Re: I used an Apple //e in the classroom today

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

BLuRry wrote:
> Nice story!  I'm finding that the platform is still valuable for
> education as much now as it was 20 years ago in my home.
>
> My children have gotten quite a kick out of the classics (thanks to
> virtualapple.org), and never once have they complained about the lack
> of fancy graphics.  If a game is fun, it is fun.  Simply put.

Exactly.

If the problem has not changed, the solution need not change.

I'm all for progress, but it is somewhat disturbing to note the
degree to which technology "obsolescence" is determined more by
fashion than by relevant changes in capability.

WYSIWYG editing offers some advantages over simple text editing,
but for serious writing, altering the focus of the creative effort
to style issues rather than substance is a _disadvantage_.

A simple text editor that doesn't "get in the way" of writing and
does not raise issues of font or style is often the best tool for
the job, and an Apple II performs this function beautifully.

In education and in many games, photorealistic graphics do not
add significant value or playability, though they do increase the
cost of the "solution".

A steady rate of obsolescence has clear advantages to manufacturers,
but it is clearly a major cost to users of a technology.

-michael

NadaNet and AppleCrate II: parallel computing for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

"The wastebasket is our most important design
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