Turkle and Wesch
I really enjoyed reading The Flight From Conversation by Sherry Turkle. I agreed with everything she had to say. While reading Anti-Teaching: Confronting The Crisis of Significance by Michael Wesch I also agreed with his point of view as well.
Both Turkle and Wesch have similar ideas which makes them relatable. The relationship between their ideas is that they both believe that not only children, but the entire society lack meaningfulness of communication with deep questions. Both of them agree that asking higher level questions and critical thinking is the real key to learning. Since people are always stuck on their phones or the internet, they expect quick responses from the people they are communicating with via the media. In turn, they are asking very simple and basic questions. This aligns with Wesch talking about his students only asking questions such as "how long does this paper need to be?" and "what do we need to know for this test?" (Wesch 5) instead of expanding their knowledge and learning to dive deeper.
Turkle and Wesch do differ as opponents in some ways. Something that Turkle mentioned that really stood out to me was that "devices provide three powerful fantasies: that we will always be heard; that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; and that we never have to be alone." (Turkle 4). This is simply not true. When you are connecting online, you are typically one of thousands. If you cannot handle being "alone" then that makes you become more lonely as you disconnect from the physical people around you. She also goes to say how people are always walking with their heads down, missing the world around them, while their faces our in their phones. This truly saddens me.
On the other hand, Wesch wants to students to engage with the media as a tool in their learning. He wants them to connect with each other in a new way. Instead of the typical lecture style classroom, Wesch wants his students to become resident experts for different cultures and diversities around the world. He stresses that "managing this environment rather than simply conveying information." (Wesch 6)
Both professionals bring great ideas and new thoughts into my head and make me reconsider my teaching and my beliefs. The internet is great for many ways, but a real in person conversion, nothing can beat.
Both Turkle and Wesch have similar ideas which makes them relatable. The relationship between their ideas is that they both believe that not only children, but the entire society lack meaningfulness of communication with deep questions. Both of them agree that asking higher level questions and critical thinking is the real key to learning. Since people are always stuck on their phones or the internet, they expect quick responses from the people they are communicating with via the media. In turn, they are asking very simple and basic questions. This aligns with Wesch talking about his students only asking questions such as "how long does this paper need to be?" and "what do we need to know for this test?" (Wesch 5) instead of expanding their knowledge and learning to dive deeper.
Turkle and Wesch do differ as opponents in some ways. Something that Turkle mentioned that really stood out to me was that "devices provide three powerful fantasies: that we will always be heard; that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; and that we never have to be alone." (Turkle 4). This is simply not true. When you are connecting online, you are typically one of thousands. If you cannot handle being "alone" then that makes you become more lonely as you disconnect from the physical people around you. She also goes to say how people are always walking with their heads down, missing the world around them, while their faces our in their phones. This truly saddens me.
On the other hand, Wesch wants to students to engage with the media as a tool in their learning. He wants them to connect with each other in a new way. Instead of the typical lecture style classroom, Wesch wants his students to become resident experts for different cultures and diversities around the world. He stresses that "managing this environment rather than simply conveying information." (Wesch 6)
Both professionals bring great ideas and new thoughts into my head and make me reconsider my teaching and my beliefs. The internet is great for many ways, but a real in person conversion, nothing can beat.
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