Re: Bug#180798: ITP: multisync -- A program to syncronize PIM data
On Sun, Mar 02, 2003 at 12:04:28PM -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net> writes:
>
> > Just a random thought: There used to be an informal rule saying,
> > "never write a false statement on the blackboard". Some student is
> > bound to mindlessly copy it down and take it for truth.
>
> This is an excellent reason to write false statements on blackboards,
> making it clear in the context that it's false.
>
> In this way, the idiot students are more effectively weeded out, and
> the mediocre ones quickly learn to pay better attention.
>
This only works if the failure happens in a non-dangerous test,
such as a written or oral exam. If the accidental use happens
in a *live* scenario, the consequences can be lethal (literally
in some cases).
Specifically, the consequences will be dire in the following
common scenarios:
a) Student relies on false statement in the laboratory, causing
some kind of nasty accident (He will fail the course by killing
the teacher...).
b) Student relies on false statement only after graduating,
causing a nasty accident in the big real world. Maybe the
student even remembered at exam time that the statement was of
cause false, but forgets when he rereads his notes 10 years
later while building a bridge (or the software to control a
traffic light or...).
Just 2c from someone who has graduated to build real systems
using technologies which were outside the curriculum at college
and not in any books, only on the blackboard. (Not that I have
been hit by the above scenarios yet, thankfully).
--
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