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Comment by jedimastert | Hacker News Reader

> Let us also remember, she actually built AND shipped.

It's funny how much further this is than the side projects of so many here (myself included)

For me this is one of those 10,000 things. We can either dismiss it, or share in the joy of learning something new and sharing our own lessons. Teachers learning OBS will be as much of a game changer as teachers moving from overheads to powerpoint, I think.

Also, I feel like this is super indicative of the gate-keeping mentality a lot of IT and tech people have around "not-cutting-edge" technology. Even if it is nothing new, let's be the resource

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>Even if it is nothing new, let's be the resource

Talking with non-engineers (particularly friends of mine who work in non-profits), I see incomprehensible amounts of potential value in just increasing the uptake of "not-so-special" tech among people who consider themselves "non-technical". That's the point of technology, after all: not being fancy unto itself, but actually doing stuff that people need, whether that's wheels enabling long-distance transportation or lightboards enabling better long-distance education.

I'm reminded of this brief but profound interaction in the pilot episode of "Halt and Catch Fire": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQLbi4VXYcA

I know it's a bit corny but this scene gives me chills and this reference is perfect!

There's too many office people who have no interest / refuse to learn any new skills. Many can't cook to save their lives. I doubt 0.1% of them can solder, 0.03% could troubleshoot something electrical, and I'm doubtful of their ability to handle and finish drywall.

It's very sad when people think everything else is beyond their reach or they don't even look to see what could be there.

> Teachers learning OBS will be as much of a game changer as teachers moving from overheads to powerpoint, I think.

Just an anecdote but as a chemistry student I remembered lessons taught from an overhead far better than those from powerpoint. There was a stark contrast between the lower division organic chemistry series whose instructors used overheads, and the upper division organic chemistry mechanisms class whose teacher used slides. Those slides were mostly bullets and diagrams, sometimes with crude animations which were meant to indicate nucleophilic attack or whatever. Just watching the lecturer draw diagrams and arrows and listening to them talk was far more helpful, for me.

The lightbox seems much more overhead like in presentation. I dig it, and I hope today's college students learn well from it.

I actually hope more teachers go for the simple overhead option. I do, using an overhead webcam.

A physical overhead with the instructor's hand visible has been shown to work far better than presenting ready-made diagrams. It also works better than digital drawing, probably due to the natural inclusion of pointing gestures guiding students' attention [1].

There is also evidence (and good theoretical reasons to believe) that a transparent lightboard leads to unnecessary distraction/split attention. [2]

[1]: https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000065

[2]: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.07.019

>Also, I feel like this is super indicative of the gate-keeping mentality a lot of IT and tech

That lumps people together. I'm in IT/tech but don't value intricate, difficult, extreme novelty over everything else. That would be absurd.

Remember Stanfords $1 paper microscope for looking at blood samples? Now that was badass.

The cleverness is in the saving of $7940 to solve a problem. Dumpster-diving for parts and materials, or even freeganning Whole Foods are all perfectly valid too.

I remember a guy used his seat aisle's window on StartupBus as a whiteboard with dry-erase markers, but I guess he should've brought an LED light strip to make it pop more. The trick is installing it. ;-)

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