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Post by PigsnieLite on Sept 14, 2010 14:05:29 GMT -5
Is the Life of the Mind in Decline? Are people (in general) today more stupid, less bookish, less educated, and they think thats fine & dandy? 
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Post by Avril on Sept 14, 2010 19:06:41 GMT -5
How would they know? ;D
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Post by Frito Freddie on Sept 14, 2010 20:16:38 GMT -5
Well-said. Let me add to that. I think people are writing more and reading more . . . because of the Internet and unfortunately the ability to text messages. (This isn't really writing but its better than nothing.) I also think people believe they are more educated because of the Internet . . . if its on the Internets, it must be True! In a way, it perpetuates ignorance. About books--Perhaps the young read more because of HARRY POTTER and TWILIGHT. Hopefully, they continue reading. Is the Life of the Mind in Decline? I don't think so. Because of the Internet, it just seems that way . . . since every cretin and blockhead has access to it |
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Post by Avril on Sept 14, 2010 23:07:35 GMT -5
About books--Perhaps the young read more because of HARRY POTTER and TWILIGHT. Hopefully, they continue reading. Is the Life of the Mind in Decline? I don't think so. Because of the Internet, it just seems that way . . . since every cretin and blockhead has access to it Actually, I think Baby Boomers read more as children than Gens X or Y. I was reading prodigiously because there was no TV when I was a sprout. By eight I'd read all of Enid Blyton, all of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, Robinson Crusoe and others by Daniel Defoe, Treasure Island and others by Robert Louis Stevenson, all the Adventure books of Willard Price, all of Mary Elwyn Patchett, a goodly serving of Rudyard Kipling - Jungle Books, Just So stories and Kim and Sir Walter Scott Ivanhoe etc. By the time I was ten I'd devoured encyclopaedias and Boys' and Girls' Own Annuals. Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb; Wind and the Willows, all the Narnia stories and on and on. When people rave these days about how the Harry Potter series has started kids reading again, it's in the context of the post digital age. I've read research which indicates that increased exposure to television, computers, calculators, movies, Spellcheck, Google and txt!ng have demonstrably altered and continue to alter the brain patterns of children as they develop. Areas of the brain which allow focus and extended concentration, persistence and rote learning along with practiced transfer from short term to long term memory are no longer as developed as in previous generations, whose brains have been trained differently. On the other hand, children can show extraordinary concentration and persistence - albeit of an addictive nature, with video and computer games. Other features of the post-digital age are a little bewildering to older generations. For example, with car sat nav devices, people who would normally have a good spatial orientation do not tend to develop these skills. There are some people who will never develop these abilities, say to read a map. A friend who spent an hour and a half trying to find us from the airport (11 minutes away) had relied on a sat nav device rather than following the very simple instructions we'd given her. The other night at a party, Wombat and I watched a girl come into the packed room and without even looking, key in a number on her mobile phone to find a friend who, it turns out, was five feet away right behind us. Apparently even the act of physically looking around the not-enormous room was too much effort for this impatient Gen Y-er. Then again, because of computers I know I write a heap more, and I certainly read more online information of a far more varied nature purely because of Google and Wikipedia. Whether that information is always reliable or accurate is a whole other thing. |
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Post by sunfrog on Sept 15, 2010 13:17:12 GMT -5
I think there is a large gap forming between stupid and smart and it's only going to get wider.
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Post by PigsnieLite on Sept 15, 2010 13:45:16 GMT -5
I think Avrilly & Frito are too nice. I haf actually met people who have read only 1-2 books in their lives and they think thats just fine. If they had to read books for class, they go on the internut, read synopsis & bullshit their way through the tests. Or they watch the movie or TV serial, of which the BBC has tons, from Oscar Wilde to Dickens to EM Forster. HARRY POTTER & TWILIGHT are more like abberations, I think, and TWILIGHT is lousy literature! That said, I cant read maps either. Manys the time Pigsnit has hit me on the head wid a rolled up map. I do write a lot more becuz of the internut, and I meet so many interesting people I would hodderwise have totally missed. Although I do believe my attention span has suffered.  My favourite childhood books wuz Gullivers Travels, The Little Mermaid, a Giant Childrens Bible wid lovely pictures of Maccabees having their fingurs cut off, Brothers Grimm, a gruesome Philippine book about demons my mum gave to me, and all of the wonderful Tarzan books, which wuz my dads special recommendation. |
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Post by shoegirl on Sept 15, 2010 13:53:56 GMT -5
Sorry P-Lite I was testing out what the Exalt link did, I think I may have decreased your karma. I also tested out the smite button.
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Post by PigsnieLite on Sept 15, 2010 14:06:17 GMT -5
Waaah, I haf been smited! Hee.  |
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Post by Avril on Sept 15, 2010 22:02:45 GMT -5
I expect many people have been smitten by Shoey. ;D
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Post by Avril on Sept 15, 2010 22:24:16 GMT -5
I think Avrilly & Frito are too nice. I haf actually met people who have read only 1-2 books in their lives and they think thats just fine. If they had to read books for class, they go on the internut, read synopsis & bullshit their way through the tests. Or they watch the movie or TV serial, of which the BBC has tons, from Oscar Wilde to Dickens to EM Forster. HARRY POTTER & TWILIGHT are more like abberations, I think, and TWILIGHT is lousy literature! In my post-grad counselling skills classes I have one or two ring-ins who are undergrads, notably from the Elite Athlete Mentoring Programme. These are elite athletes who are sponsored by their clubs or National Sporting bodies to develop as mentors for young players. So far, they're footballers. I'm bewildered that the College is allowing them entry to a tertiary institution when they are barely literate. I can only assume someone high up thinks it's okay for them to have the qualifications based on work other people, like club secretaries, do for them. In my class, they stand out like pimples on the proverbial. The other day I found I was having to explain what plagiarism is to one of these chappies. His assignment had a Turnitin score of 57% (that's software that finds similarity to other works submitted or on the Internet). A score of 10% to 15% is acceptable, and usually comprises references and direct quotes. Without the least idea of it not being perfectly okay to do this, he'd simply copied and pasted large chunks of essay written by his somewhat brighter classmate in the same programme. It seems his essays are dictated to a club secretary who spells phonetically, and it further appears there is no awareness in either party of correct grammar, essay structure, how to reference or to use acceptable academic language instead of colloquial phrases and clichés. His 'reference list' bore no resemblance to any reference in his essay, and in addition had also evidently been copied and pasted, with the font type and size not matching the rest of his essay. It included the lovely touch of page numbers that again, had no counterpart in his essay but most likely were highly relevant to the original article, whatever it was. Most of this list was Internet sources - which our institution regards as academic laziness. It was apparent he had simply Googled, instead of finding the relevant reference in his required course text book, which would have required him to actually, you know, read it. Fail! But if they didn't have to read and write, they'd probably mentor young players (as long as they were of similar IQ) quite adequately. So, yes, I'm very familiar with the short cuts students attempt to take. |
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Post by PigsnieLite on Sept 15, 2010 22:33:21 GMT -5
Ughhhhh. He didnt even change the font! He totally disrespected you! You should have given him an I for IDJOOT!
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Post by dragrat on Sept 15, 2010 22:47:28 GMT -5
;D  |
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Post by Avril on Sept 15, 2010 23:14:19 GMT -5
I forgot to mention he'd completely misunderstood major parts of the course. Perhaps I didn't need to say that.
There's a question they're required to answer which is supposed to indicate that they know the difference between social conversations and using the counselling microskills in a therapeutic context to help people open up and talk about their problems.
This chap's answer states, "Thats a gud quesetin and everyone have differnt ways of speaking."
Apart from feeling that I'm wasting my time marking students like this, I'm frustrated that the authorities think it's okay to set these fellows up to fail.
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Post by dragrat on Sept 16, 2010 6:20:50 GMT -5
Why not try your hand at working for the "other college" ;D
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Post by sunfrog on Sept 16, 2010 7:48:24 GMT -5
I've been thinking about this for a while.
I'm not so sure this should get a fail.
When you do a report you look up the stuff in a book and then rewrite it in your own words. That's the same as google without the manual writing because copy and paste is easier.
What's the difference?
I have all the information in the world available to me right now. I don't know a thing about transendential meditation, I don't even know how to spell it, yet in 5 minutes I can know as much as Avril does about it thanks to the Google.
By tomorrow morning I will be an expert in it and in a few days I will reach enlightenment. This is the power of Google. I think the student should get at least a C for knowing how to use Google. He would get a B if he also knew how to use spell check.
Google is to schoolwork as a calculator is to math.
I feel I am rambling. This is because I haven't figured it out yet, but Google changes everything. I'm not sure kids even need to go to school anymore. I'm not sure I need long term memory with Google either, and I'm pretty sure Google will cause the gap between smart and stupid to get wider. The internet has changed the way people think, but only if they use it correctly. Something weird is happening to us because of the internet. I just haven't figured it out yet. I'll think about it on the bus. I'm late for work.
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