Jacki Stranathan

Article 1 Critique

“Bats, Owls, Vampires, and other Creatures of the Night”

I was very intrigued by the title of this article. I thought it was a Halloween Story, but in Educause? It begins with the age old story about a young person who has no idea what manual car window handles do. Their comments are where’s the automatic window opener? Young people now adays have never heard of 8 tracks or LP’s. Technology is moving so fast it boggles the mind.

The premise of this article is that schools of higher learning are not setting the pace or designing their class schedule to fit the learner needs. Many classes begin at the awful hour of 8:00 am. Many students have just gone to bed and this not their ideal learning hour.

I was surprised to learn that only 26% of college students use the library. College students ideal learning option is the online courses, where they can learn and study at the hour of their choosing. Many institutions are offering administrative services on-line, but not many classes.

Research tells us that we ”must choose the educational techniques that best support and inspire learners of all kinds.” This will lead to it’s own problems of cost and infrastructure, but in the long run we must lend ourselves to supporting our students “whenever they need it, day or night.” Hence the creatures of the night title.

This is my first on-line course and at first I was a little nervous and anxious. It takes a very disciplined person to pace themselves and not let themselves get far behind. But I feel this course in particular is a fantastic way to get introduced to the new way of taking college courses. I will miss the every week face to face interaction but, the blackboard discussion is kind of cool. Also with the hectic pace of my family, I can work early in the morning when schools over and at night when it’s all quiet.

I attended McDaniel (WMC) and graduated in 1983 and I don’t believe I ever got on a computer. Now adays most students spend many hours a day on a computer.

Presently I teach 8^th grade math and I believe our schools are not geared for teens either. We start at 7:25. Most of my students don’t wake up until at least 9:00. We are taught over and over again to vary instruction to suit all types of learners, well what about those students who learn best later? We are an adult driven society. We need to think about who we are serving and perhaps become more like those “creatures of the night.”