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Subject:Re: teaching tech writing From:ELWIN MCKELLAR <mckellar -at- MTU -dot- EDU> Date:Wed, 25 Aug 1993 08:40:35 EDT
Dickie,
I think your student's request for more experience with multimedia tools
is valid and understandable. Every day I am *bombarded* with
advertisements in trade magazines making exorbitant claims about the
utility of multimedia tools and their ease of use. They are
expensive--very expensive! None of the advertisements tell of the steep
learning curve for those unfamiliar with any other multimedia tools. There
is so much more to it than the *point and click* ease of their interface.
As with the advent of desktop publishing, ability to operate the software
and ability to really use the software are two entirely different things.
I often feel that these are applications in search of a reason to exist.
One needs to experience the application and apply it to a problem before
one can judge its value. Making recommendations for purchase of
application software is tricking business--buy something now that you
cannot use, and you may not be able to buy another package later--one you
really need. An educational institution does its students a very real and
valuable service when it provides them the opportunity to test both the
benefits of multimedia and its limits.
I believe this corresponds well with the concept of exposing students to
both the power of rhetoric and its very real limits...
