Knowledge-Able not Knowledgeable

         I am sure most educators have seen or heard of the point of Dr. Michael Wesch is making in this video. He discusses where the future of society is heading in relation to technology. He begins by describing this one town who he observed when they first were introduced to books (a new form of media as he says). This new media had changed everything about the village. It had changed the central focus of the village from relationships into a very structured society much like ours today, with houses in rows, laws, a formal court system, and so forth. Wesch then described how in the current day we are experiences a similar change with the amount of new media being brought into our lives and how we have no choice whether it effects our lives or not. The video above is a video Wesch produced a video a few years back with his class called, "A Vision of Students Today."

         Although this video is somewhat discouraging when it comes to where we are headed into the future, I do feel somewhat excited about my role as a person and especially as a teacher in the future. I am eager to have the opportunity to be able to influence others to not steer towards a structured society as Wesch described, but rather help create a open daring, caring, collaborative, creative environment where life long learning is valued as opposed to structure and patterns.  As Wesch said in the video, students should be looked at as “opportunities not burdens”. As a person who will have influence on young minds, either as a parent or educator, I cannot simply stand back and allow society to continue to be on this path of the “what do we need to know for this test?” I very much enjoy the quote Wesch brings up in his video and full-heartedly agree in it: Society needs to be knowledge-able rather than knowledgeable.”