College Is A Waste of Time Dad

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Father: What do you mean college is a waste of time?

Cecil: Dad, I make $20k a month online.

Father: Doing what?

Cecil: Trust me dad. You don’t want to know.

The Internet’s advantages and disadvantages and social media in particular are always fodder for debate. What is seldom digested is its long term imprint on formal education such as attending class and being taught by human beings.

The word internet did not exist for the general public before 1990. Back then, teachers from lower grades up to university professors were regarded as the fountain of knowledge, where students took a sip and came out wiser. The internet punctured that equation. It is the new campus.  

Android phones and data bundles increase the number of young people that surf the internet in complete bliss, away from their parents’ prying eyes. They spend more time online than adults so it is possible that they are better informed than their educators. Television, their old babysitter sits there dejected wondering what went wrong.

The new campus is attractive for a myriad of reasons. For example, it doesn’t have a syllabus or course modules. Mobile phones give young people online access to any subject or non-subject. Indeed, why should they study Geography when Google Maps takes them to a particular house in Montreal just by caressing a mobile phone?

Music is the biggest casualty. The internet has changed the way it is created and distributed leaving recording companies with warehouses full of unsold CD’s.  Entertainment lawyers themselves go to the internet when preparing copyright infringement lawsuits.

Are music professors aware of all this? Do they know the difference between re-mixing, sampling or mash-ups?  Musicians such as Ice Cube and Jay-Z have flipped the script on how to market their product.

English or French students used to sit under trees on campus and turn pages of prescribed books about Canada under Pierre Trudeau or the Underground Railroad.  Most of this information is a click away, thus greatly diminishing professors’ imprint on students’ outlook. 

Yes, universities are supposed to nurture independent thinking but the truth of the matter is students want to pass. Consequently some feel that a pass is guaranteed if they mimic the person who will mark their papers.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Blogger Without Borders

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