Reflection

In response to the first question, I both liked and disliked certain aspects of the blog, which I would guess is probably similar to how most others felt. I thought it was a really good idea in theory and was complementary to the course material. I also liked the fact that the blog provided another way for me to express my ideas; I am not completely comfortable with talking in tutorials, and sometimes I need time to mull over a topic and my ideas about it before I can formulate a response to it. I'm of two minds about the fact that we were asked to submit our assignments on to the blog - I think it clogged it up and made it harder to read. Also I guess I'm a little shy about my work and I'm not sure that I liked putting it out there for everyone to see, although probably no one actually read it and since I knew I had to post it in public I probably put more effort into it, haha. As for learning purposes, I think the blog wasn't as good as tutorial discussions for actually learning about the course material, but I did find that I gained a bit of insight into the ways in which blogs work, which I suppose is relevant. I also liked the introductory posts where we shared a website we liked, because it was fun looking at what everyone posted - there was something different from everyone and I love finding out about cool new things like that.

Hmm.. Whether I consider myself a cyborg. Well I guess my understanding of what a cyborg was from courses I've previously taken was not a literal combination of body and machine, flesh and metal, but a more abstract idea that includes having a kind of oppositional consciousness that Haraway talks about and also taking part in a convergence or 'monstrosity' of different views, opinions, voices, etc. So in that case I would consider myself a cyborg, because in that sense I think anyone can be one really, if they want to. Even though I use a phone and have a computer and a Facebook and whatnot, I don't necessarily view those things as extensions or parts of myself - I could live without them. But I guess if simply using technology is considered being a cyborg, then I would say I definitely am - who isn't these days?

In general, I found the unit and the material we covered to be really interesting. It's so much easier to learn when you're actually interested in what someone's telling you. I also thought the work we did in the workshops was relevant to the lectures and demonstrated what we'd just learned in an interesting way. The reasons why I took it were because my home university doesn't offer anything of the sort, and I thought it would be interesting and different than the women's studies I've done at home, and in those respects I definitely wasn't disappointed.

See ya! :) - Emily