Michael Wesch, a 2009 National Geographic Emerging Explorer and assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, has produced astonishing video shorts on communication, education, and culture in our increasingly wireless world. His radically innovative teaching strategies led CASE and the Carnegie Foundation to name him 2008′s Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor of the Year. One of his videos–The Machine is Us/ing Us–has been viewed more than ten million times in its several versions, and eclipsed even the most popular Super Bowl commercials to remain the most watched video on YouTube before, during, and for weeks after the 2007 Super Bowl.
Wired magazine simply dubbed him “The Explainer.”
His presentation at this year’s National Geographic Explorers Symposium captivated the audience (myself included), and was so compelling that we’ve decided to share it in its entirety. I’ll be following Michael’s new work here on BlogWild, and you can also track his working group’s doings on the Digital Ethnography blog.
Check this video from the Explorers Symposium, and let me know with a comment if you agree Michael Wesch is someone to watch!