The Power of Youtube

Posted by: Cory Plough | July 30, 2008 | 1 Comment |

I have been promoting this on Twitter and Plurk the last couple days but can’t say enough about it so have to post here in case you haven’t seen it yet. Michael Wesch presented at the Library of Congress and, in addition, asked his students to gather 40 minutes of Youtube footage to create this 55 minute video. The result is mind blowing.

Somehow he has the ability, as an abnormally good Anthropology Professor, to take a pop culture tool like Youtube and analyze it for the scientific affects it is having on our world’s culture. And, and, he makes it entertaining which is the opposite of what my Anthro teacher did when lecturing in college. He makes me want to be an undergrad again just so I can go to KSU.

If you are too busy right now to watch an hour long video (I understand, had to literally stop working on my final project for a Masters class to fit this in) then go to your Google Calendar, or iCal, or Outlook Calendar and “pencil” in some time. This video helps explain the power of the social web in a way we have not studied or read about prior!

If you haven’t see Michael Wesch’s other education related videos, click here and here, heck, watch them all.

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Thanks for pointing to this, Cory. Watched it all. I love the tracking of phenomena, and the interpretation, too. Now I’m thinking about teaching through the lens of the participant observer…using 2.0 tools ourselves has us learning and creating WITH our students, and that changes our relationship with them. Very cool.

What I like the most is the part around mediascape (11:40 – 12:17) : “At the center of the mediascape is us. Media is not content, or the tools of communication. I think of the media mediating human relations. When media change, human relationships change.”

I agree it’s mind-blowing.

By: Jan Smith on August 4, 2008
at 2:49 pm