Michael Wesch's Argument
To me, this was a very straight-forward article. Basically, Michael Wesch talks about how, even though the classrooms across the United States have an abundance of technological tools at the students' disposal, many teachers tend to shy away from using that medium in his or her practice. This "shying" away as I put it, may derive out of fear, due to a generational gap between teacher and student; it may come out of ignorance; it may lay in the lack of knowledge; perhaps it is a control issue. Many teachers, especially in urban settings, due to district mandated policies continue to teach a prescribed curriculum at the head of the class to 25-30 students in rows waiting to absorb the information like sponges, and then once every few weeks, they are expected to wring out the knowledge onto a piece of paper. Wesch does not want to have education continue on this "give and take and hope to give back" path.
Wesch seems to be arguing in his article, "From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able: Learning in New Media Environments," that "this new media environment demonstrates to us that the idea of learning as acquiring information is no longer a message we can afford to send to our students, and that we need to start redesigningour learning environments to address, leverage, and harness the new media environment now permeating our classrooms"
One of the potential reasons I mentioned above as to why teachers do not utilize technology, is the notion of fear. Wesch speaks to this through what he refers to as "A Crisis of Significance." Similar to what Dr. Bogad mentioned the first night of class regarding "No Cell Phones" policies, Wesch's idea of "A Crisis of Significance" addresses the lack of interest for many students due to "archaic" instruction. Prior to the mid-1990's, boredom was demonstrated on the part of students in the forms of doodling, putting heads on desks, or talking. Wesch's Crisis of Significance replaces the old boredom with technological versions. Things such as texting, facebooking, or i-pods are the newer ways to display tuning out. So, Wesch is trying to say that technology is not to blame. We as teachers need to bring back the relevance in education and if it means having the students make fictitious Facebook pages of Abraham Lincoln or a Powerpoint Presentation with downloaded music to accompany it, or a classroom Blog, then so be it- as long as they learn the concepts and how to apply them in a relatable fashion.
One of the questions that came to my mind is "Where does standardized testing lay in all of this?"
Ron, you mentioned last week that you are a teacher so I think it is really interesting to hear your response to this article. I think the suggestions that you made within this blog post are actually really good ideas and would help get the students interested in the subject matter while utilizing the media forms that they use everyday. Great post!
ReplyDeleteYou and Mary both raised this issue of standardized testing. So concerning for those of us who have to deal with NCLB, NECAP, etc directly. And what does it mean that we test students on things that the research tells us are irrelevant? Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThanks Amanda:)
ReplyDeleteTrue Dr. Bogad. Double Sigh
ReplyDeleteO loved that you mention that technology is just the new way to tune out. blaming technology for students not being active learners, is just ignoring the real problem! Teachers instead need to change the way they think about teaching to reach their students in new ways. Excellent analysis of the piece!
ReplyDelete"This "shying" away as I put it, may derive out of fear, due to a generational gap between teacher and student; it may come out of ignorance; it may lay in the lack of knowledge; perhaps it is a control issue."
ReplyDeleteI like this idea because you are really getting at what Kayla said above ^^ which is that it is teachers that need to accept this shift and make changes to adapt and appeal to students' learning style, rather than trying to force an old and traditional one onto the students because you know what? It feels unnatural to us! The digital ethnography project kept me engaged and it was so EASY for me to meet all the criteria on the rubric because I felt so in control. It's empowering to learn this way. It feels significant and interactive.