Mr. Wesch, I think you may be on to something...

I don't even know where to begin with all the awesomeness that is Michael Wesch. There are so many aspects of these videos and the seminar that he gave, and even his acceptance speech, that I want to delve into and discuss in depth. But, alas, I'll try to keep it brief (I'll try.. but I can't make promises :))


I first want to start with his acceptance speech for U.S. Professor of the Year. In the speech, Wesch talks about his first semester as a professor and how he had somewhat of a breakthrough about halfway through the semester. He was getting frustrated with the fact that his students were more concerned with the mundane of the assignments and requirements of the course than what they were studying (or so that is what I got out of what he was saying). Wesch finally  gets fed up. Of this moment, he says, "I literally threw out the syllabus, I went in front of my students... and I said 'Does it really matter what you need to know for this test? Does it matter that you memorized all this material for the test? Are you actually going to remember it 12 years from now?' And I asked them to go on a journey with me to answer real questions that even I didn't know the answer to. Questions not like 'What do we need to know for this multiple choice test?' but, 'What do we need to know for this test of our lives?' And ever since then it's been a remarkable journey that I've been on with my students." This, I feel, is a profound way of looking at teaching-- that you aren't just there to educate and mold the minds of the youth (or whomever you're teaching), but that you are on a journey WITH your students. 


However, this is tricky... our society teaches us to be the way his students were being-- to be concerned with what it takes to achieve a certain goal, whether it be a certain grade or attain a certain job or whatever it may be. We are rarely doing something because we want to, because we take pride in our work or because we want to see where the journey takes us while trying to get there. Rather, we're doing something (albeit to the best of our abilities) because we NEED to to get to the next place we want to be. This was something I spoke about in-depth with one of my undergrad performance studies professors. Performance, being the interpretive, sometimes misinterpreted, often self-serving animal that it is, allows for just such a journey. Performance classes aren't about the grade; it's about what you learned about yourself, your fellow collaborators, the topic you took on in your performance, the journey you took in getting to that final performance, and the journey you took your audience on with your performance. This was often hard for many students to grasp, as it's a very foreign concept to most, as most were focused on how to get an A. It takes a lot to break people of this mindset, but I think Wesch has definitely found a (maybe THE) way. 


So what is Wesch's way of getting his students to focus on the journey, not the grade? I think it's summed up well by one of his students during the seminar. Someone asks about how grades are assigned and one female student responds, explaining how Wesch gave them a goal to accomplish via this project they'd be working on throughout the semester and the project would have profound importance outside of the confines of their class. She mentions that she isn't really concerned with a grade, which is much different than her other classes where the grade IS the goal. (The discussion about grades is around 20 minutes into the seminar, if you want to hear exactly what is said). This is KEY in making such classes as this particular one work, but I think it's important for ALL teachers to take note of. Teachers have to make sure that the work their students are doing is meaningful, at LEAST to the students and their respective lives, if not on a larger scale. 


And then there is technological aspects of our society that Wesch speaks to in his videos, The Machine is Us/ing Us and A Vision of Students Today, as well as what he's obviously incorporating in his classroom, as discussed in his seminar. Technology isn't the wave of the future.. It's the NOW. And the fact that our classrooms are still often antiquated, sterile rooms where there are rows of desks all facing a dingy blackboard is a denial of this truth. And it's important that our school systems, and learning environments in general, embrace this versus trying to stick to the tried and true "old school" methods of textbooks, handwritten notes, blackboards, and bubble sheets. Without doing so, we will undoubtedly lose the interest of many of those in the new generations. With each passing year, the students that are entering high school and college are more and more involved in the virtual world of the Internet, so much so that it is becoming, or possibly has already become, how they relate to the world. And this technology can either be a distraction for the students or a tool for their educators to reach them and, more importantly, ENGAGE them. 


And Wesch has taken this idea and more than run with it. The ways in which Wesch is using the Internet as not just a tool, but the main way in which his students learn is phenomenal, awe-inspiring, and inspirational. By utilizing the Internet and technology as a whole in the ways he is for the purposes of this class, he very well may be single-handedly preparing these students for what is to come after college more so than all of their other professors combined. The skills they are inadvertently learning through this class will likely be more useful than 90% of what they'll learn in their other classes. 


The Internet is changing the way we learn, the way we communicate, and the way we interact with the world. It's changing the way we know our world. Ultimately, all disciplines of education are going to HAVE to embrace this electronic way of learning, or they stand the risk of becoming obsolete, if for no other reason than because those of this electronic age won't seek them out. If it's not on the Internet, then it must not be important :)


So what does this all mean for me and my own personal adventure in education? Teaching is a journey, and should be treated as such. I need to make sure I stay open to this journey, to not focus solely on what my students are getting out of what I'm teaching, but also what I am getting out of my "teaching" (read: what I'm getting out of the collaboration with my students). And technology is NOW and it must be embraced, as it is how we are interacting with our world. I think I always thought I knew this, but the more I'm learning about the tools the internet affords us that I HAVEN'T been utilizing, I realize that I wasn't truly practicing this idea. But it's truly imperative that I do so, just to stay current and RELEVANT  in the e-society of which we've become.


Apologies to my followers for the length of this entry-- brevity is not a strong suit of mine anyway, but this stuff just sparked so many thoughts... I could've written five times this much! I'm gonna blame it on Michael Wesch :)


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Food for thought (courtesy of NY Times):


At first I was thinking the use of the Internet in learning environments would most likely be reserved for education in high school and beyond, but this makes me reconsider.


This is exactly what I am talking about with technology being NOW and how different those entering school now interact with the world than those who entered school only 5 or 10 years ago. I also recommend checking out the Mindset List. It's amusing (and makes me feel really old). It is interesting to me, though, that they make the comment about the students having to "discover how to research information in books and journals and not just on-line." Why? Journals and books are all on-line too...;-)


And hey, you don't even have to go anywhere to tour colleges anymore! You can do it from your couch! Check this out. Another example of staying relevant. If a prospective student is limited to an online college fair and there's a particular school that can't participate, that school is already going to be at a disadvantage in the eyes of the prospective student...