Thursday, July 15, 2010

Michael Wesch Keynote Notes

This morning's keynote by Michael Wesch was truly transformative. I was fortunate enough to see Michael Wesch TWICE in one month! First time was at FinalSite U in Avon Old Farms, CT.

Here are the two videos he showed:




And here are my notes from the first time I heard him speak:

Morning Keynote - Michael Wesch, Kansas State

  • http://www.mediatedcultures.net
  • Students are seeking meaning & identity
    • You have to go out and find these things because they're not taught
    • We need to convince students that search for meaning is not something you seek, but something you create. Turn them into meaning-makers
  • Pay attention to questions students are asking
    • Great questions lead you on a quest
    • Students were asking questions like "Do I need to know this for the test?"
    • How many like school? 50% of hands were raised
    • How many do not like learning? No hands went up
  • There's something in the air...WiFi access literally
  • We need to move from knowledgeable to knowledge-able
  • It's not just info literacy or critical thinking --Communication, Empathy, Thoughtfulness
  • Did fieldwork in New Guinea
    • Villages completely off the grid
    • Completely "unmediated"
    • Experienced ultimate loss of identity
    • Identity and recognition there is given -- everyone you meet, you now. Not here
    • When writing came into his village, there was no "opting out", like technology here
  • Media Ecology: Every medium creates certain possibilities and takes away others
  • Media mediate relationships -- media change, relationships change
    • Living rooms changed when TV came -- furniture had to face the tv
  • Conversations controlled by the few, consumed by the masses
    • Neil Postman -- Amusing Ourselves to Death -- Brave New World or 1984?
    • A Brief History of "Whatever"
    • Generation Me - Jean M. Twenge, PhD (kids go through a "Quarterlife Crisis"
  • Yes, we need "critical thinking" around media, but now we need something more, like "participatory thinking."
    • "Information Literacy" is too short-sighted
    • User-Generated Content, User-Generated Filtering, User-Generated organization, User-Generated distribution, User-Generated Ratings (digg, delicious, rss feeds, etc.)
  • New Commerce
  • Dove's beauty video was responded to with a video about Dove's use of Palm oil. 
    • When you do something like talking back to Dove, it's more than Information Literacy
  • If you type "pwn" inside of youtube you can download the video (http://deturl.com)
  • weforum.org vs. we-forum.org (created by 2 guys called the Yesmen -- try to reframe people's identities) fake WTO site, would be invited to major news programs
  • new media = new forms of control -- students need to be aware of this
  • Shawn Ahmed
    • walked out of Graduate School...and to Bangladesh
    • He recreated ngos with the Uncultured Project: http://uncultured.com/
  • Music
    • OPSound -- http://opsound.org/
    • Eric Whitacre - online conductor conducting choir of singers on Youtube
  • Ushahidi Kenya
    • During an uprising, citizens could sign up for alerts using street maps...networked together about what's going on
  • Classroom chairs should turn so they can face each other to discuss
  • Antiquated idea = to learn is to ACQUIRE information - "nested epistemologies"
  • Power corrupts. Powerpoint corrupts absolutely - Edward Tufte
  • "The opposite of compulsion is not freedom but communion" - Martin Buber



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