Pages

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Full-Text Search for English Lit

When I was in my late teens / early twenties (20+ years ago) I thought sometimes about how computer technology would transform various activities in the future. This included dreaming of having searchable books for English compositions and term papers. The other day, my daughter, a 10th grader, came to me saying "Dad, could I find Lord of the Flies online? I really need to be able to do CTRL-F to find quotes I am searching for".


I leaned back and said "Daughter, let me tell you a story". After I "regaled" her with the observation above, I helped her find a free, online version. She was elated. I only wish I had the chance to experience that as a student.

4 comments:

  1. Technology is surely changing education. Check out Google Books if you haven't yet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've dabbled with it, very cool, probably should have thought of that for Ainslee's need.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not the point of your article, but I think I may be the only American between 15 and 50 who has never read Lord of the Flies.

    ReplyDelete