G.W. Powell's

A Few Words

  My 2 cents 

     A few years ago, I started using one of the many Grammar and Style checkers on the market called "Rightwriter".   The program stated that one of the goals of the product was to assist me in getting my point across in as few words as possible.  The first project I used the program with contained about 1500 words. By the time the program was finished with me,  I was down to 650 words.  I noticed that as I continued to use the product, my writing was shorter and more to the point, even without using the program. 

    Today, I remember that lesson.  But I am concerned about the direction of a lot  of today's educational software.   Today's software is full of Multimedia Action and Edutainment with more emphasis on entertainment than on education.   I hear co-workers saying "We want   learning to be fun" and I am left feeling the emphasis is on Fun instead of learning   We are more prone to hear our students saying  "That's neat"  Instead of "that's deep" and accepting this as a positive move in education.   I appreciated the stated goal of the software of the past.   I appreciate the advances in current packages.  But I believe today's software is taking to long to make it's point.

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