Students today are swarmed with the latest fashion from having an iPhone or iPod to wearing the most expensive designer jeans. How can we take this and translate it into the classroom? What makes the world of fashion so grand that a student would rather spend time looking up the latest designs rather than studying chemistry or history?
I am no genius on this matter, but after doing the readings I have a few thoughts. First of all I think the start should be in marketing. Ferla (2005) quotes Chris Rainey who states the fashion industry uses marketing to reach the new generations. In the article Ferla (2005) is discussing the sudden appearance of religious themed apparel and how it spread like wild fire once picked up by the fashion industry as a mainstream idea. How do we translate that into education? I think we need to sit down and have a marketing team work to create new ways to make education exciting to the students. This new cover to the old book idea stems from reading the Postrel (2003) article Surface and Substance. Postrel discusses the idea that the technological world uses all of the time. If we put a new cover on the same book maybe the students will take a new interest in the book. The fear that this face change will not afflict real change is a good fear, but students today are so consumed with the bright, shiny, sparkly objects of the world that educators need to rethink their approach in creating a sparkly appeal to draw the students into old subjects. History does not have to be boring, but how do we tell the students that? I think as educators we need to go out of our comfort zone to build lesson plans that are interactive for the students in ways that have never been used before. Fashion is a huge part of the student's life's yet we take away the essential iPod rather than using it to benefit the classroom. If we create podcasts or a need for the iPod maybe students will want to stay further engaged in the classroom.
Another idea came from reading the article by Wong and Henriksen (2008). Fashion is a deep inclination for most people especially for the younger generations. Wong and Heriksen (2008) present that a buzz is often how fashion spreads so rapidly. Why don't we create a buzz about education? Create a classroom that is so engaging and fun to be in that the students go out and tell other students about the class. Next thing will be those students will, without realization, be discussing the topics from their class while enjoying the conversation with their friends and peers. Creating an engaging classroom is very important already but having one in which students go out and spread the word could help to create an educational revolution just as fashion does each year.
I am no genius on this matter, but after doing the readings I have a few thoughts. First of all I think the start should be in marketing. Ferla (2005) quotes Chris Rainey who states the fashion industry uses marketing to reach the new generations. In the article Ferla (2005) is discussing the sudden appearance of religious themed apparel and how it spread like wild fire once picked up by the fashion industry as a mainstream idea. How do we translate that into education? I think we need to sit down and have a marketing team work to create new ways to make education exciting to the students. This new cover to the old book idea stems from reading the Postrel (2003) article Surface and Substance. Postrel discusses the idea that the technological world uses all of the time. If we put a new cover on the same book maybe the students will take a new interest in the book. The fear that this face change will not afflict real change is a good fear, but students today are so consumed with the bright, shiny, sparkly objects of the world that educators need to rethink their approach in creating a sparkly appeal to draw the students into old subjects. History does not have to be boring, but how do we tell the students that? I think as educators we need to go out of our comfort zone to build lesson plans that are interactive for the students in ways that have never been used before. Fashion is a huge part of the student's life's yet we take away the essential iPod rather than using it to benefit the classroom. If we create podcasts or a need for the iPod maybe students will want to stay further engaged in the classroom.
Another idea came from reading the article by Wong and Henriksen (2008). Fashion is a deep inclination for most people especially for the younger generations. Wong and Heriksen (2008) present that a buzz is often how fashion spreads so rapidly. Why don't we create a buzz about education? Create a classroom that is so engaging and fun to be in that the students go out and tell other students about the class. Next thing will be those students will, without realization, be discussing the topics from their class while enjoying the conversation with their friends and peers. Creating an engaging classroom is very important already but having one in which students go out and spread the word could help to create an educational revolution just as fashion does each year.
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