here: Yossi's Magazine: Everyone Needs One of These www.ykarp.com/magazine Follow on ...

According to Time4Learning , in 2012 there were approximately 1.77 million kids in America who are home-schooled. That's 3.54 million American parents who believe they are smart enough, dedicated enough, organized enough, and patient enough to teach their kids everything they need to know to get into college or do whatever comes next. In a regular school the math teacher specializes in teaching math and the history teacher specializes in teaching history. As a parent who has committed to home-schooling your kids, you have to be an expert teacher for every subject through all age groups. There are resources out there to help you, but you need serious skills to pull it off. But there are some serious flaws in the traditional schooling system. Home-schooling, by definition, is a non-traditional learning environment, and by contrast, regular schools create rules that stymie non-traditional education. The following example seems to be universal and cross-generational. It was true wh...

I sent today's Dilbert cartoon to a couple of fellow Technical Writers together with this question: Who wants to be the first to try this? Dilbert cartoon of 4 June 2013 One response was "Who said we haven't?" A second colleague rejoined: I have actually heard of a student who tried something like this at university: She submitted an essay to Professor X with the first page looking very professional and proper, but the following pages covered repeatedly with the sentence “Professor X is an idiot. Professor X is an idiot. Professor X is an idiot….” She got an “A”. (I’m assuming that she also must have won a bet.) My reply: At school, if you talked during Mincha [afternoon prayers], the standard punishment was to write out the entire “Ashrei” prayer (could be multiple times, depending on the severity of the transgression). I once had to write “Ashrei” seven times. I wrote it out the first time, then I got bored so I just wrote Hebrew gobbledygook for ...

oldcomputers.net I was introduced to computing in the 5th grade. My first computer class was in the school's brand-new Apple IIe computer lab. On that first day we had no idea what to expect. Our teacher held up a 5¼" floppy disk and proceeded to demonstrate how not to treat it. He threw the disk across the room, he crumpled it in his fist, tossed it on the floor and jumped on it. He then attempted to rip the disk open with his bare hands. He let loose on the disk with a pair of scissors, dropped it into a metal waste-paper-basket and set it on fire. The folks at Verbatim would have been horrified; we thought it was funny. And from that moment on, the teacher had our attention. I probably still have a bunch of floppys sitting in a box somewhere. I used floppy disks all through university, so I still may have some assignments I wrote using Zardax , an Apple IIc word processor. Alas, the floppy disk is a relic of a bygone era. File sizes have far surpassed the capabilitie...

In my last post I mentioned that learning-games can have a positive impact on the educational experience. Unfortunately, my son's English teacher doesn't believe in making learning fun. He gave the students a list of thirteen spelling words to learn over the coming week. No wonder my son doesn't like English - it's as boring as watching a banana take a nap . Knowing that my son has no choice but to learn the words, I found a way to spice it up a bit - example sentences: Put I put the dog in the washing machine. Putting Dad said, “Why are you putting the dog in the washing machine?” Big I put a big dog in the washing machine. Bigger Racheli * put a bigger dog in the washing machine. Biggest Tova ^ put the biggest dog in the washing machine. There There was a dog in the washing machine. Their The kids put their dog in the washing machine. It's The dog said, “ It’s dark and wet in the washing machine.” Its The dog did not w...

Video Games are Good for Kids I love a good video game. There is a certain satisfaction when you blast the aliens out of the sky, build a profitable transportation system from scratch, or clear three snooker tables in under two minutes. But all these games are just time-wasters - or are they? Back in seventh grade, when we started using Apple II computers at school, we learned how to make the Logo turtle move around the screen by entering certain commands. What was the point of teaching us Logo? Was it simply a distraction from regular classwork? The answer lies within an article entitled, "LOGO, the Cry of the Turtle is Heard in the Land" by Ian Gronowski, reprinted from a 1984 edition of the Australian Apple Review, here . The reason, Gronowski says, for teaching Logo to kids is that: "Logo provides the learning environment, the context with which the child learns how to reason." In other words, devising the most efficient command to instruct the Logo turtl...

When I was a kid in high-school, we had to make one of life's major decisions. In preparation for our final year of school, at the age of 16 or 17, we had to decide what subjects to study so we could choose a university course, so that we could embark on a career, so that we could plan the rest of our lives. I am in two minds about that system. On the one hand, high-school aged kids are at the apex of their learning careers. Kids are like sponges, they soak up information and retain it. The older you get, the more difficult it is to learn and retain information. I am not going to link to some website that shows statistics and studies about this issue. If you are over 30, you already know this. If you are under 30, learn something now before it's too late. But despite their tender age, or because of it, a 16 or 17 year old needs to seize the opportunity to learn. Waiting for life experience to shed some light could delay the decision indefinitely. On the other hand, a high-s...

El Vendor, a five-part advertisement for Android , is pretty funny (catch all five episodes here, on Wired .) The premise of the series of advertisements is that a vending machine falls on top of Dave, an average assistant manager in a large company. He is stuck under the vending machine for 32 hours. But it's okay because he has his Android phone with him. During that time Dave becomes much more productive than he was before and actually gets promoted -  because with the Android smartphone, he can do anything. At the end of each of the videos (aside from the first one, I believe) the following text appears: Android = SMARTER phone. Are computers making us dumber as they get smarter? Good question. Wish I was intelligent enough to answer it, but I'll give it a go. Do any of the following sound familiar: I don't have to know facts, I'll just Google it I don't have to know how to speak Korean, I'll just Google translate it I don't need to know how t...

I suppose that the majority of parents want their children to live full and happy lives, free of violence, murder, death, pain and suffering. According to this article about school violence : "The fact is, violence of one sort or another is part of many schools today. Fortunately, this usually involves a small group of people fighting amongst themselves...Since the 1992-3 school year, 270 violent deaths have occurred at schools across the nation." So, in other words, it's fine for kids to shoot each other, as long as they only do it among themselves. Sounds like a plan. The article goes on to report staggering statistics about how many schools across the United States reported violent crimes on school premises each year, stating that the rate of violence has decreased. They warn: "We must fight against this complacency without overreacting. We must fight to make our schools safe." Isn't that akin to "KILL ALL EXTREMISTS!" But it is our own fault. W...