Posts by 81stcolumn
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For info: I have seen at first hand fruit machines in the UK (Ma ran a pub).
a) I failed to see what was sociable about them: addict turns up addict fixates on machine plays for several hours, drinks little goes home, presumably to dream about tomorrows (non)winnings.
b) The money from fruit machines is generally divided between the machine owners, the licensee and the taxman. We only kept one or two because they were easy money. Lots of machines brought in kids who should’nt have been there anyway. There is little or no benefit to the community. We made a lot more money from the two pool tables upstairs (all ours).
c) The machines are relatively small stakes devices; nonetheless it is possible to lose up $200 equivalent a night on them. That scared me, consequently when I won a sweepstake on a horse race, I realised this was as good as it was going to get and I have never been back.
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Will Sport miss Trev ?
IMHO not at all.............knows f**k all about elite sport and has done nothing for the rest. No lack of killer instinct in our Trev tho'
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Hmmmm…..
Punched cards ? Been there done that in 1980.......someone donated a second hand Honeywell mainframe to the school. We had to send the command sheets to the local poly to get the cards done though….at the time VT120 was just a winkle in the eye…
It's much easier to declare it unreliable than to impart some basic skills in assessing the merit of an article -- as the cornerstone of the vital modern ability to scrutinise information online
Preaching to the choir here - This issue sits right next to the big debate about education and skills; specifically the idea that teaching vocational skills a la touch typing or editing tools, is a fools errand and really isn’t education at all. I’m militant to the point of suggesting that content is irrelevant in education. My list of core skills for learners is by no means extensive but revolves around some key questions.
Where can I find the right/useful stuff to solve problem x ?
Is this information true/reliable ?
How can I use information y to inform/shape what I am doing ?
How do I teach myself to use Z ?
What are the consequences of doing it this way….
How do I communicate my ideas to him/her/them ?What I wouldn’t give to teach a room full of students who had skills other than “tell me the answer and I will write it out for you later”……..
What troubles me is I got hooked into this in the late 80’s, but some of the original thinking has been around since the turn if the century. I know dumb skills are safe and build confidence, but it doesn’t all have to be that way.Ironically this quote from my bete noir sums it up….__"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten" __
Would write more but have exams to write :-(
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oooooh!
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ROFL - Thank thank you thank you - Today you guys have saved my soul.... <wipes tears and chuckles on to next job>
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Generally speaking I see the case for STV what I don't see is how this will solve low voter turnout, lack of viable candidates and the appallingly one dimensional politics.
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Q: Oh and just how much damage can C&R do with a 11 seat majority on a council of 19 ?
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Anyone fancy watching the RWC in Wellington in 2011 ?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10469776
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Kyle..... I would loooove to see more money in HE and I would love to see wider access to all income brackets (I'd like to be paid better too). But I do think educational investment needs to go further down the tree. The students I teach are for the most part nice people, but many of them work more than they have to in order to buy stuff they don't really need. Some of them are quite literally on holiday until it is time to get a job. They quite genuinely lack a commitment to education. When i get 'em many are beyond fixing in this regard. Some of this problem would be alleviated by more fulfilling primary/secondary education; a problem that has it's origins in class sizes.