🚀 go-pugleaf

From: "Luther, Bil                 MV" <BLuther@po8.mv.unisys.com>

(snip)
David wrote
I have noticed among my Internet friends that we are not the types to go in
for hours of Web surfing (partly because local calls cost money here 8^(,
but also because that does not fit with what we *do* to entertain or educate
ourselves on the net. I have never gone into a moo or mud, mainly because of
cost and bandwidth but am curious as to whether I could find one (create
one??) which would attract me.=20

>>>
and yet there are those of us now who surf for a living:
market research especially competitive analysis, patent prior art search,
product shopping and support, resource location -- artists, writers,
composers, etc.;
and those who surf for personal reasons:
[in the neighborhoods where <=$20pm gets all you can eat]
diet, health problems [support groups and information], travel and
recreation planning, children's education, children's homework -- (BIG users
after  they break the ice,)etc. etc. etc.
<<<<

There is a fundamental problem on how one chooses the relevant (to me) out
of this proliferation of data, Frank. And the tactics for doing that are (I
think) similar to choosing a new household appliance. Part of it is window
shopping (surfing, browsing, grazing).  However once you have found what you
want a pattern of defending the choice (cognitive dissonance?) sets in and
you don't change. Some of the Web indexing services such as Mckinley or
Strouds software offer opinions on the content of the pages that they index.
This is going to increase. You could see people pointing first to an opinion
page before surfing to see what's new and worthy in the authors view.

>>>
and yet the most popular engine is still WebCrawler, followed by Yahoo,
Lycos and DejaNews -- i think the difference being that there are academic
surfers, personal life surfers and now professional surfers -- all with
differing needs
<<<<

I'm not sure the models change as Frank suggests. They move to a different
medium and there is more places to find the information. Sometimes we are so
bowled over by the fact that Frank and Danny and I (and the rest of you
lurking out there) are holding a correspondence that stretches over
continents and time, yet is somewhat *immediate*. Personal contact counts -
even mediated. I am several times more likely to visit a site recommended by
a friend, or one that is acclaimed in a list like IPCT that I follow, than
to click on a banner ad on Yahoo. So the value judgements of mentors is
somehow establishing itself on the net as well. So the way in which we need
to move our research is what constitutes effective electronic mentoring?

<<<
what would be cool in this area is a 'record' of who has visited a site,
indexed by some engine which can be used to 'follow the leader', find the
waterhole in the jungle by the beaten path, know what Albert knows, etc...
[which would imply a unque PIN for every surfer for the sake of efficiency
in storage -- 32 bits can keep track of 4 billion surfers]
<<<<

I would suggest that there are degrees of consonance that we need to look at
between mentor and  learner. The following things they need to agree (more
or less) on: (excuse my dangling participle!)
Goals of the learning
Roles in the relationship
Somewhat on the methods of transmission of learnings=20
( I think of: how is it that Zen teachers teach samadhi?)
Motivation of the learner (and perhaps the mentor)

>>>>
principle 1
teachers who ENJOY teaching others generally teach well.
principle 2
concept and purpose before mechanics and memorization
[with Internet [some day], memorizing may go the way of the multiplication
tables]
pinciple 3
establishing/emphasizing a need/desire to know
"i will learn it when i need to know it!"
or
"it was so interesting/entertaining/moving i could never forget it"
<<<<<

For me in adult education I don't have much problem with the motivation of
the learners, but I see in children that development of motivation for
something is the MOST difficult. How can one model and transmit motivation?
Electronically????
>>>yes -- its called KISMIF
Keep It Simple -- Make It Fun!
multimedia and the internet gives us the tools
now we need the authors and the support of "educators"
<<<<<

(snip)

ex Lurker
Bil Luther
imaginetix@aol.com