Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This absolutely cracks me up.

You're mad that the next generation has short attention spans, but have you ever stopped to consider that they're absorbing 1000x more information during the time in which it took you to finish your long and drawn out sentence?

Instructional design has yet to catch up and I'm guessing OP hasn't either. Nobody has time for a lecture that's a second longer than it needs to be.

These new generations have evolved to be more efficient and have perfected the ability to breakdown subject matter into bite sized pieces.

If it's not that, they don't want it...can you blame them? Time is the hottest commodity and Gen Z and Gen Alpha is all about protecting their time and being the most efficient with it.

Dumbest comment in the entire thread.

Anonymous wrote:If the lecture is the same as it was a decade ago, I assure you that you are in fact boring the crap out of these kids. They know more already than kids used to, as they have access to the latest research at their fingertips, took college classes in high school, and most have done independent research. They need you to speed up the chat and make it interesting. Kids can respond to you text before you finish hitting send (I really don't know how they do that).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My siblings a college professor. He says it’s really bad for years and gotten worse. Critical thought is dead and there is no interest in reviving it. It’s bad news

That's because we no longer teach kids in a way that makes sense to teach them critical thinking. First stuff their heads with facts in elementary (so they have a basis from which to even begin to think), then teach them logic in middle, then teach the persuasion in high school. Dorothy Sayers was right.

They're now being taught persuasive writing in elementary school. That's one of the things that is leading to all these unintended consequences. Research is no longer about gathering general information that then gets analayzed. Research nowadays is entirely about finding support for the argument they come up with first.

And typically, their feelings are used as evidence...

In my kids' public school district at least, kids are taught to use research sources far sooner than they ever were in decades before. And in addition to persuasive writing they are taught analysis of sources. I think all the complainers need to actually look at the evidence in the curriculum before making unsupported blanket statements.

We used research sources just as early back in the day. The two differences, besides the practical one of internet versus books, is that there is now an emphasis on citations and the writing is persuasive instead of analytical.

The issue is that persuasive writing utilizes citations, and research, differently than analytical writing since by its very nature it is viewpoint biased. Starting with persuasive writing promotes cherry picking sources. Those of us that have written a lot know that that is the unspoken norm but like many things, eating or not eating vegetables for example, it is something we should be hoping to avoid for as long as possible. The issue therefore isn't the intent but the practical inculcation of bad habits brought about by starting with persuasive writing.

As a secondary issue we are promoting the formation of opinions before any analysis is done. That is one of the biggest problems with social media, instant reaction and hot takes. The encouragement of opinions without any issue specific understanding. It creates bad habits by teaching it early.

Anonymous wrote:If the lecture is the same as it was a decade ago, I assure you that you are in fact boring the crap out of these kids. They know more already than kids used to, as they have access to the latest research at their fingertips, took college classes in high school, and most have done independent research. They need you to speed up the chat and make it interesting. Kids can respond to you text before you finish hitting send (I really don't know how they do that).

Anonymous wrote:OP, your rant about the "cause" is a decade too early. Current college students were not "raised on tik tok" or computers. They were watching Little Einsteins on DVD and that was considered "screen time." They didn't have ipads and most of their parents were just getting the first very expensive smart phones themselves. These kids didn't get them until about 8th grade unless they were super wealthy.

So they may not have been interested in your lecture, but the reason isn't that they had tik tok when they were 8 because they didn't.

Also, some kids with ASD wear semi noise canceling headphones as an accommodation to help them hear your lecture better and drown out the gum chewing, pencil tapping, loud breathing sounds that distract them to degrees not common among others. So unless you could hear the kids' music or something, you should assume it is an accommodation that is helping not hindering. My DS is never without headphones and no one realizes that he needs them (he wants it that way).

Anonymous wrote:OP, your rant about the "cause" is a decade too early. Current college students were not "raised on tik tok" or computers. They were watching Little Einsteins on DVD and that was considered "screen time." They didn't have ipads and most of their parents were just getting the first very expensive smart phones themselves. These kids didn't get them until about 8th grade unless they were super wealthy.

So they may not have been interested in your lecture, but the reason isn't that they had tik tok when they were 8 because they didn't.

Also, some kids with ASD wear semi noise canceling headphones as an accommodation to help them hear your lecture better and drown out the gum chewing, pencil tapping, loud breathing sounds that distract them to degrees not common among others. So unless you could hear the kids' music or something, you should assume it is an accommodation that is helping not hindering. My DS is never without headphones and no one realizes that he needs them (he wants it that way).

Anonymous wrote:It so bad. It truly is. My spouse and I were trying to figure out which generation is raising these students. Late Millennials? Because they talk over teachers, have little respect, zero attention span and I think 3/4 of them are hyped up on ritalin.

Anonymous wrote:Gave a guest lecture today. It really hasn't changed much over the years except with updated information. I had a hiatus a bit from doing the lecture, so this was the first time I restarted it since COVID, but holy Toledo modern students are horrible. They have attention spans of ants. And it is absolutely noticeable beyond belief when I think about teaching students and giving a lecture back in 2010 vs 2024. I guess this is the end result of raising entire generations on toxic social media like TikTok since they were out of the womb. We are absolutely doomed. Modern generations' brains have been fried by spastic social media clips that last only 3-4 seconds. Heaven forbid they have to sit through a 75 minute lecture on extremely complex topics that have been distilled down to them in a digestible manner.

Just horrible. Thank God I do not teach for a profession. I'd lose my mind dealing with modern students who are incapable of having focused thought for more than 5 minutes. One student even came into the class wearing headphones and wore them the whole time while I was giving lecture. WTH? If you don't want to listen, simply don't come then. This country is going to be an unmitigated disaster in 30 years when these people take over. I honestly don't know if gen alpha is going to be able to digest baby food for course material at the rate mental capacity and attention spans are rapidly degrading. It is scary how fast the quality of students has declined in only a fraction of my lifetime.

Anonymous wrote:Gave a guest lecture today. It really hasn't changed much over the years except with updated information. I had a hiatus a bit from doing the lecture, so this was the first time I restarted it since COVID, but holy Toledo modern students are horrible. They have attention spans of ants. And it is absolutely noticeable beyond belief when I think about teaching students and giving a lecture back in 2010 vs 2024. I guess this is the end result of raising entire generations on toxic social media like TikTok since they were out of the womb. We are absolutely doomed. Modern generations' brains have been fried by spastic social media clips that last only 3-4 seconds. Heaven forbid they have to sit through a 75 minute lecture on extremely complex topics that have been distilled down to them in a digestible manner.

Just horrible. Thank God I do not teach for a profession. I'd lose my mind dealing with modern students who are incapable of having focused thought for more than 5 minutes. One student even came into the class wearing headphones and wore them the whole time while I was giving lecture. WTH? If you don't want to listen, simply don't come then. This country is going to be an unmitigated disaster in 30 years when these people take over. I honestly don't know if gen alpha is going to be able to digest baby food for course material at the rate mental capacity and attention spans are rapidly degrading. It is scary how fast the quality of students has declined in only a fraction of my lifetime.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every generation writes this about the subsequence going back to ancient Greece. There's never any truth to it.

Yes there is. When they worried in ancient Greece that writing would lead to people no longer memorizing the entire Illiad, they weren't wrong about that. I doubt there's been a human being alive in centuries, maybe even millenia, who has memorized the Illiad, but the Greeks used to do it. What the ancient Greeks could not have forseen was the positive benefits of writing for other things would (I think) outweigh the loss of that much memorization.

Will social media culture have benefits that are equivalent to writing? It...sure doesn't seem like it.

People definitely still memorize the Iliad

Find me someone who has memorized the entire thing - I'd love to know.