Wesch selected as Carnegie/CASE national professor for resesarch/doctoral universities

"Students are asked to imagine the world in the classroom and create their own cultures to survive in their own unique environments," Wesch said. "This helps create an environment for meaningful and inspired learning, preparing us for a final simulation in which we take everything we have learned and try to actually simulate the processes and systems that create our world. The simulation is video-recorded and edited into a final 'world history' drawing explicit connections to events in real world history."

Recently featured in the U.S. State Department's "The Next New Thing," the World Simulation is a massive experiment in education that is now being considered for adoption by high schools and universities throughout the nation. It is online at: http://mediatedcultures.net/worldsim.htm

"Questions loom over every single aspect of the creation of this simulation, and because I do not know everything and the simulation attempts to simulate everything, I am in the wonderful but awkward position of not knowing exactly what I am doing but blissfully learning along the way. My job becomes less about teaching, and more about encouraging students to join me on the quest. The quest goes beyond the classroom, facilitated by a custom Web platform that fosters community and media literacy through the integration of a wiki, blogs, mobile phones and other applications."

Wesch is a multiple award-winning teacher active in the development of innovative teaching techniques, like the "World Simulation" for large introductory classes in cultural anthropology. Currently he coordinates the Peer Review of Teaching Project at K-State, part of a broader nationwide consortium of universities pursuing new ways to improve and evaluate student learning.

Wesch graduated summa cum laude from the Kansas State university anthropology program in 1997 and returned as a faculty member in 2004 after receiving his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Virginia.