Any Questions?
If only Seth was a university prof. In high school we did an exercise sort of like this – current events sort of thing but you had to take a news story, broaden the scope of the issue and then lead a class discussion. It’s a great feeling when you get everyone interested, talking and engaged. It really doesn’t take much to turn on that ‘wanna talk’ switch…but
On an entirely other end of that Powerpoint-y spectrum, are the presentations where you either want to scratch your eyes out, or you just have a little cry for the poor scared soul just trying to read the words on the screen. It’s just unfortunate…
Here’s how I would conduct a university class.
Walk into the room the first day and say "Look, either you read the readings and have some questions or points of discussion…or we go home early."
Second day – everyone shows up. "Got any questions?" everyone looks around the room at everyone else, waiting for someone else to say something. "Nope? Okay then, I’ll see you next week." And leave.
Know why? Because I’ve been that student who didn’t read it and just waits for someone else to take the lead. I’ve been that student who does what the rest of us lemings students do when we see a powerpoint slide – write it down word for word (and it is just plain ridiculous when they tell you not too…I’m sorry, it’s human friggin nature). And I’ve been that student, when the responsibilty to learn was thrown back at me…rose to the occasion.
How old are you again? you’re doing bunch of Web 2.0 stuff and all of sudden give yourself permisison to theorize about university education?
Get off high horse, babe, it’s all hype. How old were you in the late 1999 and early 2000?
dude – I’m sorry you don’t feel like I have the right to discuss university education. Personally, I feel my being in unversity for the past four years, having a mother who’s TA’d for a few herself, and a father who speaks in front of university kids, a grandmother who’s a prof… yada yada yada…would give me a bit of a right to discuss these matters.
Oh wait. I forgot. The fact that this is my blog gives me the right…_der_.
But thanks for stopping by; I always appreciate opposing opinions.
Balderdash!
Bottomline is you have no credibility to talk about university education whatsover. The very fact that this is your blog is a very immature way of evading your idiotic proposition.
Did I say immature? oh yeah, now a 20-something year wants to teach profs how to conduct lectures.
Give me a big F’ing break, will you?
It’s been a while since I last saw the word “Balderdash” used… actually it’s usually associated with grumpy old people, isn’t it? You know – the kind that won’t let others have an opinion… especially not the darn young whippersnappers.
Oh and criticising someone wishing that Seth Godin taught at his university for having stupid, immature ideas… you *do* know that Seth Godin has some credibility, right? As such, maybe there’s merit to the idea, hmm?
Methinks there’s a point in discussing ideas rather than firing “you’re young and cannot possibly know anything” as a counter, which in itself is most certainly immature.
Btw Rachel – “Smrt” means “death” in Serbo-Croatian :)
Yikes! Thanks for pointing that out Thomas…a joke among Canadian friends evidently has many meanings.
I’ve changed it completely; there was no salvaging…again, I appreciate your pointing that possible point of misunderstanding.
Just because smrt might mean omninous things in various other languages is no reason to get rid of it…who knows, it also might mean something wonderful as well. I will have to be a smrt genus on my own now.
SRD – why shouldn’t university students have the right to discuss the education we’re getting?! And although my sis is a babe, random dudes do not have the right to throw the term around in such a condescending way.
TW- thanks for sticking up for my favourite blogger and neighbouroonie.
Ass kissing all around hey?
The issue is not whether university student should or shouldn’t discuss methods of education, the issue is that some wannabe who surfed the web for couple of hours right after she was taken off the diapers now thinks she’s all figured it out.
I remeber the type back in 1999 and early 2000 and those guys are flipping burgers now.
These web 2.0 wannabes are next. Wanna bet?
I’ll tell you a little story, shall I?
Flying to the US once, there was a middle aged couple at the gate. A steward noticed that their carry-on was way larger than allowed and told them so. The man went off on the poor steward, calling him names that would get him arrested in quite a few countries. I happen to dislike that kind of behaviour (call me a busybody…) and politely told the man to take it easy, and respect the person simply doing his job. Predictably the nice American then verbally abused me, shouting that I was several kinds of animal apearantly engaged in sexual acts. The coup de grace was him screaming that he’d travelled the globe, so I’d better clam it.
The morale of the story? Being old(er) and having experienced “stuff” (I do not here use the word “experience” to mean “learning”), you may behave like a total sexually committed animal of your choice, without reasoning in any way.
Sarcasm? Lord, no. I’m not old enough to use that in my country.
To:”Some random dude”:
In universities today, the emphasis is on student directed learning. It is no longer considered good educational practice for all the information to come from the professor. The challenge is often to find a topic related to the course content on which there are a multitude of opinions and ways to consider an issue.
Who better to offer suggestions for learning enrichment than current students.
I request my own students at the end of the semester to evaluate the course and offer suggestions for improvement. The view from each side of the desk is different. Education means learning and expanding one’s horizons. I doubt that any definition of it mentions age.
One can be a “jerk” at any age.
Getting an “A” and getting a good education are not necessarily the same.
Professors are human beings and very different from one another. Courses taught by those professors are different as well.
Student evaluations in every single college course will range from worst to “best I ever took;” better professors challenge the students to think and analyze, not simply to memorize words in a text.
College professor
I think you should be fired from wherever you teach because you lack critical thinking.
I don’t disagree with your proposition here, not at all.
If you read my comment above you realize that it was a personal attack – simply because I believe the owner of this blog is full of herself and believes she has figured it all.
Learn to read to prof.
dude – I think it’s unfortunate that you’ve come to this conclusion about me. The reason that I asked for email information is that it would be great to actually have a conversation beyond you “personally attacking” me (as you so stated). Conversing in blog comment format is just plain tedious.
I’m not sure how you reached the conclusion that I’ve figured it all out…I read something by an incredibly smart individual and it got me thinking. I mentioned how I would run a class. I never once said “this is how it should be done”, I simply offered how I would do it.
I’m a student. I’m an intern. All that I’m doing right now is LEARNING. On my blog I discuss everything from my cats, random observations, work/school stuff, some goofy gadget on Gizmodo, to a great cause by Free Culture enthusists.
You, on the otherhand, do not seem to want to learn. You do not want to have a constructive conversation. I think that’s really, really sad. If you’ll notice, I almost always respond to people on here. I think it’s exciting when people have something to say, whether it be an opposing opinion, a pointer for how my company’s website could be improved, or just a funny remark. Whatever, it’s just great that people are talking.
Btw – “Learn to read to prof”? Learn to PROOFREAD, dude.
Seriously, if you want to have a discussion about why you disagree with me, I’m all ears. But if you want to bash me and tell me I’m full of myself and tell anyone who tries to defend me that they’re kissing my ass, then you’re the arrogant one. Not me.
If you have so much time to make sarcastic comments, you could maybe read a few of my previous blog entries to get a better sense of me. I wrote a sonnet about JEANS, dude, for those who had fun teasing me about my affinity for wearing jeans. I blog because it’s fun and it’s great practice for other places where I need to write. What E-X-A-C-T-L-Y is wrong with that?
my email, dude, is globetrotrz @ gmail.com. Maybe we can actually have a chat where we both learn something and be better for it.
Rachel – you’ve wasted more words on this individual than you needed to.
From reading your thread, I get the sense talking to this fellow would be as satisfying as having a conversation with your shoe.
Cory
You’re right Cory…but he bashed my grandmother the prof. I couldn’t help myself… ;^)
Allrighty, time for my 2 cents. Cory, I completely agree!! Some people just like to cause shit just for the sake of it.
Rachel, I agree with you as well. A good number of my undergrad courses were the kind where the prof walked in, did his/her lecture, very little time for questions, etc, and I’d always end up dreading the class, falling asleep, or going to class ONLY with very large cups of coffee in order to keep myself going for the whole thing. When I took a couple of Graduate classes, that’s when I really started to learn–in those courses, either you came to class already having read and understood the material, prepared to discuss the merits or pitfalls of each reading, or you were just left out of the discussion completely, and you learned nothing. It’s a challenging way to learn, but it’s been the best way for me so far!! (As a side note, there was one course I took in which I learned more in one week than I could say I learned the whole rest of the year!! It was a peacebuilding course and we did a conflict simulation-VERY intense way to learn.)
Oh and random dude–as a student, it’s your duty (THAT’S RIGHT!!) to suggest ways of improving a course or teaching method. Think of the benefits for the next generation of students!!