In Michael Wesch’s video “A Vision of Students today” the ideas of technology and learning are brought into controversy. Bringing up several points of how technology can be viewed as good and bad, the video’s main message seems to be that the learning that takes place in actual classrooms may need to be adjusted so that it is helping with real world problems and so that the material covered is relevant and interesting to the students. This way, they will finally feel the need in paying attention in class, in doing all the homework assignments, and so on. In Wesch’s video, we are shown many students who tell us that they believe school isn’t as important to them as maybe it should be. They give us reasons like: “I will write 42 pages in class this semester, and 500 in email.”, “my neighbor paid for class, but never comes” “I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open.” “I only read 49% of the reading assigned to me, and only 26% are relevant to my life.” “Filling out this test, doesn’t help solve any real problems in the world.” And the list continues. Summed up, these students are saying that as a nation we spend way too much money and time on school, because not only do students hardly ever take their studies one hundred percent seriously twenty four seven, but the studies they’re making do absolutely nothing to help solve any of their personal problems or the larger problems the rest of the world faces, like hunger, ethnic conflict, war, disease, poverty, ect. Wesch has his video tell us that “some have suggested that technology alone can save us…” But then we see some of the negative effects that technology has given us, like distracting students in class. However, the video argues that technology is actually a gift by showing us that it’s bigger and better than the effect the invention of the chalkboard had on education.
In my opinion, we are working too hard and putting too much effort and money into a school system that isn’t working. The system allows us to go through school with only learning a fraction of what is actually helpful in the real world, and out of that I want to say only half is actually interesting. On top of that, it does amaze me sometimes how we focus the majority of our attention on learning this non-relevant information in school, when we could be using the energy to help try to solve some of the bigger problems the world faces. Think how much could be done, all the people that could be saved if all the students in even just America got together and put their energy towards helping. That is something I would make me want to get up and go to school. I would be excited in the morning, instead of tired and annoyed. Even if we didn’t help solve the big problems in the world, helping to fix some of my personal problems or make whatever I’m learning relevant with my life would make me more motivated. And I think although technology can be distracting and aid students in taking school less seriously, if we use it the right way, it will become a revolutionary tool in education. More so than it already has anyway.
Welcome!
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversations Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
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