Cancer and the Media

I have recently been employed by two non-profit organization called Prevent Cancer Now and the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation as a program assistant. Basically, I am working with both organizations to help them develop resources surrounding cancer awareness and prevention.

As part of my responsibilities I am contributing to the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation Blog. You can access it at the following link:

http://bit.ly/aPA4Qj

Dumbing Down or Smartening up -- It’s Your Call

Of recent, in this part of Canada, there has been an ongoing debate about the quality of our University education. On April 8th, 2010, the Ottawa Citizen published an article, called Dumbing Down, discussing the recently released study by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) arguing that the quality of the Ontario University education has fallen in past generations.

The study, entitled The Decline of Quality at Ontario Universities: Shortchanging a Generation, argues that, in contrast to the university experience from the 1960s, there has been a significant decline in the quality of education provided to Ontario students. This is the a result of a creation of a university system that has been reduced to little more than degree factories in order to become economically sustainable.

As a recent M.A. graduate in communication and media studies from the University of Ottawa (one of the universities scrutinized), I find this very concerning. This study suggests that today’s university graduates are not as well educated as in the past. However, regardless of what this study suggests, it makes me wonder that, given the amount of information and knowledge available for anyone who has access to the Internet, are we not smarter and more knowledgeable than previous generations?