Reflective Blog

Knowing that Tama just wants a response on how valuable a learning tool weblogs have been so that he can refer to us at his wednesday blognite, i'll try to say something intelligent.
I had not even been aware of blogs prior to this unit, and now am amazed by this fact. I would have thought that the phenomenon would have been reported more in mainstream conventional (not digital) media due to their snowballing influence on the way people gather information about the world. I now refer regularly to the blogs of commentators that I respect, for insights on global and domestic matters - as well as finding the perfect chokito and passiona chessecake recipe (also Rocky Road - thanks Laura!).
But in terms of the course, I thought that having a tutorial based blog was a brilliant resource, generally you produce responses in a bit of a vacuum - tutorials can be useful, but having the opportunity to expand on the ideas after thinking a bit was brilliant. Being able to read the work of other students is also a pedagogical brainwave. They have LOADS to offer others - particularly those who have their own blogs or are really into new social technologies, and use digital tech in loads of social discourses i.e. MUDs.
The other important aspect to blogging your responses comes through the awareness that your peers will read your work. Perhaps it encourages you to extend yourself, certainly it influences the decision to do some additional reading and know what you are talking about. I tried a bit harder to make my contributions readable, humourous (debatable) and not too wanky.
They certainly worked for me as learning tools, I am even contemplating starting my own blog now. I feel that my world has broadened hugely and totally believe in the legitimacy of digital communities.

I know enough after this course to say that I am definately a cyborg. But interestingly I still feel some kind of resistance. There is that interesting interplay between what we believe is the spiritual core of our being (a "natural" force inherently rooted within the concept of the human being) and the extension of our selves (corporeal and psychological) within cyberspace - which then makes us cyborgs, . I never doubted the cyborg reality from the beginning really, yet never felt 100% comfortable with the concept of being dually human/machine as opposed to human operating machine. Whe I play with my son there is no technology, just us and a book, or a garden or the ocean. But when I tell everyone about it via email/sms/blog what am I doing to the experience? It has been given an everlasting digital life, if our lives are nothing but imaginings anyway, the the extension of them into cyberspace is no less legitimate. But the at the same time - I disagree, it lacks something - it lacks the complete sensory experience of physically being in the world. So until I experience the technology that plugs into a USB located slightly behind my ear - bringing me a recreated digital life inside my mind - I believe myself to be primarily a woman constituted of flesh and spirit (god how medieval).
I have no doubt that in many ways ,my son will become more of a cybernetic organism than I have been at this late stage (kimmy), but it will occur in increments, degrees, and society will shift along with the developments, ethical boundaries will always exist but weave themselves between the 'new' (tricky word to use) technological realities and commercial offensives.

What did I like/dislike about this course? hmmm. I liked the online interactions, the mandatory exploration of digital resources, the use of up to date examples of how digital technology is manipulated for social/political and academic reasons. I loved exploring the social ramifications of digital tech. And I have personally found that this course fits into a whole range of areas in my life, some too personal to comment on, but it has drawn my attention to the wide range of ways that digital life has become enmeshed within my daily routine, and most meaningful relationships. There is little that I disliked, I loved the mix of workshops (online and RL), blogs, tutes and lectures. It worked really well, and i genuinely felt like I was introduced to some new and fascinating concepts that will increasingly affect us all. Above all it was fun, and I vastly appreciated the enthusiasm and insights that Tama brought to the subject.