Wednesday 15 September 2010

A Vision of Students Today



The other day, I came across "A Vision of Students Today" made in 2007 by Assistant Professor Michael Wesch of Kansas State University. I was fascinated by the facts it contained about students and their study habits. I wonder how much things have changed in 2010?

6 comments:

Seth Dickens said...

Hi there Janet,

It's a great video, isn't it? I don't suppose much has changed, either, unfortunately. As proof, here's a video I made with my students last year which has our reply to Mike Wesch based on surveys my students did of their school-mates. Our results were similar (if not quite as gloomy as Wesch's)

Hope you like it :)

Cecilia said...

Hi Janet!

I had already watched this video a couple of times, but I thank you for reminding me of it and raising the question of how much have things changed in 2010.

Personally I think the feeling is pretty much the same, maybe a little stronger - the feeling of being overwhelmed by information, requirements, obligations, money, uncertainty about the future, keeping up with the fast pace of life today, how quickly things are changing. I guess the real question for us is what can we do about it, to help students? To help ourselves (yes, because the feelings are not exclusively of the students)?

Janet Bianchini said...

Hi Seth

Many thanks for your comment and link to your video, which is really fantastic. You all did a great job!

Yes, I do like it very much, and I hope readers will click on the link here to see it for themselves.

Janet Bianchini said...

Hi Cecilia

Thank you for your interesting comments here. You have a good point when you mention that it's not just the students who have a lot to cope with!

We as teachers are facing rapid and quite innovative changes in our profession. Some of these changes can be quite overwhelming, as you so rightly say.

I guess we just need to take it easy and not try to do too much at the same time.

Take care!

popps said...

I found this pretty depressing - yes it was fascinating too but, in the end depressing.
Not just because of the words war, conflict etc that we see at the end but how much there is an underlying question about the methods of teaching.
What i don't understand from the video is the message about the chalkboard.
Are we to understand that it is better for the teacher, the students, both, neither?

Janet Bianchini said...

An interesting point, popps. I will be posting a video created by Seth's students in answer to the content of the video made by Professor Wesch. It is definitely a more positive viewpont that is expressed.