Comments on: Week in Review – Summer Reflections on Education, the Outdoors, and the Mind http://blog.emergingscholars.org/2009/06/week-in-review-summer-reflections-on-education-the-outdoors-and-the-mind/ From InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:51:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Micheal Hickerson http://blog.emergingscholars.org/2009/06/week-in-review-summer-reflections-on-education-the-outdoors-and-the-mind/comment-page-1/#comment-928 Micheal Hickerson Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:36:14 +0000 http://blog.emergingscholars.org/?p=1050#comment-928 Kelly, Good point about the idea of seeing college as an automatic next step. Though the reasons and dynamics are very different from the experiences of the average person, you see this same habit in major college basketball and football as well, where even one year of college is seen as a bizarre inherent good (at least, bizarre to me). As far as e-textbooks go, Amazon recently released a feature that makes your bookmarks and annotations on your Kindle available to you on the web, so that you can easily process them. That would be a pretty big advantage to me - I always struggle with getting my underlinings and margin notes into another form that I can more easily search or store. Kelly,
Good point about the idea of seeing college as an automatic next step. Though the reasons and dynamics are very different from the experiences of the average person, you see this same habit in major college basketball and football as well, where even one year of college is seen as a bizarre inherent good (at least, bizarre to me).

As far as e-textbooks go, Amazon recently released a feature that makes your bookmarks and annotations on your Kindle available to you on the web, so that you can easily process them. That would be a pretty big advantage to me – I always struggle with getting my underlinings and margin notes into another form that I can more easily search or store.

]]> By: Kelly http://blog.emergingscholars.org/2009/06/week-in-review-summer-reflections-on-education-the-outdoors-and-the-mind/comment-page-1/#comment-897 Kelly Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:33:15 +0000 http://blog.emergingscholars.org/?p=1050#comment-897 1) I think it is somewhat unfortunate that our society (economy?) seems to think college is the logical next step for everyone after high school - at least those who want to be "successful" in life. This is not because I have anything against higher education, but I think that not everyone is immediately cut out for college. A close relative went to college immediately after high school, and ended up dropping out. Now that they have worked for a while, they see the benefits of a college education, have work experience, and have a better idea of what they want to do with their life. Consequently, they have more motivation and drive to succeed, even in areas where they are academically weak. Good apprenticeship programs or shadowing/mentoring opportunities would give those who aren't as qualified or motivated for college the ability to succeed and explore potential careers firsthand, thus when they do go to college, they have an appreciation for the worth of their education, along with practical life/work training and skills. 2) as far as e-textbooks, I really don't like the idea! Probably I'm too old-fashioned, having been raised on books :) The Kindle though does seem like an interesting alternative - I'd like to see one for myself someday. 1) I think it is somewhat unfortunate that our society (economy?) seems to think college is the logical next step for everyone after high school – at least those who want to be “successful” in life. This is not because I have anything against higher education, but I think that not everyone is immediately cut out for college. A close relative went to college immediately after high school, and ended up dropping out. Now that they have worked for a while, they see the benefits of a college education, have work experience, and have a better idea of what they want to do with their life. Consequently, they have more motivation and drive to succeed, even in areas where they are academically weak.

Good apprenticeship programs or shadowing/mentoring opportunities would give those who aren’t as qualified or motivated for college the ability to succeed and explore potential careers firsthand, thus when they do go to college, they have an appreciation for the worth of their education, along with practical life/work training and skills.

2) as far as e-textbooks, I really don’t like the idea! Probably I’m too old-fashioned, having been raised on books :) The Kindle though does seem like an interesting alternative – I’d like to see one for myself someday.

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