Reflective post on SELF. NET

I thought the Workshops and use of Blogger suited this unit and the themes and issues we were discussing. They allowed us to interact with some of the issues dicussed that might have been more difficult to get to grips with if we had not had the opportunity to explore them more hands on or interactively in the workshop and through the use of the tute blog.
I think the online workshops were great to, as they gave us individually a chance to explore and play around with the digital culture we were discussing.
Obviously having an element of online work might have presented problems for some students if they were not familiar or used to working from the internet to such an extent, but the little teaching workshops at the beginning of the semester I think were a great way to get everyone up to speed. I also think it is important to try something new and innovative, and Self.Net allowed the perfect opportunity. It is good to take people out of the traditional comfort zone of University style teaching, but also, on saying that, it is important to work out what new methods add to the learning experience and what subtracts from it.
It is important to have the tutorials were people can discuss face to face and present ideas, and also to have this blog through which people can further bring up points and create a sense of community within the unit if they wish.
I think the problem raised about the nature of the essays that seem to not particularily fit with the ideas being emphasized in the course could easily be overcome. I think it is important to still have the traditional essay style way of addressing issues etc as it might become too confronting to bring in other methods of assessment altogether. However, in terms of participation marks and using blogger and the workshops, there could be room for more interactive work through the net etc. Eg, the use of posting up the webliographies and commenting on others over the blog was a good way to bring old style methods of assessment and new ones together.
Cyborg? haha well judging from the conversation in the last tutorial I would probably have to say I was one. Considering I wear contact lenses for a lot of the time and would be blind without them I cant escape technology. Also yes, the mobile phone features largely in my life, as well as internet connections blah blah blah etc. Simply my mobile phone seems to have become an essential method of organisng day to day activities with friends eg meeting for lunch etc, and my use of my laptop and internet allows me to email people and talk to people in other parts of the world, eg friends who have gone overseas. So, as well as my body being constituted of technology such as contact lenses, my social interactions and indeed things considered essential for human happiness such as community and friendship seems to be increasingly mediated by technology. I guess at the beginning of the course I accepted myslef as a cyborg depending on the definition one might wish to follow, which is what I still do. I wouldnt go as far as to say I fit the qualifications of 7 of 9 or whatever her name is in Star Trek, but if technology keeps progressing the way it does and we continue to consume it and incorporate it into our everday lives such as we have done with mobile phones etc, it seems that we could well end up in a similar state.
The question I always ponder about is whether all this technology, vaccines etc and daily drugs that people take to increase vitamins levels and all other things, has made the human essentially kind of soft. I mean, if we were to place ourselves back in time and try to survive would we die out, cos I hardly think we could be considered the 'fittest' anymore cos we rely so much on technology. People who would of died out from weakness, and even things like eyesight problems would surely of been bred out before, but becasue of technology we can still live on and pass on our weakness to the next generation (yes I know this is an incredibly pessimistic view but I might as well raise it). I always think about the "war of the worlds" and how the aliens were simply defeated by the common cold...one day will we be like the aliens?
Anyway, THanks TAMA I thoroughly enjoyed the course...:) you can give yourself a chocolate bar