Archive note: This 2009 guest post by Dylan Staley responded to Michael Wesch and Kansas State University’s Digital Ethnography Working Group. I’ve preserved Dylan’s argument while adding structure and a 2026 evidence layer around the educational experiment he was observing.
by Dylan Staley
My average class size is 115.
18% of my teachers know my name.
I complete 49% of the readings assigned to me.
Only 26% . . . relative to my life.I will read 8 books this year, 2300 web pages, and 1281 Facebook profiles.
I will write 42 pages for class this semester,
And over 500 pages of email.
Such is the disheartening tale of student life portrayed in 2008 Professor of the Year Michael Wesch’s short film A Vision of Students Today. Wesch led a Kansas State University working group dedicated to exploring and extending the possibilities of digital ethnography. The video was created collaboratively with roughly 200 students, who researched and presented observations about their lives as students.
The video is powerful and thought-provoking, but is it really this bad? Is this really how we are trying to teach our students?
Learning by doing
If we want to achieve true education, there are going to have to be radical changes within “the system.” Thanks to Dr. Wesch, students are beginning to realize that this is not the only way to be taught, and that for true education to be achieved, both teachers and students are going to have to take several steps back and analyze how they are learning and teaching.
I love learning . . . but I HATE school.
Christopher M. Sorensen, 2007 Professor of the Year
Wesch’s broader teaching practice pushed students toward participation rather than passive reception. His students made videos, created and edited web content, used collaborative digital tools, and took part in simulations intended to make them actively practice what they were learning rather than simply hear about it.
While writing a blog post isn’t going to change how students are educated, and neither is a video, we cannot hope to change a problem that we don’t know exists. The first step to change is knowing what needs to be changed. And if we want to bring up the next generation of great minds that are going to preserve our history and carry us on into the future, we cannot feed them age-old information in ways that leave them disconnected from it.
What this suggested for Voices of the Past
Voices of the Past seeks new and innovative ways to bring education to the masses. It is not a class, it does not have an instructor. It is created by normal people, inviting others to join in their work. This blog could be one example of the way education can evolve: into something that is both by and for the community.
We are not teachers. We are not students. We are all learners.
We invite you to post your comments on this blog post, education, and whatever else you see fit.
What remains
A Vision of Students Today belongs unmistakably to the Web 2.0 moment, but the durable question was never whether classrooms should adopt Facebook or blogs. It was whether education should treat students as passive recipients or as participants who can investigate, create, critique and explain knowledge themselves.
Kansas State’s own contemporary descriptions of Wesch’s teaching reinforce that distinction: his students were asked to make media, build collaborative web resources and participate in simulations because his teaching philosophy emphasized doing rather than merely listening.
Case Study at a Glance
This is an observed case documented through a 2009 guest post, not a project developed by Voices of the Past.
Context: Michael Wesch and roughly 200 K-State students used collaborative digital ethnography to examine the experience of higher education. Highlight the Supporting Passage
Challenge: Large, lecture-centered classrooms could leave students anonymous and disconnected from the material they were expected to learn. Highlight the Supporting Passage
Practice: Wesch’s teaching emphasized making, collaboration, simulation and student-created media rather than information delivery alone. Highlight the Supporting Passage
Outcome: For Dylan Staley, the experiment sharpened a participatory-learning conviction that also shaped the early identity of Voices of the Past: “We are all learners.” Highlight the Supporting Passage
What this case suggests: The enduring issue is not which digital tools students use, but whether learning systems give them meaningful agency in producing and interpreting knowledge. Highlight the Supporting Passage
Supporting Documents & Sources
- This 2009 guest post preserves Dylan Staley’s reading of Michael Wesch’s K-State Digital Ethnography work.
- The case is observed rather than a Voices-developed project; the surviving post is the primary record of how it was interpreted here at the time.
Archive Note / Provenance
The platforms and habits described in 2009 have changed substantially. The underlying concern has not: learning environments shape whether people experience knowledge as something delivered to them or something they can investigate, test, make, and contribute to.
The durable question was never whether classrooms should adopt blogs or Facebook. It was whether students should be passive recipients or active participants in producing and interpreting knowledge.
Critical Questions + Add to the Record
- What should technology strengthen in us—and what should it never replace?
- Who gets to speak, and whose knowledge is heard?
Application here: the case connects digital tools to agency in learning: the technology matters when it helps people investigate, create, critique, and explain knowledge rather than merely receive it.
Were you part of Wesch’s K-State classes or Digital Ethnography Working Group, or did this work shape how you approached teaching and learning? Add firsthand context or surviving documentation.
Discover more from Voices of the Past
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.