[Year 12 Its] Re: Internal documentation

[robertw]

Hi Kevin, 

I agree, we do seem to be at odds, however I try to see the technology 
having some sort of ultimate purpose for humans somewhere along the track 
(though at times I seriously wonder if some designers have any humans in 
mind when they design their systems I have struggled with :-).  I like to 
use the notion of people gaining advantage from using the technology as a 
lever to interpret situations.  I feel any definition of primary or 
secondary data can be peeled away or overlayed with different levels of 
processing to justify any particular interpretation. 

In other words IT is not a value free system and resolution of difficult 
nuances can sometimes best be resolved by invoking "what is the human 
advantage?" concept. 

Thanks for a good debate ;-) 

Cheers,
Rob Ward
ICT and Electronics
Curriculum Coordinator
Lakes Entrance Secondary College 

 

 


Kevin Feely writes: 

> Hi Rob
> Well my version of primary/secondary is certainly at odds with yours Rob!
> In that the classification of primary and secondary is not changed because 
> of who views it.
> Now what?
> Kevin 
> 
> robertw wrote: 
> 
>> Hi folks, sorry to drop in at this late stage, but the interpretation of 
>> primary and secondary data I put to my students, was that the data had to 
>> be first interpretted as having a purpose to aid decision making. In 
>> other words primary data was collected data that was not in a form that 
>> aided the decision makers directly, but after being processed in a 
>> certain way, and could then be called secondary data, it is was in state 
>> to aid decision making.
>> Hence what might be primary data to some people, could be secondary to to 
>> others.
>> For example the synoptic weather chart in the newspaper may be secondary 
>> data to a family deciding whether to go the beach tomorrow, but for a 
>> farmer deciding on when to plant crops, the same chart may be considered 
>> primary data, as many of them may need to be collected and processed 
>> before the farmer can decide what to do.
>> So unless the primary and secondary notion is placed in a context that 
>> makes these distinctions clearly apparent then no end of confusion will 
>> result.
>> Cheers,
>> Rob Ward
>> ICT and Electronics
>> Curriculum Coordinator
>> Lakes Entrance Secondary College 
>> 
>  
> 
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