The Art of Conversation

I'm not yet sure what the relationship between Turkle and Wesch is just yet, but I hope to have a better idea of it by the time I reach the end of these musings...

I def don't see them as opponents. Their positions are not at odds with one another. They both want to encourage an increase in human interaction. They're just coming at it from different angles. Wesch is focused on the classroom, or perhaps more broadly, the university system. Turkle wants to see it, well, everywhere including, presumably, the classroom. But does this make them allies?

Turkle's greatest concern is focused on how the devices we use are keeping us apart rather than bringing us together. She is worried that we are texting and tweeting just to feel something that isn't there. She suggests that business owners and families set time aside for their people to have conversations. She believes that conversation "sips" are not enough, that we humans need to guzzle or at least gulp down great drafts of talk and interpersonal communication. We're missing out, she says. Let's look up from our phones and see the world!

Wesch, on the other hand, is concerned that his students, all students, are being cheated by the way that teachers are teaching. He believes that even the architects, by the way they designed his classroom, are against learning. He wants students to have a reason to ask interesting and critical questions, instead of "What do we need to know for the test." And he's not just talking about reorganizing his syllabus. He wants to reshape his and his students' learning environment. He calls his idea "anti-teaching." 

I see no explicit relationship between these two thinkers. But there may be an implied connection. They are both dissatisfied with the way the world is now. They think if a change were made, that learning would flourish. Their approaches and fixations are quite different, but they could, independently of one another, arrive at a similar conclusion.