A vision of students today

Recently I was introduced to the YouTube video “A Vision of Students Today,” by Michael Wesch.  The video expressed many mixed emotions and ideas towards today’s learners living in the 21^st century.  Commonly mass quantities of Americans pride themselves on hard work ethic and impressive strides that have been achieved over the last several years.  Unfortunately students of today’s generation may be taking a step backwards.  Throughout the entire video powerful messages appear on the screen demonstrating the intense need for change.  Certain message fragments were especially capturing, for example, “If students learn what they do… What are they learning sitting here?”  Wesch puts forward an excellent argument, a limited number of the students enrolled in the class are actually benefiting from the current activity.  One girl in the video held up a sign that read “I complete 49% of my reading assignments, only 26% are relevant to life.”  Wesch point is that students are obviously not interested in what they are assigned to read, and much of it has no connection to their life anyways.  That alone provides enough evidence that are education system is in dire need for an upgrade. 

Clearly desks, chairs and walls can’t speak, nor contribute what may be visible to them on a daily basis, but the responses are real from the students themselves.  A document, which this video is portrayed after received 367 edits done by 200 students describing what their vision of a student today is.  The messages were unpleasant and did not suggest a positive learning environment was taking place in the college classroom.  How supportive can a classroom be when there are 115 students in the class and chances are your professor does not even know your name.  Without a strong support system students easily can become distracted.  Simple web sites like face book, MySpace and emails can lose a student attention in an instant.  In the video students are even recorded with the message “I bring my lap top to class, but I’m not working on class stuff.”  When the information is completely irrelevant, you cannot be surprised that students are so easily distracted. 

The first clip of the video presented this phrase, “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 structures by fragmented, classified patterns subjects and schedules.” (Marshall Mchuhan 1967)  No longer is that an accurate argument.  Wesch would agree that information is no longer scarce in a classroom.  American students are lucky enough to have laptops and computers which are packed full with an abundance of information.  Almost anything and everything is possible on the internet.  Students have the recourses available to develop new learning styles not only in the classroom but out of it too.  Not only have students gained a strong sense to technology, but they have also developed a strong skilled called multi tasking.  On average a college student is participating in various events that include study time, school, eating, time spent online, and many more that equal out to a 26.5 hour day.  This seems impossible, but multi tasking is a powerful skill that is generation has defiantly developed.

In this current time frame with all the distractions, young adults are still excelling and doing great things.  Although students are still succeeding, an educational upgrade is in order.  Teacher must take advantage with the things that students are most distracted by because they are the best learning recourses of all.  Not all learning needs to take place in a class room anymore, so we can make school more relatable to the future so people are interested now.  In order for the greatest achievements to be made, it is evident that smaller class sizes are in order, in addition to a better support system.  Many people believe that “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)  Wesch is pointing out the strengths computers and different technologies have given us, now it is up to the students and teachers to take this in an appropriate direction.