Monona,
I would like to respectfully recommend avoiding generalizations about "this future generation" and "attention deficit." As someone who is both a member of the
younger generation and has been diagnosed with ADHD since the age of 6, I believe that many tend to fall into misconceptions about both groups. Attention deficit disorders are much more than being unable to sit still or having trouble paying attention to a
lecture. For example, the aspect of ADHD that affects me most in my adult life is the effect it has on executive function (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890856709620402).
This effect is the difference between procrastinating because you don't want to do something, which many people experience, and being unable to start an activity that you look forward to (like reading a book or even watching TV) because for whatever reason
you just can't quite get yourself to start no matter how much you want to dive in. For others it can be a hyper-reaction to any sort of rejection or criticism (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1087054706288106).
It's a much more nuanced disorder than popular media has led many, including myself, to believe; many of these aspects are things I've only learned about in the last year or two, despite being diagnosed for over 75% of my life.
As for how younger generations consume information and their media habits, I would put forward that this may just be another evolution of how people consume information.
Within the last 150 years we have gone from only having print media and oral communication, to having radio, to having television, to having the Internet. Having the Internet in a portable device is really less than 15 years old. Our ability to transfer knowledge
has adapted with each new invention so far. I don't disagree that in-person training provides opportunities that pre-recorded videos do not, or that written word affords a degree of refinement that is otherwise difficult to achieve. But new modes of communication
also offer new advantages. An in-person presentation is a fixed point in time; if someone misses it, that's it, they miss it until it's offered again (if it's offered again). But with recordings they can still see something, and I believe that some level of
learning is better than none at all. Video allows visual demonstration of complex tasks that are difficult to describe in writing. From experience, I can say that it is much easier to understand how to use a Schlenk line from a visual demonstration of it than
from trying to read even a very well-written 20 page guide. And all this assumes that current generations prefer digital to hands-on. Obviously my own experience is only anecdotal, but I can say that when I give hands-on trainings, I have a much easier time
getting undergraduates to engage with me and my material than I do postdocs!
This ended up being longer than I intended, so all this is to say that I think writing off a generation as a lost cause might be premature, and while there may
be challenges, there are at least as many new opportunities.
Sincerely,
Jack Reidy (he/him)
Research Safety Specialist
Environmental Health & Safety
Stanford University
484 Oak Road, Stanford, CA, 94305
Tel: (650) 497-7614
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
On Behalf Of Monona Rossol
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2020 7:46 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] water based paint seminar
Something Monique said really bothered me:
I say video because I
cannot see my son's generation searching archives to read anything
because they prefer to watch things.
And this is why I also despair of this future generation. It is science-lite to watch those videos and take those on-line trainings.
I've done pod casts, had lectures videoed, and developed the slides and tests for on-line training. I feel badly after seeing or hearing every one because I know
I had to skip along on the mountain tops and never get down in the dark valleys between the peaks. And without out understanding the entire terrain, the audience leaves elated by a false impression that they understand what I've said. Instead, they know
what I've concluded, but have no clue about the process used to reach those conclusions.
In contrast, the written word exists without the distraction of the performance. It can be more thoughtfully and accurately composed to avoid any misunderstanding.
It can take the time and words to explain the thought processes and concepts that factor into the conclusions.
The only person I ever saw who got both the performance and the full story together was a very old professor in the 1950s who taught basic organic chemistry. I only
remember him by the name we all called him which was Pappy Klein. He would teach each reaction by the steps various researchers took to figure out the principles, even going down some of the blind alleys that had to be abandoned. So we saw the process.
And he would delay the final reaction products just a nano-second too long so that almost all of us could make that final leap just before he showed it. And now, we owned it.
Now THAT was performance-teaching. No big grins, flashy demos, or cheer-leading. Instead, a ballet for the mind.
It won't work today. The young are now lost to us. Attention deficit is the new norm.
Monona
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Ellison <Mark**At_Symbol_Here**TANKTRAILERCLEANING.COM>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Fri, Jan 10, 2020 9:30 am
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] water based paint seminar
I would second that emotion. The wealth of knowledge here is just incredible.
Well, there are 6 YouTubes of clips from my Vaudeville act. It's just a matter of bringing in a film crew. I do have some heavy grant money I'm not sure what to
do with. Maybe....... I'll think on it.
Monona,
You need to record all of your talks and start a YouTube channel?
In fact, many of you with such deep safety knowledge and experience
need to do this before you retire. PLEASE!!! I say video because I
cannot see my son's generation searching archives to read anything
because they prefer to watch things.
Best,
Monique
_________________________________________________________
Monique Wilhelm, M.S., NRCC Certified CHO
ACS CHAS Secretary|2017 CERM E. Ann Nalley Award Recipient
Laboratory Manager|Adjunct Lecturer|Chemistry Club Advisor
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry|University of Michigan-Flint
Monique
_________________________________________________________
Monique Wilhelm, M.S., NRCC Certified CHO
ACS CHAS Secretary|2017 CERM E. Ann Nalley Award Recipient
Laboratory Manager|Adjunct Lecturer|Chemistry Club Advisor
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry|University of Michigan-Flint
On Fri, Nov 29, 2019 at 3:34 PM DCHAS Membership Chair
<membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org> wrote:
>
> From: Monona Rossol <actsnyc**At_Symbol_Here**cs.com>
> Re: water based paint seminar
>
> In case anyone is hanging in the NYC area on December 5, from 10 am to 1 pm, I'm doing a NYCOSH seminar on water-based commercial wall paint hazards that has a lot of chemistry in it. You are welcome. You can register until December 3 at eventbrite:
https://bit.ly/2NR740m or call Dwan at 212-227-6440 x10
>
> Or you can just show up with a story, you lie, and I'll swear to it. There's coffee and.
>
> Monona
>
> ---
> For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at
membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
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