Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Education is Broken!


I could listen to Sir Ken Robinson all day long, and it is not because of his witty British self. I love what he stands for and believes.  When you love something one hour feels like 5 minutes. We need to be allowed to pursue what we love! Also while he was talking he quoted so many other people. It was textuality; so many ideas brought into one!

This is broken. So true people do not want to fix something that is broken because a) it is not their job b) jerk c) they don’t need to use it d) designed for people who will understand it and not everyone else. That is our education system. People are not taking the initiative to recreate education because they are hypnotized from the past.

Seeing the texts and Multiple Media I enjoyed because I want to do my Critical photo essay about text/typography and how it keeps evolving.  I enjoyed how the article said, “Though classroom teaching often assumes essay organization as the norm, outside the classroom visually informative prose is pervasive, and not just in scientific or technical fields (P.67)” 

Overall I picked up on the point of this weeks design theme. The articles and videos talked about our lethargic epidemic in education and choosing not to evolve. But IT IS OUR JOB. A few should not be responsible for everyone’s education. We should all be responsible. We need to do what Sir Ken Robinson, “We need a education revolution! By doing this we need to take savvy multimedia makers and combine them with brilliant educator and make a new way of learning.”

I am just super excited because I love this idea and it makes me feel like I will have good job security if I stick with filmmaking! Also I just love filmmaking in general. I find it so sad when people don’t know what makes them happy. My mother always said “Do something you love and you will never work a day in your life!” I also feel privileged because my parents were amazing at telling me what I was good at. I think our parents and teachers play major parts in speaking into our lives. How do we know we are good at things unless people affirm us from time to time. What do you guys think?

9 comments:

  1. I really agree with your thoughts about Robinson's beliefs. But his thought on "needing an education revolution" and how it is our job to fix it to create a new way of learning.. seems like a lot of work with no concrete guarantee that it will actually improve the education system. How do we know all individuals will be acceptable to this idea? It seemed like in Michael Wesch's videos from last week that when technology (a new way of learning) started coming around into the classrooms, students started using that for other purposes instead of school.. this isn't fixing anything in the end, is it?

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    1. I totally hear what you are saying Michele. He did not give any tips on how to reform our education system. Maybe he figured someone would realize their talent was education improvement and step up to the plate haha. I think the problem with the michael wesch videos is that students do not want to sit in class anymore listening to a professor talk for 3 hours worrying about their student loans and what they will become one day. Technology in class does entertain us but if our education system figured out a way to combine the two I do not think it would be such a problem. But you are absolutely correct in all you say!

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  2. Agreed Savannah. It's great to have someone encouraging you. It sounds like you've got it figured out! Very cool.

    The problem I had with Robinson is that he didn't offer anything concrete. His speech basically stated the problem then said "let's revolt!" Awesome. But then what? It's like when we went into Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban. All of a sudden we're left with what? ...a country with no leadership, no government and a bunch of pissed off poppy growers. His talk was certainly inspiring, but there wasn't much in the way of substance. I don't know what the answers are either. I'm sure it would take more than a blog post to explore it. But I think Michele is right. We don't know what works or we'd probably be doing it. We could start with funding. How about getting kids the tools they'll need to compete with all the other tech-savvy countries.

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    1. Good observations Matt. I am not so sure if we figured out what worked in our school system that we would be doing it. We forget all the time that a university is a business. Not all the time are our professors worrying about our education. I know my opinion is a bit pessimistic but I do feel that our school is a very bureaucratic and not always out to be the good guys.

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  3. I once had a jerk for a teacher. He was always trying to be funny. He'd get his facts wrong. And when I called him out on it he was like, no I'm not. Prove it. So I would. I would set him straight. Then he would laugh and say, "I guess you learned something! More than the others that just sat in class."
    I loved that guy and he was a teacher for only a short time. I sometimes wonder about the best teachers being those that light their students fuses.

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    1. I know right! This class is one of my first in college where a professor actually encouraged me, and i am a senior! How sad is that? The whole point of being a teacher is to teach your students. That does not mean just forcing information down them but also affirming them. I thought professors wanted to make a difference in their students lives?

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  4. My first idea for education change…get teachers and instructors who actually want to teach!!! Sorry, I keep using my experience in engineering here for examples. I had a instructor who on the first day of class flat told us that this was his ‘part-time gig’, so if we had questions on the complex math, we just needed to figure it out amongst ourselves. Ok, I am paying big money for this class, yet he has the guts to tell me he doesn’t really give a shit about his job at MSU. Then he went one stating that 45% of the class would fail, but that wasn’t from his teaching…it was our fault. WOW!!! What a concept, come in knowing you don’t care about the job, and then push the blame on the students. Would we as patients go to a doctor who didn’t care if his patients lived or died? Take your car to a mechanic who didn’t know the difference between a fly- wheel and a pin-wheel? I think I have stated somewhere in our discussion that it really stinks that the people in charge of our ‘education system’ are the same people who have their children go to private schools, yet say there isn’t a problem. Go figure…

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    1. I have had so many professors like you kevin, isn't it super sad? I am afraid sometimes to talk to my advisor because she makes me feel like I am a burden. But the thing that motives me is being aware that I don't have to be like them. I am one person but I can also make a difference. I hope everything works out with engineering and that you never give up! Stay encouraged!

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  5. I was gonna reply here, but now it's a blog post. Nice prompting discussion, Savannah, and good contributions here all!

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