I feel you on this. I have often thought (ranted about) of what you write about in your post. I guess the question is, can the model truly be changed or will we also fall into the trap?
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Author: mtbeardsley
Comment on Current Education System Creates Short Attention Span by mtbeardsley
I appreciate your thoughts about how at a research stage, using google can hamper creative thinking process. In my Masters, I saw a mixture of individuals using different techniques in relation to this. Some used a similar reading technique of using the “Find” function to find the material they needed. For example, when doing a literature review they would find articles they believed relevant, use the find function, and paraphrase what they specifically found without reading the abstract or rest of article for context. This technique blew up in the faces of several students, for it was later discovered that the articles they used were referenced incorrectly, counter-intuitively, or had nothing to do with their overall research paper. I think this kind of mistake will occur more and more as people depend more on this reading method.
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Comment on Can I Stop Talking Now? by mtbeardsley
I feel you on this matter. It takes actual energy for me to exhibit certain things. I was also a communications major in my undergraduate career, and I too received the judgment masquerading as a joke when people asked, “so how can you be a communications major if you don’t like to talk to people?” I think, like you said, people like us have to develop a teacher identity that is a blend of our real “self” but also this teaching self that is approachable.
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Comment on The Best Class I Ever Took by mtbeardsley
I also loved this class and it was also not related to my major. I can confirm that this is one of two textbooks that I kept from undergrad. I intend to purchase the newest version as well!
I wrote about this class in the CP blog a couple weeks ago actually. It was probably one of the top three classes that I ever had.
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Comment on The Best Class I Ever Took by mtbeardsley
I also loved this class and it was also not related to my major. I can confirm that this is one of two textbooks that I kept from undergrad. I intend to purchase the newest version as well!
I wrote about this class in the CP blog a couple weeks ago actually. It was probably one of the top three classes that I ever had.
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Comment on How many points do I need to get an A? by mtbeardsley
Your sister’s response is what fuels some of my doubt as well. The entire world is not academically inclined. This is not an insult or a judgment. Some people are just motivated and passionate about other things. Would these people be more motivated if they walked into kindergarten on this proposed system? Who knows. What I do know is that a work ethic is not just taught to someone. Inside each of us is a natural foundation for a work ethic. I can think of a lot of kids even in my elementary school years before grades were really a thing who just were not as involved with doing their work and doing it well.
Human beings will always be that x factor.
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Comment on This Post is Mindlessly Mindful or Mindfully Mindless by mtbeardsley
Boyer’s World Regions class just had this different energy. It started with the syllabus. We had control over our fates and what work we did. Options ranged from blog posts, to reading the paper, to watching vlogs, to taking a world leader challenge, to participating in viewing and discussing an evening film series, to setting up a bingo card that watched out for world leaders on their way out, and normal exams. On top of that everything was kept extremely contemporary and relevant where he would post his own vlog posts. In a different year he managed to have Aung San Suu Kyi skype in, which just made what we were learning that much more tangible.
He gave us power over our work and the freedom to choose how we did that work. He pulled the real world in with the concepts being taught in a way that we could relate to. In my other courses, I read a text book and wrote a paper.
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Comment on But Why be Mindful When I Can be Productive? by mtbeardsley
I unfortunately think you are correct regarding the state of the current generation and their comprehension of the “mindfulness” concept. Additionally, I feel like I can define mindfulness in several different ways depending on the context. I would suppose that for Langer, this would be mindfulness in academia. For your aunt, this would be mindfulness in personal health. That of course is depending on how nuanced you want to go with this concept.
Everyone wants to throw away lectures like they are some cursed thing. I disagree. I do not think lectures need to dominate, but I think they, along with other forms of class material, have their place in the class schedule. I think providing a multi-faceted class would be best. I think you would adopt a more mindful state as an instructor and a learner if you challenged yourself to provide a multi-faceted course. This not only benefits your students, but also yourself.
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Comment on Future of the Internet by mtbeardsley
I entirely agree with your post and wrote something similar in mine. I feel like teachers use social media as the go-to now for interactivity in the classroom, but maybe there’s avenues that haven’t been explored yet. As far as the Internet making things way too easy to post information and misinformation, again I agree. I can’t tell you how many times I have had some friend send me a link to an article that they believe to be true. With a little leg work, I immediately find that the article in question is in fact yet another “alternative fact”.
To quote Ben Parker, “with great power comes great responsibility”. We are in the Internet and innovative technology age where the only direction seems to be forward at break neck speed. There needs to be teachers that educate their students to stop and think for themselves when acquiring resources from the Internet. There needs to be researchers who have elected to post their information online doing so responsibly.
Research projects and any that descend from one or another are set up like a house of cards. If the original turns out to be misinformation, then the whole house can fall down.
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