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Embrace the Chaos
Posted by Jason Krulicki , Campus Advisor at Square Crop Studios on November 30, 2010 at 12:15pm EST
What stuck out to me was the quote regarding "sandbags to stop a tsunami"

We work with College/University student organizations everyday to help them effectively engage "the new student" that is showing up on campus and requires a whole different set of stimuli than those that have shown proceeded them.

to address some of the questions:

Vishal should look into colleges specializing in technology, art and design or some combination there of.

Students like Vishal will become the new norm

Video Games are an integral part of the learning and social process... I've heard it said the HALO is the new version of the racquet club... elementary school students are learning basic skills seamlessly from video games now

If you are not ready to engage the "new students" on their turf, institutions are in danger of following behind their peers who stress early adaption and innovation

Posted by sibyl on November 30, 2010 at 1:45pm EST
Aristotle had it right: The solution is balance.

I wouldn't support a ban on smartphones, but there is a time and place for them. I will be happy to build in some exercises using smartphones, but I will also demand that they be turned off at certain points. Students need practice in engaging in give-and-take conversation with human beings, and in giving sustained attention to specific tasks. They can't do that if they are as fidgety as Vishal.

Steven Johnson, author of "Where Good Ideas Come From," also wrote a book called "Everything Bad Is Good For You," in which he made the salient point that video games don't teach the same skills that you get from sustained reading and writing, but they do teach useful skills. By the same token, though, they don't teach every useful skill. And just as I will find a place for those skills, I will also insist on a place for skills related to critical reading and writing. Otherwise we will have a world where skills are sharply circumscribed, and people who can compose and interpret filmed narrative will be unable to compose or interpret written narrative.

Posted by Chad Garrett , Educator at Healthcare Organization on November 30, 2010 at 10:30pm EST
None of the issues that pleague students today are a problem. Not video games, not Facebook, not the Internet.

The problem is that our school system was designed a few hundred years ago. Our children are cranked our of school like a car is off an assembly line, that is the problem. So, of course ki are going to be distracted by everything that is more interesting than than an institution that has more in common with a car than attempting to meet them on the level they need to learn.

tech skills vs gpa for college admission?
Posted by BA Reid , DSF at DOA on December 4, 2010 at 6:15am EST
I thought colleges still required good grades for entrance (and the better the university the better your graded need to be). What are university addmissions looking at more heavily - is it texting speed, # of texts per day, movie making skill, video game playing experience or are they looking at your GPA? I noticed the kids involved in the tech skills were performing poorly in high school - limiting their future opportunities.
p.s. what can be expected with such shockingly poor parenting too - one said "what can I do" ...how about getting all that tech out of private spaces and moved into the public spaces (with some limits as well).