tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3481083477379506990.post1883539510878586168..comments2023-10-30T05:28:11.795-04:00Comments on All Education Matters: Conversations That Matter: Claudia Dreifus Talks About Why Colleges Are Failing U.S. StudentsCryn Johannsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08452412213997621242noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3481083477379506990.post-65300344868284641122011-04-20T12:59:47.376-04:002011-04-20T12:59:47.376-04:00@ anon 5:15
I understand your point. However, te...@ anon 5:15 <br /><br />I understand your point. However, technology has limits in what it can teach without a cognitive framework of a classroom. Despite the new digital methods available to get information, our brains are still very analog. We learn best in interactive, social environments, where we teaching can be more anecdotal than based simply on dry rout learning . There have also been conclusive studies showing that handwriting is more effective than typing for retention and analysis of information. I remember from law school was I handwrote my notes. Why? I felt more engaged in what was going on. I also was not tempted to go off on AIM or play games. <br /><br />What many people worry about in the wiki universe of the internet is that if people are left to their own devices all knowledge will sink down into becoming topical rather than substantive. I tend to think that there might be an alarmist aspect to that. But without the tools to know HOW to self-teach (oddly enough) you will not be very effective in that task. That requires the ability to tell "good" information from "bad," fact from opinion, etc. Judging from what I see in the public, a vast majority can't even figure out the "fact from opinion" aspect. <br /><br />But anyways, undergraduate programs are simply like High-school part 2. HS students do not graduate these days knowing how to do basic things like read, write, and do basic calculation. So universities are forced to include more remedial courses in their catalogs - to their detriment. That is why B.A is required for jobs that a HS diploma used to be good enough for 30 years ago. Schools are simply NOT doing their jobs at the elementary level. All they have to do is teach kids to fucken read, write, add/subtract/multiply/divide and do some fractions. That is all! Its amazing that after 8 years of primary, plus 4 years of secondary, the can't do it. <br /><br />The traditional system is not breaking, its broken. That is why I believe that the European system, of vocational vs. university tract is the best way to handle flow. You take a test, you are placed on a tract based on your aptitudes.Critickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16413458032995923900noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3481083477379506990.post-26343823843129575622010-09-13T22:42:49.370-04:002010-09-13T22:42:49.370-04:00The professors and administrators are parasites fe...The professors and administrators are parasites feeding off the student body.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3481083477379506990.post-91814803469337091302010-09-13T19:51:41.435-04:002010-09-13T19:51:41.435-04:00Cryn, this book is excellent! Could you try to in...Cryn, this book is excellent! Could you try to interview the author of Shop Class as Soulcraft. Matthew B. Crawford makes a great case about the changing nature of work. Thank you!Nandohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06423524039657355134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3481083477379506990.post-64983780192853307782010-09-13T17:51:06.935-04:002010-09-13T17:51:06.935-04:00I remember an old Twilight Zone episode.
Three or...I remember an old Twilight Zone episode.<br /><br />Three or 4 people very greedy men robbed a bank of a huge amount of Gold, managed to put themselves into sleep in a cave for 100 years.<br /><br />The plan was to wake up 100 years later and spend the money.<br /><br />Unfortunately for them, gold turned out to be worthless because during that 100 year sleep, a way was figured out to manufacture Gold.<br /><br />So it will be for education. Technology will entirely change Education. It has to.<br /><br />Why supress Technology? In other words, if the tools are there, why not use them?<br /><br />Why go up against an army of antiquated University spears when you have technological cannons in your arsenal?<br /><br />Maybe I sound too optimistic, like a prevailing theme at a World's Fair.<br /><br />Like: the World of Tomorrow" in 1939 before WWII.<br /><br />But really, with the Internet, and all of the technology that exists now, the primitive Bricks and Sticks of a College Campus, and all that it costs will have to become totally irrelevant.It is just a matter of time.<br /> <br />Real Estate that can be better used. <br /><br />More acerage for cemetary space for instance, or a park where the living and indebted Educated dead can walk around like zombies in search of brains to eat. A fanciful, though fitting demise for all hope in Higher Education.<br /><br />But let me return to my beginning statement.<br /><br />Why continue to maintain the primitive campus. All those really, really, really, and one more (#4) really expensive buildings, and all the surrounding high maintenance property at the cost of so many students backed by the taxpayer who thought they were "pursuing happiness?" <br /><br />Let me propose this analogy:<br /><br />Doesen't a typical "Beautiful" college campus seem more and more like a plantation that is impossible to keep up wthout cheap slave labor?"<br /><br />But there are no slaves anymore.<br /><br />The money has to come from some other source. A deep pocket. Somewhere. <br /><br />That is where the Student Loans (Wake up Taxpayer because you are backing them) kicks in.<br /><br />We are talking about Prime, Prime Beautiful Real Estate, that would be better served in so many ways, instead of as a vehicle to rip all American taxpaying individual and Families off. <br /><br />At least if taxes are going to benefit society, why not turn a college campus into, and here are a few more ideas: a public golf course, an office park, an upscale or lowscale housing development. A city Dump. Power Plant?<br /><br />Anything but a place where a lot of gutless and creepy loan shark enablers can comb their ponytails and sit around and play professor and PHD and "teacher" Claiming to be champions of Human rights and the Humanities, while drawing their pay from the ultimate source......the taxpayer.<br /><br />Where they can sit in those beautiful stone buildings and stick a feather in their cap and call it what? <br /><br />Being the overseer for the banks?<br /><br />God I hope I'm wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3481083477379506990.post-12875528294825859612010-09-13T17:47:43.233-04:002010-09-13T17:47:43.233-04:00A very basic question:
We all call them "Stu...A very basic question:<br /><br />We all call them "Student Loans" , but are they not in practical reality an enormous burden and form of deception placed on the "Taxpayer" or "Citizen" , who has been picking up the tab for so long, and has been completely unaware?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com