Talking Points No. 5/////Hyperlinks--> Michael Wesch's "From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able: Learning in New Media Environments"

I like that Michael Wesch views the way in which we are educated as ideological. One of his main points is that we are educated in a form that asks us to memorize and regurgitate, and to trust and essentially be submissive to authority. This is particularly true of high school classrooms. There is nothing egalitarian about a modern high school classroom, despite the fact that we have endless amounts of information being created constantly and it is extremely pervasive with new forms of technology. Furthermore, young people are the ones who generally are most aware of what this new technology is and how to use it even though adults are the only people with power and therefore viewed as the only "trusted" sources of information. What Michael Wesch describes as vital to teaching is leaving students with a way of analyzing and interpreting information, a way to constantly interrogate and ask questions. If teachers accomplish the goal of helping students develop a new way of teaching that allows them to essentially think critically for themselves, then that is something they can take out into the world with them that will always be relevant. This is important, since something else Wesch addresses is how modern students often have trouble figuring out the significance of their education. Well, if they are only taught to regurgitate particular viewpoints or methods rather than critically thinking and understanding something for ourselves, then of course it is going to quickly leave our minds.

As I was reading Wesch's piece, I felt as though many things I act on and believe in were being justified for the first time. I was going through the piece thinking "I do that" or "I've felt that way..." and recognizing that the types of behaviors Wesch describes are labeled as social problems when in fact it is the educational system that perhaps creates those problems, not the teenagers. I didn't have astonishing grades in high school because I did not ever feel engaged with the material. I never grappled with any of it. Nobody ever asked me, "So, what do you think of that?" or "Do you think this is true in your life or others lives around you?" I would read whatever was in the textbook, discuss in it class and be bored with it because I constantly had someone telling me what to think about something. This is the what Wesch is describing when he says that we are encouraged to just "follow along."

When we don't just "follow along" and we actually make an effort to understand the things happening around us, and we look at things through our own perspectives, that is when we feel empowered to discuss and to participate in our own classrooms and our own cultures. The young woman who helped spark the recent movement in Egypt was not just "following along," she was actively understanding and using her perspective as well as new media to influence something. She created and disseminated information through a YouTube video, and it was effective.

There are also students in Egypt who have made a newspaper full of voices of protestors, and they do not have government permission to do so. The students are creating media, disseminating their information/ideas/news, and they are doing what Wesch discusses when he says to "explore authority" rather than trust it.

You can find an interview here: http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/2/18/its_time_to_push_the_borders_of_freedom_egyptian_students_defiantly_publish_newspaper_without_government_permission_full_interview

Michael Wesch's article also reminded me of a type of education model I studied when facilitating a Female Sexuality Workshop called "the popular model of education." This form of education involves student/participant experiences, discussion, drawing patterns and observations, adding new information, strategizing a plan for action and taking action. In my experience, using this in the classroom (both the student's using it and the "teacher" modeling it) has eliminated a sense of strict authority in the room and allowed everyone to participate and learn in a way that was significant and applicable. This is the spiral model and the link for more information.

http://www.re.rollingearth.org/?q=node/109