Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, little
black “lawn jockeys” were all the rage. These are
small fi gures, usually made of metal, that repre-
sent Black servants who are ready to take care of
your horse. Apocryphal tales exist about the rep-
resentation as an honorifi c sign of a brave young
groom who served George Washington. But
while I was growing up, they signifi ed wealth and
power. No one had horses to hitch to the ring
any more. One of my girlfriends had one in her
yard. When her father died, her mother painted
the fellow's skin white. The signifi er was modifi ed
to create complex new meaning.
On a visit to Graceland, I noticed that Elvis had a wall covered in shag carpet.
I have no comment on this.
Photo: The Noble Lawn Jockey
(CC BY-SA) Living in Monrovia
instruction (CAI), for instance, was to ask the student to enter his or her
name at the beginning of an interactive session. The most that was usually
made of this incident was a message that replied, “Hello there, Jimmy,”
before proceeding with the “meat” of the lesson. The name-entering inci-
dent (Jimmy and the computer saying “hi”) had nothing to do with the plot
(Jimmy learns his multiplication tables). I seriously hope that this kind of
educational software isn't in use any more. Most of the time, eliciting the
entry of “user” information is gratuitous for the “user,” but not for the com-
pany who owns the application. 5
This design strategy was often seen in early drill-and-practice edu-
cational programs of the sort that caused Tom Malone (1981) to write his
canonical paper on intrinsic motivation. If Jimmy solves three arithmetic
problems successfully, he gets to spend twenty seconds playing a starship-
blaster action game. Either the math or the game segments are gratuitous,
depending upon Jimmy's understanding of the central action. The solution
5. Try to order something online from a source you've never used before and escape getting
email spam from them. Not to mention the Big Data problem.
 
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