Wesch reactions

Michael Wesch's speech was quite intriguing--the videos shown explored various examples of how just one individual could create a positive, worldwide effect. Furthermore, his keynote addressed both the benefits and negative aspects of growing technology. I found his speech to include a lovely plethora of information, most of which I internalized, (although at times I was distracted by the surrounding adults playing around on facebook or texting! Harumph. An illustration of the negative aspects of technology at work, and a depressing little image for a cellphone-less little child like me.)

 I was inspired by his talk this morning. Students plaster themselves all over the web, this idea that people are creating identity and seeking recognition is a powerful one. Children are all over the web, all of the time. To try to fight this, as some adults do, isn't going to end in success...for anyone. Wesch commented that just because a person cannot "opt out" of change. If you just decide that you don't want to learn to read, doesn't change the fact that some, if not most other people are. Whether you want it to or not, the face of society will change. We need to embrace it and use for positive changes in society and growth in students.

 So much to learn, so little time...

Wesch's  presentation was informative and exciting, yet overwhelming.  I grew up in the so-call "age of technology," but I already find myself hopelessly behind...

As Wesch spurted out the endless list of software and websites that he uses to create and publish blogs, websites, videos, etc., I could barely recognize most of them, yet this is what my students are supposed to be using to communicate with the world?!

to be continued....

 There is so much to unpack from Michael Wesch's keynote address this morning. I still find myself energized by his presentation and ideas. Coming to Boston I was hoping to address two areas, and Michael addressed one of those areas quite well. 

 I was interested in his point about kids collaborating using technology. It reinforced what I do in my classroom. I created a Moodle website and posted weekly prompts for kids to choose from.  I also gave the option of free write and as the year went on, it became the more popular option.  Kids enjoyed writing and were sad when we did not have a Moodle for the week. They also enjoyed reading each other's posts and commenting.

 I thought Michael Wesch's keynote speech, given this morning, was truly inspirational.  At times, during presentations centering around technology, I feel like presenters get lost in "cool" and often very interesting applications of the technology and, in doing so, lose track of the questions of why and how the technology benefits us.  When this happens, the connections between technology and humanity can become obscured, which does not allow us to clarify and modify efficiently our notions of how the technology presented can allow us to foster the interconnectedness that technology can be a great tool in fostering.  During Mr.

Ah yes, Wesch, the anthropologist that involved his class in active, long term, projects where students created micro societies.  We learned how the change in media has global life changing affects. 

Wesch also showed the importance of creating a learning environment that is geared to the student, run by the students, and adapted to the students desire to seak out meaning for themselves.

 I was inspired by what Wesch said and how he said it. Also, I learned through listening to him and watching him as he explained and showed us how his blog took off.  It showed me the power of communicating over the web and also how sharing a good idea can take of and influence a lot of people by the interest that it generates.

It's sort of like what happened with moveon.org. A few people got together to try and do something to stop the US invasion of Iraq. It wasn't able to do that, but the interest in social justice evolved into a grassroots movement that grew and grew until moveon.org has millions of people that follow its lead.

But, back to Wesch. 

 I enjoyed the keynote speaker's address today.  I thought it was eye-opening, yet encouraging at the same time.  It really made me think about how powerful the internet can be in a classroom.  It also scared me to think about what my two young children will need to master and be comfortable with in order to learn in the future.  I think I would have enjoyed college even more if I had been in a classroom environment like the one that was described.  I liked the distinction between being knowledgeable and knowledge-able.  I

 Wesch just completely highlighted thoughts I have been having yesterday about the lack of education to react to innovation. The world is changing around us and this is clearly changing the way that kids think, learn, and process the world around us. Yet so many educators are willing to continue with the procedures and methods that may or may not have been effective in the dawn of the Industrial Age (or even earlier). We are no longer a place to create good factory workers, but yet we continue to use bells to tell our "workers" when they should move to a different place on the assembly line. Things need to change and Wesch gave us the opportunity to see how that change may look.

Motivating, funny, inspiring, and thought provoking.

A good keynote speech inspires me. A great keynote speech gives me goosebumps. Michael Wesch's speech gave me goosebumps.

 I feel much like one of my students right now because I am not prepared to answer this question. I should have gotten my butt out of bed this morning and gone to the keynote. I should not have lingered in bed and indulged my desires to sleep in...but I did. Therefore it is going to be extremely difficult for me to fill 7 minutes of writing about a presentation I completely missed. I wonder if I am the only one in here who did miss it. Or I wonder if I am the only one owning up to the fact that I skipped it. Regardless, I sort of wish I had gone now, so that at least I would have something of value to contribute to this piece of writing. I wonder what it was that I did miss...and maybe I will learn here in a minute about what it is I missed. I don't really know.

The whole time I was watching and listening to Michael Wesch I was wondering how I could possibly incorporate just a small part of his ideas into my curriculum.  I looked at the two other teachers from my school and quietly told them, "I don't know about you, but I feel an idiot!"

After thinking about it a little longer, I have decided to try and incorporate just some of his ideas.  I know I cannot do everything at once, and there will be bumps in the road along the way, but I am going to try.

Note: I was surprised -- and honored -- to learn that this has been posted on http://novemberlearning.com/blog/ .... This was written a few minutes after anthology professor and digital guru Michael Wesch presented at the BLC10 conference in Boston. I've included one of his videos at the bottom of this.

At various times in Michael Wesch's presentation on Thursday, I felt alternately inspired, wowed, encouraged, thrilled and out-of-date, inadequate, woefully behind and, frankly, not as smart as I thought I was. Way not smart. I found myself wanting to create a video that would go viral, to redoing all our software so it could be half as cool or to help students create a project that would change  the world.

Michael Wesch should never drink coffee and I wondered how in the world he survived his summers in New Guinea. Then I realized that is what ALL of us need -- a visit to New Guinea, a time when we can just stop and listen and learn; that we -- not just the girl in the Dove commercial -- are getting bombarded, much as the presentation did, with thousands of ideas, and images, and entreaties. Do this, use that, get your kids over here. And that is, in fact, what makes us feel hopelessly inadequate and behind and ignorant. In today's classrooms there is such pressure to improve test scores, meet mandates, teach to curriculum AND jump into technology. There is also an intense pressure to make a difference, and, on a global scale, to gain a following, to change things. And to do it, we must have 45,367,578 views on our YouTube video which we create with students in one of our classes with the help of several kids in Ghana, Australia and Beijing.