You haven’t lived until you’ve died in a MUD

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MUD1 screenshot – MUD – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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“You haven’t lived until you’ve died in a MUD”

This quote caught my eye from one of the readings, and it’s incredible that only 40 years on, the interactive online world has transformed so much. If we compare the original Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) to the World of Warcraft today we can see a world of difference. The MUD originated at the University of Essex in the 70s, funnily enough the same university I studied my BA in American Studies at.

I guess this is relevant to the course as the complexity/engagement of online interactions that is now possible allows us to be so much more enveloped and present. It also raises questions for me when looking at the MOOC I am involved in. How can we harness the type of engagement Second Life/World of Warcraft offers and inject it into MOOCs. I feel like the fandom/levels of engagement are what is perhaps lacking in the delivery of MOOCs, their slickness, high quality videos, and professional sheen are all wonderful, yet they lack something in their engagement. The real and most interesting interaction is going on in the forums, especially the Spanish speaking one.

 

Week 6 Review

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I signed up for Better Leader, Richer Life from @pennopencourses! https://t.co/SAJJWYiJTd via @coursera #MSCEDC
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I chose this particular MOOC for my ethnography as it appealed to the situation I am currently living, I seem to not have time for anything! Better Leader, Richer Life seemed like a rock-star style program. Offered by the prestigious, Ivy League, Wharton business school it promised to help you re-address the work-life balance and take a whole new approach. After the first week’s lectures I really got into the course. I enjoyed the video lectures and the almost guru-like figure of Stewart D. Friedman, projected through the course. I introduced myself in the forums and made explicit what my plans were for the mini-ethnography. I felt a little bit guilty, as only people going through the introductory forum would know my intentions. If they hadn’t checked back they wouldn’t know that I was there observing. I was also an active participant, I didn’t lurk around the site, I engaged with the Spanish speaking groups and also posted in the introductory forum.

 

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Week 5 Review: Tensions between the educational and the economic

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After reading about how our created content is driving e-commerce and where the roots of web 2.0 come from in the Lister article, I feel like I had a first hand experience to see this in action yesterday. I had the chance to meet with the global market directors of a famous publisher who are in charge of emerging markets, such as Latin America and Asia.

After listening to them talk about the trope of digital immigrants vs. digital natives (and how that is currently driving their development) it was interesting to hear that all of their content was now being developed digitally before being developed in print. I can imagine that the costs are greatly reduced and it also makes distribution a cinch, but I found it interesting that their publishing focus was now on the digital. Mexico is a great market for any publisher. There are loads of private schools as well as the behemoth that is the SEP. What also grabbed my attention was their focus on the development of mobile/tablet content. It seems that they are working backwards from the mobile towards the written text. What ramifications does this have?

They are also investing research and development into algorithmic software to be used in error correction for learners and to help teachers grade writing, they also touched on presence (or did I?) and the interface of slick applications in order to engage learners. Worrying things that came out of their discourse for me: The ‘learnification’ of education (their discourse sometimes sounded like learners were piggy-banks of information), the tension between the economic and the educational (after all, they’re publishers and they want to sell books), their deep interest in teacher training (shouldn’t that be an individual’s concern, closely followed by an institution’s?)

Perhaps it’s just #MSCDE paranoia kicking in, but every time people mention technology and education my ears prick up and I’m ready to start criticising, especially when a talk begins “we all know that there is a divide between digital natives and digital immigrants”. I think, unfortunately for us here in Mexico, the divide is between traditional views of education and more constructivist, progressive views of education.

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Week 4 Reflection/Digital Artefact

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The first block on cyber-culture has been very engaging and as we come to a close, we an also see that it is a topic that has been in the media recently. Bill Gates has been warning us of the dangers of AI, famous robots permeate our culture, our vision of the future is almost entirely made up/defined by the technology we use and the threats that it may pose to us. This could be seen in contrast to how we see technology now.

Monsanto’s House of the Future, offers a peak into our past views on technology and the integration of it into everyday lives.

The dystopian view of the future is definitely more entertaining, and with new movies such as Chappie also exploring AI and what it means to be a sentient being.

Finally, how can we apply these views of technology to education? We have to be weary that there may be fear/resistance to technology as there are negative connotations associated here. What it means to be human, robots, cyborgs and identity are themes that all need to be addressed when reconciling technology with education.

The digital artefact was the main focus of this week’s studies. The artefact began by looking at the tensions between human/robot. The focus of the imagery in the first ring was to highlight the unnerving element of the cyborg and what it means to be human. The eye being a key element and one which popped up in our film festival, over and over again.

The second circle focused on themes about memory; digital memory and cognitive memory. It was meant to elicit the ways in which education is being influenced by ideas of the ‘digital’ memory.

The third circle focussed on some of the fear we have related to robots and the essence of being human, what it means to be human and the threats that AI seemingly can pose to us. Some of the images are taken from films which express these tensions.

The fourth circle looks at the lack of sound in the realm of analysis of digital cultures. This paired with the electronic soundtrack (music created wholly via samples and digital drum machines) aims to underline an area of study that can be seen to be overlooked when compared to the visual analysis of digital culture.

Finally the last circle looks at Homo-Faber and man defined by the tools he uses. This artefact aimed to link together all of the themes that we saw in block one of the EDC course.

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Link

Here is a link to my artefact:

http://prezi.com/aq2m4a5qn7en/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

My idea was to use as little or no text as possible. I loved putting these images together, I hope you enjoy having a look at it. There should also be a drum and bass soundtrack to go with the images, mixed by my friend Pearsall (an Edinburgh graduate btw). This was in order to draw attention to the use of audio in digital culture and provide an electronic soundtrack of sampled drum breaks to complement the work.

 

Week 3 Reflection/Explanation of Artefact

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Working on the artefact allowed me to explore some of the themes that we have seen throughout the first block on cyber-culture. I really enjoyed putting the artefact together and resisted including any textual commentary, as the focus on the image/sound was meant to address the imbalance that is usually seen in academic work online, giving perhaps more emphasis to the written word.

The first bubble from the artefact includes images drawing our attention to the eye. The eye is relevant here as it is a symbol in the film Bladerunner. Rutger Hauer’s character in his tears in the rain monologue says:

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”

Tying in with this is the replicant owl from the film (which is pictured here), and the theme of the eye being the ‘window to the soul’ and a way to discern replicant from animal/human. It also develops the idea of memory and how we are formed and defined by experience. There are iconic images such as the terminator, HAL 3000, and the wavelength of colours. Also, perhaps not so well know is Neil Harbisson, a ‘cyborg’ who has has an implant in order to hear different colours. His story can be seen here:

The second bubble looks at our relationship with robots from popular culture, from the terrifying to the comedic, from films such as West World and Short Circuit. Something that resonates here is the fear of artificial intelligence and the unravelling of our world through a quest to recreate what it means to be human.

The third bubble looks at how the medium of audio in cyber-culture is very rarely critiqued or appreciated and the fourth bubble deals with memory and how learning/knowledge/memory is a recurring theme in digital culture. Finally the last bubble looks at Homo Faber and the concept of man the maker. The music accompanying the artefact was chosen as it is completely digital; looped by drum machines and synths, with modified electric vocals; early 1990’s drum and bass.