A very cool video done by a class of Anthropology students at Kansas State Univ taught by Dr. Michael Wesch.
Watch video here.
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Nicely done video. I’m not sure what the message is. On the one hand, it criticizes one-way, passive instruction, which is worth questioning. But what are we to take from the screen time and multitasking comments? Pedagogy ought to conform to those realities? If lectures were converted to Facebook, are we to believe that students would be studying rather than chatting with friends? Or are they pointing to screen time as a cause for concern, that students are searching for something meaningful to learn, and, failing to find it in the classroom, turn to Facebook? The serious social issues pointed to in the video that current pedagogical methods are not addressing: Are we to understand that students want to address those and would if only they were technologically stimulated? Or are they saying that we’re mistaken to hope that eletronic technology, like the chalkboard, will revolutionize education?
I think the message is that students feel disconnected from their education – they don’t see how it will prepare them for the world so they turn to things they do understand. Technology is a mediator, not a solution. There are other mediators and we, as faculty, often fail to mediate learning, to engage students on their terms.