I’ve written about Dr. Michael Wesch a number of times in the past. For those of you not familiar, Dr. Wesch is a professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University and heads the Digital Ethnography Working Group, a team of cultural anthropology undergraduates exploring the impact of digital technology on human interaction and human interaction on digital technology.

Wesch, dubbed the Explainer by Wired Magazine has created and produced videos on technology, education, and information have been viewed over seven million times and are frequently featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences worldwide. He is perhaps most known for his videos that concisely but accurately describing the fundamental concepts surrounding the Web 2.0 phenomenon (Web 2.0… The Machine Is Us/ing Us). He recently did a public presentation on June 17, 2008 at the University of Manitoba where he described his own attempts to integrate Facebook, Netvibes, Diigo, Google Apps, Jott, Twitter, and other emerging technologies to create an education portal of the future.

“It’s basically an ongoing experiment to create a portal for me and my students to work online,” he explains. “We tried every social media application you can think of. Some worked, some didn’t.”

Image by University of Manitoba

The video I am linking to above on the University of Manitoba website is all about media literacy and how he engages his students at Kansas State University. This 66 minute video provides some insight into how he tries to make students knowledge-able (able to create and critique knowledge) rather than knowledgeable (mind dump education). The 66 minute video is lengthy but well worth the time if you are involved in education or professional development or are interested in what is really possible and how it can be done using collaborative technologies to engage and interact with learners.

For many, the terms Web 2.0 and social media have become far too overused to be meaningful. Despite this fact it’s still an area that holds our interest and captivates our imagination. I am always looking to immerse myself in new reading and learning on the subject as there really is a lot of ground to cover and despite what I think I know, I am also aware that I have much to learn. Well thanks to a website out of the Department of Media Studies at SUNY Buffalo I think I may have found one of the most comprehensive resources on Web 2.0 that currently exists.

It is the fine work of Professor Trebor Scholz for his course titled The Social Web. The site itself is not packed full of information but the course syllabus is full of required and suggested reading links that provide a tremendous overview of social media. Spanning topics ranging from the history of the social web to the future of it, and many things in between this is a tremendous resource. If you are like me and interested in the topic or ever thought about taking a course on it, you might be able to find what you were looking for right here.

Social computing is here to stay, and it looks like it is getting a formal curriculum wrapped around it as well. Susan Barnes, a professor of communication at the U.S.-based Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) was recently awarded a two-year $149,786 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an undergraduate online course in the new discipline of social media.

“The introduction of social media software programs is a major change in the way that people communicate on the Internet. It is both a social and technological change that deserves academic attention,” Barnes said.

RIT’s new social media course debuts early next year to a trial group of 90 students, and will double as a case study of technology and social networking that is expected to further Barnes’ research into the potentials of social computing in learning.

“A focus of our course will be to introduce students to career possibilities,” Barnes said. “Social networking combines IT with communication, so we need students from both Liberal Arts and computer backgrounds … the types of skills that are needed in industry.”

Source: Computerworld