a vision of students today

I ran across another very interesting video from Michael Wesch - an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. I'm fascinated with the subject matter of his work - so I decided to find out more. Mr. Wesch has produced/directed three videos as part of his "Digital Ethnography Working Group." Wesch's description on YouTube says "My videos explore mediated culture, seeking to merge the ideas of Media Ecology and Cultural Anthropology." Huh? I'm sort of embarrassed to admit that I had to use the tools of our mediated culture to better understand his description. If you're confused too - I linked the words for you.

Anyway, Wesch's videos are much clearer than his academic description. All three are well worth seeing and discussing. I've watched "The Machine is Us/ing Us" more than five times, and I'm still fascinated by his thought-provoking, sometimes mind-boggling presentation. "The Machine . . ." has won many awards, and Wesch's students are producing some really good stuff, too.

If you're interested in seeing them in higher-than-YouTube-quality, you can download Quicktime or WMV files here. It's worth a couple minutes of download time. The links are just below the descriptions.

Videos on YouTube
Web 2.0 – The Machine is Us/ing Us
Information R/evolution
A Vision of Students Today

Digital Ethnography Blog