what the future has to say for itself…

I’m back to work after a great trip in France with the family. Catching up on my reading, I watched this interesting video from the Educa conference. (It is entry 3 on the page I linked to). What is partcularly well done about this interview is the focus on HOW students use technology as opposed to what technology tools they use. The video is kind of long, but it is worth it to go all the way to the end to hear the conference organizer talk about what he takes away from what the students said. He concludes that what the students coming to university are looking for is constant and better communication. We are already a wireless campus, but I wonder if more students are bringing laptops so that they can take advantage of that?
I was also interested to hear the students say that they don’t really want their teachers IMing with them because they want a separation between themselves and their teachers–they want the teacher to remain friendly but a little distant, someone they can respect. They don’t want teachers seeing their profiles and away messages. But they do like to get the IM addressses of others in their classes so that they can “virtually” work togoether on homework, ask quick questions, etc. The need for speed was another theme of their remarks. They want to get things done quickly so they have more time for fun… Sounds to me like what is missing is a sense of their work being real and inherently important. Teachers need to hear that as well, and take note. They had no understanding that there were good reasons to learn to use a library for instance–they thought teachers were just “afraid” and “ignorant of what is on the internet.” It is our fault for not doing a better job with explaining the why’s to students, I think.