Blog Post #13 TED/Students of Today.

Brian Crosby

        In this TED talk, Mr. Crosby talked about his group of fourth graders who were 90% second language learners. He took a poll the second day of class and only 9 students knew what city they lived in, and 3 students knew what country they lived in. He goes on to talk about a general disconnection between students and education today. He says we need to get our students involved more in class. The easiest way to do this in my opinion is to encourage active learning or hands on learning. Crosby gives an example of his students doing a hot air balloon assignment. This way the kids actively examined the properties of the balloon. They learned why the heat lifted the device, why it had to be light weight, etc. 

        To me, this post connects extremely well with all of our other posts. Crosby identifies that there is definitely something terribly wrong with education today. He gives a somewhat different solution. Most of our posts simply say technological enhancement will give education the boost it needs to rejuvenate itself. Crosby in my mind suggests a more hands on way of learning. This way it appeals to all types of learning; auditory, visual, kinesthetic. I believe the most important part of education is recognizing each aspect and making sure to cover all three. This will bring about a well rounded lesson and group of students. 

Students of the Today.

           What do students really do? Are they really paying attention? Are they taking notes on their laptops? This video gives a closer look at the students of today. The main points to me are that classes aren't personal. There is one statistic that only 18% of the student's professors know her name. With classes of 100 plus students, how can we expect them to know our names? But this creates an atmosphere of generic learning, with teachers only focused on the curriculum they are supposed to teach. There is another point made about students buying hundred dollar textbooks that they never use. Even with financial aid, that is expensive, and a waste. Though we can sell the books back to the bookstore, we get cheated with the amount they give back to us. Last semester I paid $150.00 for a book that I used ONCE, and I got $40.00 back for it. Or something even worse, when they say a, "New Edition", is coming out for the next semester so they cannot buy it. Usually a new edition has a new co-author and a few commas moved around, but they can't buy it back. How can we expect students to pay attention when they aren't having their education needs met in most classes? Why should I give my attention to a professor who doesn't care about my education? The point is, for us to expect a positive result, we must give a positive environment to students. We will always reap what we sew.