Reading through our material, I agreed heavily with Information overload, the need to filter through all of it, discard what is irrelevant, keep and use what is. My disconnect is mostly occupational difference; I don't typically share what I find online on a regular basis. I figure my interests are unique to me, and the information is out there for others who may have similar interests. I know that working through our courses will make sharing opinions on our subject matter necessary, and I may make a change.
I did learn that RSS feeds may help me stay current with the sites I do follow. I must be a digital dinosaur as I typically get my professional and personal interest alerts from email. The disconnect is with twitter. I admit that twitter is good for breaking news feeds. The downside is that a lot of that news can come with an unqualified opinion or commentary. In Mr. Alexander's post (https://bryanalexander.org/uncategorized/my-daily-info-wrangling-routine/), he waded through the information to gain sources for his lectures and writings. And, unlike "Diana Laufenberg, who taught history at the progressive public school" (https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/27529/creating-classrooms-we-need-8-ways-into-inquiry-learning), I teach a very technical subject that requires students to learn a concrete set of tools before they can creatively use those tools. With our institution becoming more 'work-based' and desiring that all coursework be designed as 'project based', generating useful information students can use along with what they need is one more hoop. I find that keeping them off social media during class is the real challenge for learning Adobe software toward the goal of industry certification.
I agree that education needs to change as today's students claim to learn differently than those 25 years ago. As we, as a culture or a society, move forward in some ways (evolve?), we move away from other things despite the value (devolve?). I compare it to moving from agriculture to industry. I taught in college and found students that did not know how to learn. They wanted to be spoon fed information. At the High School level, I find students do not want to read. Not at all for any reason. This disturbs me. History has shown that the illiterate are subjected to believe truth as it is told to them by the literate (The Early Roman Catholic Church as an example).
This brings me back to my made up word - Enter-cation. The greater portion of my High School students cannot resist their addiction to social media. They are constantly checking their twitter feeds, snapchat, instagram, and RSS feeds on youtube. Many of them sincerely believe their future and fortune will be as a youtube gaming star. If I can find a way to educate them whilst entertaining them (Enter-cation), maybe I can get them to retain what may be a useful skill they can employ as they become productive members of society.
How many of our cohort teach technical or STEM courses and have the same technology challenges? Please share your thoughts of using personal technology instead of fighting it in the technical classroom.
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