Re: Lazy or Grumpy?

From: Gary Lawson (glawson@croydon.sri.co.uk)
Date: Tue Sep 19 2000 - 14:08:37 EEST


Poor old (young) Elaine.

What have I started? Look it was me that started this whole thing. I was
kind but firm - and my point was valid. I am right, period. And if I am
not right - it is because the question was not asked in the right way by Mr
Bas (the student in question).

University degree reports require that you research. All the information
Bas requested is available EASILY on the internet - negating the need to
trouble anyone to get it for him. Yes, do as I did - and point him in a
nice kind way towards sites of interest. But give him the information that
he has been asked to collate, or implicitly asked to collate as part of the
report process? No way. A degree has to be earnt. Poor old (young Bas).
Poor members of the Newsgroup - I am so sorry for what I (and Bas) started.
In addition to multiple postings, virus' (and good information and questions
and answers of course) you get lectures on "in my day, degree's were proper,
etc" and discussions on 'the Service Economy's Effect on the Youth of
Today'.

Secretly, I enjoyed the responses. Some of them made me laugh (evidently I
don't get out much!).

Regards to you all.

What shall we talk about next?

-----------------------------------------
Gary Lawson B.Eng (Hons)
Technology Analyst - Robotics, Fiber Optic Sensors, and Rapid Prototyping
SRI Consulting

-----------------------------------------
Knollys House, 17 Addiscombe Road,
Croydon CR0 6SR England

Tel.: +44 (0)20 8686 5555 (my ext. is 238)
Direct line: +44 (0)20 8256 1416
Fax: +44 (0)20 8760 0635

Email: glawson@croydon.sri.co.uk
Website: http://future.sri.com
-----------------------------------------

on 19/9/00 1:47 am, Ian Gibson at igibson@hkucc.hku.hk wrote:

> Elaine
>
> I think you are being grumpy.
>
> Einstein once said something like 'try to make things as simple as
> possible, but not simpler'.
>
> This student was trying the simplest solution first - he asked the experts.
> The mistake he made was in not realising that the information is already
> widely available in a published form somewhere. But don't forget that, not
> so long ago, such information was not so easily available. We have come a
> long way in a short time, accelerated by the Internet and other high-speed
> publishing methods.
>
> Maybe students are getting lazy, or perhaps losing the investigative skills
> that we think we had when we were students. Or maybe they are just adapting
> to the information age a little better than us 'old guys'.
>
> IG
>
> Dr. Ian Gibson
> Associate Professor
> Dept. Mechanical Engineering
> The University of Hong Kong
> tel: +852 28597901
> fax: +852 28585415
> email: igibson@hkucc.hku.hk
>
> You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
>
> For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



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