What is the relationship between Turkle and Wesch? (Thursday 7/1)

The Question: What is the relationship between Turkle and Wesch? Do you see them as allies or opponents in this discussion of new media and technology?

Sherry Turkle argues through her Ted Talk Connected, but alone? that technology has sacrificed conversation for connection and as a result we are isolated.

A quote walk through Sherry Turkle's argument:

• "Our little devices, those little devices in our pockets are so psychologically powerful that they don't only change what we do, the change who we are."

• "Why does this matter? It matters to me because I think we're setting ourselves up for trouble. Trouble certainly in how we relate to each other. But also trouble in how we relate to ourselves and our capacity for self reflection. We're getting used to a new way of being alone together; people want to be with each other, but also elsewhere."

• "Across the generations, I see that people can't get enough of each other, if and only if they ca have each other at a distance in amounts they can control"

• We sacrifice conversation for communication. We shortchange ourselves, and over time, we forget this, or we seem to stop caring."

• This feeling that no one's listening to me makes us want to spend time with machines that seem to care about us."

• "We expect more from technology and less from each other."

• "Technology appeals to us most where we are most vulnerable."

• "We're lonely but we're afraid of intimacy."

• "We are designing technologies that give us the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. We turn to technology to help us feel connected in ways we can comfortably control."

• "Before it was: 'I have a feeling, I want to make a call.' Now it's: "I want to have a feeling, I need to send a text.'"

• "You end up isolated of you don't cultivate the composite for solitude, the ability to be separate, to gather yourself. Solitude is where you find yourself so that you can reach out to other people and form real attachments. When we don't have the capacity for solitude, we turn to other people in order to feel less anxious, or in order to feel alive"

• "If we're not able to be alone, we're going to be more lonely. And if we don't teach our children to be alone, they're only going to know how to be lonely."

Wesch explores the crisis of significance arguing that the format of learning and the design of learning spaces do not promote learning at all. Instead, they perpetuate the agenda of education. In today's world, education and learning are two divergent ideas. Wesch aims to remove the problems student learning having little to no significance in student lives. He does this by teaching (or anti-teaching0 in a way that will foster good questions. Wesch's writing of "Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance," mirrors and expands on the ideas that he discussed in his Ted Talk

A quote walk through Michael Wesch's argument:

• "Students -- our most important critics -- are struggling to find meaning and significance in their education."

• "Consider the often-heard lament, 'some students are just not cut out for school.' The statement passes without question or even a hint of protest, yet think about what the statement says when we replace “school” with what school should be all about: “learning.” Some students are just not cut out for learning? Nobody would dare make the statement."

• "If our students are 'not cut out for school', perhaps we have made the mold too narrow or inflexible, or more likely, just not meaningful enough to inspire a student to fit in. That’s the significance problem."

• "I have even toyed with the idea of calling what I do “anti-teaching”, as I have come to the conclusion that “teaching” can actually be a hindrance to learning, especially when it is assumed that learning requires it."

• "Focusing on the quality of learning, rather than the quality of teaching transforms the entire educational agenda."

• "It struck me that all learning begins with a good question, and if we are ultimately trying to create “active lifelong learners” with “critical thinking skills” and an ability to “think outside the box” it might be best to start by getting students to ask better questions."

• "Postman and Weingartner argue that the environment (or medium) of learning is more important than the content (the message)."

• "I wanted the students to be fully engaged, talking to one another, grappling with interesting questions, and exploring any and all resources to find answers, and more importantly, more questions."

• "The physical structure of the classrooms in which I work simply does not inspire dialogue and critical thinking. They are physical manifestations of the pervasive narrow and naïve assumption that learning is simple information gathering, built for teachers to effectively carry out the relatively simple task of conveying information."

• "I have even tried turning over the control of those 786,432 points of light on the screen to the students themselves, using a hacked mix of online social media like wikis, Twitter, Jott, and Facebook to turn their cell phones and laptops into a local learning network."

• "They make up a rather creative and interesting means of learning, but not a reason for learning. They do not address that most significant problem, the problem of significance."

Turkle and Wesch as allies:

In the discussion of new media and technology, I think that Turkle and Wesch would be allies in this discussion. Both Turkle and Wesch have concerns with the ways in which information is being delivered to the next generation. For Turkle, this concern mainly rises from the impact of technology; "The regime of I share therefore I am." For Wesch, this concern rises from the crisis of significance. While they take different focuses, Turkle and Wesch are concerns with similar outcomes of disengagement, false engagement, in authentic engagement. Further they are concerned with engagement in the wrong activities. For Turkle, this is engagement in technology for connection in exchange for true conversation. For Wesch, this is engagement in the lecture culture of education rather than the discovery of learning. As they both work towards solutions to problems of engagement, they are in agreement that technology is not full/true engagement. For Turkle, this is the premiss of her Ted Talk, for Wesch, this is more subtle but as he finds creative ways to enguage students in their learning, he writes that technological tools, "make up a rather creative and interesting means of learning, but not a reason for learning. They do not address that most significant problem, the problem of significance." While they might have differences in their thought and their approach, through studying the work of both Turkle and Wesch, it is clear that they both value conversation and would be open to the conversation of discussing their unique perspectives in conversation with their similarities. That is final quality that proves them to be allies in their work.