So, maybe I should have done dance? Well, I did other sports so that probably doesn’t matter. Regardless, the story of the ballet dancer in our YouTube-videos-slash-lecture fascinated me. I wonder if there is some context in which I’m higher functioning, hopefully that doesn’t involve mushrooms (but I’m open to try anything).

As with the lectures themselves, these videos were mostly about how normal pedagogy fails to engage with its students, and I’m getting pretty tired of this topic. At least the Web 2.0 video talked about something different; hypertext. Um… Well, ok. ‘Revolutionary’ educational techniques and hypertext. Is there nothing else to this subject?

I’m deathly serious here.

Ok, one aspect – or rather, word – in video three interested me; anthropology. Anthropology was actually my first real hobby, not even joking. I’m no expert – I was more of a biological anthropologist – but the cultural side really intrigued me. I hadn’t really considered looking at the Internet age in terms of social evolution on an offline level. Of course, the readings have all gone on about how the Internet changed the world and will further change it, but rarely, if ever, do they mention how it will affect humanity.

People are becoming simultaneously interpersonal and interpersonal. The middle video raised the point of how media has mass-reaching potential, which, you know… Duh. But anyway, it means that we no longer have to leave our homes or even our beds to seek out new knowledge and experiences. ‘It takes a village’, yes, but now that village can be cyber. It doesn’t even have to be people anymore. Self-help sites, robotic GPs, YouTube, children today are raised by their parents and the Internet. My three-year old nephew can use an iPhone.

That’s scary. I’m frightened by this.

But, it does get people – kids – to learn formative lessons in their own way. At that age we don’t surf the web unless we are enjoying it, and unless we are on Facebook chatting with our friends (side note, my SIX MONTH old nephew has a Facebook account) we are learning things. Doesn’t matter if we’re learning something academic like maths or grammar, or whether we are studying something cultural like our favourite TV show or the history of Czechoslovakia, we are engaging in self-motivated education. For children, this makes the Internet a surrogate parent/teacher. All it lacks is love, though really, if you search hard enough you can find love on the Internet.

But what the Internet allows us to do is learn in ways WE want to. These days, as – what I have decided I am within the last few hours – a kinesthetic learner, I can pace around my room, with my iPad, learning. Hell, I could do a cartwheel while listening to a podcast. Extreme learning! It’s possible today!