Google has captured a large segment of the education market with Google Classroom and it's the most primitive software I use every single day.
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So much of it was made by people doing their very best, pushing the hardware to the limit. It was really elegant in many ways.
It occurs to me that we have never or maybe only rarely seen what it'd mean for modern hardware to be "pushed to its limits" like that.
Think of what might be possible.
@futurebird i ran my entire physical therapy practice on it and a folding keyboard. I created a custom database for my patient data, visit notes, & billing using a palm os relational database program called handbase. It seamlessly integrated with MS Access when i docked my palm pilot with my computer and created all the mail merge documents i needed to run my practice.
This was in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Nothing since has been as elegant and as useful.
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*panting holing on to the arms of the chair*
"I could make a better LMS than this! It's just a database pointing to a file storage system with a calendar! I could do it!"
I wait for the feeling to pass, but it has been happening more frequently. In the corner of the room a little demon whispers "do it, do it on apache and use PHP and mySQL, you know the way"
I shake my head holding back the tears. I do not practice those dark arts any longer...
@futurebird So, so many applications give me this itch, particularity business-related applications. "This is literally just the front end on a database. How did they screw this up so badly?" And it's not even that I don't understand the process well enough because I've been steeped in it for years. I know what it needs to do, I know the edge cases, etc. Give me a few months and I could do this!
But then I withdraw for a time, and leave Middle-Earth to its fate.
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So much of it was made by people doing their very best, pushing the hardware to the limit. It was really elegant in many ways.
It occurs to me that we have never or maybe only rarely seen what it'd mean for modern hardware to be "pushed to its limits" like that.
Think of what might be possible.
@futurebird @LJ My favourite example of this is the rainbow effects generator for the Spectrum. It literally looks impossible for the hardware to do it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum_graphic_modes#Software_Hi-Colour
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*panting holing on to the arms of the chair*
"I could make a better LMS than this! It's just a database pointing to a file storage system with a calendar! I could do it!"
I wait for the feeling to pass, but it has been happening more frequently. In the corner of the room a little demon whispers "do it, do it on apache and use PHP and mySQL, you know the way"
I shake my head holding back the tears. I do not practice those dark arts any longer...
@futurebird I remember when #SharePoint first came out and everyone thought I was a crazyperson because I kept yelling "It's just wiki! I was doing this for my classes last year! Why can't you see this? IT'S A WIKI!"
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*panting holing on to the arms of the chair*
"I could make a better LMS than this! It's just a database pointing to a file storage system with a calendar! I could do it!"
I wait for the feeling to pass, but it has been happening more frequently. In the corner of the room a little demon whispers "do it, do it on apache and use PHP and mySQL, you know the way"
I shake my head holding back the tears. I do not practice those dark arts any longer...
@futurebird Don’t do it. You don’t want to end up the admin of your own platform where everything really is your fault. It’s much better to come here and bitch about someone else’s software.
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@futurebird People choose to use Minecraft mods, based on utility & convenience.
Nobody chooses a Google or Microsoft product, it's forced by IT.
@mdhughes
Software is sold to Finance bros and other execs. IT is told what to do and we do it, and then hear from everyone about how shit it all is.The admin side of Google education/classroom is a mess. Licenses are bought in batches and you'd better have enough student ones to cover all the "free" licenses for the staff.
@futurebird -
@futurebird Squint a little, and that “demon” starts looking like your better angel instead…
They are so often fallen angles aren't they? But do we forget why they have fallen?
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*panting holing on to the arms of the chair*
"I could make a better LMS than this! It's just a database pointing to a file storage system with a calendar! I could do it!"
I wait for the feeling to pass, but it has been happening more frequently. In the corner of the room a little demon whispers "do it, do it on apache and use PHP and mySQL, you know the way"
I shake my head holding back the tears. I do not practice those dark arts any longer...
@futurebird have you ever tried moodle? I used it a little when I took an instructional design class that used it and then used it to run a course once. It worked pretty well for what I needed, though I didn't use many of the features. Many cpanel hosts (like @reclaimhosting ) offer a one click install
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They are so often fallen angles aren't they? But do we forget why they have fallen?
@futurebird For thinking maybe *they* should be in charge?
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Carving the geometry assignment on the wall would be very similar TBH.
Speaking of "old textbooks" I have an unverified notion that these carvings of animal footprints might have served as some kind of textbook or learning aid.
It's just a notion, but considering how accurate the representations are I think it's worth considering if this library of animal footprints was used to train young people about the fauna of their region.
https://futurebird.tumblr.com/post/740768198010535936/is-this-the-first-human-made-textbook
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Speaking of "old textbooks" I have an unverified notion that these carvings of animal footprints might have served as some kind of textbook or learning aid.
It's just a notion, but considering how accurate the representations are I think it's worth considering if this library of animal footprints was used to train young people about the fauna of their region.
https://futurebird.tumblr.com/post/740768198010535936/is-this-the-first-human-made-textbook
There is a bit of "hammer sees nothing but nails" about my thinking here. Since I'm a teacher I tend to think "this would be really great for teaching" probably too often.
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Speaking of "old textbooks" I have an unverified notion that these carvings of animal footprints might have served as some kind of textbook or learning aid.
It's just a notion, but considering how accurate the representations are I think it's worth considering if this library of animal footprints was used to train young people about the fauna of their region.
https://futurebird.tumblr.com/post/740768198010535936/is-this-the-first-human-made-textbook
@futurebird @dlakelan I like that idea, makes a lot of sense.
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@futurebird i so miss palm os. Sigh.
@LJ@sunny.garden @futurebird@sauropods.win isn’t PalmOS that software that Lucky Goldstar currently use to spy on everyone through the television?
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@futurebird @dlakelan I like that idea, makes a lot of sense.
Think about how much would be lost if your best tracker died. But if you have something like this you could save some of the hard-won expertise for the next generation.
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So much of it was made by people doing their very best, pushing the hardware to the limit. It was really elegant in many ways.
It occurs to me that we have never or maybe only rarely seen what it'd mean for modern hardware to be "pushed to its limits" like that.
Think of what might be possible.
@futurebird @LJ
The thing I always thing about when hearing descriptions like that is Pokemon for the original Gameboy -
@futurebird have you ever tried moodle? I used it a little when I took an instructional design class that used it and then used it to run a course once. It worked pretty well for what I needed, though I didn't use many of the features. Many cpanel hosts (like @reclaimhosting ) offer a one click install
I have not tried moodle, do you use it?
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They are so often fallen angles aren't they? But do we forget why they have fallen?
@futurebird Perhaps they’re only demons if they lose.
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I have not tried moodle, do you use it?
@futurebird @nirak @reclaimhosting I use GC every day, and run my own Moodle instance. Moodle is very powerful, but not as easy to use as GC. Only now getting integration with office functions.
Every teacher, every day, can use GC (we're a GSuite school, with Msft AD locally) I don't not see a way to get my colleagues to use Moodle in the same way.
GC lacks search(!) , and is clunky, yes, but the problem is complex. Moodle has 500+ tables, iirc. It's worth exploring. Big in Germany. -
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