Our world has evolved and changed in many amazing ways, but also in many scary ways. The internet walks a fine line of being a wonderful tool and resource while also being a major factor in mental health struggles and overall bad activity. In Wesch’s video, he talked about how easy it is for media to be distributed around the world. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it is something innocent like a meme but it is a bad thing when it is something that is potentially harmful to someone or something.
There are many ways that technology can help us with participation in classrooms. For example, a combined google doc to allow students to work together in groups on one document. This is a great way for students to easily collab on work. Wesch talked about having his students watch YouTube videos and use an app that allows each individual to write down notes during the video so everyone could participate and he could visually see that participation.
The “Numa Numa” video by Gary Brolsma is an example of collective expression and celebration. But… it happened 20 years ago! I believe that times have changed and now people wouldn’t be as expressive like Gary Brolsma was in his video. Nowadays, students just hide behind their phones, don’t go out as much, and are content with that because they have everything they could want on their phones.
In class, we talked about the 4 big changes that have happened since the internet came out. There is a change in content, change in access in content, change in tools and change in relationship. People can now just search up anything and it will come up. No more going to the library to find that book that everyone wants to read. No more Blockbuster because who needs that when you have Netflix right at home. In class, we talked about how there is a drop in kids going out and getting their driver’s license because they don’t even feel like they need it when they have everything at the click of a button. These aren’t the biggest problems in the world but it cause us to lose touch of reality and real life experiences by staying in rather than going out.
In schools now, it is very good that students are not allowed their phones in the classroom during class time. This eliminates online distractions and students taking pictures of each other or the teacher. I do think that there are so many useful teaching resources on the internet that were not an option years ago. The internet is a great way to gain knowledge of a subject before teaching the lesson/activity to students. I think that now, classrooms should include active engagement, critical thinking and collaborations using digital tools. The tools could be blogs, video projects, etc, to give students a chance to use their voice and participate by sharing their work. This gives young people the feeling of empowerment.
In order to achieve this idea of the digital world, we need to teach students how to be responsible digital citizens. They need to become aware of misinformation, online safety and ethical problems in their online interactions. To balance these challenges, students must learn how to navigate online safely. There needs to be mediation with the technology in the lives of students and children.
Overall, Wesch’s ideas look very different than a traditional classroom would look like. His ideas involve a greater emphasis on digital learning and tools rather than the teacher spitting out information to the students at the front of the classroom. This change in classroom dynamics/teaching brings exciting and new possibilities but also requires extra attention to issues of content access and responsibility in this digital age.
I also think that critical thinking is a crucial skill to have and use when interacting with anything on the internet. There is so much out there that is twisted to serve a specific viewpoint or is just blatantly false that it can be incredibly hard to figure out what is true and what isn’t. Kids need to be able to think critically about what they are consuming by determining who something was made for and why it was made. Otherwise, they cannot responsibly interact with the internet.
Great reflections you have here about our realities now.