“Today’s child is bewildered when he enters the 19^th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects, and schedules.”

– Marshall McLuhan 1967

It these walls could talk …

What would they say?

If students learn what they do …

What are they learning sitting here?

The information is up here.

Follow along.

Follow.

Of course, walls and desks cannot talk.

But students can.

Open Google Document: A Vision of Students Today.

What is it like being a student today?

Add Collaborators.

Collaborators (200).

200 Students made 367 edits to this document,

and surveyed themselves,

to bring you the following message:

My average class size is 115.

18% of my teachers

know my name

I complete 49% of the readings assigned to me.

Only 26% … relative to my life

I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open.

My neighbor paid for class but never comes.

I will read 8 books this year

2300 web pages

and 1281 facebook profiles

I will write 42 pages for class this semester

And over 500 pages of email

I get 7 hours of sleep each night

I spend 1 ½ hours watching TV each night.

I spend 3 ½ hours a day online

I listen to music 2.5 hours a day

I spend 2 hours on my cellphone

3 hours in class

2 hours eating

I work 3 hours every day

3 hours studying

That’s a total of 26.5 hours.

I’m a multitasker.

I have to be.

I will be over 20,000 in debt after graduation.

I’m one of the lucky ones.

Over 1 billion people

Make less than one dollar a day

This laptop costs more than some people in the world make in a year.

When I graduate I will probably have a job

That doesn’t exist today

(showing scantron)

Filling this out won’t help me get there.

Or deal with …

war, inequality, ethnic conflict, pollution, (and many more)

I did not create the problems

But they are my problems

Some have suggested that technology (alone) can save us …

I facebook through most of my classes.

I bring my laptop to class but I’m not working on class stuff.

“The inventor of the system deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not the greatest benefactors of mankind.”

- Josiah F. Bumstead

1841

… on the benefits of the chalkboard.

Writing on a chalkboard …

to be continued …