Michael Wesch, the professor behind the video, is a cultural anthropologist at Kansas State University. His most famous video, Web 2.0… The Machine Is Us/ing Us, is also on web cultural and the way we (and computers) learn things. The comment thread at YouTube on the video posted above is sort of interesting, featuring a lot of interpretations that see Wesch as criticizing student preoccupations with the internet. I think it’s pretty obvious, though, that his critique is with traditional learning, with the We Talk-You Listen format that still dominates the classroom, even now, as network many-to-many communication takes over in most other aspects of our mediated societies.

Here’s how Wesch describes the video:
“It summarizes some of the most important characteristics of students today—how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.”