Engage

Day 2 of ELI. Great talking yesterday with so many folks passionate about technology in higher ed.The power to connect specialized knowledge with technical expertise is infinitely empowering. I see so many folks truly passionate and willing to listen to new ideas on education. It is encouraging. As a student, day-day interactions in formal education can get quite depressing at times. As a technophile, I am always looking to find new ways to engage my subject matter, to add meaning to new information as it comes into my mind. I believe that is the challenge of any true learner, adapting our external world to our internal dialogue. A favorite quote of mine that has always inspired me states,

"The reasonable person adapts themself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to them. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable person."

Today as individuals in engaged in all levels of higher ed we need to more unreasonable. As students, we are a generation who's language is media. Video, audio, and imagery are part of our very DNA. To exclude this from the curriculum is to ask us to speak in a different language. It is foreign to what we experience in our lives outside of the classroom. We talk a lot about ESL (English as a Second Language). We should be equally talking about TSL (Technology as Second Language) for many of our antinquated, outdated educational processes.

The power to change this world is our hands. From a student perspective, I encourage my peers in group projects to consider alternatives to traditional term papers and written word. The best of instructors are willing to entertain these ideas, many others are not. Yet it is the few that are willing, that usher us towards a new era in education, by to stepping outside the lines of our routine thinking. Working with these instructors in my other capacity (technical support staff) I am aware that challenging the structure of evaluation with rich media can be intimidating to many who are used a double-spaced, 1" margin world. Yet while evaluative criteria may differ, the opportunities for engaging a new level of communication between student and instructor are profound.

New doors to learning await us.
We cannot let this opportunity pass us by.