certificate-digitalcultures.pdf |
It's very exciting to receive my certificate Statement of Accomplishment with Distinction signed by the five professors at the University of Edinburgh.
It's very exciting to receive my certificate Statement of Accomplishment with Distinction signed by the five professors at the University of Edinburgh.
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Week 5 is the time to summit my final digital artefact to get peer assessments. Thanks to the anonymous peer reviewers for the positive evaluations! I got the full marks!
This course has inspired me to explore how scientific and technological advances affect human ways of being and learning in this digital world. Based on the assessment criteria set by the course team quoted below, I used Storybird to create my digital artefact on the theme of ' being human'. I post my artefact on this blog that has my weekly reflections on the course resources in order to keep all my work for this mooc in one place. Please click on the green title to see my digital artefact " Only Time Will Tell " Here are the guidelines from the course team: "You should use your assignment to express a question, an idea, a problem, a hope, a worry or a provocation that the course has raised for you. Consider how you can express something of your own context as an educator, student and/or technologist. What has the impact of this course been on your understanding of e- learning? " Assessment criteria: These are the elements peer markers will be asked to consider as they engage with your artefact. You should make sure you know how your work will be judged by reading these criteria carefully before you begin.
#edcmooc
Week 4 is focused on aspects of the posthuman and looks at “perspectives which focus on how technology works to re-define what constitutes ‘the human’ - for better or worse - and what that might mean for education”. To recapitulate what is "human" discussed in Week 3, the human element described by Dr. Dean W. Zimmerman resonates with me: “Some parts of living bodies have more or less natural boundaries: they fall under biological or functional kinds, such as heart, cell, nervous system, brain, cerebrum, cerebral hemisphere, complete organism (that ‘part’ that includes every other). Call the ‘likely candidates’ for being human persons those objects with natural boundaries that include all the parts upon which our ability to think most immediately depends.” [ Dean W. Zimmerman (2003). Material People. In Michael J. Loux & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Persons and the Natural Mind Part VI Chapter 16 P. 492 ] Moving on to the posthuman--my reflections on the films: Popular cultures The film setting of Robbie is 6000 years in the future, the robot called Robbie "charts the existential reflections of an aging robot drifting alone through space on the last of his battery life.” The emotions Robbie is capable of experiencing such as loneliness, happiness, faith and friendship come from the mind given by the NASA scientists who create an advanced artificial intelligence within a mechanical form. Perhaps in 6000 years from now, the definitions of human would evolve along with incredibly advanced artificial intelligence. At this point, Robbie is not a human to me because it or he is manufactured in the lab instead of being born with flesh and blood from a human womb. Also, Robbie doesn't have the valuable experiences of the whole spectrum of human lifespan. Moreover, he is a machine that relies on batter life instead of being nurtured by food or sleep. In the comic film Gumdrop, a vacuum-cleaning robot named Gumdrop auditions to be a movie actress. She has the embeddedness in the human world, but it/she still is not a human with fresh and blood to me. Comparing to “Robbie”, it is a utopic vision of a posthuman future. The characters in True Skin portraits the merging bodies of human with synthetic organs –they have “synthetic hearts with a lifetime guarantee … blood is obsolete.” This science fiction casts a questionable shadow on the foreseeable future—the world will be extremely crowded if everyone/everything lives forever . . . The human mind with sensory experiences, conation and thoughts cannot be reproduced or copied by the rigid digital memory backup. Avatar Days shows the merging of virtual and real life. The players use their World of Warcraft game avatars as escapists from real life into the world of fantasy. #edcmooc
Week 3 explores the importance of human nature and human ways of being in the context of using technologies in education. Here are my thoughts: Human emotions and natural aptitudes cannot be replaced by technologies. According to researchers, those who often spend time with friends or families are healthier and live longer because social connection and interactions among humans not only bring joy and support but also reduce stress and risk of mortality. Similarly, in the classroom settings, students can benefit from the facilitation and support by human teachers who express compassion and encouragement. Even some non-verbal expressions such as a smile on a teacher’s face can reduce the students’ anxieties associated with the learning process; paying personal attention to students can motivate them to learn better and more. These synchronous physical and emotional interactions between teachers and students are lacking when learning with computers or mobile devices. Humans are "warm" with fresh and blood, while technological devices and gadgets are "cold" with chips, Integrated circuits and other components. Technologies are invented and used by humans to enhance the quality of life, and they can be extensions of human intelligence and services. The digital natives are the natural dependents on technologies and they might feel comfortable with learning with computers and mobile devices without the physical presence of human teachers. However, being physically present in the classroom with other students under the guidance of human teachers especially in early education can be the valuable opportunities for the digital natives to learn some interpersonal skills to be more well-rounded so that they can communicate effectively and get along with others well in the real world. Generally speaking, using technologies for learning and teaching can motivate students (digital natives or digital immigrants) to do independent studies beyond the classroom. Technologies are also the extensions of human teachers who offer online courses for learners to get lifelong education. The Human Touch by Lowell Monke discusses the importance of "Technology with a Human Purpose". Popular cultures The following are my reflections on the films for Week 3: Among the four films, World Builder is my favorite: I like the utopic version of the World Builder in which "a strange man uses holographic tools to build a world for the woman he loves." This film shows that human emotions are so powerful that one can do anything imaginably grand to express the magnitude of love. It is human intelligence that designs, invents and uses technologies to build the world. Toyota GT86: the ‘real deal’ advert is the dystopic visions of our immersion in a pixilated simulation of reality that reminds me of scenes in Second Life where humans seem to be robots. Human emotions coexist with speed and control in technologies. It was the Toyota car that makes him alive. BT: heart to heart advert shows that technologies are the important tools for transmitting human emotions. They’re made out of meat In this dystopian, dark comic film, the two extraterrestrials in human clothes consider the humans as simply meat without feelings and thinking abilities. On Friday, February 15 at 17:00 GMT, the course team had the second informative Google Hangout session to have live communication with some participants and answer questions about the course. Popular Cultures#edcmooc
Week 2 moves to more future-focused visions of technology and education, and explores what might happen through the utopian and dystopian visions. The assignments for week 2 include watching five films, and answering questions. Here are the questions for us to answer after watching the first two video advertisements --one from Corning, and the other from Microsoft: • How is education being visualised here? What is being learned and taught? • What is the nature of communication in these future worlds? • Are these utopian or dystopian visions to you? In what way(s)? The following are my answers: Both A Day Made of Glass 2, a video advertisement from Corning, and Productivity Future Vision (2011), another video advertisement from Microsoft, show us how future information technologies can change every aspect of our lives for the better. In these advertisements, education is being visualized as mobile learning, everything and everywhere is wired with information at your fingertips. The nature of communication in these future worlds would be infinitely varied and anything imaginable. These are utopian visions to me because these future technologies would give people incredible convenience, productivity and pleasure in daily life. Here are my thoughts and answers to the questions about the other three films: In the film Sight, the two main characters seem to have built-in apps, and they are like robots that are programmed. Their eyes look like built-in sensors that can detect what is in their surroundings, and their brains can gauge their interactions accordingly. The initial “warm” attraction between the characters was later replaced by the “cold” programmed reactions. This film helps us imagine the dystopian view of what technologies can do to humans in the future, while the first two commercial films A Day Made of Glass 2 and Productivity Future Vision (2011) show the utopian view of the advantages of future technologies. The film Charlie 13 shows the courage of a teenager who wants freedom and tries to escape from the depressing society where everybody including birds and other moving beings are permanently “tagged” by having a tracking device implanted in their bodies. “Eyes are everywhere” – all moving beings are closely watched. This is a dystopian view of future technologies that control the freedom of human beings. In my opinion, Charlie 13 and the resistance he represents show a hopeful future when humans enjoy freedom and are still in control of technologies. The film Plurality predicts the dystopian view of the future when humans are monitored through their DNA by the grid system. The losses of freedom and privacy are inevitable. I would rather find myself in Charlie’s society where I would not be controlled by the grid system that monitors every cell of me. This video shows the generation gap when it comes to technology. A Daughter is visiting her father. She asks: "Tell me dad, how are you managing with the new I-Pad we gave you for your birthday?" He says "Good". This is in German and no subtitles needed: Just click on the link below http://www.snotr.com/video/8965/ Popular Cultures#edcmooc
In Week 1, our assignments include watching some short films and reading some scholarly writing to get a useful theoretical perspective for understanding how utopic-dystopic visions inform our relationship to technology, so that we can get some ideas on how technologies have led to social, cultural or educational changes. The theme of utopias-dystopias is presented in the week 1 resources and it’s the core of discussion. The film Inbox depicts a utopian account by using metaphoric items such as two red shopping bags that presents the “Inboxes” through which the two main characters communicate and eventually kindles romance between them. The film is very unique because it uses the tangible items such as two red shopping bags and yellow post-it notes to present the intangible digital forms of communication. The animation film Bendito Machine III suggests that new technologies descending from the sky are inevitable and natural as they are coming from the holy spirit. The film’s characters have to accept what was falling on their heads, which can either improve their lives or cause destruction. So, it has both utopia-dystopia elements. The animation film Thursday shows that a natural world and a technological world are interdependent. The bird in the film has the “agency” of causing technological disasters. The message of the film presents that technology is not the most powerful in the world, but technology can improve human lives. The film New Media is definitely a dystopia story. It’s similar to “Bendito Machine III” in a way that technologies can ruin the world just like natural disasters can do, but it is different from “Bendito Machine III” in a way that it doesn’t show human’s worship of new technologies. Professors Jeremy Knox, Sian Bayne, Hamish Macleod, Jen Ross, Christine Sinclair had a Google Hangout session on Friday, February 1st. at 17:00 GMT. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the live session due to time conflict with my teaching schedule. However, I enjoyed the recording of this session and found it very informative. I especially liked the explanation that the requirements for our final projects were intentionally vague to promote participants' creativity. Thanks for posting this recording to accommodate those who are in different time zones. It’s wonderful that Coursea.org offers free online courses on many subjects. While browsing the course descriptions, I found a course called "E-learning and Digital Cultures" sponsored by the University of Edinburgh in the U. K. (January 28-March 3) very interesting. So, I decided to sign up for it and hoped that I could learn something special from the five professors who moderate the course: Dr.Jen Ross, Dr.Christine Sinclair, Dr. Hamish Macleod, Dr. Sian Bayne and Jeremy Knox. |
Cora Chen
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