Oct 27 2012: I felt the same way at my school, but the best is to just power through the school books so you can get back to those you really enjoy. Just make sure you can still remember it when the exam comes around.
Oct 25 2012: My personal experience is that technology is a great tool to help learning. I learned more on the internet and in books then I ever did in school. Of course, there is some people who uses technology as a distraction rather than a tool, but I defy anyone to find anything that was NEVER misused.
Stating that students should only use paper and pen and read books would be similar to saying we should have kept writing with quills and ink, only because we lost the beautiful penmanship required to write with ink. The technology is there, and as much as some may dislike it's influence and presence in our lives, it is there to stay. We have the tool, it's simply a matter of finding how to use them wisely.
I don't think a conclusion will be reached on this topic as it is probably more a rhetorical question: I hardly see how one would stop students from using technologies they have with them at every waking minutes of their lives.
Also, your question bring another one to mind: Should teachers rely on technology for their classes?
(p.s; don't point out my grammatical errors as proofs of technology's bad influence, English is my second language)
Oct 25 2012: I agree with Lejan, I hardly think we have a timescale of 50 years worth of oil. Even if the price keeps going up and making petrol based product more and more "valuable", the need for petrol grows much faster. Societies all over the planet are growing and their needs for petrol are growing too.
I think we should realize that alternative sources are not an alternative anymore. If we hope to ever grow as a species, we need to invest in Solar, Wind and Hydro energy. (Some forms of hydroelectricity requires flooding large ecosystem and may be harmful to the local environment, but it's still has the best ratio for production/pollution, to my knowledge.)
I hope someone will look at the Sahara as an energy sources, I really do. There's a lot of potential for "solar scientist" (I don't know if that's how they call themselves, but it does sound cool, so I'm guessing they don't mind) Maybe an internationally funded research team could be implanted there, with the objective of perfecting and optimizing solar energy with every technology available on the planet.
Now, I'm not sure about the feasibility of covering 1% of the Sahara RIGHT NOW. Solar energy is just beginning, I think before wasting valuable materials on low quality solar panels, we should really focus on optimizing them... thus the research facility.
Am I the only one thinking someone from some space program should already be there with solar panels, testing some stuff for future missions or something?
By the way, I greatly salute the question and it's author. This world really needs new ideas, and harvesting the sun from the Sahara is a good one I think. I believe the technology that is currently killing our home is going to be it's savior... if we can just change gear and get to work.
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A reply on Conversation: Debate: Should students rely on technology for their homework?
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A comment on Conversation: Debate: Should students rely on technology for their homework?
Stating that students should only use paper and pen and read books would be similar to saying we should have kept writing with quills and ink, only because we lost the beautiful penmanship required to write with ink. The technology is there, and as much as some may dislike it's influence and presence in our lives, it is there to stay. We have the tool, it's simply a matter of finding how to use them wisely.
I don't think a conclusion will be reached on this topic as it is probably more a rhetorical question: I hardly see how one would stop students from using technologies they have with them at every waking minutes of their lives.
Also, your question bring another one to mind: Should teachers rely on technology for their classes?
(p.s; don't point out my grammatical errors as proofs of technology's bad influence, English is my second language)
A reply on Conversation: Sahara desert as a solar farm.
I think we should realize that alternative sources are not an alternative anymore. If we hope to ever grow as a species, we need to invest in Solar, Wind and Hydro energy. (Some forms of hydroelectricity requires flooding large ecosystem and may be harmful to the local environment, but it's still has the best ratio for production/pollution, to my knowledge.)
I hope someone will look at the Sahara as an energy sources, I really do. There's a lot of potential for "solar scientist" (I don't know if that's how they call themselves, but it does sound cool, so I'm guessing they don't mind) Maybe an internationally funded research team could be implanted there, with the objective of perfecting and optimizing solar energy with every technology available on the planet.
Now, I'm not sure about the feasibility of covering 1% of the Sahara RIGHT NOW. Solar energy is just beginning, I think before wasting valuable materials on low quality solar panels, we should really focus on optimizing them... thus the research facility.
Am I the only one thinking someone from some space program should already be there with solar panels, testing some stuff for future missions or something?
By the way, I greatly salute the question and it's author. This world really needs new ideas, and harvesting the sun from the Sahara is a good one I think. I believe the technology that is currently killing our home is going to be it's savior... if we can just change gear and get to work.