Hi Tim,
Quoting Timothy Rice <[email protected]> on Thu, 5 May 2016
19:56:17 +1000:
Statements that can be perceived as fundamentalist ("all wrong") or
patronising ("training wheels") when promoting one tool over another does
no favours and can be counter-productive.
I can see how it could appear so.
On the other hand, it can also end up being productive, if it makes people
re-evaluate what they previously took for granted, and they realise they
don't need to be trapped by training wheels foisted upon them by training
wheels manufacturers who ensure that training wheels appear in every K-13
classroom.
People can think it is patronising if they want.
It isn't productive if they think they're being patronised then go on
the defensive, get irritated or switch off altogether. As an example,
an attendee at a SWC workshop in September 2014 commented:
I never had any formal instruction in Excel, and instead have clawed
my way into a decent working knowledge of it over the last almost
two decades. I am very proud of what I can do with it, and I have
found it of great use, but I know there is a ton I don't know, so I
was looking forward to that session. However, that session ended up
being bitterly offensive. The basic message being conveyed was "you
are an idiot for using Excel to do anything expect to put data into
R, and an even worse idiot if you do things to make data
comprehensible to a human." There were snide cartoons, there was
condescension... It was infuriating. ...
By the end I was livid, tired, and very stressed.
from "Approaching Excel *angry student warning*" [1].
cheers,
mike
[1]
http://lists.software-carpentry.org/pipermail/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org/2014-September/002125.html
------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Michael (Mike) Jackson [email protected]
Software Architect Tel: +44 (0)131 650 5141
EPCC, The University of Edinburgh http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk
Software Sustainability Institute http://www.software.ac.uk
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The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
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