Amy's Paper
From Mizzou Wiki
http://comp.missouri.edu/wiki/index.php/Amy
http://comp.missouri.edu/wiki/index.php/Videos_page
Outline-
Thesis:
Introduction: introduce video, cultural competency & literacy, Studenthood
Body:
- details about the video(quotes,elaborate,paraphrase)-multitasking- not having enough hours in the day: students are doing things they don't need to do(facebook, surf the web, depends on your motivation to learn.
- Studenthood- what its like to be a student TODAY- teachers don't know your name, buying books you never open, student loans/debt, some students don't even come to class at all,
- technology: good vs. bad effects- students using internet instead of learning! Internet has alot of beneficial information.
- elaborate on main points/thesis: technology,school,video,my viewpoint
- cultural competency and literacy: is learned on your own- unavoidable BC your always around it, and were always learning new things about our culture and world around us(my personal experience)
Conclusion:
-re-state thesis
Rough Draft #1:
Michael Wesch, a professor at Kansas State University made a video with 200 of his students about what it means to be a student. In this video Wesch and his students bring up many topics that relate to many college students in today's culture.With our ever changing technology and culture we make adjustments to understand and be able to fit into todays world, this is our cultural literacy and competency. Cultural literacy according to wikipedia is "the ability to converse fluently in the idioms, allusions and informal content which creates and constitutes a dominant culture". Cultural Competency according to wikipedia :refers to an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures". I am an incoming freshman at Mizzou, and I'm just beginning to adjust to the culture of college life. I cannot relate to all of these topics brought up in Wesch's video because I have not experienced them all yet, but I do understand the problem they're dealing with.
The video begins with quotes from Wesch's students such as,"My average class size is 115" and "18% of my teachers know my name". I think these quotes relate because The University of Missouri-Columbia and Kansas State University are both very large in size. Its hard for teachers to know our names with sometimes up to 300 other students in class. Its hard to get one on one with your teacher and really understand and ask questions with a class that big. You can get help in large classes; many teachers have office hours but it still makes it more difficult to learn with such large class sizes. Another student said "I complete 49% of readings assigned to me, only 26% are relevant to my life". I find it hard to be interested in readings when I know they do not relate or interest me. One student said "I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open". I personally experienced this in my summer school math course, when I paid $130 for my books and all I needed was and online passcode and my course syllabus. I was surprised by how different college was and how much more technology was available in my classes.All my work in college has been done and turned in online. In my Math class my homework, quiz's and tests are done and graded online. I also realized from walking in many classrooms and study areas that we have access to computers all over campus.
Many students begin to experience debt and dealing with money for the first time. One of Wesch's students said "My neighbor paid for class but never comes" and " I will be $20,000 in debt when I graduate from college". Many college students have to take out loans to afford school and end up with student loans to pay off for years after they graduate. College tuition is rising every year, and even though there are alot of scholarships out there to apply for, many students won't receive much money from them, leaving parents and students to pay for books, tuition and sometimes board.
We must learn to multi-task to accomplish everything we want to do in a day. One students said "Im a multi-tasker, I have to be". The Kansas State University students list off what they do in a day such as, sleep for 7 hours,spend 3 hours in class, 3 hours studying,2 hours talking on my cell phone, and some others which total to 26.5 hours a day. This doesn't add up when theres only 24 hours a day so we must multi-task to accomplish what we want to get done, but do we need to do all of these? Is it necessary to spend 3 and a half hours online or listen to music for 2 and a half hours a day? I think in some ways we are making these problems our own, we dont have to do these things we want to. I believe we need time for recreation and to relax but what we have to do needs to come before what we want to do. Multi-tasking becomes very important in these situtaions. I myself have to multi-task to get everything done in a day. I work 16 hours a week in Jefferson City, I'm going to summer school at The University of Missouri-Columbia which is a 30 minute drive to school,I also do alot of studying for my math class and have many other things to accomplish during a normal week. I must multi-task to get everything done.
Wesch himself writes on the chalkboard and says "writing on the chalkboard forces the teacher to move". I think he's trying to say that teachers need to be pro-active and that we shouldn't rely on technology alone to learn. Students need to be hands on and need substance in learning to gain knowledege. There is a quote in the beginning of the video from Marshell McCluhan, where he trys to explain this. I believe McCluhan is trying to say that learning can be structured, have patterns and guidelines but unless you're getting something out of the experience, it means nothing. Students will learn more and want to learn more when they feel they're actually gaining something, we need to be interested in the topic.We need more than just guidelines and rules about how to learn, we need substance in our learning.
As an incoming freshman, I'm learning about what it means to be a college student and how to adapt to college life. My ability to adapt and fit into this environment is my cultural competency. As I learn more about this culture and begin to understand slang, idioms and technology related to this environment I will become Culturally literate. Ive learned through personal experience when I moved from Las Vegas to Missouri that this is not taught in schools. Ive been to two high schools in Las Vegas and one in Misouri, which were very different from each other. I attended a performing arts school where very diverse people were acceptable such as gays and lesbians and everyone was very open and accepting to everyone. I also attended a public school of 3,000 where no one knew everyone, but you always met new people and everyone was accepting and open to meeting new people. My junior year I moved to Missouri to a private school, Helias High School in Jefferson city where everyone knows everyone, and many students have known each other since elementary school. I learned how to cope and meet new people every time I switched schools, this was never taught to me. I learned cultural literacy and competency on my own through personal experience. I found it easy to cope when I switched schools in Las Vegas and I loved both of my schools. I had a hard time with adapting to culture in Missouri and I still do on a daily basis. I don't think cultural competency is a learned thing in this area though, I found that many people were not accepting to who I am and my view points. I think cultural competency and tolerance needs to be taught here because everyone is so sheltered and not made aware of this. I think cultural literacy can be learned through being around a culture for a long period of time, but I do believe cultural competency and tolerence needs to be taught.
I believe your education is what you make of it, we decide who we want to be and what we want to make of ourselves. We should take advantage of good oportunities. We will learn through personal experience as we get older how to deal with different cultures, and what we must do to succeed in our ever changing world. Through our own experiences we learn to deal with other cultures and new environments. I think one of the most valuable lessons I've learned so far is being able to adjust to change and accepting new ideas.
work sitings:
wikipedia- cultural literacy & cultural competency
