UberNoggin

Mike Wesch often says that students who ask “How much is this worth?” or “How long does this paper need to be?” are really asking you help them prevent learning more than they have to. Something about this rings very true to me and I know I was certainly guilty of it as a student. But is it the whole story?

Might students be asking you to help them prioritize their time?  Maybe. Maybe not.

I certainly know that this behavior isn’t some kind of Millenial behavior. I’m tired of hearing that these whipper snappers just want to be told what to do. This is not new behavior. Technology and the 21st century have not somehow transformed students into new kind of student incapable of independant thinking.

So if it’s not a generational behavior and it’s not completely about time management, is Wesch right? If so, how should we respond to these questions? If a student is actually indicating to us that he/she is disengaged and doesn’t have any motivation or curiousity that would drive him/her to learn more than necessary or expend any more mental energy than the minimum, how do we turn that around? How do we convert a bare minimum student into one who’s ready to engage and excited to find answers?

I’d suggest that there are a few answers:

1. Better assignments: construct assignments so they allow students to apply concepts learned in class to areas that are actually interesting to them. If the learning is relevant and applicable it doesn’t feel like work.

2. Instructor enthusiasm: Never apoligize for being in love with the ideas in your class or for asking students to share that enthusiasm. Be contagious!

3. It’s learning not busywork!: If we can convince students to embrace the joy of figuring things out, of answering questions, rather than just doing busywork we’ll do more than improving their perfomance in class. We’ll have taught them a pleasure that will benefit them their whole lives.

medical mannequin

I’m constantly amazed at the wide variety of interests and projects I get to learn about when talking to companies and faculty. I think if I could compile all the basic understanding I’ve had to gain about all of these fields I might be able to personally rival Wikipedia.

But going from a basic understanding to a research question or a rigorous way to measure the influence of a technology isn’t so easy.

For example, I’ve just returned from a great meeting with a faculty member from the medical school who is doing amazing simulations using a computerized mannequin. Students who might not experience medical emergencies until their residency when a real patient is on the table are now able to practice fast reactions with the dummies. That’s pretty straight forward, right? But what this faculty member is interested in is how the simulations improve the doctor’s ability to communicate clearly in a medical emergency. I asked tons of questions and finally we agreed that what we could actually prove was that the mannequin’s role is to elevate stress in the simulation and that we could measure whether students were able to manage the stress and if the stress influenced their communication skills. We went from “How does the mannequin help students learn to communicate” to “Is there a correlation between the ability to communicate and the stress level of the simulation?” It’s a much clearer, concise question.

It’s difficult to get from a wide question to a narrow one, though, when you’re talking to someone who is immersed in their own field and you’re new to it. I don’t know what a thyroid artery looks like but I do know that if one is bleeding I would freak out and probably freeze rather than giving the necessary direction to a medical staff to stop it and save a patient’s life. It took a series of questions and clarification for me to understand enough about the field to be able to help.

Have you been in a similar situation? What strategies do you use to gather the information you need to get quickly up to speed to help? What tactics do you use to clear away extranious information and hone in on a narrow topic to assess?