Googling Advances, Web 2.0, and Michael Wesch

I was chatting yesterday with a private school headmaster about how the experience of googling has changed, say, over the past five years. We've gone from struggling to master the intricacies of boolean searching (does anybody use this anymore?) to come up with a few good sources to becoming spoiled by being able to put almost any word into a search, in any order, to find what we are searching for on the first page of results. Have we gotten better, or has Google gotten better, or has the Internet just gotten so vast that everything we want to know is out there somewhere? I think all of the above, but beyond considering the impact of tagging, we both found it hard to articulate just what has happened to our online searching experience over time.

Apparently, Michael Wesch found himself similarly stymied when he was trying to put into words, using a traditional text format, the changes wrought in the world of Web 2.0. According to the May 2007 of Wired magazine, which honored Prof. Wesch with one of its 2007 Rave Awards, the cultural anthropologist at Kansas State University was struggling with how to illustrate some of the changes in the way we live now, when he struck upon the idea of converting a conventional academic paper into a YouTube video. Here's the now classic video he came up with, so you can see for yourself.

Pacing vs. Racing

Here we are, out of the gate again, bumping into one another as we try to find a clear stretch down the track. And I want to pull up, as I watch the other horses blend into a mass of furious energy, and ask, "Why are we in a race?"

The students continually clue us in to how pacing affects their learning. Yes, they want something energized and going somewhere. They want to learn what we have to offer them. But they frequently tell us in all kinds of ways, "Slow down, so we can understand."

Likewise, we as teachers (and I'm as guilty of this as anyone) dive right into the semester (to switch metaphors here) and swim like we're drowning. Got to get to the shore. Got to cover that material. Got to deliver.

We do have a lot to address this year: new curricula, an accreditation review, new programs for integrating character education in our community. Let us not forget the importance of pacing, of slowing down and getting it right, of creating a healthy learning environment for our students. But I hope that we can all hold up and remember that it's not really a race to get everything in by the end of the year or a desperate swim for solid ground where we can come up for air.