In his presentation at TEDx KC in 2010, Dr. Michael Wesch presents a stark contrast between what skills our students will need to deal with our "world on fire" and what they are actually learning in schools today. He basis his arguments around the premise that critical thinking, an important skill in the era of television dominated media, is no longer enough in our current era of far more dispersed social media. Ultimately, he argues, we need to somehow inspire students to create their own meaning instead of search for it in our classrooms. This would require teachers to embrace real world problems in collaboration with students using relevant technological tools.
I would tend to agree with Dr. Wesch's rather optimistic view of what the new media brings to the table. In particular, as a math teacher I believe we need to start with the problem when preparing lessons. A good problem will engage students to wrestle with the mathematics on a more cognitively demanding level than practicing procedures or memorization. I think using real world problems as Dr. Wesch suggests would require such higher order thinking, relate the content to my students' lives and help them create their own meaning.
Another idea in the presentation, collaboration between both teachers and students to find solutions to problems, is one I would like to use in my future classroom as well. I like having my students write about and share their ideas with their peers to interact with the content. By doing something as simple as sharing a google doc with all my students, I could create an environment where students feel comfortable expressing their thoughts in a more public domain. Students would then create the knowledge, not have it handed down to them by me as though I were an anchor on TV.
Overall, Dr. Wesch did a fantastic job presenting some new possibilities for me to think about as I learn to create different types of learning environments career as an educator.
Tedx Talks (2010, Oct 5). TECxKC - Michael Wesch - From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-ABLE. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/LeaAHv4UTI8
I would tend to agree with Dr. Wesch's rather optimistic view of what the new media brings to the table. In particular, as a math teacher I believe we need to start with the problem when preparing lessons. A good problem will engage students to wrestle with the mathematics on a more cognitively demanding level than practicing procedures or memorization. I think using real world problems as Dr. Wesch suggests would require such higher order thinking, relate the content to my students' lives and help them create their own meaning.
Another idea in the presentation, collaboration between both teachers and students to find solutions to problems, is one I would like to use in my future classroom as well. I like having my students write about and share their ideas with their peers to interact with the content. By doing something as simple as sharing a google doc with all my students, I could create an environment where students feel comfortable expressing their thoughts in a more public domain. Students would then create the knowledge, not have it handed down to them by me as though I were an anchor on TV.
Overall, Dr. Wesch did a fantastic job presenting some new possibilities for me to think about as I learn to create different types of learning environments career as an educator.
Tedx Talks (2010, Oct 5). TECxKC - Michael Wesch - From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-ABLE. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/LeaAHv4UTI8