The Beloit College Mindset List for Educational Technology?

I first read the Beloit College Mindset List back in 2003 when I was working on an ad campaign targeted to college students. Every year since, it’s become my annual age reality check.

[The one that really got me? A classic from the very first Mindset List for the Class of 2002. Number 7. "They have never feared a nuclear war. 'The Day After' is a pill to them—not a movie." Sheesh.]

But that’s why the list was created in the first place – the widening generational gap between faculty and students and the need for instructors to “watch their references” as list editor Tom McBride is fond of saying. I heard list creator Ron Nief on NPR this morning and he said back when they started it, he’d heard of a professor making a reference to Watergate, and a student responded she knew what that was. It’s where Monica Lewinski had an apartment.

Wow. Time marches on.

Which brings us to the list for the Class of 2013, which we were thrilled to webcast for the second year in a row. Here’s the announcement from Nief and McBride.

As the subjects of that first Mindset List were born in 1980, it’s no surprise technology has always played a key role. And undoubtedly – since this is all about the mindset of college students – their use of technology both inside and outside of the classroom will continue to expand. See list items #4, #9, #14 and #50 plus McBride’s quote from today’s press release as proof.

So, in the spirit of the Beloit College Mindset List and our unwavering belief in the power of webcasting, here are a few items we hope to make some future list:

1. College students have never considered bringing a tape recorder to class. Courses have always been captured and streamed online.
2. Cramming for a test has always meant watching every lecture at double speed.
3. Papers have always included citations linked to Mediasite presentations.
4. Students have always taken time stamps instead of notes, so they can go back and watch the lecture from their index.
5. Both classes and conferences have always had blended, hybrid, virtual or strictly online sections.
6. Mediasite has always been a verb, as in “I’ve got a lot of mediasiting to do.” (Yeah, I went there. Just couldn’t resist. But we’re not the only ones who have.)

Well, that’s a start. What would be on your Mindset List of the Future? And how do you think classroom technology is shaping the lives of today’s freshmen?