Education, at least in the public school realm, changes every five years because a committee suddenly decides that education is failing and that the system is so broken that it is beyond repair. Which is why when I was a child I was not taught how to spell or the proper implementation of grammar. The idea behind this model was that if they just taught us to like writing the other stuff would just follow. The result? I have spent high school and college pretty much figuring out the finer points on my own. Do I enjoy writing? Well now I do, but I hated it with a passion until college, because—well it didn’t understand what teachers wanted me to do, and I was not able to properly express myself the way I wanted because I did not know how to.
I found the video (Re)Visions of Students Today interesting and provocative. Especially the point of old media, such as text books, being archaic. I also completely agree that that is how I spend most of my time, except that I actually spend less time then that watching network television. But I also think participatory media is dangerous because it is adding more work for already overloaded students. I also feel like class times are largely unproductive and I could easily get the assignments and not go to many of my classes if not for the fact that I go to a small college and professors notice. I feel that many professors under utilize class time or in some instances class time is not required because the same information is going to be picked up from reading. Why would I read my textbook if my professor is going to just regurgitate it to me the next day and then post the notes on PowerPoint in their public folder. That leaves little incentive to actually read the textbook, it also leaves little incentive to pay attention in class when I can just read the notes from class and get the same information in less time.
Change is good, but change is dangerous, sure our system kind of sucks sometimes but if you induce change to quickly and radically some children’s education will be sacrificed. Change should never be forced or resisted it should merely be taken in stride.
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Yes! You have described a very annoying catch 22. If professors just regurgitate the text, students come to class and expect to be spoonfed the info. If I prepare class activities relying on students –ANY STUDENTS– to have read the chapter and expecting to build on that, a large portion have obviously not read the work. Heck, in one class the assignment was 5 or 6 YouTube videos, and 2 people in a class of 16 admitted to having watched them. Instead of doing more in-depth discussion, we watched the videos.
I have more comments about education in general and trends at other institutions.
But I also agree about participatory media. The blogging requirement in this class is because it is a Writing for New Media class. In many cases, if you are being required to do online work, it is in lieu of class meetings—so you might have one class meeting and then a substantial assignment online to apply what was learned in class. I would argue that use of new media (digital media) should not be in addition to but instead of other requirements, where appropriate.