According to the blog instructions document, we're supposed to have made a final post this week reflecting on the unit and the blog. I thought it was next week, but it says week 12, so...
The blog: I enjoyed using the blog for tutorials. Having the conversation spread over a week or so gave us more time to think about and discuss the ideas that came up and pursue different lines of thought related to the readings and lectures. I liked having the time to think about what I wanted to say, carefully consider other people's points, look at the articles again and so on before I posted my comments.
A disadvantage, I suppose, is that without the immediacy of a live tutorial, people could forget to post or just not be bothered. Possibly some people were also intimidated by the technology. Most of the time there didn't seem to be many people actively posting - or they would make their one post for the week and that would be it. (I was guilty of this myself a few times.) Many weeks had very little that you could call a conversation. (On the other hand, I've been to plenty of face-to-face tutorials in various units that have been like this too...)
The unit: The tutorial blog was one of my favourite things about this unit. But I liked a lot of things about this unit: the workshops, the reader, the lecturers... and it was very well-organised, which is always helpful!
Am I a cyborg? To be honest, I'm still inclined to agree with what Liam said right at the start of the unit: it depends on how you define "cyborg". And since "cyborg" is a very politicised concept, just accepting one person's definition - Donna Haraway's, for instance - and running with it seems to miss the point.
But I love technology and I'm happy to consider myself a cyborg. I don't believe there's going to be a techno-utopia or anything radical like that. Whether technology's effects are good, bad or benign depends on the way we use that technology, and humans don't have a great track record there. But I'm excited about the possibilities that technology is opening up to us - new ways of communicating, new artworks we can create, new abilities to improve life for some members of society - and I want to be part of that. In any case, like Donna Haraway, I'd rather be a cyborg than a goddess.
1 comment:
I figure may as well post here instead of making a whole new thing for my own feelings about unit.
blog - I enjoyed using it, for pretty similar reasons as emily. I enjoyed being able to do further research and make a more 'informed' response. That said, I tended to spend a long time looking at my responses and sometimes cutting out stuff that I may have just blurted out in a tute. I don't know if that's good or bad. I saw the same problems as emily, and sometimes it did end up seeming pretty quiet on the blog, with only 2 or 3 ppl commenting/posting.
the unit - I'm in mixed feelings as to whether I really enjoyed the unit, but I think it has got me thinking about things in different ways than I would have before - and that can't be a bad thing. Sometimes I felt the unit was... how should I say this... one sided? But that stimulated me to post more in the blog so... again not all bad haha.
Am I A Cyborg - I'd forgotten making that comment so kudos to emily for reminding me :D In a way... We all are who we are. If someone says we're cyborgs, I'm happy with being that, because I'm happy with who I am. I'm not in the feeling of "OH NOES! WHAT HAVE I BECOME!? MY HUMANITY IS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE" etc etc. I seem to have a bit in common with emily - I also doubt we'll get to the technological utopia stage, given our tendency to bone things up with war etc. But who knows. Some people would probably argue a city like Tokyo at least has the technology part down-pat? I guess it's all relative.
Well I figure that's about it... if anyone wants to stay in contact, there's my facebook, or catch me on msn via ijebus at hotmail dot com.
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