I’m a bit of a fan of Professor Wesch. I like the way he captures some of the big picture ideas that sit at the point where technology and anthropology meet.
In his most recent video (a conversation starter produced for an EDUCAUSE book, The Tower and the Cloud: Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing, edited by Richard Katz), he explores the way peer collaboration and knowledge creation in our web 2.0 world pose serious implications for the way we regard knowledge and publications at university. And in school.
Interesting comments about the way links work instead of a hierarchy online, that there is no ‘top’ to the web, and that we need a more open approach to the concept of knowledge because we live in a sphere that is far wider and more open than before.
A teacher who encourages students to develop opinions on a wiki, or review and critique a blog post on a news item, for example, will know this already…that it is better to be open and prepare students to become discerning digital citizens of what’s out there online than deny them the opportunities that web 2.0 presents.
And if you haven’t seen Wesch’s other video think pieces, check out his YouTube channel.
Thanks to dangerously irrelevant and Free Technology for Teachers for the link:-)
karen spencer 