Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Class of 2014: No Wristwatches, No Email

Yearly since 1998 two profs at Beloit College, Wisconsin, have created a Mindset List to help faculty better understand the incoming class. For those of us talking 21st Century Skills, this list is a powerful reminder.

Meet the CLASS of 2014, for whom...

1.  Few in the class write in cursive.
2.  Email is just too slow, and they seldom (if ever) use snail mail.
3.  Buffy has always been a vampire slayer at Hemery High.
4.  “Venti half-caf vanilla latte” has always been lingo.
5.  Clint Eastwood is known as a director, not as Dirty Harry.
6.  DNA fingerprinting and human genome maps have always existed.
7.  Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.
8.  Their first computer's an Apple II. It’s now in a museum.
9.  Czechoslovakia never existed.
10. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
11. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of MLB.
12. Russians & Americans have always lived together in space.
13. Food’s always been irradiated.
14. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
15. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
16. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.
17. Michelangelo was just a computer virus.
18. Beethoven has always been a dog.
19. With cell phones to tell time, there’s no need for a wrist watch.

Source: Beloit College 2014 Mindset List. See the complete list here.

Image by Simon Peckham Flickr Creative Commons

Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Writing is on the Screen


"The writing is on the screen" author Bill Kist reminds us about the new media age as he invites teachers to use Web 2.0 and social media technologies to reach 21st Century kids. Kist, author of The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age (2009), will join West Clermont for two interactive workshops Tuesday, August 17.  Location: Union Township Civic Center, Cincinnati, OH.

For teachers 5-12: 8:30 to 11:30 am: Teaching in the socially networked classroom.

For administrators: 12:30 to 3:30 pm: The new literacies: 21st century skills in our classrooms.

To learn more about Kist's book, see this great glogster review by Kevin Hodgson.

For information about registration: steele_m@westcler.org.