When I reflect on Wesch’s video, I think it’s fascinating how explosive the culture of participation grew. There are more viral videos and memes floating around the internet every week compared to the internet’s infancy. That being said, the trend fades more quickly than those of the internet infancy. One week it’s a trend, 2 weeks later it dies. There are constantly new ways people innovate how to participate online. Some are reaction videos on content itself (ex. React channel), while others use the audio of a viral video to make it their own (tiktok). After watching the video, I went to Wesch’s youtube channel in hopes to find an updated video on the subject 15 years later. Unfortunately, he has not made an updated video on the modern internet. However, he did make some comments on another video about teaching and engaging with students online, which I found pretty interesting.
I think there’s a possibility where the new culture of participation can coincide with the future classroom. The participation can be used as a way to engage with the students and potentially be used for teaching depending on the subject material. For example, the ALS ice bucket challenge spread across the internet in 2018 to raise money for charity. In a biology class, you could potentially participate in this challenge and then afterwards teach the class on what ALS is and how it affects the human body. Another way to potentially engage students is through memes. Depending on the meme itself, you could break the meme down in scientific or sociological terms and how it relates to the subject matter.
I think one of the best ways to balance the challenges and possibilities is talking to the class about expectations. Being open to talking about internet and participation trends for the first 5 minutes of class engages with the students. You could inquire about the trend interest via polls and opinions, and again, attempt to find a way to connect it to the subject material itself. On the other hand, trends should also have a time and a place – it shouldn’t take up the whole class and take away from a student’s learning.
