A Vision of Students Today

This video, Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today, hit the nail on the head. In the college education system, there are more wrongs than rights, I believe. Students like myself are desperate for a degree because there will be no bright and hopeful future without it. Yet, students are just making their personal debt pile higher and higher because the expenses are so outrageous. Sure, it is an investment in our future. However, I think there needs to be a reform in the financial aspect of college education. I think that is is unfair to overwhelm students with such a huge financial burden when they are already dealing with so much in the transition process of becoming a college student. Plus, students are seeing more and more problems in and out of the classroom, which makes it easier to complain about the cost. I am paying a very large amount of money, and while I know that college is not a business, I do not think that I should feel like there are more wrongs than rights with the college education system. I think there is a way to combine customer and student into one and make college more in favor of the students since they are the ones that are paying most of the bills and keeping the college in business.

The video pointed out some problems in the classroom environment. There was a sign that said the student's average class size was 115. This is not uncommon in most schools. I have a couple of large classes, and I have noticed that the teacher may or may not make an effort to get to know individuals and names. Most of the time, students are just a number to those teachers, which usually makes the teacher seem less personable and approachable to the students. Also, most teachers just present the material in a lecture format, and they do have a thorough knowledge of the information but the way in which it is presented is hard to understand or keep focused on. Maybe that is why so many students skip class or browse the internet while the instructor is speaking. I know that personally, I want to learn those things that will help me in my future career and I think it would benefit many students to have more hands on training in their field and less time sitting, listening (or not) to a teacher repeat themselves in an unappealing manner. Also, those classes that are irrelevant to my field are just costing me unnecessary money. There may be advantages to becoming more "well rounded", but there are too many of those classes that are in the general studies category that are required. I am not saying cut out all of those, but I don't want to spend two years of time and money reading and hearing things that I am going to forget before I even graduate. As a college student, I am trying to prepare myself for a future career and I want to learn the things that will aid me in that. All of those extra classes are just a waste of time and money that I could be spending on job training. Also, the price of textbooks was brought up in the video. It is hard for me to understand why I need to spend so much money on a book that I barely use for only four or five months. Even if I use the textbook, I do not usually keep it. Then there goes five or six hundred dollars usually per semester in textbooks, down the drain.

The video had several students saying that they facebook in class and do other things on their laptops than take notes. I do not bring my laptop to class, but I see students in all of my classes browsing the internet and looking at things that have nothing to do with the class. We are paying all this money ( or borrowing and will pay later) to sit in class and play around on the computer or not come to class at all. That is the students' faults, of course. However, don't you think that if the lecture was presented in a way that caught and held our attention that we would be more apt to stay focused? I know that college professors and doctors do not have to have a teaching degree to teach, and I am not sure that is the problem. I just know that without having training in teaching, they may not know some methods to present the material in a better way that would benefit the students and themselves. It seems as if sometimes the teachers are not interested in helping the students at all, and I think that is wrong. As for the comment about people thinking that technology can save us, I am not sure what my opinion is yet. I can see where technology can be convenient, and a time saver, but as for a life saver in college, I am not so sure.I think that a lot could change in the attitude of the students and in the polices of the colleges to make college into a better, more beneficial institution.