[Novalug] OT - Wikipedia and the art of censorship

Keith Casey mailinglists@caseysoftware.com
Mon Aug 20 08:59:25 EDT 2007


On 8/20/07, Kat Walsh <kat@mindspillage.org> wrote:
> How many teachers did you have who skipped around in the textbook, who
> told you not to pay attention to a particular chapter because it was
> outdated/biased/not the whole story, who added in supplementary
> materials from other texts... but who used that book anyway because
> all of the others were worse and he didn't want to write a whole new
> one from scratch?

Coming from an engineering background, I think this one would be the
biggest weakness of an community editted textbook.... having a
particular phrasing and a complete snapshot of the book at any given
time (aka an edition) provides some standardization in what is taught
on a given subject.

This might be less so in other degrees but in the engineering world*,
we have an actual test and certification process to be considered a
Professional Engineer and in many places (eg. Texas, Canada), this is
a legal title that comes with rights and responsibilities.  Without
some sort of standardization in topics and coverage, efforts like that
are going to be difficult at best and impossible at worst.

*  I mean real engineering, not "software engineering"... which as a
term annoys me and is illegal in some places.

keith

-- 
D. Keith Casey Jr.
CEO, CaseySoftware, LLC
http://CaseySoftware.com



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