The English language ...

Hi Folks,
I read today that Generation Z - the uncaring youth - are the source of so much junk English being used nowadays. (Thanks -Pam) One wonders why those who apparently are native-speakers are so uncaring in their use of English - a wonderful language constituting each day more and more of the language passing as Japanese.

Several words are new to English such as the verb to 'scrap' - which I naively thought meant to discard something useless or disused, but the OED gods now inform me that the new meaning is to'pick up some small piece of discarded paper and keep it as treasure within a book for the purpose' from the Japanese 'scrap-suru' = to do or make a scrap-book. So we are all learners, beginners and should be tolerant of diversity.

However, that is no excuse for those of you using such poor grammar (I am struggling with understanding) in this online course !
English should be clear, concise, and coherent.
Can you understand the instructions given for Assignment 1 Module 3 ; "...tell in writing you think .." ??
I blame the typewriter.

So much stress to understand such bad English.
All Best Wishes
Paul

WebCT down time

Hi Folks,
“This Friday/Saturday, the WebCT Service will be unavailable, due to time needed for regular maintenance …”
Well, this may be of no consequence or care to folks asleep in Georgia.
However for some of us, this timing coincides with peak study time on Saturday morning – Welcome to the world, folks, and all the time zones around the world.

How long will this down time take? Well, you know, the technician is doing his best - working at night-time, and some Smalltown College in northern Georgia need their server re-wired because because because. This happened last Saturday in the middle of my posting up an assignment !! This weekend is the deadline for assignments to the University of West Georgia …

Now, we could use facsimile … except the antiquated one in India hasn’t been replaced for years due to no capital reinvestment, the one in Viet Nam is switched off at 5pm to save electricity costs, the digital ones in Japan keep digital copies on a hard disk and have privacy concerns …

Or we could use google – gmail, and blogspot.com !
Surely this is as good a reason as any for diversification in technology,
and for NOT relying on WebCT threaded discussions for blogging.

I had taken a natural backup precaution of printing out a page or two from the WebCT pages and had the email address of an Assistant (you did too, right ?), but sadly while I was having trouble and asking for help, no email reply has arrived back, though now at seven days later response action has been done.

Diversity Diversity Diversity.
I think through diversity, we can try to increase access, and inclusivity to education, to try to provide a level playing field to those on Georgia time as much as to those on Mongolia time. Surely access is a key issue.
How’s the technician doing there tonight/ this morning ?? Any idea how long the WebCT system will be down? Anyone care ?

All Best Wishes
Paul