This week, I *think* I’m starting to get a feel for how the course is working as constructivist activity: We’re learning by “doing” to a certain extent; we’re given relatively minimal guidance whilst still being observed; we’re using community to bolster our understanding; and we’re being asked to reflect on our past experiences with an aim to realisation that what has gone the week before was the correct step.
Reading and commenting on other blog posts has been a great motivator. IFTTT has been demotivating.
I’ve posted about core readings because that gives me some grounding. It is a recognisable action carried on from IDEL assignments and blog posts. There is comfort there. I have blogged about technology, VR particularly, because all this talk of reality, augmentations, cyborgs… and I have it sitting right in front of me. Next week, I will attempt to conduct the entire #MSCEDC activity from within “virtual reality” via my HTC Vive (At least those actions which would normally happen for me on-screen). We’ll see how that goes.
I struggle with the concepts that are put forward in some of the papers. I am a pragmatist learning about post-humanism; semantics; cyborg manifestos (which I’ve yet to read). Part of me doesn’t care as long as I can produce something at the end of it. Part of me is also massively intrigued, at least about my own capacity to understand and decode.
If anyone else has access to a VR device, let me know. Perhaps we could meet up in Altspace.
“Out of interest, what is it about this type of digital interaction that you are finding motivating?”
The background of other people, who are looking at the same subjects and coming up with radically different ideas. Some are clearly well practiced scholars, who know how to write in an academic voice, some are not. But all see things that I can use in my blog posts, discussions with colleagues at work, and even input in to other commentary elsewhere, with my own voice too, I hope. The fact too that despite all our differences in experiences, motivations and ambitions, we are all pulling in the same direction, as a community. We’re free to drop in at any point, comment, have our own posts commented on. It’s an incubation period at the moment perhaps, but I really enjoy the discussion around the ideas, and the forming of what might yet become a holistic view on the subjects raised which would never be possible to achieve if you were operating in isolation.
I really do not like looking at twitter, or perhaps I just have to become accustomed to it. It used to be such a simple, almost elegant piece of design and it’s now just a cluttered mess of adverts, promotions. The direct messaging works well enough, but holding an asynchronous discussion via the main twitter feed is tricky compared to less crowded areas such as this blog comment section; a moodle forum, or even Facebook. It could be an issue of familiarity.
Twitter is good for bookmarking links though now that IFTTT is working smoothly. I’ll certainly go back and try to put a sentence or two of context with the links I have been sharing.
The idea of me doing my week in VR hasn’t gone too well so far. I haven’t managed to get it all set up. I’ll hopefully get to that tonight.
Thanks for the feedback. You didn’t comment on my note on constructivist activity. Given the feedback I had on my essay, I’ll assume that I need to go back and read some more on that subject before I can use it comfortably in conversation.
Hello Colin, thanks for a nicely clear summary.
‘Reading and commenting on other blog posts has been a great motivator’
Out of interest, what is it about this type of digital interaction that you are finding motivating? And how does it compare to your interaction on Twitter which has featured in your lifestream but you don’t mention in the summary?
Something that I think would help the flow of your blog – as a form of ongoing commentary, if you like – would be for you to add short notes alongside as much of the content as possible. For instance, where you include a link to an article or if you Tweet about something course-related, it’s definitely worth adding a short accompanying note to explain its relevance or why its included in the lifestream. There’s plenty of time to get this going (and of course, you can go back and add to existing content if you want to).
As you know I’m going to spend more time commenting on ideas within your blog in the coming weeks, however I just wanted to say not to worry if you don’t feel you can grasp all the ideas in the readings just yet. Some of the ideas we are confronting within this early section of the course are quite challenging whilst at the same time being new to many of the group. This being the case I would be surprised if you *didn’t* find some of the ideas quite challenging to comprehend (which they are). At the same time I’ve already seen in your blog that you’ve looked at readings by Hayles, Bayne and Miller (and possibly others in posts I haven’t come to yet) so well done on that.