From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able

6/7/2015

Dr. Michael Wesch’s presentation on TEDxKC is an awe-inspiring video. He presents a fantastic viewpoint of today’s learning compared to today’s world and argues that the two do not mesh. Students sit in a classroom and are told to “bow to the authority and follow, follow, follow” (“TEDxKC - Michael Wesch,” 2010). However, in the real world many people who are not “the authority” have managed to make significant world change and inspire others to do so. They did not accomplish this by bowing to the authority or being followers. Teaching students to only follow and do what they’re told is not preparing them for the real world anymore. This worked in the era of the television in which only “significant” people could make a change, but not anymore (“TEDxKC - Michael Wesch,” 2010). Wesch shares an example of a spoof commercial made after Dove soap releases a commercial about the media affecting girls’ body images. The spoof points out that Dove soap uses palm oil that is taken from places like the Indonesian lowland forests and leads to deforestation and has negative outcomes (“Dove Onslaught(er),” 2008). This ultimately led to greenpeace meeting and collaborating with Unilever (Owner of Dove) to help stop the deforestation in the Paradise Forests. This was due to the overwhelming number of views and support by viewers of the video. People like you and I. We helped make social change and it wasn’t by being followers.
This example sheds some light on the way media works today. We have so many more ways to connect, organize, share, collect, collaborate and publish ideas that we can have different contributors from all over the world come together and make something beautiful (“TEDxKC - Michael Wesch,” 2010). If this is what is happening in the real world, why aren’t we teaching this in schools? Wesch (2010) goes on to articulate that we need to teach students to be knowledge-able instead of knowledgeable. Students don’t need to sit in a classroom and learn what the teacher tells them (knowledgeable) as much anymore. They need to be able to learn how to find information that is important to them and will be relevant to their lives (knowledge-able). Wesch suggests that teachers should work with students to try to embrace real problems that we don’t know the answers to by using relevant tools. A scantron test is not relevant in real life. A youtube video that will be publically published online in order to help solve a real problem is something that is relevant. This is a skill that students need practice with and cannot learn from a teacher telling them how to do it.
I completely agree with Dr. Wesch’s argument. Students are still being taught what they should learn instead of learning what they are interested in. I teach fifth grade so it is difficult to imagine not teaching them math, language arts, science and social studies everyday out of a textbook because that’s what I have been trained to do. Instead, teachers need to look out into the community with their students, see real problems and work together to try to fix them. I’m not sure how I would begin with this, though. I am still expected to use textbooks and get through an allotted amount of material before state testing in April/May each school year. However, I would love to have small projects throughout the year to help expose students to this type of learning. Wesch states that students need practice in the skill of knowledge-abillty to become good at it. I would love to do my part with my students to get them started on practicing how to be knowledge-able instead only knowledgeable.

Resources
Greenpeace. Dove Onslaught(er). [Video file]. (2008, April 21). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI7pQFyjso

TEDx Talks. TEDxKC - Michael Wesch - From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able
[Video file]. (2010, October 12). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaAHv4UTI8

1 Comment

Jake Bowker link

6/7/2015 09:51:46 am

Andrea,

It is an awe-inspiring video. A former student of mine, who now attends Harvard, stopped by to visit the other day. I made her sit and watch this video, since she happened to visit when I was watching it. She then shared some cool stories of how, at Harvard, where everyone is knowledgeable, ability takes precedence. What better way to inspire ability than to use technology as a platform? As you mentioned, the Scantron gives limited feedback, but a video or a movement can give limitless feedback and can spark new movements.

You mentioned we should teach our students knowledge-ability, and I couldn't agree more. Although I feel it'll be difficult to create a national movement of shifting our current "follow-follow-follow" paradigm of education, where stand-and-deliver teaching for obsolete careers is no longer effective, I believe technology will make it possible, and effective, for us to have students apply the things they learn from inquiry-based activities.

I had a conversation with a colleague of mine, who is set to retire in a couple of years, and she shuns the idea of reform. She's mundane and the students often fall asleep in her class. It saddens me to know, as intelligent as this teacher is, that she deliberately chooses to repeat the same style of teaching she uses every year, as if the world hasn't changed in 30 years. I hope her students start a movement in the last years of her career.

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