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Week 3 Summary

Week 3 Summary

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Week 3 Summary: Jan. 30 – Feb. 5

This week was dedicated to the following three things:

  1. Recording video footage for my visual artefact: I decided to record clips of ‘happenings’ from around my own house – the coffee grinder, piano, laptop computer, chandelier, etc. I wanted to depict everyday things that mix the ‘technology’ with the ‘human’. I posted a rather ‘unedited’ planning document HERE, before taking the footage to begin the long process of creating and editing it on Final Cut Pro into a video for my visual artefact.
  2. Postings: I engaged in conversations on Twitter commenting on others’ visual artefacts and tweeted my own artefact HERE. I also blogged about figure skating prosthetics and cyborgs HERE, and reflected on transhumanist views in relation to an exciting initiative called ‘New Dimensions of Testimony’ using Bayne (2014) and Miller (2011) HERE. Finally, I posted a picture of Holocaust survivor, Pinchas Gutter HERE, and more on ‘New Dimensions of Testimony’ HERE and HERE.
  3. Visual Artefact: This week, I posted my visual artefact – a few times from a few different sources – but the final artefact can be found HERE, with comments from my classmates. I was proud of how my artefact turned out; I wanted to portray a feeling of anxiousness and of monotony – like a drone machine trying to struggle through life as a human or machine (or a cyborg, perhaps?). I enjoyed mixing the tech sounds and images with the human (breathing, heartbeat sounds) and think it was an effective way to combine human and tech.

As I usually do, I realise I probably spent entirely too much time creating my visual artefact, but I did find it to be a worthwhile project – a great way to end week 3!

Thoughts on the visual artefact

Thoughts on the visual artefact

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I keep reading this excerpt from the EDC site:

“This block ends with you creating a visual representation of a theme or themes covered during this first part of the course. The idea here is that you try to represent your knowledge and understanding of the core cybercultures themes we have considered by creating something which is visual rather than textual – an image, a video, or some other kind of digital representation.”

Create a “visual representation of a theme…”

“…visual representation…”

Given that through necessity and experience I have come to enjoy creating videos, I think I will choose to create a video and publish it on YouTube for my EDC visual artefact. 

After reading Bayne (2014), I am intrigued with transhumanism – of how “radical technological modifications to our brains and bodies are needed.” This makes me think about learning, of acquiring knowledge and experience… Are we not modifying our brains through learning – through the acquisition of knowledge? We are, at least, enhancing or building upon our knowledge (perhaps this is referring to Piaget’s constructivism?)…

I must admit that I had to go through Bayne’s (2014) paper a number of times as I found it a lot to grasp. I still think I don’t entirely understand everything. Again, I guess that is what learning is about.

References

Bayne, S. (2014) What’s the matter with ‘Technology Enhanced Learning’? Learning, Media and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2014.915851