This video is amazing – it’s the stuff I teach! From the materiality of writing (handwriting and digital) through hypertext, HTML, XML, the point of it all – I wish I had made this video. And I was so pleased to see that the guy who made it, Michael Wesch, is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology – and this video is currently the fifth most popular video in the blogosphere, according to Technorati [Update at 9 pm: now it’s the most popular…]. That pretty much dwarfs any conventional kind of popularising research academics are supposed to do. Go digital academics!

I guess the only thing I was left wanting at the end of the video was more about how the machine is using us – the title is the machine is us/ing us after all.

16 thoughts on “(almost) everything I teach in a 3 minute video

  1. jean

    Yes, I watched that earlier today as well–I liked the ending: ‘We’ll have to rethink a few things’

  2. Applied Abstractions

    Web 2.0 animated…

    I can only agree with Jill – I wish I had done this video (that Michael Welsh did). With a small exception: The first three of the last four words, which pushes it a tiny bit over the edge…….

  3. Tama Leaver's GRS Blog

    Ever wondered what Web2.0 meant?…

    This YouTube clip does a pretty good job of explaining it … [Via Jill ]…

  4. Sigrid

    Hi Jill

    thank you for finding this, I have forwarded the link to some friends and colleagues. I have been enjoying reading your blog for quite a while, now that I have “relaunched” my own I may be can “pay you back” by linking to you once in a while.

    Thanks again
    Sigrid

  5. Sigrid

    PS

    I would have liked to see at the end of the video
    weƭll need to rethink Ɩ teaching
    weƭll need to rethink Ɩ learning

  6. Michael Wesch

    Yes, those are obvious ones I wish I had put in there (as I am constantly doing that myself!). This was all done in a flurry of artistic vision – without a script through much of it. I’m hoping to redo it soon, and I’ll be sure to put those in. Thanks for the comments!

  7. […] Michael Wesch an assistant professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, has made this wonderful video. A quick run down on Web tech and how it changes the world. This video is so good I think I might start my next media theory class with it. […]

  8. […] Video auf YouTube |via jilltxt […]

  9. […] A linktribution to jill/txt though this video is bouncing all around the blogosphere and technorati-space. […]

  10. […] via jill/txt, check it out: […]

  11. Semifat Sediment

    Cold weekend thoughts….

    It’s really cold out, and my mind wanders….

  12. Sigrid

    Hi Michael Wesch, thank you, great job!
    If you could provide a higher quality version, I am sure even more people would use it for teaching in class.
    Sigrid

  13. dave

    I don’t know if there is a higher quality version, but if so I would love to get my hands on one to save for future use (again to use in a New Media Class). If such a copy exists, maybe it could be turned into a torrent file and shared with people.

  14. Albertine

    Heisann, Jill!
    Jeg har fƂtt helt dilla pƂ blogging. Skulle en barsel-permisjon til. Hadde noen venner i jostedalen som satt og drodla med det, og Ask (4 mnd) er sƂ snill og rolig at jeg endelig har fƂtt tid til Ƃ oppdatere meg pƂ nye medier. Ikke minst Web 2.0. Veeeeldig interessant, sƊrlig i og med at jeg studerer pedagogikk (praktisk) for tiden. De nye sosiokulturelle tankene/ lƊringsteoriene passer hƂnd i hanske med med det som skjer innen Web 2.0, men er utrolig mye vanskeligere Ƃ faktisk gjennomfĀÆre i praksis i skolen.

    Har vƊrt spent pƂ opppfĀÆlging av ‘worksheet’-diskusjonen. Hva sa studentene? Har du bestemt deg for hva du gjĀÆr med det fremover? Jeg kom over det akkurat like etter at jeg hadde satt opp wordpress-blog med ftp-server, og punktlista di gav meg en skikkelig ‘flying start’ pƂ en del greier. Har dessuten latt meg inspirere mye av det du kommer med, og merker nƂ at jeg er pƂ vei inn i mine egne greier.

    SƂ takk skal du ha! Det var igrunnen det jeg ville skrive, men har ikke helt visst hvor jeg skulle skrive det. Har en masse spĀÆrsmƂl til deg angƂnde bloggingen din, men kan kanskje ta det senere (Du har ikke en faq liste tilfeldigvis? šŸ™‚ HƂper alt stƂr bra til!

  15. […] For those of you who aren’t familiar with Michael Wesch, he’s an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State who does digital ethnography, but the cool thing about him is how he makes these YouTube videos that get the point about social media and web 2.0 across in such a beautiful way – talk about merging form and content. See, here’s his most famous one (and yes, I’ve raved about it before): […]

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