Replying to LO27247 --
Dear Organlearners,
Scott Allen <scott.allen@mongoosetech.com> writes:
>I think it's time we let our government and our
>media know that we do not see this issue as simply
>as a Gallup poll
(http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr010914b.asp).
>They didn't ask me.
Greetings dear Scot,
Thank you for a great contribution.
I think that should there have been a couple of million voters like you,
the tragic events on 11 September would never have happened. But then,
America would also had been much different on 11 September.
I want to comment on only one issue which I have quoted above.
All polls are intrinsically flawed which
(1) gives questions and possible answers to select from
(2) prune any unexpected answer into a simple statement.
These polls are intrinsically flawed because they disturb/deform the
authentic information which could have been obtained from the system
when created in a spontaneous manner.
Such polls which are intrinsically flawed are not worth at all to any
authentic learner, except for learning just how much the authentic
opinions of people can be mispresented and even be deliberately misused.
Here is a nice "thought experiment" (Einstein's term) to conduct. Imagine
a dialogue which is conducted by way of prescribed and circumscribed
responses such as Gallup polls. The outcomes will be hillarious, if not
down right tragic.
The use of preformatted and even standardised items in educational testing
such as MCQ (Multiple Choice Question) are equally worhless. Any clever
tester can let all candidates pass while only a few know the topic, or let
all candidates fail while menay know sufficiently to have passed. The same
goes for IQ tests.
With care and best wishes,
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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