Education In a Digital World

First response as mom of a college kid- lots of complaining, where’s the solution? But thinking a bit more… I’m a big fan of new technologies, social networking, all that stuff. But are these things hurting the education process more than they’re helping?

Large class size and disconnected professors have been around forever. What’s new is the social pressure to use socnets, cellphones, IM, constantly. When I was in school I could spend an afternoon quietly studying or just relaxing. Today’s kids are ALWAYS connected with no down time. My son complains that Facebook has become too demanding, and he rarely uses it anymore. But I can see him logged into AIM whenever he’s awake, and when he’s not at the computer his away message says “cell me”. When do kids get a chance to just sit. and. think?

Classes will all be online soon anyways. Maybe with blogs or other social networks.

Save us from what?

Last year, I attended a conference at the Univ of DE where they were looking at bringing tech of all sorts into the classroom, from gameshow-like clickers (you can even take a gradable quiz this way) giving a prof real time feedback as to where the class is on their understanding, to using wikis, podcasts and more to extend the learning conversation.
Many of the professors found the occassional unreliability of the systems to be a deterrent- they did not want to look “stupid” while on stage in front of students- the tech had to be fail safe before they would adopt it, was the overarching attitude.

The best remarks were from the kenote speaker from Penn State’s Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning, who has a great article here [http://www.isat.jmu.edu/cuttinged/winter0304/article7_teaching_bad_idea.htm] about what colleges should be teaching, and how they should go about it… School needs to be about critical thinking and reward that over memorizing.

Technology can help even dull subjects to become more interesting- it’s all in the presentation and talent of the teacher.

I spoke with Rick LaVoie on a recent LD Podcast, and asked about the very scripted curriculums in teaching these days, and he agreed that most of the joys of teaching come from those “side roads” in the classroom over the scripted moments of Chapter 5. What we also have to do is reward the creative and invested teachers over those who drone on and have more difficulty in making their students care about the subject matter at hand.

Teaching is a talent, and should not be left up to those who go into it because they don’t know what else to do.

Wow, I really connected with the guy holding up the “I bought a $100 dollar textbook I never opened.” line. That was me. I love to read, but the problem is the assigned reading in most classes is mind-crushingly, stupefyingly uninteresting.

I actually experimented with one class in college, that had 9 (count ‘em, 9, and it was NOT a lit class) books in the assigned reading list totally over $200. I did not buy a single one, yet managed a B in the class by working from class notes and borrowing a book or two (though not all of them).

None of the complaints from these kids are new, what’s new is the distractions. Classes are always massive, college is always insanely expensive, reading has always gone un-done by a wide percentage of students, and college kids have always been lazy and unmotivated. (Hello there, sweeping generalizations!) It’s just that in these Web 2.0 aughts we find ourselves in, the distractions come with a higher price tag.

I’m really not sure what the answer is…it’s a “mentality of youth” and “crappyness of education system” problem more than anything. I don’t see technology as a savior, I see a never-gonna-happen complete overhaul of the way kids learn from the ground up as one.

Well, and I think it will soon become a cost/benefit analysis more than ever, but College is still a ticket in many circles to bigger and better salaries, etc.

I say this as someone with an Ivy League education and a JD, that the education was important to make me an informed, critical thinker, and helped me discover things I would not have otherwise. But I do not think it is the only pathway for critical thinking, and I do not think professors need to spoon feed students, but we have to make th education contextual and meaningful.

However, at 17 & 18 yrs old, you have no real perspective on what that will meanlater on in your life, either. That’s why being made to take electives in other course areas is important- you need to know what else is out there, and what else might interest you.

If a single minded approach was the only way to go, I would either be a doctor or a biologist, or have given up on both of those dreams from high school when organic chem did me in.

Dear Chris,

Thanks for posting this video on “Education in the Digital World.” I’ll definitely be thinking about it the rest of the day and how I can make an entry around it that relates to nonprofit organizations, education, and our changing world.

(I’m also wondering how you came across it.)

Maya Norton

The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy
http://www.TheNewJew.wordpress.com

I, too, have college students that struggle with some of the issues illustrated in the KSU video. But I also agree that many of these issues have been around for eons — like back when I went to college. I had friends that skipped classes, didn’t read the material, spent hours eating each day etc. The difference is that our down time was spent interacting with other people — hanging out.

My college students are trying to juggle traditional school/college with the explosion of media available to them. Can my daughter REALLY perform effectively in her online college class if she’s got IM and Facebook running in the background and she’s bouncing between the three? Oh, and her phone is either ringing with calls or buzzing with texts at the same time. I think not.

As for college — I’m not convinced that developing more online classes is the answer. Our kids, by using so much technology and being continually connected, are doing so in an isolated fashion. They don’t call each other — they IM. They don’t talk to each other — they text. Many of my children’s friends are socially delayed because they find it so difficult to carry on a conversation or discussion in person, particularly with people they don’t know.

In my mind the purpose of college is to teach young adults to think critically, discuss intellectually and find their places in society. Because we’ve raised a generation of huge media consumers, we need to find the right combination of technology and human interaction that will result in successful, contributing members to our society.

Now that’s a huge job.