No, I don’t see Alaska from my classroom, but I did change up the third assignment. The students were fed up with Richard Restak and I was fed up with: multitasking, scapegoats, escapegoats, technologically advanced technology, and the instant death associated with texting and driving. They were bored with technology and also annoyed they felt they were stuck writing about the hazards, dangers, and problems of technology which they don’t necessarily agree. They felt it was simply easier to just side with Restak, complain about how crappy, lazy and superficial society has become and use Restak in support.
So, I wanted to get them excited about technology again. I followed Nick B.’s suggestion and found some great videos on a website called the Singularity Hub. It’s a collection of articles on more cutting edge technology – Restak’s article is from 2008. It’s positive, relevant, exciting and a great site for information related to their various fields. We watched several videos and I let them choose an article – often steering them in a direction related to their majors.
The results seem to be positive. I’ve got papers about artificial intelligence, gene therapy, robots, industry, bionic arms — cool stuff. They are still incorporating Restak and Samuel – with varying degrees of success from what I’ve read so far. However, instead of simply agreeing with him, they are using his ideas as a springboard into their new ideas. I gave them a sort of template to work with to incorporate his materials in a respectful, yet contrary ways…
A common misconception is that……
As Restak says/ argues/ points out/ claims/ etc. ….
However, what he fails to see/ overlooks/ overstates/ understates….
They seemed really excited about the prospect, and as I said, there has been mixed success so far. I’ll update next week.