Open Letter to my Disgruntled Students

In response to the grumbling I hear every semester about Core and General Education requirements, I’m going to share a story about my undergraduate studies.

It was my last semester of Western Classical Music theory and I was given an assignment to write a 20th century composition (a twelve-tone piece, for you music nerds out there). I told my professor I wasn’t comfortable writing in that style and he said, “I never asked you to be comfortable, I asked you to write me a piece of music. Good composers compose, Mr. Esposito,” he said. So, I got over myself and realized that if we spend our entire lives doing only the things we know we’re good at, or only the things that make us comfortable, we’ll grow about as fast as does a glacier.

You’ll never find the expectation on a syllabus that you tell the professor everything you already know on a topic and then she’ll give you a grade on it. Nor will many professors ask you what sounds interesting to you about the topics of the course they are teaching. The university is asking you to satisfy the requirements of a degree, so the courses you take should be making you stretch beyond your comfort zone, learn things that you don’t already know, and do so in subjects that are the choice of the institution.

I appreciate that you may not fully understand the method to the madness that your selection of courses appears to represent, but you need to trust the educators who have developed the curricula here and learn some things on topics that you don’t already know things about. I’m not trying to lecture you all, I’m just trying to encourage you to embrace this reality with a slightly more open mind than you have been and to embrace the fact the you’ll be a stronger student on the other end of every course you take.

Throw the baby out?

News: Searching For Better Research Habits – Inside Higher Ed.

So, I encourage you to read the above-linked IHE article, but I’ll give you a brief idea of its point. Students tend to misuse search engines (Google and JSTOR alike) due not only to a lack of understanding of how the algorithms produce results, but also a lack of understanding of how to create a critical thinking-based search process in the first place. Many more topics are hit in the article (again, you should read the whole thing), but that simple observation made me wonder.

How many educators would respond with the “Google is making us stupid” observation and disallow its use in their courses. Then I got really depressed, feeling certain that would be the reaction of the majority (pessimistic of me, I know).  In short (right. You Esposito, short winded?), I think it foolhardy to imagine, in a post-Google world, that the 21st century, networked learner can be prohibited from using “simple search” strategies.

Rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water, why wouldn’t we accept that they’ll go anywhere they need to in order to find information? And for the archetypal student referenced in the article, with the six classes and the part-time job and the life they also want to lead, “fast enough is true enough.” All we can do is teach them the difference and let them decide, for well or ill, how they’ll conduct themselves and their continuing education in a scholarly or non-scholarly way.

Get Over Yourself, Bill!

Bill Gates: In Five Years The Best Education Will Come From The Web.

I usually like the things Bill Gates has to say on the topic of education, but I think he’s way off base here. I agree that text books seem to be awfully thick, and I’ve spent my fair share of time reading those written by scholars who seem to be simply grinding an ax. And educational technology and Web applications in academia know no greater champion than me. But to suggest that as thorough and meaningful an education as can be earned in academia can be acquired simply be reading and listening to lectures online seems ridiculous to me.

There is an old axiom that states “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” It’s a quick quip one can utter when confronted with arguments in debate that are not fully researched and go hardly beyond surface structure of the issue. However, never has this been more important a reality to bear in mind–especially as we launch head-long into what will certainly be one of the most contentious election seasons in history and while we’ll need to suffer through countless tirades from under-educated and under-informed candidates and supporters. Or let’s consider the one that states “you don’t know what you don’t know”? And I don’t know about you, Bill, but I sure as hell don’t want a doctor working on me who learned everything he knows from Web MD.

So Bill, please, let’s not generalize–not every text book is written by committee. And let’s not over-play our hand–unless you’re suggesting that people can find the equivalent to 120 lecture hours of content on a range of liberal studies topics that they themselves can organize into a cohesive program  of study, then no, educating oneself on-line will never take the place of a college education (and that’s just a bachelors degree, don’t even get me started on the idea of advanced study at the master’s and doctoral levels!).

No, let’s not burn down the bastions of higher education, Bill, let’s work to ensure they are embracing technology and the World Wide Web to enrich educational experiences. Let’s encourage them to leverage in the educational experiences of those they teach, the unprecedented access to information the Web provides.

Ask Me a Simple Question, Get a Novel-Length Answer

A colleague of mine proferred this simple question on her facebook status:

“Help me out friends and family: What’s something you’d like schools/teachers/classes/administrators to do to help make a positive change for our future.”

My response?

Work together to ease college admissions expectations for non-academic requirements. It’s ridiculous that many university music programs, for example, require students to perform concerto movements for admission–this is what is required of professionals auditioning into orchestras. Do universities want to teach or only to educate prodigies? And yes, the author of this rant does hold two music degrees.

And what does this encourage our high school juniors and seniors to focus on? Are they strengthening their learning skills in other subjects or essentially guaranteeing they’ll be academically unprepared to handle the rigor of college-level learning? The same goes for extra-curricular activities and volunteerism expectations in general, while the only academic assessment is a cursory glance at GPA and SAT scores. The typical high school senior is spread too thin trying to achieve excellence in so many areas other than learning beyond standardized tests, that things such as critical and creative thinking, and the ability to take ownership of their own knowledge acquisition is entirely undervalued.

Sorry for the novel, Melissa…must have struck a chord with me.

Is it just me, or should people have understood this from the start?

This is another great entry from the Six Pixels blog:

I’m particularly drawn to the the quote included from the article he linked–this bit:

“he has grown uncomfortable with the constant exposure. ‘You get the sense that you’re someone else’s entertainment. Your life is a product and that to me is a frightening idea.’”

This was the rationale of a once-avid Social Media devotee who has recently decided to “hang it up;” to “commit it to the river or the flame;” to “pack up his marbles and go home.”

My question is, how did he not appreciate this reality from the start? He entered Social Media spaces in order to draw attention to his work–what else could his impetus have been than to be “someone else’s entertainment?” I’m not convinced that his new-found realization is all that new; that he didn’t know the job was dangerous when he took it.

I can imagine other reasons for being in the space than self-promotion and marketing, but that’s because my impetus for being here is to situation educational practices in environments that my students inhabit. It’s the same thing really–I want to draw attention to the things I’m trying to teach my students–but at least I’m being honest about my quest to shine a spotlight on things I find important and worthy of sharing.

Now Why Wouldn’t You Lead With This?

“There’s evidence, though, that employers also don’t want students specializing too soon. The Association of American Colleges and Universities recently asked employers who hire at least 25 percent of their workforce from two- or four-year colleges what they want institutions to teach. The answers did not suggest a narrow focus. Instead, 89 percent said they wanted more emphasis on “the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing,” 81 percent asked for better “critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills” and 70 percent were looking for “the ability to innovate and be creative.””

That quote, taken from this lengthy NYT article a colleague sent me, should have been more influential in picking a headline for the article. I could go on a long diatribe, the likes of which we haven’t heard since “Boston Legal” was cancelled, but I’ll refrain from waiving the banner I’ve waived so many times in the past about building so called “soft skills” like verbal and written communication and critical thinking skills. (anyone requiring information on run-on sentences, contact the writer of the last )

I’ll refrain from the “banner waive” and just encourage you to invest the time in reading the article–I couldn’t waive it better myself

Reflections on Remediation

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/21/freshmen

The linked article’s title is great for a start, but what I’m troubled by is the buried survey results on tutoring and what they call “remedial work.” I’m perfectly willing to admit that tutoring can rise to the level of remedial work, but why do we need to attached such an emotionally charged word as “remedial” to what  amounts to learning support?

My campus’ learning center embraces what I think is a healthier attitude toward learning support in the development of its tutoring and Supplemental Instruction (SI) programs. I suspect most university campus do the same, but here tutors and SI instructors aren’t simply finding remedies to educational ailments afflicting students who come to the center. They practice approaches that bridge gaps between learning styles and teaching styles. Similarly, our writing center isn’t simply a place to go have your paper spell-checked. To our writing center, good writing is good thinking and they want to be involved to provide support to students from the beginning–whether it’s brainstorming a paper’s topic or identifying the appropriate citation style, the writing center aims to support the student in a learner-centered way.

Maybe I’m wrong, but the article seemed to stigmatize the idea of learning support…and it bugged me.