It occurred to me that technology advances are to make life easier, to free up one’s time for other activities.

For me the use of technology should give me more free time to play. Continue reading →

The pushing and stretching of the EDCMOOC. Other’s post have such a creative view of the class and are able to use technology to create their art. I am still old school and attempting to get up to speed with all of the technology to be able to communicate my ideas. Continue reading →

Nearing the end the course, I can confirm that I’ve really learned a lot and this whole…

Curiosity killed the cat, but as far as the EDCMOOC is concerned, it need not kill you. So if you have, like me, been curious to know the statistics related to the E-Learning & Digital Cultures Course, the wait is over. Thanks to the instructors, we are now able to share them with you. Continue reading →

Watching film 1 and film 2 I was excited about the future of learning and technology. Then it occurred to me especially in Film 1 that people were surrounded by glass and failed to look through the glass. they only saw what was projected. Continue reading →

A few days ago, I had added the blog feeds of several participants to the UNOFFICIAL Blog feed on edcmooc.rocks, and was pretty happy with the results, considering the fact that I am not a techie, and happily went about tweeting it to the world. However, the tweet below from a fellow EDCMOOCer brought me…Read more A Stranger Goes Out Of His Way To Help ! Continue reading →

OK..so we all know that this run of EDCMOOC is different from the previous runs of the program. And the difference is the Teacher Bot, introduced for the very first time on an experimental basis. Continue reading →

First, a dislosure: I have been stuggling with moocguilt this week. You know the one, the guilt that strikes when you come home from a draining day at work, and, after a family dinner, sit down with a computing device … Continue reading →

Well, coming to the end of the first week in the University of Edinburgh’s E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC (EDCMOOC) and, having gone through the resources for Week 1, I have been given a fair amount of info to reflect on. Chandler’s web essay on Technological Determinism had my head in a spin, as did…

The post Technology Bytes Back? Continue reading →

  What message is the film presenting about technology? Technology is all-encompassing. A bird alarm clock wakes the male character up and is his main means of communication with his love interest is via messaging. Continue reading →

Depending on how you interpret the relationship between the two main characters, and the ending, you might argue that this is a utopian account, or a dystopian one – what do you think, and why? For me it seems to be a mixture of both. The red bag, which represents a new technology, enables a…

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What is this film suggesting are the ecological and social implications of an obsession or fixation on technology? Technology becomes the centre of everyone’s attention. None of the characters interact with each other. Continue reading →

A very short, very grim representation of the effects of technology on humanity. There are definite visual echoes of ‘Bendito Machine III’ here – what similarities and differences can you identify between the two films? The similarity between this short clip and Bendito Machine is that humanity has become passive. Continue reading →

My first blog. My first post. Named the blog in honor of my deceased brother Victor, who once told my Mom he was having a “Nervous Brain Down. Continue reading →

For many people out there, including myself, EDCMOOC was a unique experience. I was among those who did the course in 2013, and through the course ended in December, EDCMOOC never did end for me. Many of us became hooked – that’s what Connectivism does to you. Continue reading →

Originally posted on The MOOCs Explorer:
After having watched all the four suggested videos posted under Popular Cultures, I am still trying to analyze my thoughts on the Utopian as well as Dystopian views on technology, as depicted in the videos. Being a lover of computers as well as technology, my approach to technology has…

theroyalpantagraph:

I’m a junior education student from the Philippines majoring in English…. I…

A key part of our pedagogic method at the Norwegian Film School is the «statement of intent» (in Norwegian: hensiktserklæring). Every time the students are given a film assignment they have to write one of these, both individually and as a team, … Continue reading →

Third time lucky? This is the third year the University of Edinburgh is running #edcmooc  The first year I saw it, but did not sign up. Looking around my PLN, that appeared to be a mistake. Continue reading →

My romance with MOOCs started some months ago, when I stumbled upon a TED video featuring Daphne Koller, the co-founder of Coursera. Should you desire to know more details about this, you can click here to read about it. However, the point of today’s post is not to go into the reasons of my exploring […]

Okay. So the course is officially over, with assessments and evaluations submitted, and results awaited. But yet it’s far from over for me. Continue reading →

Watching this video I could not help experiencing a sense of déjà vu..Shades of Blade Runner, perhaps ? It could well be a replicant from Blade Runner describing his final moments. Continue reading →

A post on the #EDCMOOC Facebook book had caught my attention this morning, whereby a member had asked a question concerning Powerpoint. More specifically, the question was about converting a Powerpoint presentation to video, and what tools can be used for doing so. Since I have been using Powerpoint for several years, and have used […]

A very long time ago – probably centuries ago, I had read something very profound in a book, that has stayed with me all these years. “We are all prisoners of our own self-images. We tend to behave in a manner that WE think people would expect us to behave. Continue reading →

As I watched this piece of fiction, a realization dawned on me – transhumanism ! I had read about the concept briefly, but the true meaning sunk in when I watched this video. And it made my skin crawl. Continue reading →

Bubbly, vivacious, charming, cheerful and full of life. And yet not alive. This is Gumdrop, a thinking, feeling robot who is so “human”, and yet distinctly a machine. Continue reading →

A few days ago, I posted an article titled The Spinning Coin on this blog, wherein I had shared my view that whether one takes a Utopian view or a Dystopian view of technology, it is a matter of one’s individual perception. My digital artefact for this course is based on the same article. It […]

Several days have gone by without my having written a single meaningful post on the course material of this week. Not because of lack of inclination but because of paucity of time. As we draw closer to the end of the course, and with the deadline of the artefact looming large, this week I have […]

A Padlet wall has been set up for curating the EDCMOOC 2 artefacts. Have you added your link there as yet ? All participants are requested to kindly add the link to their artefacts to the wall, so that we can curate all of them together. Continue reading →

Read This AT Your Own Risk ! Do you ever feel that you are being controlled by external forces and go through life almost mechanically… working with robotic precision on tasks at hand, without being able to spare much thought on what you are doing ? Two extremely hectic, whirlwind weeks during which I felt […]

The piece of meat that makes up my brain must be teeming with life of some kind in order to provoke these reactions in me that I am now sharing with you here. Who am I and what am I made of is the question that has been troubling me ever since I watched this […]

The battle royale between Utopia and Dystopia has been raging for centuries, but what is surprising is that neither side seems to be winning or losing. And at the same time, it also symbolizes the age-old co-existence of opposites. Something like the good co-existing with the bad, believers with non-believers, heroes with villains. Continue reading →

My imagination was set afire after watching this video and I was sorely tempted to write another satire on this one as well, but considering that I have been travelling for work most of this week and have a lot of catching up to do with this week’s resources, I shall spare you, my dear […]

Technology is something created by humans. Every kind of technological advancement has been there for the betterment of our lives. However, humans, being the fragile and gullible beings that we are, have let it sweep us away and at some point, we fell in love with it and lost ourselves. Continue reading →

Objects that blog…. An interesting concept, and new to me, so that’s another new thing I have learned from EDCMOOC – Objects That Blog. And I also noted with a sense of immense relief that I am not one. Continue reading →

Ubiquitous. A word that I had heard some years ago, but never really bothered to really fix it into my vocabulary. Well it’s fixed good and proper now. Continue reading →

I am literally Drowning In A Sea Of Information, and yet I am starved for knowledge.  When I enrolled in the EDC MOOC, little did I realize what I was heading for.  This being my second MOOC, I thought it would be somewhat like another one that I had just completed, which was more of […]

All life is a game. SIGHT is a disturbing representation of a mind distorted by gaming. A mind so addicted to gaming that it treats life itself as a game. Continue reading →

After spending week 2 paying spetial attention to metaphores, I’m now getting ready for our 2nd hangout this evening.

However I won’t be able to be there until the end. Continue reading →

Technology has limitations.  Nature has limitations.  Adaptability helps to stretch the limitations of both towards your utopia. Continue reading →

You never really know what to expect with MOOCs. This one is a meta-MOOC – a course about using digital technology for education presented using that very same technology.

Technology:  magic and powerful devices that became integrated in our daily lives. They’re “discovered”, experimented, used, worshiped and… dismissed to be replaced by a brand new and upgraded object. This is Benito Machine III. Continue reading →

Tom Scott talks about social media dystopia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch? Continue reading →

Picture this.. I wake up in the morning and stretch out on the bed, suddenly realizing that the bed has turned cold and hard. Gingerly, I run my hand over the surface and I realize there is no mattress, and with a jolt I come half-awake, and sit  upright on the bed, take a careful […]

“Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it.” – Rollo May in The Cry for MythFiled under: EDCMOOC

my response to the question by our instructor,Jeremy Knox

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We loved the quirkiness of this short film, and the original way it deals with contemporary social exchanges. How do you think it might suggest utopian or dystopian ideas about the nature of communication in a mediated world? Continue reading →

My name is Ken, and I work as a visual artist in rural Kentucky-USA. I have always enjoyed learning. I am very interested in the possibilities of online learning. Continue reading →

A MOOCED UP TALE #EDCMOOC

My Artefact for EDCMOOC

Here is my final assignment for the E-learning and Digital Cultures mooc.  Initial inspiration came from one of the twitter-chat questions: “Do you consider your digital identity a separate self or is it identical to your real-world self?” This inspired me to make my artefact in Second Life using Machinima techniques. Continue reading →

In our house, we spend a lot of time in front of the computer, looking up things on the internet, watching movies, and taking classes. My husband and I are both enrolled in MOOCs, and I wonder how the internet, this constant availability of the sum of human knowledge, will affect our children’s education, now and throughout their lives.

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Well I have finally finished my final assignment and created my digital artefact for the edcmooc. I based it on how much education has changed and how technology has played a huge role in this.

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The Human Touch: Education Next:

This #edcmooc week three reading is a 2004 piece by Lowell Monke at Wittenberg University is fascinating in that it calls for young students to be actively with-held from interacting with technology, or learning digital literacy because they have not yet explored their own human capabilities (i.e. ‘unassisted’ by technology). Continue reading →

We are now into week four of edcmooc and looking at transhumanism. The videos and readings, as always, are interesting and thought provoking. However, it was this article that I was drawn to as it is something I have often thought about. Continue reading →

From assignment: This short film has a darkly comic grounding idea which we won’t spoil here! The vision of humanity it constructs is one which is rich but also slightly repellent – it works to make the notion of ‘the human’ seem strange. What conclusions might you draw from this about the human body, and whether we can see the body as providing a stable basis for defining what it means to be human? Continue reading →

From assignment: World builder is a short film which explores some of the same themes (simulation, immersion, artifice) as the Toyota advertisement, though in a slightly more nuanced way. What is your interpretation of this film? In what ways does it position ‘the human’ in relation to the technological? Continue reading →

From assignment: This advert takes on the theme of mediation and, again, the nature of ‘authentic’ human contact. What aspects of ‘the human’ do you see as being ‘re-asserted’ here? Can you link this clip with the notion of ‘the illusion of non-mediation’ referenced in the Kolowich article we are also looking at? Continue reading →

From assignment: This advertisement for the Toyota GT86 plays on some of the dystopic visions of our immersion in a pixellated simulation of reality which may be familiar from some of the previous clips you’ve looked at. Here, the reality and authenticity of human emotion is aligned with speed, control and a ‘breaking out’ of the artificial into the ‘natural’. (Note, however, that the means of breaking out is still entirely technological! Continue reading →

First, a picture for everyone on the #edcmooc course.  The outside world – do you remember what it looks like? Continue reading →

#EDCMOOC Week 3

The theme of this week’s readings and activities is “Being Human”, through which we explored ideas of what separates the technological from the human, culminating in the question of whether we could actually be living in a “post-human” world.

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Marc Prensky’s digital natives vs immigrants analogy is covered on the #edcmooc reading list and I have been a bit horrified that some students on the course seem to view it positively.

Whilst superficially it seems to make some sort of intuitive sense – kids now are growing up with technology and that makes them view it differently than people who didn’t – in my experience in working in this area, it is the analogy that spawned a thousand excuses as to why ‘the youth of today’ don’t need ‘us’ (the adults) to provide for a proper education for them. Continue reading →

Catching up on #edcmooc after a week away working in Australia and then Chinese New Year.

Chandler’s reference to Resistentialism, a fake theory describing ‘spiteful behaviour manifested by inanimate objects’ is an early highlight. Continue reading →

howdoirelate:

Sooner than you think. #edcmooc

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I’m sitting at my computer ready to move on to week three of the #edcmooc, but am I really ready?  Before I move forward with #edcmooc, I should write something about my mooc experience so far. Continue reading →

The rapid development of tecnology throughout the ages has had one major target: to make our lives easier and help us walk towards the future with more knowledge, hence more power in our hands, more developed minds and more abilities. In my opinion, the huan is a creature full of potential that is still unknown. The advancement of technology has opened new doors, the rapid share of information worldwide has made us wiser and we live in a “global community”. Continue reading →

Sunday afternoon in.

My response to the video “Sight”  -  a future that I found to be more believable than the Corning and Microsoft videos.  I’ve made two image maps (hover over them with your mouse to find the clickable areas).

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I hate to state the obvious but the human mind is amazing. Since I started taking the E-Learning and Digital Cultures course (EDCMOOC) and the now suspended Fundamentals of Online Learning: Planning and Application course, I see applicable tools, articles and metaphors for topics raised in the EDCMOOC or the Facebook learning community that formed by the FOEMOOC “refugees.”

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This is a static version of a Tagxedo word cloud made after the #edcmchat on Saturday, February 2, 2013.

Click here to view the interactive version. Continue reading →

Notes on the speech by John Daniel Technology is the Answer: What was the Question?

Access, Quality and costs are the 3 key issues in Education. Continue reading →

Hey there – can anyone see me … I’m buried under the mountain of information … yes … down here … still breathing though! The one thing I’ve been finding is that it takes effort to make the time for the course material; to find the right place and time with a modicum of peace and quiet in which to absorb and assimilate this information. Countless social media sites, new applications to try and blogs galore – I need to remind myself to nibble away at a bit each day and also to chose my own pathway leading off from the core material. Continue reading →

This is my initial response to the first two videos of week two of #edcmooc – the links are in the graphic above.  If you take away  the futuristic element, we already live aspects of this life. Continue reading →

Dystopia vs Utopia

We were asked to consider whether the four videos (‘Bendito Machine III‘, ‘Thursday‘, ‘Inbox‘ and ‘New Media‘) are examples of Dystopia, or examples of Utopia.  Also, to think about examples of dystopia and utopia in popular films. Continue reading →

So, I’m doing a MOOC. Aren’t I Modern? I’ve wanted to try a MOOC out for a while, so when a work colleague forwarded on details of the Elearning and Digital Cultures MOOC being run by The University of Edinburgh I had a read of the precourse bumph and liked the sound of it. Continue reading →

The last blog post took me too long to write, and only covered the one video, so I set myself the challenge of  tweeting my response to the other three videos.   What could I say in 140 characters?

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About to watch the filmfest that kicks off the E-learning and Digital Cultures course https://class.coursera.org/edc-001/class/index. Continue reading →

I’ve been trialling a bunch of apps for keeping some of the EDC MOOC info organised. Information from the main course site, the twitter hashtag and the Facebook group as well as interesting posts on a huge range of  blogs.

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This is a nice demonstration of human obsession with media. However, here we see tools which are introduced always one way. Continue reading →

Because the Internet is a universe by itself, and because this course is about E-learning and Digital Cultures the EDCMOOC community is using a plethora of social networks and online services.

Here are some links to my digital content about EDCMOOC and more…

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Today is THE day, EDCMOOC started last night and there is already a lot of informations to work on !

Let’s start our exploration of the wonderful world of EDCMOOC ! Continue reading →

I started a free coursera online course yesterday called “e-learning and digital cultures”.  I am new to blogging and tweeting, so at my first glance over the material and deliverables for the course, I almost turned around and left!

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Here are some first thoughts on the videos:

Bendito machine

First thought… Moses coming down the mountain with the commandments while people perform rituals. Continue reading →

We have now started our EDCMOOC course and began by looking at short films where utopia/dystopia are the themes.

This is a relevant question for me this week as we without broadband for a while until I caved in and paid to top up my iPad. Continue reading →

Following on from my post yesterday I observed something in a meeting today which adds to the idea of technology being a vital and positive thing and helps to improve our lives. As we sat round the table most of us (99%) were using an iPad, smart phone or laptop.

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