Nordic Delusions: Banquet of Consequences Edition
An unplanned addition to my three-part series on 'excessive digitalisation' up North: university students are 'struggling to find their concentration'
Prelim: this is a follow-up to my recent three-part series on what Norwegian PM Støre called ‘excessive digitalisation’, which you can access by clicking on the link below:
Note that all three parts are accessible via this link.
Below is a piece that appeared on 16 Jan. 2024, and I provide you with my translation (emphases added) as well as a few bottom lines.
Worries about Mobile Phones Destroy Students
By Oddgeir Øystese and Ingrid Kjelland-Mørdre, NRK, 16 Jan. 2024 [source]
Siri is on a screen-free study course: ‘We have to help each other to find that concentration.’
It is completely quiet in the lecture hall at the University of Bergen [UiB].
The only sound is sheets of paper being turned, sentences being crossed out.
Students are participating in a course to regain their concentration. It is often lost until mobile phone use gives the opportunity to connect to the rest of the world.
‘The brain is so used to being overstimulated. Actually, we should have to switch off the phone’, says student in social anthropology, Siri Hammer Gjeving.
For two hours she and her brain have screen-free while she tries to dive deep into the curriculum.
Deep Reading
The course at UiB is based on the model of a deep learning project that the University of Oslo carried out about a year ago.
It has since spread to several universities and colleges.
Students must practice putting away their screens in order to be able to concentrate only on a text.
This is needed, believes Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, who is behind the course in Bergen:
The students often say that it is difficult for them to immerse themselves in specialist texts. And I can feel that myself. [perhaps because you’re addicted to digital stuff, too? It might also be because primary and esp. secondary education leaves much to be desired…]
We have to help each other to find that concentration.
Bertelsen refers to research which says that it is easier to concentrate when you read texts on paper, without a screen nearby.
Worries in the Government
‘It is clear that we are concerned that screen use and within higher education has moved to the fore in recent years.’ That's according to Sandra Borch, Minister for Research and Higher Education (Labour), adding:
Sitting down to read the assigned texts is important in order to benefit from the education.
Borch therefore believes that various courses and projects on mobile-free deep reading may be absolutely necessary. [I disagree; self-discipline and less-to-no screen time in primary and secondary schools is required, as are disciplined parents]
But could it be that it is the texts and the teaching program that simply do not keep up with the times? [what a shitty, stupid question; yeah, sure, make that one a thing about academic freedom now, even though a moment ago you lamented personal behaviour…]
‘The higher education institutions are responsible for the academic matters. And to make it relevant and educational’, says Sandra Borch [more bullcrap here].
And some other places have started to move away from the using classic texts.
At the Faculty of Law at UiO, students receive parts of the syllabus in a format that they are well used to—namely as short videos on YouTube [this is about the most stupid part here].
Teaching on YouTube
‘I made these videos because I missed exactly this type of video when I was a student myself’, says lecturer Knut Sande:
I found it both tiring, boring and heavy at times, especially reading the textbook [well, you’re perhaps not doing what you’re good at, dude].
He doesn’t think making shot video clips about complex topics makes it too easy for students:
On the contrary, I give the students an opportunity to immerse themselves in difficult issues [huhum, well, they could, you know, *read*].
Professor Bertelsen at UiB admits that the reading assignments can be experienced as demanding [hey, *colleague*, have you heard of the proximal zone of development?]:
But it is innovative thinking to have a video course like this to help the students [I disagree; it’s stupid, for neither the good professor Bertelsen nor lecturer Sande understands that once available like this, they’re no longer needed]
In Bergen, student Siri Hammer Gjevik takes out her mobile phone after two hours of a deep reading course. She admits it has been difficult to leave it in the bag:
It takes a lot of time from you. It's so easy to pick it up to check something. It ruins so much [speak for yourself, ill-disciplined person].
And after a quick check, Gjevik concludes that not much has happened after two hours of a mobile-free deep reading course [sigh].
Bottom Lines
This was a painful read, and it shows how far gone the universities are at this point.
Are they worth saving? I’m unsure, and I’m also unsure if it’s possible at this point in time and very advanced state of decay.
Sure, one has to ‘go with the times’, but the ‘excessive digitisation’ of almost all aspects of life has thoroughly wrecked humanity. Yeah, call this ‘first-world problems’ and issues that mostly pertain to white-collar weirdos in academia (such as your humble author here).
But the moment you have kids, the tables turn, for the borderline insane students of the above piece are your children’s teachers tomorrow.
I don’t have anything good to say about my dear and esteemed colleagues who participate in these shenanigans. As a personal aside, classes started again today, and I’m never going to use these darned digital gimmicks again.
They are de-humanising everything, and as such, they are the enemy.
If you’re still reading this, join me:
Night is darkest just before dawn.