this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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(Disclaimer: this is not a fully formed counter-argument to your statement, merely my thought-vomit).
As a kid growing up in the 90’s you wouldn’t believe the amount of times my parents and teachers vehemently insisted to me that I MUST do dictionary lookup drills because there’s no way I would just always have access to an electronic dictionary in my pocket. I was also told that I absolutely HAD to be fast at paper-based multiplication and long division. It’s not like I would just carry a calculator around with me everywhere I go, that would be insane!
Knowing how to use a physical dictionary or do basic math in your head is absolutely still a good idea, your phone battery can die, your network connection can fail, and doing challenging things with your brain is good for your long term brain health anyway especially while it's still developing.
Maybe, but are there other things we can focus on? For example, as an ESL teacher, why do my newcomers only get a word to word paper dictionary on end of grade exams? I'm pretty sure the state of North Carolina just hates children? There's literally no reason for this. Give them a digital dictionary.
Is it a time problem?
Paper is a renewable resource, rare metals used in computers aren't, and the contents of the dictionary will be the same either way
That's really not true. Paper production takes a lot of (often non-renewable) energy, ink usually consists of non-renewable chemicals, paper is often harvested from nonrenewable destruction of forests (especially in the US with Trump's plans to cut down national forests), paper production belches a lot of pollution into the air and pollutes a lot of water, etc.
The energy can be obtained from renewable sources any time we decide to quit fucking around and make it happen, wood pulp can be replaced with hemp far more easily than that and requires less chemical treatment in the process. There are no similar options for mitigating the negative impact of mining or making our supply of those metals any bigger.
All of those metals can be recycled. You have no idea what you're talking about.
Recycling still consumes energy which can be just as non-renewable as the energy used for making paper, and the impact of mining is far greater than hemp farming even at its worst. Try harder.
Yes but the process of obtaining the information is significantly more difficult. We can, you know, reuse the same 20 translation devices for years, and all kids have a laptop... I feel like you're focused on the wrong thing.
No, it's only more difficult for those without the skills to use the Index or Table of Contents in a book. Which is not really much of a difficult skill to learn. You pretty much need to know about alphabetical order and how one is at the front and the other is at the end of the book.
Yes, but for a kid who is new to the country and who is taking a 3-4 hour test in English, a paper dictionary is an impediment. I'm not saying it should be illegal, but I know we can do better by these kids. (Honestly, my preference is for a newcomer with limited English to not even take this test at all their first year, but that's not my choice.)
In what universe is an electronic device being handled by children going to last 20 years? Not ours
I didn't say 20 years, I said 20 devices.
Fair, you did say years though, plural, which is still unrealistic