Become a Supporting Member to remove this ad and help support the site.
ISU Launches new Mobile App - and Mobile Web
- Thread starter Eleven
- Start date
WANTED: Passionate Sycamore Fanatics. That You?
Register NOW to join our community of die-hard Sycamore fans.
Become a Supporting Member to remove this ad and help support the site.
Looks cool! Gosh, we had to use paper stuff when I was there... :verysad:
So how much did this cost to put up and to maintain? Is scanning still another screen for quick information really better than getting a little lost, having to sort through things for yourself, seek out the needed information from real, live human beings and ask questions? Just asking.
Eleven
The Wade Level
Depends on the situation, doesn't it?
If you are an alumni coming back to town and want to know game schedules, events that are happening, etc... you probably don't want to spend too much time doing that kind of research..
If you are a new student's parents... and you need a map of the campus to know where to park... it's kinda nice that it's available..
If you are a student with parents that want to know your grades - and you are not near a computer, showing them on the App would be helpful..
The list goes on... Not everyone fits into the same mold...
Another benefit to doing all of this.. Is that people see the benefit of getting the information into a central location - and then disseminate it in varying ways - to fit the appropriate audience... but the information is all gathered at the same place - so the same story gets told to all appropriate audiences..
Last edited:
What can I say except absolutely everything about computers, apps, screens, courses on screens, forms on screens, selected info on screens and all that space in libraries and paper saved in files and books is wonderful, until it isn't.
Eleven
The Wade Level
Who's to say what people learn the best way... right?
I suppose if a person doesn't agree with the medium, then it must be wrong and a sign of the apocalypse.
I guessif you never want to advance, you can just keep repeating history...
Become a Supporting Member to remove this ad and help support the site.
It's a pretty tricky business, sorting out the good and the bad in change, the bad and the good in continuity. I do think for sure that, as you say, people do learn in different ways. I'm fairly certain that thinking we are advancing as this so-called, self-judged "advance" is taking place is not to be blindly trusted. As for history repeating itself, it never happens . . . ever.
Eleven
The Wade Level
So, is it better to sit and wait until "advancement" is fully proven by others and try to catch up to that?
Isn't it better to try to step outside of our internal comfort zone and try new ways of interacting before we are completely behind everyone else?
For the record, I am not sold on completely on-line content... However, I personally know many people that would like to take graduate level classes at ISU that have full time jobs... do you know how many degrees have a path to graduation outside of the 10am - 3pm classtime? Not many... at least not from my personal experience. If ISU doesn't want to get into the "cutting edge" technology that allows this type of learning, then it should be doing everything it can to force faculty to adjust to the demands of the students that are seeking this type of education.
I really don't want to get into a rant about "professionals" that rebel against technology like it is the downfall of our society. There are things available RIGHT NOW that many faculty refuse to take advantage of that can HELP students stay on track...good, quality students that get wrapped up in the "non-academic" college life and get off track... Many advancements that can help them teach the subject and make a student even MORE interested in digging further into the field of study... I'll just stop now and offer a PM discussion if you are interested.
Eleven
The Wade Level
Only by people that refuse to learn from history and take any future action to change it.
"How's the view from the back seat" applies...
I’m not an early adapter kind of guy, so my answer is easy: Wait. We’re not in some kind of race, we’re in education. Public education in this country has been around for almost two centuries. Hopefully it will be part of the nation’s foundation two hundred years from now. Man is a tool maker but we are fast becoming subservient to the tools we create.
Computer sales hype comes on like gang busters and uses words like “revolutionary,” “game changer” and “falling behind.” Education leaders should know better then to buy this hype. The “new and improved” line has sold everything from razor blades to Wheaties. But too many people in control of the big budgets of schools (and their clients, the public), people not computer savvy, people who mind their personal resumes more than the deeper meanings and history of education, reach out and tech up without considering what they’re buying or where tech might be going. They thoughtlessly turn a limited and limiting tool into a magic panacea.
[recent example: GO HERE ]
I’m not certain which “professionals” you have in mind, what they are “rant[ing]” about, or how they “rebel.” Maybe they (whomever) have thought through the many issues surrounding the blind rush into tech. Maybe they have decided that the payoff isn’t worth the costs, costs being figured in student time spent on screens and dollars allocated in ever new versions of hardware, software and endless breakdowns and maintenance. And maybe it’s not so much of a “rebellion” as it is a reasoned choice, a what’s to lose by taking a wait and see view. And maybe these “professionals” are, in other words, just being professionals.
“Learning from history” and history repeating itself are two very different animals. I’m certain a close reading and understanding of history teaches us all, whether in the front and back seat, one important lesson, the lesson of humility. The tech craze has thrown this lesson in the ditch. The religion of Techarama would have us believe that history started with Jobs and Gates and Allen in garages. Thinking this ties us to a myth, it seems to make us part of a creative sea change in human existence. We are the best, the smartest, THE FIRST. In other words, this magical thinking erases humility and replaces it with the bull shit of tech “empowerment.”
Become a Supporting Member to remove this ad and help support the site.