Lisa D. Hager, Ph.D.

Every year for the past 11 years some folks at Beloit College have put together what they call a “Mindset” list. They describe their list as “…observations that help to identify the experiences that have shaped the lives–and formed the mindset—of students starting their post-secondary education this fall.” (http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/) They also suggest the the list “…is also not deliberately designed to make readers feel really old!” You can see this year’s list (and the last 10 lists) at Mindset List for the Class of 2012. Each year that someone has sent this list to the faculty or when the list has been discussed among faculty the general sentiment seems to be one of disbelief. What do you mean they’ve never not had access to personal computers? How can they not know about the controversy surrounding Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the Supreme Court? The reactions that I’ve seen and, admittedly, even personally felt, are often ones that do make faculty feel old and also make us think about how very different we are from our students. This brings me to the point of this post. Maybe, just maybe, it would be productive to think about ways in which we are similar to our students (or ways in which are students are similar to us). If this thought scares you then stop reading now.

I can’t speak for all faculty members but here are some ways in which I think I am similar to my students:

• I have a Facebook account and I keep up with friends and family that way.
• Sometimes I “chat” with my husband when I’m working downstairs on my notebook and he’s working upstairs on his iMac.
• Oh yeah, and we have multiple computers in our home–2 notebooks, an iMac, and a PC (not to mention the 3 or 4 older models in the attic).
• I have a cell phone and take pics with it and send them to my husband on his iPhone.
• I love to eat sushi.
• I saw The Dark Knight on opening weekend.
• I love to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
• I love to go dancing.
• I love to go to the beach.
• I love hanging out with my friends.
• I sleep in on the weekends (although I admit that my sleeping in isn’t like it was when I was in college).
• Sometimes I stay up late doing schoolwork.
• Sometimes I take a nap after having stayed up late doing schoolwork.
• I recycle.
• I love listening to music and some of my favorite bands are The Killers, Death Cab for Cutie, and Wolf Parade.
• I loved the movie Juno.
• When I have a lot of work to do and it feels like I have too little time I often get physically and emotionally stressed.
• Sometimes when I’m stressed I lose all motivation and watch movies instead.
• Sometimes I don’t do the work I promised myself I’d do over the weekend and I go out with my friends instead.
• I love going to parties.
• Sometimes I have a hangover.
• I love my mom.
• I think my cat is the cutest and smartest animal in the world.
• My mom can drive me insane sometimes but when I’m feeling low she’s the first person I call.
• Class papers can really ruin a weekend.
• I have a really hard time being motivated after Thanksgiving Break.
• After summer break I’m always excited to go back to school and see my old friends and happily anticipate meeting new people.
• Sometimes I start feeling sleepy when I hear someone lecture and would give anything to just be able to lay down my head and sleep for 5 minutes.

I’ll stop there but I could go on, and on, and on. Instead I challenge you to provide some similarities of your own. If you’re a student then what are some similarities you share with faculty? If you’re a faculty member then what are some similarities you share with students? I’m not suggesting that there aren’t differences between faculty and students. I’m not even suggesting that we shouldn’t consider our differences. But to have a more wholistic image of one another, an image that incorporates both the differences and the similarities between us, then maybe we’ll be a little more generous and a little more sympathetic to each other.

In Cognitive Psych class last Thursday we viewed a video clip from YouTube showing how researchers were creating “out of body experiences (OEBs)” using magnets.  See the video here http://www.youtu be.com/watch?v=nCVzz96zKA0.

Researchers at Princeton University have created OEBs using virtual reality goggles and a stick.  Participants see a virtual image of themselves being prodded with a stick and feel the sensation that they are out of their bodies.  The effect is not as strong as the work with magnets but the research is still interesting.  This research was recently published in Science but you can read a description of it in the NY Times by clicking this link http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/science/24body.html?x=1345694400&en=07337191417da7b4&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

We’ve made it through the first week of classes and some of my hopes and dreams for the semester have already been shattered (maybe this is too strong of a word but allow me to be a bit dramatic for now).  Here are my shattered hopes and dreams:

• To be a week ahead in my class preparation.  I had to be prepared a week ahead for my Developmental class since my night class met on Monday but I didn’t quite realize my dream for Cognitive.  I was prepared at least the day before for both Tuesday and Thursday and it looks like the coming week will be more of the same.
• Students would show up for class and be prepared.  Okay this one didn’t even get to survive the first day of MWF and TR classes.  You know who you are. And come to your Friday 1:30 class.  It’s just as important as every other day of class. The weekend starts on Friday after classes (not Thursday night).  Help me realize my dream for next week.
• I will always be perfect in class–no tripping over words (or my feet), no mistakes on handouts or PowerPoints, and I will never say something wrong or stupid in class.  Hmmm.  Maybe I’m dreaming too big.  Definitely tripped over words during the first days of classes (no tripping over my feet–yet) and made some mistakes on handouts and PowerPoints by the 2nd days of classes.  I don’t think I said anything wrong or stupid during the first week but you may disagree with that assessment.  Wonder how long it will take before I awaken from that last dream.
• No one will fall asleep in class (especially me).  Well I have managed to stay awake but I’ve had a few nodders already (no snoring though).
• The technology will perform (correctly) at my command.  No delays, no crashes, everything will hum along.  My Monday night class got started 30 minutes late because PowerPoint was slow and shut down a few times.  So that dream “crashed” the first day of classes.  The most interesting technology snafu was teaching in BL030 with 2 classes on either side and all 3 of us were using the remote mouse to advance through PowerPoint slides.  Seems all of the remotes were on the same channel so every time I advanced a slide the same happened in the other 2 classes and every time each of them advanced a slide my PP went bonkers.  That was fun. Especially at the beginning when students were taking a quiz displayed on PP.  Hopefully, that one will be fixed for the coming week.
• Students will be utterly fascinated by everything that I say and do in class.  Being in my classes will rank as one of their top 3 experiences for the week.  I didn’t do any informal or formal polls on this one but my observation of naturally occurring behavior in the classroom suggests that this dream probably died a  quick and violent death.  Some observed behaviors that may indicate a lack of fascination on the part of my students were: sleeping, yawning, packing up materials 5 minutes before the end of class, watch/phone staring, fluttering eyelids, and smirks.  I’m hopeful that I’ll be more fascinating in the coming week.
• I will always find my shoes to be extremely comfortable (especially at 9 pm after Monday’s night class).  Alright I never really expected this one to happen.  I was meant to be taller.  I think my parents must have exposed me to too many garden pesticides and fertlizers and they stunted my  growth. So the only way I can realize my true height potential is to wear heels.  I’m a 5′6″ in a 5′4″ frame.  I digress. Must be time to end this posting.

So there were a few shattered dreams but they were dreams after all.  Hey, I wouldn’t have anything to aspire for or to hope for if they’d all been answered the first week of the semester (come on growth spurt).  All in all it was a successful week and I enjoyed seeing familiar people and meeting some new people as well.  I’m looking forward to this semester and I plan on learning a lot.  I hope you’ll comment on my blog and if you have a blog send me the URL and I’ll take time to read it and make comments as well.