How Students Learn Today

Thought I'd take a break from my thesis* to post a video that always gets me thinking about the education side of digital humanities (the clip was created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University).

Though I'm not in-line with every point the clip seems to be making, I do like the overall message that education techniques needs to change to continue to impact students today. I don't worry as much about the self-motivated students finding a way to learn, but it seems like one of the miracles (and perhaps responsibilities?) of teaching is engaging those students who enter a class with diffidence (whether from lack of interest, different goals, lack of time, etc.).

* I'm currently researching the use of literary digital texts by an interesting set of people: not the researchers and academics whose career focuses on the development of or research through one or two digital archives, but a "secondary" set of dilettante users -- people below the doctoral level coming to digital texts for single or limited-scope learning. I'll report back with my findings in a few months -- hoping to figure out how well the "new learning" possible through digital texts extends to these less experienced users, and how digital texts can be built to help such users without disadvantaging more serious scholars.