A Vision of Students Today
Michael Wesch, a professor at Kansas State University well-known for his digital ethnography studies, has put together an excellent video delving into technology and the state of education today. Prof Wesch is known for these types of videos and in my opinion he first broke out with his video The Machine is Us/ing Us that dealt with the evolving technology and how the web changes the way people interact. The latest video, titled A Vision of Students Today, accurately captures Wesch’s sentiments about student life in relation to education and other issues. I wouldn’t write about a YouTube video if it was anything short of stellar.
Unrelated, but it just goes to show how many students can’t go to class without their laptops.For the most part, I thought the statements presented in the video were spot on. There were a few that didn’t ring well with me personally, such as the part about students receiving 7 hours of sleep each night - much less with myself and my peers. Also, the part about most students graduating with $20k of student debt - I think that must only be for in-state students as I’m looking at much more when I get out.
I don’t want to spoil it too much but another one of the things mentioned was “I complete 49% of the readings assigned to me”. I’m not sure about other students but when I’m assigned 60 page PDFs of abstract, high-level white-paper-esque material for each class, there’s almost no motivation to get past the first few pages - especially when multiple classes assign such readings on the same night, not to mention that reading PDFs on a computer is only comfortable for so long.
Finally, the video goes on to show how many students “facebook through their classes”. While I have seen many students do this on their laptops in class and have had a debate on this issue in a computer science course, I don’t think you can just rule out students using laptops in class as boredom-relievers. Granted there will always be the students playing WoW, finger DDR or perusing Facebook, a decent portion of students take notes in Google Docs, look up things the professor mentioned that they’re not familiar with, and Wikipedia things to correct the professor at times. For me, it comes in handy for taking notes and when the professor comes across a topic I know well or read about the night before, it allows me to take a break and refrain from snoozing.
Regardless, I applaud Prof Wesch’s efforts in creating this video. Taking an educational technology course myself I can definitely appreciate it. Thoughts?
You can view A Vision of Students Today on YouTube or embedded here:
Hat tip to Ivan for pointing me to this video.
Excellent video, wish I got 7 hours of sleep on a weekend day. Our generation will be the generation that dies by the age of 50 due to lack of sleep and the overload of work, or atleast our generation at Georgia Tech. Telling you, we need to implement the 28 hour day, just need to fix a few things like the rotation and orbit of the earth and every clock on the planet.
Very cool video. I teach a educational-tech class at the University of Nebraska and am going to show this video to my students on friday. Hope you don’t mind if I point out your website as the source. Cheers!
Very well though-out video. I teach an educational-technology course at the University of Nebraska and I would love to show this to my students. I hope you don’t mind me using your site as an origin. Cheers!
@John S. - If you look on the youtube page he has a link to a higher res video. http://www.mediafire.com/?ajm0lzxh223
I like that Apple glowing light. Aren’t those class pc laptops outnumbered my Apple’s ? And nice video by the way. Very well thought out.
hmm. yes.
I don’t take my laptop to class- and I know that most of the people that do take them don’t do notes etc on them. 1. my laptop is too clunky. 2. it’s too distracting! 3. if it gets stolen I’m sunk. 4. the battery?
but boy do I use it to procrastinate when I’m at home.
PS- that hours thing has no mention of a social life…
I would be interested to compare this “study” to trends in the past. Students have always been distracted, they just now have something else in front of them to which they turn their attention. I won’t blindly defend laptop use in class, even though I’m a laptop person myself. I first started using it not to take notes, but to bring PDF readings to class so that I could save paper and ink. Pencil in hand, I would sit with the laptop out and a spiral notebook on top of the keyboard. I also like being able to look up related information. Don’t remember who pioneered structuralism? Turn to Wikipedia for a fast fact. Laptops don’t have to be a distraction as long as the student has self control.
Let me preface my next point by saying that I’m speaking from a humanities perspective and I know the issue changes based on which discipline you’re studying.
I know I’m in the minority: during my undergrad years and my current GT grad tenure I have done at least 90% of my reading. I do it for a number of reasons. Firstly, I do it to expand my horizons and to focus on more than what I would need to know for an exam. Secondly, I like to be able to participate in class discussion in an informed way. The numbers given in the video don’t really say if doing x% of the reading means that amount from all the materials assigned or only that percentage of the individual texts. When I read I need to read it all. I feel like I’ve been assigned the reading for a reason and it’s my responsibility to take on that task — and this is where I feel a lot of people get lost.
Judging by the multitude of students I’ve chatted with in the many classes I’ve taken in my life, people who aren’t doing the reading aren’t lazy, but rather they don’t feel that the effort is equal to the results. This takes many forms: “we don’t talk about it,” “we learn everything from the readings in our lecture,” and “there’s too much given what we’re supposed to take away from it.” I can understand these arguments. The one’s I can’t understand and can’t support are “we’re not going to be tested on it” and “this doesn’t apply to what I want to do.”
Professors and students need to meet each other half-way on the issue of reading. Professors need to to understand that time and money are two of the most valuable things for students. Please don’t ask us to buy a $26 book just to read one chapter out of it. And don’t assign 200 pages of reading when 90 will produce the same result. Also, make the reading worth our time by discussing it in class. Students: realize that you’re professors are teaching the class for a reason and doing the assigned work can be a valuable thing. Also, reward the professors that assign reasonable amounts of work by actually participating. A successful professor with a working teaching model might just influence other people in the department. Most importantly, don’t be lazy and don’t forget what you’re paying thousands of dollars a year to do: learn.
Also, I was struck by the number of Macs in the photo above. So struck, in fact, that I did a little research. That photo was taken in the journalism school at Mizzou, which “strongly encourages” entering students to buy from Apple and discourages use of Windows-based machines. Seems that while people might not try switching on their own, they are not afraid to try a not platform when the rest of their peer group will be doing the same.
Paul,
I was really impressed by the video and your commentary. I am a parent of a Senior in High School - soon-to-be Freshman in College and a husband of a teacher and this was very interesting from all perspectives.
I had to blog this one with a link to your site. Thanks for a great find!
Brent
Great video. As a soon to be freshman in college, I found it as a new look on things to come. I also agree with that $20k in debt comment. I was looking around at some colleges today and they charge even more than that just for tuition!
While the numbers are impressive, it doesn’t really tell us something we don’t already know. Students who bring laptops into lectures are highly likely to do non-class related activities online. He was alluding to something worth comparing… e.g. the blackboard vs. google docs. By comparing both Traditional vs Social Media approaches to teaching, he could have a video with more impact.
I feel old, very very old reading this - cheers mate!!!!
I personally thought parts of the video were a little too whiny for my taste. Sure, the student debt is absolutely terrible. But 7 hours is plenty of sleep for some people. Everyone will need a different amount. Hell, even 5 is fine to some.
Now if we could only figure out how to solve some of these problems…
“Apple’s OS X operating system is based on Unix, which makes these computers far less susceptible to viruses than other computers. Viruses are a serious problem on university campuses.”
This is just stupid…
http://journalism.missouri.edu/undergraduate/computer-requirements.html
it’s actually a direct quote from their webpage…
Apple is definitely not a “secure” company. Take for example the iphone, which was hacked because the applications had all kinds of security flaws.
That video was excellent. Technology can be both a blessing and a curse. I think that students and professors are both partly to blame for many of the issues raised in the video. I feel inspired to write about college now.
A bit off topic, but…
Nice too see how many students are using Macs. It really seems like Apple’s market share is growing a lot with the younger generation, even the non-tech savvy people. As students get into high school and college, Macs seem to become a more logical solution and is converting a lot of them. Of course, there is also the fact that Apple products are simply improving.
This video is very thought provoking as well as true. I never relized how time added up throught the day. Between travel and sleep with homework and the internet while eating and watching television. Classes along with books are extermely expensive now. I will be more the $20 K in the whole when I graduate. And with the cost of college now you would think the students would want to get something out of it. It is great that we can bring laptops to class now but is it really beneficial? Some teachers will not even allow it. Education wants to lead class by technology but what if it is technology that is hurting our studies? Should teachers go back 20 years ago to the simple and straight forward education? Maybe students will get more out of it and will not be distracted.
I was moved by this video because I have been complaining about the same thing for a long time now. the whole idea that technology is moving but our educational system is changing nowhere near the same pace.
I really did not expect that so many students use Apple products.
In response to the video and educational system at best, in a world were we are dominated by technology, professors and teachers are limited to incorporating technology into everyday learning.
Professors have said that we use the internet too much for doing research or assignments. Are you kidding?! Try going to the library to do research on a genetic disorder and find out that all the books are dated back to the 80’s and early 90’s. For a history course that is fine, but science research is changing daily, and by time our library gets the newest addition, it will be obsolete.
I guess in a way, our generation looks “lazy”. We type rather than carry around a three ring binder, we google instead of knowing the dewie decimal system at the local library, and do facebook invitations instead of going through the post office. But at the same time, we can make videos that are posted for the our class/family/strangers to see and comment on, talk to our soldiers around the world, and have class with 15 strangers and a professor we will never meet. In a world were technology advancements are changing daily, it become a survival of the fittest, if one does not accept it and adapt- they may become extinct in their society or profession.
u guys r lucky u i get 5 hours of sleep in highschool right now. these APs kill me. i stay up till 2: 30 doing hw for physics and i am a junior.
I am doing a paper based on a similar topic. Even though I’m having trouble writing, I do understand the topic of this video. Technology in fact has been a spectacular opportunity that people didn’t have back then. In fact, the only reason why our generation who knows who George Washington is, is because we Google it. Even though technology is a great use, it is also affecting some of us negatively. For instance, instead of writing down notes and googling important information, students tend to go on myspace or facebook and play games. Although I believe thats their issue, students have their own responsibility to do what they want to do. They have a choice. In fact, in my class we used to use laptops, more than 50% of the class were googling and doing what they are suppose to do while the other percent of the class were downloading music and on myspace. That’s their choice. They tend not to take the advantage of technology and use it for good. And to add to the “I sleep 7 hours”, thats more than what I sleep in 2 days. I only sleep for three hours a day. Last night, I only slept two hours trying to do my 2 three page essays for college class and my homework for American Government.