Life: Unplugged

Why you should unplug, was posted on Edudemic exactly a month and a half ago. (The infographic can be seen below.) While I fault the article for not revealing the sample sizes or demographic data, the data is still sobering.

Some people see the data and recognize that at least some parts of it ring true in their own lives. Many other people (perhaps even the majority) see the data and think, "I'm not like that". The truth is that most of us are average. Despite what we think about our behaviors and responses, the vast majority of us are decidedly average. Which means that no matter what you or I think about our plugged in lives, we should generally assume that we fit the general trends, like average people do.

I personally have a contentious relationship with technology. Some of this is on display in past articles such as this, this, and this. On one hand, I love the convenience of the cloud and Evernote and online research and Moodle. On the other hand, I see how easily I can get distracted by the interactivity, I see how the fallacy of multitasking affects my work, I see how easy it is to be absorbed into things I don't need to be reading or viewing or listening to. Not bad things, mind you, but things that bring no benefit to my life or to the lives of others.

Computer technology is here to stay and will have a place in more and more arenas of life. How we use it is important. When we use it may be ever more important.

How plugged in are you? Are you due for an unplugging? Do you see yourself in any of the statistics?



Follow me on Twitter @MatthewTShowman

College at its best?

A few weeks back I read this post by Anne Curzan, professor of English at the University of Michigan. In the post she wrote:

College at its best is about taking the time and the chance to find what you’re passionate about—from a major to a profession to a cause to a place in the world, and the list goes on. It’s about taking control of your experience and education (in the broadest sense) to make it what you want it to be—not what you think someone else thinks it should be.

I've been thinking through these ideas ever since.

You see, some of the ideas resonate within me, but others hit a nerve or two. Some of the ideas do both. Unfortunately, I've been having difficulty putting words to my reactions.

Is this college at it's best?

I'm very pro vocational colleges. I'm very pro trade schools. I'm very against what too many colleges and universities have become: glorified trade schools where people go to train for jobs.

I'm very pro creativity. I'm very pro critical thinking. I'm very against the idea that merely expressing one's thoughts is the final goal in itself.

I'm very pro diversity. I very pro freedom of speech. I'm very against the mob rule that has become the modern concept of inclusiveness, which is neither diverse nor freeing.

So in that vein:

• Shouldn't college at its best involve training young minds to think?
• Shouldn't college at its best involve a pursuit of higher standards for self, for others, for the world?
• Shouldn't college at its best involve the developing the rigor needed to push into new frontiers?
• Shouldn't college at its best involve challenging ideas and having one's own ideas challenged?
• Shouldn't college at its best involve learning to disagree academically and with civility?
• Shouldn't college at its best involve listening to others who may be smarter or wiser than yourself?
• Shouldn't college at its best involved being humbled?
• Shouldn't college at its best involve more than just what you want it to be?

Maybe college shouldn't be all of these. Maybe Curzan is correct. Maybe her thoughts don't conflict with these other goals as much as I think they do. Maybe I'm simply thinking too specifically about her intentionally vague admonitions.

Nevertheless, college at its best is more than what I thought it should be when I was there, and I would guess that it should be more than what many of today's students think it should be as well.



Follow me on Twitter @MatthewTShowman