Do you think we had this same discussion 30-40-50 years ago? Does the incorporation of microfiche in the college library erode the students' abilities to conduct research and learning where to find information?Does the use of the overhead projector and transparencies erode the professor's lecture skills? Is oratory dying because professors now use transparencies, pictures, and projected text instead of straight lecture? Does it erode the Socratic method?Word processors! Don't get me started! Not only do word processors mean an erosion of typing skills, they allow students to write their papers at the last minute and not give their papers the appropriate proof reading!(okay, seriously, proof reading has gone down the toilet as a lost skill with the advent of “spell check” – most students I know are in desperate need of a “homonym checker”!).As mentioned above, technology has acclerated research – allowing historians unprecedented access to documents and resources. However, as always, there are good students/historians and bad/lazy students/historians. Technology makes plaigerism much easier to execute (and much easier to catch). It allows people to take shortcuts in place of adding efficiencies.
History, politics, and culture articles and forum discussions.
