This week’s stream seemed to have three different elements – community, robots and spaces.
Robots and ethics still seem to be on my mind in this block and Philip and I have been discussing the worries around the future of these. Using autonomous vehicles as an example, even Elon Musk is warning humanity that they need a plan for the displaced workforce due to these vehicles.
Spaces and their importance offline and online have also appeared due to our discussions and also from my MOOC on designs for the future. As with the vehicles we need to redesign our spaces to work with technology and not against it – the library is now used more than ever but needs to be more than just a building to house physical books. We need to encourage collaboration and communication for users and access to the Internet.
Community appeared all week in the form of discussions with classmates about our MOOC experiences and wider issues. I have covered my MOOC community experiences so far in a separate post but whilst I haven’t had conversations with other MOOC participants I am enjoying the teaching which doesn’t follow the tick, click, next format of other xMOOCs. I have tried to add various ethnography pieces into my stream as well and the PhD advert was really interesting as it focused on looking at digital media from a non-Western perspective which helped push me further into the realm.
With regards to the readings, the paper by B Stewart was intriguing in that I follow Bonnie on Twitter and whilst reading her paper I could picture her, her children, where she lives and works. This is a very different experience of communities than I was used to in my undergraduate course and I wonder if we now have overly high expectations of community in the online sphere?
Interesting to see that robots are still featuring in your thinking. Perhaps this is something to consider as informing your final assignment topic – plenty of time for that though!
Good to hear you’ve had a positive response about your micro-ethnography, which you describe nicely in your the post. Hopefully it will generate some more interest.
‘I wonder if we now have overly high expectations of community in the online sphere?’
This is a really great question, and perhaps one to think about further as we engage with community cultures. Have particular ideas of intense and cohesive relations been oversold?