Why create a title that contains a term you don't care for but then start your article with an apology for it? There was nothing stopping you from creating a better title... unless of course you actually wanted that title.
I was wondering the same thing. It seemed like you were apologizing for using the word "ninja" since it's disliked by a lot of people around here (I think; I'm no HN veteran).
I enjoyed the post though; it was fun to see how things moved along for you.
p.s. You are missing a closing parenthesis on #39.
I can't say I'm terribly surprised by this report. Too many things that fall under the "technology" banner get pushed as somehow improving our quality of life by default. Like the existence of some gadget automatically improves things for the owner. Pushing a computer on children who are in many parts of the world learning in a building that is falling apart or has no real educational infrastructure is a waste.
>Pushing a computer on children who are in many parts of the world learning in a building that is falling apart or has no real educational infrastructure is a waste.
This is one instance of a particular project that didn't pan out well - now we can generalize to all technology ?
Anecdotal evidence - my 16 years younger brother learned to read/type and speak/write broken English (it's not our first language) by the age of 4, simply by playing along with his 14 year old brother - playing GameCube and using the computer with him or on his own. He even learned how to use powerpoint to create "games" ie. slideshow where you click on various things and then it transitions to a different slide to make it appear like it moved. At one point I had to forbid him to use the internet because he figured out how to register and write on forums for some Mario clone development site where he was downloading sprites for his powerpoint games, he was writing them tutorials on how he used their editor - which was both funny, amazing and scary - but it also shows you the his skill level, he was 6 when he did this/not in school. Again - nobody was actively teaching him anything, so unless you're suggesting that my brother is some sort of genius (which he isn't, he is smart but not a miracle child) or that my other brother is some sort of prodigy teacher I would say that acquiring those skills before school age is pretty impressive and largely due to technology.
I didn't generalize to all technology and I didn't mean it to come across as so. I also learned a great deal having a computer when I was younger. It pushed me into areas I wouldn't have been interested in otherwise. The point I was trying to make is that technology gadgets like this often are assumed from the get-go to fix what I see as a non-technology problem. There doesn't seem to be much of a discussion on whether something is actually a solution sometimes and it's rather just assumed because it's a computer or gadget or whatever that this thing is going to fix that by the nature of what it is (new technology).
My old high school has more computers and technology equipment than it did when I was there yet overall the educational statistics are the same or worse. Technology is amoral, it's neither good nor bad, it's how it's implemented that makes the difference. Some view technology as a moral plus in that it is innately better than no technology at all. I disagree with this.
