In this video Dr. Michael Wesch, from Kansas State University, gives an enlightening view of a college lecture environment, his class. Students, coming to college seeking to find who they are and their place in the world find themselves unengaged and disinterested. In an effort to determine why this is, Dr. Wesch asks his students to share confessions of their experiences and gets responses like “doing 49% of reading assigned” and “only 26% of this is relevant to my life”. The student’s are interested in what they need to do to get the grade and not in attaining knowledge. Wesch’s point is that the knowledge these students need is readily available from any search engine in the internet. We, as educators must engage students by teaching them how to use this knowledge. Thus the term “Knowledge-able.”
Wesch points out that it is ridiculously easy for us to: connect, organize, share, collect, collaborate, and publish, technologically speaking. It is however, a ridiculously hard thing for us to do. We must practice. A favorite quote of mine from the video is “A good question is something that leads people on a quest.” So, asking a “good” question and then permitting students to use technology to access the available knowledge allows them to make connections to practical applications about what they are studying in school.
To me this video had a very similar theme to our first book "Why School?" by Will Richardson. Specifically, where Richardson quoted Tony Wagner as saying "There is no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn't care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know."
Wesch, Michael. [TEDx Talks]. (2010, October 12). TEDxKC-Michael Wesch-From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaAHv4UTI8
Richardson, W. (2012). Why school how education must change when learning and information are everywhere / Will Richardson. (Location 267, 244). New York, NY: TED Conferences
Wesch points out that it is ridiculously easy for us to: connect, organize, share, collect, collaborate, and publish, technologically speaking. It is however, a ridiculously hard thing for us to do. We must practice. A favorite quote of mine from the video is “A good question is something that leads people on a quest.” So, asking a “good” question and then permitting students to use technology to access the available knowledge allows them to make connections to practical applications about what they are studying in school.
To me this video had a very similar theme to our first book "Why School?" by Will Richardson. Specifically, where Richardson quoted Tony Wagner as saying "There is no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn't care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know."
Wesch, Michael. [TEDx Talks]. (2010, October 12). TEDxKC-Michael Wesch-From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaAHv4UTI8
Richardson, W. (2012). Why school how education must change when learning and information are everywhere / Will Richardson. (Location 267, 244). New York, NY: TED Conferences