njgal
April 8, 2009, 3:56pm
32
njgal - thanks for opening such an intellectual thread. It was a good read.
Times change and so do needs. I took a Victorian Fic. class and almost died reading 900 page novels - it was torturous for me to read those works - they were written for people whose only source of entertainment was reading - not for us in the 21st century. The professor said each year he has to cut off some readings as students can’t read as they used to be able to. It’s important that our educators and employers understand and identify generational changes and make amendments for us - they can’t expect us to be how they were, the world has significantly changed in the last 10 years alone. Having the same expectations from fast-paced kids today as previous generations is unfair.
njgal, I have a 20 year old cousin who has just been accepted in med-school, speaking the same way. He can’t seem to hold online conversations, he is always distracted and resorts to the best shortcut he can find to complete assignments, readings, etc. That’s people nowadays.
I agree - I guess I am set in my ways.
You know there are studies that indicate that reading a book and listening to book (audio) triggers different parts of your brain.
Did you also see the new school that Bill gates opened and all the classes are project based. (much like a corporate environment). No text books. Classes are geared toward strategy and out of box thinking.
He even said - maybe teachers won’t exist in 10 years.
At Philly ‘Future’ School, Books Are So 20th Century : NPR
Face to face communication is already dwindling. I would like to see other types of communication (texting, phone) have as effective results