--
Josiah Mugambi

2010/12/5 Ndungi Kyalo <ndungi@gmail.com>

@Watchie,

I do not think there is a problem if the student or anyone who wishes
to project his opinion on any subject, goes online and gets intimate
with the relevant published material, digests it and then presents
what he was able to extract from it. However, there is a huge problem
if a discussion is carried out with en.wikipedia.org, bit.ly and fb.me
links. It usually leads me to ask "ok so you referenced a great
article/research paper by one Prof Watchman Nee, but what are your own
thoughts on the matter?" or "have you explored the matter by yourself,
with your mind free of the writers' encumbrances and biases?". Thats
the kind of intimacy I am referring to .. ;-)

With the huge resource that the internets has become, it is now
virtually impossible to catch your student plagiarising his/her term
paper - esp here in Kenya where lecturers are technophobic.
(Ironically, this technophobia applies to a good number of Comp. Sc
lecturers as well, but thats fodder for another flame.) So in this I
agree with you that more and more people are getting degrees via
copy-paste, but those who are hungry for real knowledge and are
genuinely passionate about what they are pursuing are finding the
interwebs to be a God-sent. Shall we forgo these shujaas to curb a few
cheats ?

On 05/12/2010, Watchman <skunkingrahim@gmail.com> wrote:
> @David.
>
> Agree with you,however i'm more keen on understanding whether we are
> actually acquiring more information and growing, or are we retaining only
> bits of information instead of learning. Yes. The internet has truly
> transformed what we know as information retrieval. We have everything at our
> disposal, yet statistically, we are not as intelligent as we should be.
>
> According to the 2008 report information Behavior of the researcher of the
> Future, commissioned by the British library and the joint Information
> Systems Committee: *" Deep log studies show that, from undergraduates to
> professors, people exhibit a strong tendency toward shallow, horizontal,
> 'flicking' behavior in digital libraries. Society is dumbing down."*
>
> Now, their question is similar to what i am saying which is, what are we
> doing, are we reading and learning or are we simply referencing and leaving?
> granted, we do take a piece of the cake with us but unless i'm mistaken, in
> the yester years, it would be a matter of reading through an entire book,
> gain the knowledge, understanding and the context of the book before writing
> a thesis paper and then citing the reference. Today, i am more than certain
> it is a matter of understanding who wrote the paper / book, get online, read
> the synopsis, get a brief, get information fast and then write your paper
> with citations.
>
> This is not true to 100% of people, it is an example.
>
>
> Watchman.
>
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 3:51 PM, David Njuguna <dnjuguna@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Does information gotten from watching a 20hour series from a youtube
>> educational playlist from say Stanford channel any less useful than that
>> gotten from reading a book?
>>
>> Man has and will always learn new things to survive. The medium through
>> which the information is received has always changed and will always
>> change.
>> When books were invented man shifted from smoke signals to books. Books
>> are
>> great but at some point man had to let go of the smoke signals.
>>
>> To heat up this discussion up a little, does watching House TV series make
>> us dumb? (As opposed to reading a sci-fi novel). Does the fact that some
>> of
>> these TV shows' scripts are so intensely researched that they even have
>> panels of writers make them better than good old books?
>>
>> D
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 11:45 AM, Watchman <skunkingrahim@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> @Jonas
>>>
>>> "has shifted me from having
>>> to know things to be able to look for things. Being able to recite a
>>> poem or remember an exact quote does not make sense any longer as it
>>> is more important to know how to find this information than it is to know
>>> it"
>>>
>>> Isn't that what i've just advocated against? Does this not mean that what
>>> we are doing encourages us to rely on a non-experiential lifestyle? When
>>> wanting to watch a new movie. What do you do first?
>>>
>>> @Muoki
>>> Cryptic. But true.
>>>
>>> @sospeter
>>>
>>> Compelling argument however when does this stop becoming a reference and
>>> become a lifestyle or moreover a necessary human function? Should it
>>> become
>>> a human function, when does it stop becoming a reference and become an
>>> influence?
>>>
>>> Watchman.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 9:53 AM, <sospeter@elimu.co.ke> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear Watchman,
>>>>
>>>> The internet does all that you have mentioned. It is not necessarily bad
>>>> that one no longer reads books. They still get the information, whether
>>>> it
>>>> is through reading or injecting it into the system.
>>>>
>>>> At the moment, we still read, but not books. Some of us listen too.
>>>>
>>>> Man works through information and the human race will survive through
>>>> getting more information, which will make them come up with different
>>>> ways
>>>> of doing stuff. Remember we started with sticks and stones for tools to
>>>> metal and now plastics and sand and soon graphene....see?
>>>>
>>>> As for schools not having caught up, that will happen soon enough. I'm
>>>> in
>>>> the business of providing a paradigm shift towards IT in schools. If the
>>>> government encourages this, we will get all schools online ama?
>>>>
>>>> My Cents,
>>>> Regards.
>>>>
>>>> > Tragic to some. ever heard about someone who had an accident and
>>>> > rather
>>>> > than
>>>> > help, people took out there phones and started recording it. It does
>>>> make
>>>> > us
>>>> > feel like who we are not.
>>>> >
>>>> > On Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 12:26 AM, Jonas | Lamu Software <
>>>> > jonas@lamusoftware.com> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> >> Can only speak for myself but the Internet has shifted me from having
>>>> >> to know things to be able to look for things. Being able to recite a
>>>> >> poem or remember an exact quote does not make sense any longer as it
>>>> >> is more important to know how to find this information than it is to
>>>> >> know
>>>> >> it. A lot of schools have unfortunately not caught up yet.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> It is not necessarily a bad thing but people who are not able to make
>>>> >> the shift (learn how to find reliable information) will be left
>>>> behind.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> I grew up without television so I still read a lot but only novels
>>>> >> not
>>>> >> tech books.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Don't think the Internet is that much about craving tech, more about
>>>> >> information being freely available.
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> On 12/03/2010 11:45 PM, Watchman wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >>> Every time a new tech launches, Man craves it. Granted it takes a
>>>> while
>>>> >>> to implement for example the automobile transition from Horse and
>>>> >>> Carriage. But once it picks up.. e.g. the iOS devices, Man goes
>>>> >>> GAGA!
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> What's the internet doing to us?
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> Open discussion here.
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> Is it making us a smarter community? more knowledgeable? more
>>>> >>> intelligent or just more flick information dependent?
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> The general and most widely used internet terminology i know of
>>>> >>> today
>>>> >>> is.. Google it!
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> heck, i use it too. But question is, how many of us actually read a
>>>> >>> book
>>>> >>> in this glorious day of the information highway?
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> And yes, i do know it's a friday night.
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> Watchman.
>>>> >>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ...and I shall shed my light over dark evil.
>>> For the dark things cannot stand the light.
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> ...and I shall shed my light over dark evil.
> For the dark things cannot stand the light.
>
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