i actually (and this is not a joke) have a longstanding policy that if a menu is numbered i always order #1
Jake Lazaroff
@jakelazaroff.com
3.7K followers 670 following 2.7K posts
nyc-based programmer and designer. eng @phaze.app, alum @recurse.com. azzajew. public transit enjoyer. thoughts on local-first software, atproto, javascript frameworks, web components, css and other web minutiae. 🌐 jakelazaroff.com
![[photo of a punk venue with Statler and Waldorf puppets in their own little nook]
TEXT: I cannot mess up any songs tonight](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z4llsx425l4htoylyyx6iam3/bafkreic47s6ytces7da7sdwvtrr3o4pdtsjlppekxuxy2dhascsr63h36a)
![Q: What, if anything, do you think should be the role of the computer in education?
I'll tell you my reaction to that question without answering it directly. There's a Russian joke that goes something like this: Two people are standing in a very large breadline in Moscow, and they're talking about the fact that the harvest failed once more and that's why there's a shortage of bread, and one of them says to the other, "You know, it's all the fault of the Jews and the bicyclists." The other one says, "Why the bicyclists?" and the first one answers, "Why the Jews?"
You might have said "What is the role of computers and bicycles in education?" Then I would have said, "Why the bicycles?" and you "Why the computer?"
A: Yours is an often-asked question. In a sense, it is upside-down. You start with the instrument; the question makes the assumption that of course the computer is good for something in education, that it is the solution to some educational problem. Specifically, [your] question is, what is it good for?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vrrdgcidwpvn4omvn7uuufoo/bafkreih5rdtbh52xqc5yesuryhiwy7nhw7ddrn6vqttxfdlspmthxck6me)
![People come to MIT and to other places, people from all sorts of establishments - the medical establishment, the legal establishment, the education establishment, and in effect they say, "You have there a very wonderful instrument which solves a lot of problems. Surely there must be problems in my establishment - in this case, the educational establishment, for which your wonderful instrument is a solution. Please tell me for what problems your wonderful instrument is a solution.
The questioning should start the other way - it should perhaps start with the question of what education is supposed to accomplish in the first place.Then perhaps [one should] state some priorities - it should accomplish this, it should do that, it should do the other thing. Then one might ask, in terms of what it's supposed to do, what are the priorities? What are the most urgent problems? And once one has identified the urgent problems, then one can perhaps say, "Here is a problem for which the computer seems to be well-suited." I think that's the way it has to begin.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vrrdgcidwpvn4omvn7uuufoo/bafkreibvbqeizckykzfgyot4qdjg6svi6hrdfgi6wgr2hewvjkno4ncw7u)