“A Vision of Students Today“, done by the Digital Ethnography folks at the University of Kansas has been making the rounds for a couple of months.
Today, they posted a thoughtful, plaintive response from a UK lecturer. The full post is worth reading – a few of my favorite peices:
What is it like being a lecturer today?
66% of my students
Bother to come to the lectures
I spend all Sunday carefully preparing.
I spent five days researching and preparing.
A carefully considered reading list
Of which my students read
20% of the items.
I spent the summer
Creating an online learning environment
Full of amazing study resources
That only 30% of my students visit
And she ends simply:
Of what school teachers earn
I spent 5 years writing my last book
Which was well reviewed
And got me interviewed on TV
But I only made £50 in royalties
So you have to ask
Why I do this job?
And my answer is
Because I believe
all that stands between civilization and barbarism
is education.
Students Today” suggests that students are dissatisfied. This lecturer’s response answers in kind.
Chicken and egg?
I love learning. From books, from experiences and most of all from people. I think this is normal.
I had trouble with my engagement while in formal education settings. This is common.
I’ve been both the bored student and the frustrated lecturer.
That their is so much annoyance on both “sides” seems a little pathetic. We can do better.
In this conversation about education reform the frustration can be a motivator initially. Over time it’s hard not to become overwhelmed, by the sheer size of the idea of education reform, or the pace of change, or the politics of any given institution.
I think communities are the solution. A combination of blogs like this, conferences, and even Facebook groups, to get like minded people to break down this frustration into small task lists. Small steps with a bigger vision in mind.