Journal entry:Mindset list 2015

After reading ‘The mindset list 2015’ , I found that it is not very appropriate for student who come from culturally different background. For example, I have spent a significant part of my life in India, so I couldn’t make much sense of many points mentioned in the list. I don’t know much about John Wayne Bobbitt, Arnold Palmer and some others.

Although, I enjoyed reading the list. This also brings the memories back of an elder teacher in my primary school, who was in her late fifties. She always talked about the things that she experienced when she was in her school. Sometimes, she used to give examples of the things those were obsolete for us and I have to ask their meaning either from my parents or grand-parents! We never enjoyed her class. 

 

Many of the mindset list points are not relevant for the people outside USA. I think Beloit people go by political, cultural and social history. As you wrote in one of the responses that- In instructional design, Know your audience, is key. The list looks incomplete. The list is also "narrow", in the sense, that it doesn't apply to most freshmen in the world except for some global facts such as:

· There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway

· “ Yadda, yadda, yadda” has always come in handy to make long stories short.

· Video games have always had ratings.

· Chicken soup has always been soul food.

· Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!

· Women have always been kissing women on television

· Unlike their older siblings, they spent bedtime on their backs until they learned to roll over.

· Music has always been available via free downloads.

· Grown-ups have always been arguing about health care policy.

Moderate amounts of red wine and baby aspirin have always been thought good for the heart.

There are some more similar global facts those hold true for people of many countries in the world but I’m afraid not all. The world is not just USA, UK, China or India. There are still countries in Africa, Asia and Australia and the Pacific, where people might not have seen a computer yet!

But, this is an undisputed fact that the global facts mentioned in the Mindset list are a kind of touchstones, and the world is changing at a fast pace, so should be the education and the educators themselves.