School-of-Thought

Yesterday I enjoyed participating in a district planning meeting to update our tech goals for the next few years. Today I came across this video from Kansas State University.  It impresses me as a great fit for what we’re doing, and I consider it a ”must watch” for anyone involved in visioning or planning for educational technology. 

The author, assistant professor of cultural anthropology Michael Wesch, states this video is “currently the most blogged about video in the blogosphere.”

Concerning interpretation of the video, Prof. Wesch says: “The conclusion I hoped would be drawn from the video, has been most eloquently stated by Tim Bulkeley at SansBlogue:”

More striking and visceral though, for me, was the opening of the video which sets the scene and poses the issue in an empty classroom! The environment in which we teach (onsite classes) is alien and sets up a model of information which is no longer true! Information is no longer scarce, no longer “out there”, no longer even ordered and organised the same way. It is not what we teach, it is how we are teaching that is the problem!

What teaching in the 21st century needs is not “better/more use of technology” – though that would be nice, nor (surely people do not actually believe this!?) students who are “as well educated as we were”, but simply new ways of doing and being. Many of our deep-rooted assumptions are enshrined in material forms, “class” rooms, whiteboards, “lecturers” and the like. So, what do we do to change how we are teaching?

Professor Wesch goes on to say” “I think Tim asks the right question here, though I would like to change it up a bit as I prepare to make “Part 3? of this series on Higher Ed: What are we DOING to change how we are teaching?”

Seems to me too that Tim’s question hits the nail on the head.  What exactly are we DOING to create change?