[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 @ 12:53 -0500, Brian Dunbar said:

> I'm more distressed about them teaching 'Word'.  Not a MS bias but
> observation that 'teaching office automation' usually involves
> memorizing 'how-to' run MS Office and not, say, the broad concepts
> behind the thing.

For example, they don't teach them how to *WRITE*, or anything about
typography and document design.

The irony is that the "word processor" today is primarily geared toward
selling users on features they rarely need and know nothing about.

The actual process of writing is almost an afterthought in most modern
software. The way they are designed, you are constantly distracted from
the process of banging out words.

Most of them don't even have a draft mode any more, and none of them
have usable in-text macro systems like older systems used to have.

Font kerning and layout in troff and TeX is still superior to most any
modern word processor.

People using things like troff tend to create a standard document setup,
and then leave it alone. When they are writing they tend to focus only
on writing, and they do better work.

Even with style sheets, most modern word processors don't really have a
"hands off" mode for just banging out words.

I've watched people spend five minutes typing a memo, and an hour or
more tinkering with fonts and layout, and even printing several copies
to see how each looked.

Welcome to the modern and efficient paperless office of the future!

	:-)

> Contrast that with the typing and 'office automation' courses I took
> in high school as 'just in case' courses.  We used IBM Selectrics and
> 10-key adding machines but what we learned was 'how to' manage the
> paperwork that runs a business.

I remember also we were taught what forms of documents to use in
different situations, and how to present information for a given
situation.

> I suppose I'm just a grumpy old man.  Bah.

Maybe, but that doesn't mean you are wrong... :)


> -- 
> Brian Dunbar
> System Administrator
> Liftport - The Space Elevator Company
> 
> brian.dunbar at liftport.com
> aim: bdunbar1967
> 
> GMT -6
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> Meaningful Work or Death.
> Any other form of existence doesn't interest me.
> 
> Hugh Macleod
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-- 
shannon           | We have nothing to prove.
                  |        -- Alan Dawkins