Being Human

It's week 3 of the edcmooc and I am swimming in a stream of video footage, articles and tweets concerning the human experience & technology. I really enjoyed Steve Fuller's TEDx lecture on Defining Humanity. I have to say he delivered a very relatable view of our 'human' experience, past & present.
I also loved this mini film, They're Made Out of Meat, created by the New York Film Academy. I've never been much of a cy-fi geek but the reference to man as 'meat' cracked me up. Oh, the disdain and the fact that they were completely intrigued and yet quite repulsed by the physical nature of the said 'meat'. I thought it was a great play on the egocentric superiority of the human species and a very quirky reminder that reality really is a matter of perspective..... & just how subjective that reality is.

The above image is my entry into the week 3 competition to create an image that represents or illustrates any one of the themes we have come across in the course so far..... voting is over on the Flickr group. Pop on by, I'd love your support. x

Be my digitally artifact-ed Valentine?

I'm practicing making digital artifacts for the edcmooc and thought I'd try my hand at a little Valentine's Day clip for my boys using Animoto.

Happy Valentine's Day beautiful people.

XX

Technology as God

Today is 'officially' the first day of our E-learning and Digital Cultures course.  With around 40,000 people ennrolled in the Mooc it is definitely going to be a fascinating experience.  Not only is it navigating the course requirements that will challenge my thinking but also finding the right niche in terms of expression.  There are a multitude of platforms and personalities... so finding the right mix may be my greatest challenge.

In week one we are looking at digital cultures in relation to whether they create utopian or dystopian experiences/cultures/environments etc. One of our resources this week is from Spain, Zumbakamera’s short animation, Bendito Machine III.



Firstly, I'll just say I LOVE the fact that we experience a mini 'film festival' each week as part of our course content.  Hooray to the EDCMOOC creators you've definitely sparked my enthusiasm straight up.

Connectivity

Connecting (Full Film) from Bassett & Partners on Vimeo.

I find the whole future of our online world very fascinating.  What will our community look like?  Where will we be 'hanging out'? ........just how connected will we all be? Especially in terms of our children.... We have no idea what their future will look like. What will the quality of their 'downtime' be like? .... or will they simply always be 'on'?

There was nothing quite like long days at the beach without a mobile phone in sight. Not even an answering machine connected to the landline at home for all the calls we were 'supposedly' missing. If it was important enough people called back. Simple.

There was no drop pinning our location, texting or tweeting every inane action to the world or checking our friends Facebook updates every 10 minutes for FOMO. We were where we needed to be 100%, no distractions from the ever nudging online world.

I'm showing my age, I know. Don't get me wrong I am very excited to be a part of this unfolding world of connectivity. The challenge will be in holding our own sense of space in the mix. Setting our personal parameters and making conscious choices..... which is how I come full circle. Education & experience (and stepping away from a screen long enough to see clearly) will be key in making these choices.

If you too are curious about the ways we'll be connected and how and who is shaping our connectivity you may find this video interesting, I did.

Another scorcher here is Melbourne, I hope you manage to keep cool people.

xx

Back to school

I'm gearing up for the EDCMOOC course which is due to start this weekend. There is an overwhelming amount of information available on all sorts of platforms.  Time, for me, has been a limiting factor in embracing the pre-prep dialogue.  Truth be known I'm still loving the notion of it being semester break and I'm grabbing every opportunity to lap up as many days down on the coast as I can possibly squeeze in. 

I'll will however be pleased to dive into the more formal structure (???) of the MOOC and find my own rhythm & voice in it all.

Sir Ken Robinson's Ted talk will hopefully set the mood for some creative learning.

x

Lino it

Learning new tricks takes a lot of time when you're a complete novice, like me. I've been playing around with Lino tonight. It's a sticky and photo sharing site I was advised about through my course..... I'm not sure I'm a complete convert as it is a little tedious and has it's limitations. You can't alter the board size when you import it into blogger (well I couldn't work out how to do it anyway). Alas, I also learnt some new tricks for screen printing on a Mac. I'll be interested to see how 'Lino it' works in a classroom situation.

If you create a board of your own please let me know how you find it. I'm curious.... and now very tired. Night night.

xx

Exploring new frontiers.

I signed up for a an online course through Coursera a couple of months back.  Coursera is a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. 

The course is on 'e-learning and Digital Cultures'.  It doesn't start until late January but already the Facebook page is a hive of activity.  It's hard to keep up...... already!  In fact, I'll confess,  it's a little intimidating. 
I'm already learning about digital communities and platforms that I'd never even heard of.  I feel like I have a completely new world to explore and I'm wondering just how big my world will become once the course actually starts (and also wondering if my head will explode in the process). 

The power of creating a strong community online is alive and well over at the 'EDCMOOC' Facebook page.  BTW, 'EDCMOOC' stands for 'E-learning & Digital Cultures Massive Open Online Course'.  Just quietly, it took me a little while....... and a little google-ing to work that one out.

The more the merrier.  Join me if you dare.  I'll meet you in the study room.

xx