The hypocisy of the recent ECAR study

I had intended today to write today about the odd fracture in the recent ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, a fracture between Chris Dede's "technology as world changer" intro, and the rather pedestrian "technology as customer service" bias of the questions posed by the actual report.

I say "intended", because when I went to pull a paragraph out of the document to demonstrate Chris's line of thought, I found that this freely distributed PDF had been secured against all copy operations.

You want to cite the ECAR report? Start typing.



I know, I know. I'm supposed to be delighted this is free. I'm supposed to be thankful I even get to cite it in my blog.

And I suppose making me retype that quotation will just make me appreciate the report all the more, right?

Give me a break. This is ridiculous. To write a stirring intro about how the free flow of information is revolutionizing the world and then distribute it in a PDF format that disallows copy operations?

Unbelievable.

But yeah, I won't be citing it. Mission accomplished.