Web 2.0 and Participatory e-Learning: video

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Michael Wesch is at it again!

If you have not seen this YouTube video by Michael Wesch, an assistant professor at Kansas State University, and his Introduction to Cultural Anthropology students, it is definitely worth a look. In the spring, these students created a survey about student learning and also wrote the script for the video.

While some of the figures are striking, particularly those associated with the use of technology (e.g., students will write 500 pages of email but only 42 pages for class; students bring a laptop to class but aren't doing coursework - okay, not so striking), I wonder how this really differs from when I was an undergrad many moons ago? I knew plenty of students who purchased a $100 textbook and never opened it; there were also those who paid for a class and never attended (particularly those huge lecture courses at UIUC in Foellinger Hall). Even though technology played a very minor role (if at all) in my undergraduate classrooms, I saw a lot of similarities between my experiences and those of the students in this video.