Technology in Education

This article (linked in the title) from the NY Times reports on the selective happenings of some students and how they are affected by the general trend towards increased computer use and constant connectivity. The author tries to stay objective in the reporting, but the picture painted is one of change and the difficulties educators have adapting to that change.

While technology may be difficult to adapt to it is not a fad. One of the educators quoted seems to compare advancing tech to rock and roll. Not only does this date the speaker but it also indicates a misunderstanding of technology in general. Rock and roll was and continues to be a category of a narrow section of consumable media. At most one could classify it as a lifestyle. But technology is a much wider empowerment of all lifestyles (save those that reject it).

It's plainly obvious that educators are seeking ways to use technology to better reach students. While this is a worthwhile goal, perhaps it might be more useful to invest in improving motivation, curiosity, and useful curiculum.

As seen in the article, many students are motivated by trade skills like video and audio editing, useful skills that students can easily identify as applicable to their future. I'm not implying that all schools should be trade schools, but the world that values renaissance men and women has past. As technology advances the volume of availible skills and information increases dramatically. Many large corporations spend millions categorizing information and educating their work force. As information explodes it becomes increasingly difficult for one person to know enough about general topics to be any more knowledgable than a search engine. Knowing facts becomes less and less important. Facts can be categorized and searched. Yet schools continue to rely heavily on memorizing things that can be easily looked up on any student's wireless device. It's no wonder students don't like learning algebra or Latin. The modern world simply doesn't need EVERY student to be able to do these things.

At university they used to like to tell us they were teaching us how to learn. Why did it have to wait until university? Why wouldn't I know how to learn before that? We need to teach kids how to learn much earlier. Then we can concentrate on teach skills, not just knowledge.

You have a 'Go' for graduation.

Finally, another chapter of my life comes to a close. After five years at UCI I'm finally graduating (provided I pass my last math class). No one will know what the 'I' in ICS means in my degree, but at least I will know that it meant 5 years instead of 3.

Now I (try to) enter the work force, mostly mental exertion I'm betting. Everyone say's I've been limitting my job search too much, and that's probably true. I applied to Apple and Google and Blizzard. I would love to work at any one of them. I also applied at the two computer agencies at UCI, which would be both familiar and convenient.

The few phone interviews with Apple didn't go quite as planned. One didn't call me back and the other I blanked out on the 2nd technical interview and sounded like a unix nub.
Google never called.
Blizzard finally got back to me less than a month before graduation (many months after applying) for a web app dev position. I'd love to take that one, still waiting for a call back after the phone interview.
I went through the whole interview process at UCI, but it's been almost 2 weeks and I haven't heard back.

So I'm still looking, hoping for a 'real' career. Web apps or user interface design would be right up my ally. Lease is up June 30th. I'll be continuing work at Administrative Computing Services at UCI until then (working on the staff web portal, SNAP).

So between now and the 30th I need to have confirmation of a job and find a new apartment or else I'll be moving back home for a while. As much as I love my parents, it kind of feels like failure to have to go home after they put so much into my education.

Apple's just releasing a myriad of web apps and a ton of new iPhone upgrades, and the rest of the world is web app crazy. I didn't think I'd have trouble finding a place to do that. I'm really hoping to avoid startups. The failure rate is just too high. I need some consistent cash flow and some real experience before I would want to throw my fate in with a new company. I'd really like to be somewhere recognizable. For some reason I feel it's important to be able to tell people what I do, where, without getting blank stares.

My dreams for the future:
- Job
- My own apartment (my own room for the first time ever!)
- iPhone3G
- Nissan 350z (or 2009 370z)
- Niki