No 9. Information Society - implications for education and socialization (talking bout' a revolution)

Oh yes, the revolution... Digital, Virutal, Communist, Insurections, Liberté, égalité, fraternité... The first, the second, the new, the frontier...

In the texts provided by the course everything seems very nice (it is the goal of every revolution to makes thinks nice after all). However (IMHO), the aspect that is not stressed enough is the resistance towards the change.

You think I'm talking about the teachers? About their lack of motivation and getting stucked to "old way"... Well no...


I mean the students. OK, after their parents go to work, they are brougt up by Uncle Google and taken care of by Aunt Mozzilla or cousin Explorer but does it mean that they are keen on the new media in school?


Last semester I conducted a course in "Methodology of self-study". I didn't want my students to prepare a text for their finall project or a PowerPoint presentation. The first would collect dust in the archive, the second would be burried on a CD. I wanted them to prepare a short movie related to the subjects covered by the course and post it on youtube. The goal was to prepare something that would be usefull for a person who looks for materials about the human brain, fast learning techniques etc... Edutainment please....


I was shocked when a big group of students said that they would preffer THE OLD WAY. The Folk said no to the revolution - bring back the emperor, away with the parlament.
Maybe it was very autorative of me (yeah it was) but having the power I decided to enlighten them (narcissism on my side right) and bring them happiness even against their will (talking bout a revolution).

When the time for the submission of their projects came, I made quite a revolutionary (i like that word today) discovery. The students who durring the class were rather lame made really nice movies - vivid, amusing, interesting. But the ones who were always prepared, read the texts made movies that were more of a lecture than a movie.
As in every revolution, the ones who were on the top of the ladder before have some hard time adjusting to the new situation. The ones who were already ahead are ok.

But what are you going to do when it comes to giving grades? Punish those oldfashioned? Give them some time to adjust?
As every revolution before, the revolution brought to the Education by ICT will need some time to become the regular way. What will happen next? Will it be remembered as the revolution of 1989 in Poland? that brought us to the times of democracy? Or maybe like the Revolution in Russia, that despite nice slogans brought only terror? Or maybe it will be the French way? Great ideas and let's celebrate it despite the quite a big number of cut heads on the way?


Here are two movies that I really liked, both given the maximum grade... Sorry guys they are both in Polish... However the first one doesn't have to many text and it's about the difference in being in High School and at the University. The second one is on the brain (quite a nice thing). Mind you, how different they are in techniques. The first one is well made, the second one was recorded with a mobile phone camera pointed at a PP presentation). Enjoy and feel free to comment: