Amuse yourself to death

This Is How We Dream: Part 1 and Part 2.
Richard Miller created two very interesting videos about the incremental and fundamental changes of writing, creating, publishing, researching, and collaboration. Some of these things I never even noticed because they just seemed to have just become a way of life; I would never dream to go back to the days where the Internet wasn't the first choice of a means of research - and yet I didn't notice the instant change. That's just an interesting concept that these videos made me realize...

Mr. Miller points out in Part 1 how the basic means of knowledge acquisition have changed while simultaneously making the viewer aware of how important it is to embrace these changes if they haven't already become part of everyday life: the computer is the new desktop - no longer pen and paper; instead of going to a library to do research and learn what you can with the books present in that particular library, you can use the web to access an infinite database of ever-changing, instantly-updating publications online - rather than searching fruitlessly for the same information in print... Collaborate with instructors, classmates, family members - whoever you can imagine! - with pictures and film instantly, rather than with text or letters. I never noticed these as instant changes, and perhaps this is what Mr. Miller means when he says that these are "incremental - not fundamental changes."

However, in Part 2, Mr. Miller points out that the changes in publication are, in fact, fundamental: the problem with the old humanities is that you can't make work visible. Ideas and knowledge do not belong to an individual - they belong to a culture. So in order to make these ideas visible, inspiration and technology create the New Humanities that inspire learning spaces and learning teachers to be curious, be creative, and be collaborative. Although I know some would argue that ideas don't belong to an individual, I believe that if all ideas were displayed for everyone, everyone could be inspired by them; this would create even more ideas as ideas are stemmed from the original - the possibilities would be endless! The only problem with this lies in the "who gets paid for this invention?" question...


Does the Networked Student Even Need a Teacher?
This video helped me understand more about a PLN - about how to do it, what I can use, and why I should have one. Not only does the student have a wide variety of useful sources, but he is creating an important tool for learning and further researching for himself and for anyone else who wishes to use his insight.

So if this student is creating his own learning tools, doing his own research, and learning on his own, why does he need a teacher? Without proper instruction and etiquette, the student could not successfully build his personal learning network into something reliable and useful. Some other things that the author points out are also very important duties for the teacher to fulfill for the student: the teacher shows the student how to build the network and how to take advantage of the opportunities, offers guidance wherever needed, shows the student how to ask respectfully for help from experts, helps the student differentiate between reliable sources and propaganda, and shows the student ultimately how to organize and use all the information he just acquired.

Simply explained: if it weren't for Dr. Strange, I never would have even been able to create this blog I constantly write in! Most students are not self-taught, even if the directions ARE right in front of them. When it comes to computers, I'm certainly not... I'm still learning, though.


Michael Wesch: The Machine is (Changing) Us
This video is - hands down! - my favorite video I've watched thus far. Even though this video was only 33 minutes long, it still took me well over an hour to watch the entire thing: I kept pausing to write what I thought was important, what I wanted to write about in my own blog, and what inspired me the most. After finally finishing it, I read back over my notes, and I realized that my notes alone are sufficient in showing how I felt about the video - PLUS! It gives the highlights if you don't have 33 minutes to watch it yourself. Bookmark that link because it's definitely worth it. Not only is this an amazing last-minute source for my podcast project, but it helps me see YouTube in a different light. YouTube provoking self-awareness? I would have never guessed... There was so much information, so many different insights... Very informative and entertaining!

My notes from watching this video:
Ban books because no one wants to read them? OR ... Amuse yourself to death!:
Truth would be concealed vs. truth would be drowned in irrelevance.
Why the media?:
Lonely. One in a million. Try not to get lost in anonymity. No sense of significance. One-way conversations through the television: you have to be on tv to have a voice.
MTV Generation: short attention span, materialistic, narcissistic, not easily impressed.
"I feel stupid and contagious. Here we are, now entertain us." Nirvana
The search for identity and recognition. No, create your own.
You know yourself through your interactions with others.
99.9% of YouTube videos are irrelevant to you.
"I'm talking to you, but I don't know who you are."
The medium shapes the possibilities of personality shown: you have different "versions" of yourself around certain groups, but when you're facing the YouTube community, who are you?
You will see yourself later. Will it be the same person you thought you were?
Anonymity + physical distance + rare and ephemeral dialogue = hatred as a public performance OR freedom to experience humanity without fear or anxiety.
From "I don't care. Whatever." to "I'll do whatever it takes."

So what I got out of this video was ultimately the influence the media/YouTube has on humanity isn't just mindless entertainment, self-promotion for recognition, etc. YouTube provides the individual with the means to connect to the audience without constraint of social anxiety. Which "version" of yourself do you use on YouTube? YouTube doesn't distance us from each other - it connects us. Hopefully one day we will be able to turn the "I don't care. Whatever." to "I'll do whatever it takes."