So This Is It.

Being brutally honest, I have some trouble with the idea of blogs for learning purposes. I found that this blog worked exceptionally well. Everyone has contributed, and most beyond the required blog posts. Posts would be interesting to have a look at, and many raised interesting ideas or directed the reader to articles or web pages of interest. However, while it was an enjoyable experience, I struggle to see the learning purpose embodied within the blog. Besides providing an alternative environment to submit a copy of a tutorial presentation or an annotated bibliography/webliography, it did not seem to offer any substantial learning purpose. Some of the tasks, such as writing a reflection on newstory or blog came across more as busy work rather than a learning exercise.

I appreciate that the skills that are involved with reflecting on newstories, blogs, academic writing are very important to academic life. However, a blog is, to my mind, a more casual and relaxed atmosphere in engaging with ideas or thoughts. The way one writes a piece of academic writing (ie an essay) is substantially different to the way they might approach a blog post. I found that it was when people engaged with the blog with an interesting site they found or a thought they had that the blogging experience was most rich. Trawling through endless webliographies and newstory reflections detracted from the overall blogging experience. While the blog was an interesting and unique aspect of this unit, I did find there was, at times, a lack of learning purpose to the blog. It appears to be caught between, on the one hand, being a forum for ideas and interesting websites, and on the other being a way of submitting academic work. Blogs are an informal way of communicating, and it was when they were used as an extension of the tutorial space that the blog was most effective.

While we live in a technologically rich and dependant society, I still struggle to see myself as a cyborg. I, as much as anyone (if not more), engage with technology frequently. I am heavily reliant on my laptop, I always have my mobile phone with me and so forth. Technology is definitely part of my daily lives. However, I still (like to) think that I hold primacy. Neither my body nor existence is dependant or predicated upon technology. I do not have an cyborg arm that is controllable by someone (or something) else like Stelarc. I am capable of closing my laptop or turning my phone off without life stopping. I find that the concept of the cyborg is more of a theoretical or academic construct. Haraway’s Manifesto is just that, a manifesto. It does not offer any solutions or outcomes. Discussion of the cyborg is fascinating and thought provoking. However, it really inhabits a purely theoretical or academic realm for me.

I found this unit overall to be a really interesting and enjoyable unit. The lecture/workshop set up worked really well. Instead of being bombarded with content for 2 hours a week, having an hour to discuss and look over the finer areas of the course content made for a more engaging experience. The tutorials similarly worked really well. The tutorial presentations that facilitated discussion meant that there was always something to be said and there was never any silence that can be typical of other tutorials. Occasionally there tended to be a bit of overlap between the lectures – things like the visible human project and Stelarc kept popping up all the time and that was sometimes a bit repetitive. However, overall it was an interesting and thought provoking unit.