Wesch – (Digital) Writing on the Walls

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3929554

This video is the recording of the Michael Wesch presentation this morning titled:”The (Digital) Writing on the Walls – And Why the Walls Don’t Matter Any More.”

If you haven’t seen Wesch deliver a presentation, this is a perfect introduction. It’s a good overview of his work and references the short viral YouTubes that are so familiar to many of us. As you watch this presentation you may have the “aha” moment of realizing that you’re seeing the inspirational force behind videos you’ve seen, enjoyed and even shared with others.  Today’s session gives a more indepth look Wesch’s background as he shares his own experiences in the context of many of the “greats” in media history (Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, etc.) and it would be a great resource for any of your colleagues who are ready for more clarification about web 2.0 in education.

The part of this presentation that was newest to me (and something I really want to follow up with) was the assessment question near the end where Wesch began to describe his peer review strategies. An intriguing one is called “calibrated peer review” — designed to promote critical thinking and model a strategy used in real-world evaluation of scientific proposals, among other things. Wesch has his students grade sample assignments from a library he has created in order to establish a rubric, then they grade each others work — all supported by a tracking technology — a google search found this: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI5002.pdf which seems to be very much like what was described in the session.

Wesch Video: Toward a New Future of “Whatever”

I meant to blog this great new Michael Wesch video before I went on vacation, but now I’m back so here it is:

http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=230

As always,  Wesch’s compassionate view of  how (and why) we connect is inspiring! Using technologies (like YouTube) we are creating personal “calls to action”  (Wesch’s term) which are beautiful, poignant and able to transcend narcissism and superficiality.

Wesch’s vision of our future: “I Care. Let’s do whatever it takes… by whatever means necessary”

Why this blog?

Twitter seems to require an underlying blog so you can TinyUrl to a more complete explanation of What You Really Think. I must say that it’s a useful, thought clarifying challenge to condense big thoughts down to the 140 character tweet. And a release to then be able to have the details gushing out in another place 🙂

AND… the reason I started on Twitter at all was to see if I could follow folks who are involved in the big theme-y things that seem to define my life (of course my goal is see whether/how these might be pulled together — and to contribute to that if possible):

• education
• education as impacted by technology (social change, critical thinking, information literacy)
• the participatory web and roles of the citizen (e.g. sharing our cognitive surplus)
• peace/conflict resolution
• creativity over destructiveness
• civic responsibility/resisting unwanted influences
• the role of culture and the arts in all of the above

Some of the key thinkers are Phil Zimbardo, Clay Shirky, Charles Leadbeater, Michael Wesch, Matt Langdon, etc. (ooh, where are the women here — I guess that’s another topic — I do follow Yoko Ono and a few female educators – but they offer something different). It’s very cool who’s out there, what they’re saying, who will actually answer you back, etc.

Another place where I am having conversations along these lines is the Ning site  http://echoesfromthesquare.ning.com/ I’ve put together with my children’s book (“Echoes from the Square”) as a central organizer. But the conversations at that site are intended to be mainly on the education-for-kids side, so this blog is required for when I drift into other things.