Comments on: Isn’t Everybody a Geek?

By: Dee

Dee — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 02:44:30 +0000

I wonder if part of the problem is the audience? Think about who you knew in high school that was a geek. The students I see actually pursuing their interests on the internet are not usually National Honor Society students. They are following their own paths and in a lot of cases many would be considered at risk as far as education. They are often the kids that you hope will be late-bloomers and find something to be passionate about at some point that will turn out to be an interest they can make a living doing.

They are frequently creative and not using the web for “academic” purposes. The two main things I see them being interested in are music and games. My heart would be to find a way to channel some of that but I’m not sure that 1. they could be channeled, 2. That we could find a way that would help them learn that we could sell to the administration, and 3. That we could make it be something positive and safe and yet be high interest for them.

Another problem is that change just happens slowly. I have seen the level of use of technology grow in the last few years but it still seems to stay way behind the times at least in the mainstream. We are surprised when the students are not willing to do extra to benefit others and still have a hard time with adults in the same way. I think before we can motivate students we have to create some excitement in a group of adults who would be willing to enthusiastically learn and mentor.

Anyway - that’s my two cents - take it for what it’s worth. I would say, hang in there because your work may pay off in some other area you don’t even suspect right now. I don’t mean financially though I would definitely wish that for you, I mean that the wiki will be utilized. Maybe we need to do a presentation on wikis and their uses for teachers?

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 06:04:40 +0000

Did you really think that the average high schooler would do research and then actually write it up? That sounds like an assignment. I’d be surprised if the average high schooler even thinks realistically about life after Paris High considering the number of “sports stars” and such I ran into when I strayed out of advanced classes.

I don’t know of anyone who edits wikipedia articles. I suppose I would if I happened to notice an error, or if there was something I ran across where I already knew a great deal but there wasn’t anything there. Currently I’ve been very pleased by the depth of the mathematics information on wikipedia. It’s been invaluble in my classes, but if I ran across something that wasn’t there would I add it later after I’d learned it? I don’t know.

I think maybe one person out of a hundred (and that may be overgenerous by an order of magnitude) would take the time to contribute. Wikipedia works because of the vast number of people that use it. It’s large enough that content is created and updated very rapidly. On a smaller scale it would have to be a fairly fanatical group of users to work (linux geeks come to mind, but a non-tech group could work as well, though it’s less likely). On a school level it would fail completely.

Now if the wiki held common test questions and homework answers the honors kids would jump all over that. Come to think of it, why didn’t me and my friends do that? We do something similar here where we have a dorm-test bank so you can see every test a teacher has ever given. Very useful the night before. (The teachers know about this and adjust each test accordingly, but it helps focus studying.)

I should be back in Paris in the first few days of May, but I’ll be leaving again the 27th. Can’t let it suck me in…