Making of “A Vision of Students Today”

Posted by Mihaela in Education, For Educators, For Students on Jan 20th, 2008 | 8 responses

If you haven’t seen the video A Vision of Students Today, it’s not too late. You’ll certainly enjoy it and it will make you think. If you’re a student, I’d love to know how you relate to the video and what it means to you. Moreover, I’d like you to tell me what you think it should mean to me, as an instructor.

The video’s author, professor Wesch from Kansas State University, explains here the step-by-step process of making the video. I thought students who are thinking about an alternative project for their senior theses would like to see how you can use a video to report research results.

Amanda Hamilton

I thought that this video was very interesting. A lot of what was said is true for most college students including myself. However I found that anyone can change these results instead of just falling into the typical college student stereotype. I don’t think that it reflects what every college student does just the overall view of college students. There are interesting facts in the video–like how many hours spent on facebook–which is very true for many students.
Amanda Jernigan

I really enjoyed this video. It does a great job of showing how large of an impact technology has on our lives. By using numbers, the video expresses the significant amount of time that students spend using their cell phones, surfing the Internet, and watching television. The video expressed many thoughts that I have on a daily basis concerning the styles in which we are taught, the books we must purchase, and the amount of time we spend staring at a chalkboard.
Jean Montgomery

This video is powerful! I think that most of these things are true to many college students. Yes, many students do facebook through class. Many students spend hundreds of dollars on their text books and don’t use them. Many college students will be in dept when the graduate. I think that most interesting part of this video was that ‘college’ won’t help solve most of the problems these students said they had. I do however think that we can solve these problems ourselves by having the initiative and by realizing that we are paying for this, this is our future, we must make the most of it!
I try not to facebook in class because I know I can do that after class and because I came to class for a reason. Mainly so I wouldn’t get an absence when I was able to go to class so I should probably pay attention and make the most of it while I’m there.
I think the first time i realized how expensive college was was when I took an online course and it cost over 1,000 dollars. I made sure I made an A in that class. I think the funny thing is is that for what I want to do it is all about experience. It’s not about the grades or the papers or the projects it’s about the real life experience that I have. I cannot get that in class. Yes, I have to have a degree and i know that I will use some of the knowledge I learn here to help me in my career but the majority of it will depend on what I do outside of my college career.
Cara Mitchell

Wow! I really like this video! As a college student, I can identify with all of it and it is truly thought provoking. I am glad that a professor is the author of this video and that he/she genuinely considered the point of view of students. I am glad that this video is not just one that condemns the ways of students (ie: facebooking through classes), but it is a video that forces the audience to constructively consider a solution. Even though I knew in the back of my mind that all of these things were going on, the statistics really break everything down and create a powerful message.
It is also interesting to me that technology is suggested as the answer to this problem. It does seem to be the logical answer since students spend so much more time online than in books regardless of assignments and classes that they pay for. My computer science teacher somewhat addressed some of these issues in one of our recent classes, however she suggested that technology may be the reason for students being assigned so much work. She believes that because of technology and the ease that it brings in completing tasks, professors assign so much more work for students to do. She asked the question: What is the limit of the amount of work that students can actually do? As we can see from the video, a good bit of students do not actually do all of the work assigned in its entirety (for reasons that range from the reading not seeming relevant to students’ lives to just being lazy or having too much other work).I think that teachers should take advantage of the way students are using technology today and incorporate it into their lesson plans even more.
One professor that I had while in college did not mind that students checked e-mail, instant messaged and facebooked while in her class. She believed that if we thought that we could multi-task then we should do it…that it was up to us how we used our class time as long as we did not disrupt others. I agree with this view and I think that it ties into the previous post …the answer to some of these problems lies with the students…to make the most of our education. Other problems raised in the video (like laptop and book costs) are not the faults or responsibilities of students, but as stated we have to deal with them…
Toni Kroll

Wow! This video hit the nail on the head. Sometimes I feel as if teachers know that students are on their laptops and doing other things in class but say that its “the students responsibility to pay attention”. I feel like that’s true to a point, but sometimes I wish that the classes that we take would be more life oriented more than grade oriented. There is no way to get around grades, but if classes were more of a social life-learning experience students wouldn’t mind getting involved. Being a student and having a steady income, it becomes a real hassle to buy a hundred dollar book only too open it once. These are the type of problems that we deal with now a day.
Meg Ried

I think that this video did a fabulous job representing all the concerns and frustrations so many of us college students face today. We can be so distracted sometimes with new technologies, with what we think are making our lives easier, when really they are making our lives so much more complicated. I liked how they included the professor at the end of the video because it really brought my attention to a completely different side to this struggle. I am sure that it is really hard for professors today to try come with new ways to keep the attention of their students as well as teach them all of the curriculum required. Although at some points I thought that the presentation was a bit dramatic (especially the music,) I think that overall this video represented a real problem that thousands of American students and professors are facing today, and it’s really kind of scary!
Christina Fontana

This video was amazing. It certainly encompasses the exact struggle that many students and friends I know go through each day. The main questions are “why am I in school” and “what is the point to all of this”. This video just shows how much we actually put emphasis on everything else in our lives compared to our actually studies. So it raises the issue of whats truly important or not. The video also has great power. It made me actually feel stressed while watching it. Even though most of the stats portrayed evidence of entertainment we use, such as music and television, it also compared how much we actually want to get accomplished in a day that we can not since it adds up to over 24 hours. Overall, the way the director communicated this research was very intriguing. I’m sure I will take away and remember more facts from this than I would from any research paper.
Caitlin Martin

I think this video is very insightful. Today, it seems as though we spend majority of our time learning material that will not help us in the future. Some professors just preach for 2 hours and expect us to find it interesting and learn something.
I really enjoyed the way the director chose to give us the information. I felt that I could relate more to the students when they were supplying the information rather than one person just spitting out facts.
Technology is a great thing for mankind. But, the question people have to ask is has technology made life easier or harder for most people? I think because of the amount of resources at our fingertips today, professors almost expect much more from students.
I really enjoyed this video. It called attention to issues that students face everyday but are seldomly discussed.

Making of “A Vision of Students Today”

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