Knowledge-able

Knowledge-able : That's how Mike Wesch has described (one of) the attributes future students should possess. The hour long video below (created June 2008) discusses how Mike Wesch uses a number of connected web tools (wiki, RSS feeds, Youtube, twitter, etc)to create a platform for participation using netvibes. Not a VLE or eportfolio in sight! His previous videos blow open the myth of keen students eager to attend red brick educational institutions. They do want to learn, but not neccesarily in a musty old lecture theatre , one to many/empty vessel, method. You can see two of his previous videos "the machines are using us" and "a vision of students today" on you tube.




Towards the end of the video he describes how he uses a simulation game to get his students to learn about cultures. The whole video is fascinating for anyone connected with teaching & learning. This is truely student centred pedagogy, and the web tools are merely there to help him faciliate the process. There is one interesting part in the vid where he talks about piloting student self assessment. Basically this went pear shaped, and he had to step in. but , all of his other ideas seemd to have worked well.

For me the use of the wiki has really enabled him to put the onus of learning back into the student domain. The points he makes about information, knowledge and the how we are uploading more and more to create the web is fascinating stuff. This man has been teaching for about 5 years now. He is using a suite of free web based tools (see list below) to create a truely collaborative, engaging and participative platform.

Interestingly he also mentions the abiltiy to listen to questions posed and to ensure the students are encouraged to ask more and deeper questions, to promote discssion and reflection. In a recent webcast by Martin Dougiamas (the man who made Moodle) he hinted at developments in Moodle to ensure just that, i.e. enable students to ask questions! Reminds me of the importance placed on the Laurillard conversational model when designing e-learning resources.


The list of web tools Mike Wesch used with his students, all aggregated in his netvibes portal : http://www.netvibes.com/wesch Netvibes is like igoogle, which is like pageflakes.

Twitter - a micro blogging / social network tool
A wiki - a collaborative website
RSS feeds - a method of pushing new web data to you
del.icio.us - user shared books marks
Youtube - user shared videos
facebook - a social networking tool
diigo - a bookmarking and "highlighter" tool , allows you to make notes and share them
blogger - millions of users musings. Search blogs with technorati
Jott - converts voice to text - can be linked to twitter
lexisnexis - a research portal that aggregates articles
2D barcodes read by mobile phone - no idea.. but sounded interesting
An online video editor - a web based application that allows collaborative video editing
a netvibe portal - web portals aggregate information created by other web based applications


He also mentioned that we should look at killer startups, to find out where the next bebo, facebook or myspace is comming from!