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Virtual School. Information Technology. Word Processing - notes. |
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Links Teacher / parent notes IT in context Projects and extension |
Word Processing - notes for teachers and parents
It can be helpful to describe a world before digital text - if you have copies of typewritten text using carbon paper this is a vivid example of how laborious was the making of multiple copies. the blurred blue images are part of a time before word processing and before the desk top publishing revolution was invented by Apple in the mid 1980's. If you have access to a manual typewriter (the older the better) you can demonstrate the laborious way in which typing and retyping had to take place to incorporate any changes. You might also give the example of a paper newspaper compared with an online version. While the paper version remains easier to read (comfort, portability, tradition etc) the online version (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) allows for copying and pasting into other documents without retyping. The advantage is ease of transfer without retyping; the disadvantage is that the information may be transferred without passing through the mind of the reader (see later lessons on Information Handling) and may be used indiscriminately. It is possible now for every computer user to be his or her own publisher. This freedom of the press, however, comes with the significant disadvantage that there is no-one to filter, vet or edit the content of the increasingly wide stream of paper. More doesn't mean better. This true of the reports in the business world, the newsletters of diverse interest groups and the "round robin" Christmas letters of friends and relatives.
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