The Mind Set list I thought was very creative and useful reflective tool for students to look at when entering college. When I looked at the class of 2012, my class, it made me laugh at some of the things on the list and brought back many memories for me as a young child. For example, looking for Carmen Sandiago was on the list and I can clearly remember this from my childhood.
It also taught me some things about my generation that I did not realize such as IBM never made typewriters? Yeah… I did now know that and with a quick search in Google, apparently they did. The list is very comical and informational at the same time. I looked at the class of 2015 and some of their items on the list are how technology today is “too slow” and email is like “snail mail.” These are all things I definitely see in the incoming class of students who are now in college. Being involved on campus I can see some how this list was composed and how many items do hold true. It is also striking that only 4 years ago, for my class, the list was totally different.
I feel information like this will help me greatly as a teacher because it will allow me to see the generational difference that can occur with just one year. Every year the students will get that much father away from my age and become that much more immersed into the culture of them. This activity was very useful in making it visually relevant to how much the world of technology is changing around us.
I'm glad you enjoyed the Mindset List, Blake. It's become part of my 'back to school' routine each fall. The 'snail mail' item cracked me up because a couple years ago, my GA mocked me for depending on email so often when I should be texting. I tried to explain that I don't need the immediacy of texting - that email meets my needs, but he never understood. For him, texting has always been around - and email is too slow!
ReplyDeleteEven though the list is really intended for professors teaching college, I think what's important is that all teachers carefully and thoughtfully consider their incoming class of students regardless of their age/grade. If we have any hope of reaching our students, then we need to have some sort of understanding of what 'life' means to them so that we can make our lessons meaningful and engage them in discussions.
I agree that the Mind Set list is a useful reflective tool, because it helps you understand that with every year, a new set of changes arrive, especially with technology. I had to laugh at some of the list too, even though I could relate to some of 2015's list. This list is just a little something that can help teachers have some sort of way to figure out the class that they have for that year. It allows us to see their culture. It's crazy to think that email has now become "snail mail!" I haven't felt that way!
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