Comments on: Free laptops and poor thinking http://sedgemore.com/2010/01/free-laptops-and-poor-thinking/ physicist, journalist and science writer Tue, 22 May 2012 09:20:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Francis Sedgemore http://sedgemore.com/2010/01/free-laptops-and-poor-thinking/comment-page-1/#comment-4889 Francis Sedgemore Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:37:33 +0000 http://sedgemore.com/?p=6444#comment-4889 Guy - You may have a point, but this assumes that there is a degree of substantive thinking behind the policy move. I'm not sure there is, or at least beyond naked electoral politics. But whatever it is, it's Balls. Guy – You may have a point, but this assumes that there is a degree of substantive thinking behind the policy move. I’m not sure there is, or at least beyond naked electoral politics.

But whatever it is, it’s Balls.

]]> By: guy herbert http://sedgemore.com/2010/01/free-laptops-and-poor-thinking/comment-page-1/#comment-4888 guy herbert Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:49:40 +0000 http://sedgemore.com/?p=6444#comment-4888 Not just economic and technological idiocy, but educational idiocy, too. Given a high proportion of marks are now allocated for coursework, then the mechanism by which internet access would put grades up regardless of any other input is pretty obvious - and it has nothing to do with better learning or understanding gained by the pupils concerned. A classic piece of bureaucratic target reification, where an official statistic (in this case, the distribution of exam grades) has ceased to be an attempt to measure something else but has become an end in itself. Not just economic and technological idiocy, but educational idiocy, too. Given a high proportion of marks are now allocated for coursework, then the mechanism by which internet access would put grades up regardless of any other input is pretty obvious – and it has nothing to do with better learning or understanding gained by the pupils concerned.

A classic piece of bureaucratic target reification, where an official statistic (in this case, the distribution of exam grades) has ceased to be an attempt to measure something else but has become an end in itself.

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