[LM_NET] GEN: Vision of students today: Pretty dismal...TEACHING![Spam score: 8%]

["Hastings, Jeff" <HASTINGJ@HOWELLSCHOOLS.COM>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Hastings, Jeff 
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 8:33 AM
To: 'Toni Buzzeo'
Subject: RE: Vision of students today: Pretty dismal...TEACHING![Spam
score: 8%]

You wrote:

"Weren't they saying that so 
long as they are passively sitting in a lecture hall/classroom with a 
teacher using the same old so-yesterday methods, they would rather 
attend to superficial digital chatter? " 

I'm not so sure they were, Toni. In fact, I thought they were saying
that they had an abundance of expensive tech tools already at their
disposal, but just weren't interested in using them for their studies.
And it was this unconditional lack of interest in academics that I found
so troubling.

Of course, we Library Media Specialists bring our die-hard pedantic
optimism to the table--as we probably should-- when we watch stuff like
this and we infer from the video that, with a bit of empathy and
tech-saavy, we can offer up solutions to these educational barriers. And
that's good.

My question though is this: BASED STRICTLY UPON THIS PARTICULAR VIDEO:
Did the students seem to WANT to learn, by any means? 

Part of the reason the presentation bothered me so much was that I felt
it was an out-an-out rejection of academic CONTENT rather than a
critique of the methods employed to teach that content. And I, in turn,
reject the notion that academics are obsolete based on the idea that the
world is changing so fast we can't predict what content is worth
teaching.

I have a pal that works as a consultant in a high-tech field in New
York. I certainly could have never predicted, back when we were college
friends, exactly what he'd be doing today. It's true: He works in a
medium which did not exist at that time. He does corporate web design.
He often tells me that he hads a difficult time hiring good people, and
I'll ask him what skills he feels are lacking out there. "We need people
who can read and understand content, and, most importantly, who can
write." He tells me all the time, in fact, that people who can put the
structure of a high-end website in place are relatively easy to find.
"Finding people who can fill up a website with "sticky" content that
actually makes people want to visit, now that's the hard part" he says.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose...

Jeff Hastings
School Librarian
Highlander Way Middle School, Howell Michigan

hastingj at howellschools dot com


 

-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Toni Buzzeo
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 2:16 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: [LM_NET] GEN: Vision of students today: Pretty
dismal...TEACHING![Spam score: 8%]

Hey Jeff,

>I mean look: yeah, we all need to stay reasonably hip to the current
>zeitgeist and do our best to tap it. But if a student chooses to spend
>vastly more time attending to superficial digital chatter (and there
was
>really no suggestion of it being anything else) than academic
substance,
>utimately, should that really be my problem?

I think that WAS the point (sort of).  Weren't they saying that so 
long as they are passively sitting in a lecture hall/classroom with a 
teacher using the same old so-yesterday methods, they would rather 
attend to superficial digital chatter?  But get them actively 
involved in their learning, thinking about what they do, what they 
think, what they want and WHAMO, you've got involvement, excitement, 
and a youtube!  At least that's what I took from it.  Hand out the 
laptops, cameras, ipods, and questions and let them have at it.  THEN 
you've got involvement, investment, learning.

Toni


Toni Buzzeo, MA, MLIS <mailto:tonibuzzeo@tonibuzzeo.com>
Maine Library Media Specialist of the Year Emerita
Maine Association of School Libraries Board Member
Buxton, ME 04093
http://www.tonibuzzeo.com
Fire Up with Reading: A Mrs. Skorupski Story, illustrated by Sachiko 
Yoshikawa (Upstart 2007) BRAND NEW! 

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