So true! I joined college because I needed a degree to make money. This idea of course changed over time as I started to understand the impact I can make on society. I feel that a key idea is for students to realize that they can make a difference in the way we live and they can take part in the efforts to improve our quality of life. School is just a place where one receive training of thought to innovate ideas that make their small community or society as a whole a better place.

Great post. I understand more the need for Liberal arts and humanities major now more than ever. As part of the Preparing Future Professoriate class, we did one session where we learnt theatre techniques to improve communication skills. I found the class very rewarding as it teaches us to learn, listen, and focus on the people around us. As an engineer, I feel like each engineering student should take this class. It really helps you understand society and the world we live in outside our small engineering bubble.

I totally agree with you! I also feel that I was not challenged enough to thinking outside the box during my undergraduate education. I feel like we need to link our undergraduate curriculum especially towards these new ideas of innovative thinking where we produce new generations of critical thinkers rather student taught to conform to the norm and be passive about the ideas presented before.

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I agree with the “it depends” scenarios that you talked about. If the technology (e.g. laptop, etc. ) is not needed to further clarify the class material then there is no need to use it. However, I do believe that we should try to incorporate technology in the classroom as it offers us with other ways of teaching the class that were not possible before. On another note, I think that each person should control their own distractions regardless of the ‘distraction tool or device’. In the absence of my phone or laptop, I can day dream, think about what to cook for dinner, draw something on a piece of paper, etc. My point is I could be distracted in a million other ways in the classroom rather than facebook. Also, I think that time management is key. You can silent your phone when you work just as much as you can force yourself to stay focused.

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While I think that internet should actually be a basic human right, I agree with you that there are a lot of stuff out there that is wrong and misleading. It is our responsibility as educators to help the students filter this information responsibly and critically think what is and what is not credible.

I agree with you. I think that the internet (or Google) is a tool, just like anything other technology, that depending on our usage to it will result in negative or positive impact on our life. The internet made valuable information available to us and made connections and interactions to other people easier and much more efficient. What we do with our time and our interaction is up to us and only us.

Turner, thanks for the great post. I have also wrote my post around the same ideas. We, as future educators, are tasked to be the change we want to see. As you noted in your quotes, we face different issues than the old days and we must think anew and have what it takes to challenge the way we have passively learned.

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Turner, thanks for the great post. I have also wrote my post around the same ideas. We, as future educators, are tasked to be the change we want to see. As you noted in your quotes, we face different issues than the old days and we must think anew and have what it takes to challenge the way we have passively learned.

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Ayesha, very interesting and important points you list at the end of your post. I can connect a lot with the need to redefine our concepts of education where the students are more engaged and are the center of learning not only passive receptors.

I like how you reflected on your own experiences. You bring a very interesting point about how educators should start embracing these concepts before graduate schools and even in high schools. By the time we finish high school, we are so used to being passive that it becomes hard to break out of our shell and be creative!