John's E-learning and Digital Cultures Blog

Part of the MSc in E-learning at the University of Edinburgh

22 Comments

  • #1 by Mr WordPress on September 14th, 2009

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  • #2 by jen on September 22nd, 2009

    hi John – you’ve arrived in the lifestream in style – great job getting it all set up! Let me know if you have any questions.

  • #3 by jen on September 30th, 2009

    hi John – have you been able to get your Flickr photos into the lifestream?

  • #4 by jen on September 30th, 2009

    hi John – I like some of the tensions you’re setting up here around digital culture – between being everywhere and always vs invisible and nowhere, especially.

  • #5 by jen on October 5th, 2009

    lol – love that guy. The assumption of connectivity is an interesting definition of digital culture – and he takes it beyond the pragmatism of that kind of statement in a useful way – assuming responsibility for others, for action, and for solutions to problems. Thanks for the link.

  • #6 by sibyller on October 5th, 2009

    Good one. How the world has come together. I had similar thoughts about the world in my classroom. When I teach foreign languages I can connect to that world with a click. Videos, news items, I get them as soon as they’re out and can use them for teaching.
    Sibylle

  • #7 by Damien DeBarra on October 18th, 2009

    Great stuff John!

  • #8 by Sarah Payne on October 18th, 2009

    Great piece John – I liked the use of humour to get your message across. There were two comments there that really jumped out at me – “Mediator of your world” and “I will be always watching you”. These both suggested that the Internet has a power that we as consumers may not really have thought about before – the power to contol us; by editing our content and through surveying our every move. A scary vision – no wonder Hulaman ran screaming!

  • #9 by sibyller on October 18th, 2009

    I really liked this as well. A very good contrast between Hulaman and the machine which renders him immobile while he has to watch all these promises of a “better” life. Like Sarah I found this quite scary! You feel really pleased for Hulaman that he seems to reject this.

  • #10 by silvanad on October 18th, 2009

    I really enjoyed this piece, John. Thanks for combining humour with all the key points about digital media. You’re a genius!

  • #11 by johns on October 21st, 2009

    thanks guys- it is scary- but only scary at first. It would have been a gradual introduction for us digital immigrants (as much as I hate the phrase!)- ease into it over the years with email, surfing the web with a browser, usenet groups, shopping, spam, file-sharing, dot.com boom, security scares, Y2K, google, youtube, social networking, facebook etc. Poor Hula Man encountered this all in one go!

  • #12 by jen on October 23rd, 2009

    Though Bell’s paper is showing its age, I reckon that the point about online communities being domains of bunkering and withdrawal (p 105) might still be of significance – even though or perhaps especially because there are so many more people online now. The ‘new spaces’ may not feel so new, but we can still pick and choose them and to a large extent shield ourselves from difference and dissent. The whole concept of trolls and flamers seems like one that could only emerge in conditions of relative homogeneity.

  • #13 by Henry on November 8th, 2009

    It’s interesting to note that the discussion topic with the second highest number of postings apparently has nothing to do with music, as you say.
    I had a look at the thread and although the postings did not make too much sense to me there was a lot of social friendly chitchat which indicates to me that this site may actually be a bit more than just a ‘Community of Practice’.

  • #14 by silvanad on November 8th, 2009

    Hi John,

    A very nicely structured excursion into the world of ITM. I enjoyed the links to both the music and the discussion and felt immersed in this world – although the technical aspects of the music discussion was beyond me but I could see how members were helpful to each other. Also the fact that members are spread throughout the world – so they could plug into this community even if noone in their immediate locale shared their interest. And the posting of where sessions were occurring I could see as a very nice intersection between the virtual and real worlds.

  • #15 by Sarah Payne on November 8th, 2009

    This is an interesting example of how a group can use the virtual world to keep a traditional practice alive – as well as take it forward. Without such communitites much of the historical value of these songs would be marginalised and even lost from society at large.
    Nice job John!

  • #16 by Sibylle Ratz on November 9th, 2009

    Yes, as Silvana said, it was nice to see that Swedish folk musicians were trying to make contact and wanting to exchange music. It does seem to draw the world together, even though the topic is about keeping up traditions!

  • #17 by johns on November 9th, 2009

    ‘I had a look at the thread and although the postings did not make too much sense to me there was a lot of social friendly chitchat which indicates to me that this site may actually be a bit more than just a ‘Community of Practice’.’
    It may be more as you say Henry, but I didn’t find too many other topics like this- none that contained a full thread of posts not relating to music. It may have been some friends in RL who found themselves online at the same time perhaps.

  • #18 by admin on November 10th, 2009

    I’m sensing an Irish theme in these ethnographies! Thanks for this, John – as Sarah says (and like Sarah’s ethnography), it is really fascinating to see how traditional practices and communities are preserved and changed by being brought into the digital realm. I’m also intrigued by the positivity displayed by groups of ‘makers and do-ers’ – I think this echoes something an interviewee in a project I worked on last year said about Flickr vs (for example) MySpace or Youtube – in Flickr everyone is a photographer, so there is an incentive to be constructive so that you will get constructive feedback in response. Not a bad foundation for a learning or other community, I guess!

  • #19 by admin on November 10th, 2009

    oops – I accidentally posted when logged in as admin!! I’ll post again from “Jen”. :-)

  • #20 by jen on November 10th, 2009

    I’m sensing an Irish theme in these ethnographies! Thanks for this, John – as Sarah says (and like Sarah’s ethnography), it is really fascinating to see how traditional practices and communities are preserved and changed by being brought into the digital realm. I’m also intrigued by the positivity displayed by groups of ‘makers and do-ers’ – I think this echoes something an interviewee in a project I worked on last year said about Flickr vs (for example) MySpace or Youtube – in Flickr everyone is a photographer, so there is an incentive to be constructive so that you will get constructive feedback in response. Not a bad foundation for a learning or other community, I guess!

  • #21 by jen on November 17th, 2009

    I’m reminded of Nicola’s visual artefact and the way she showed what is strange and freakish (the ear on the mouse) giving way to what is taken for granted technology (cochlear implants) -http://digitalculture-ed.net/nicolao/2009/10/17/dystopia-vs-utopia-my-visual-object-for-week-4/ . It occurs to me that maybe part of what’s difficult about the week 8 readings is that the moment at which some of this (particularly the cyborg stuff) seemed strange and new, and worth talking about, has passed?

    The transformation of humans into ‘vehicles for information flows’ does put a different spin on the idea of the semantic web – http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Main_Page. In the Hayles reading for this week she argues for cognisphere, not cyborg, as the appropriate ‘unit of analysis’ (p.160) for our times – as we are woven ever more tightly into the flows and ecologies of data that the semantic web is making possible we’re part of what Hayles calls a ‘co-evolutionary spiral with intelligent machines’ (p.164). Can’t decide whether to say ‘cool’ or ‘eep’! Maybe both.

  • #22 by johns on November 18th, 2009

    ‘Can’t decide whether to say ‘cool’ or ‘eep’! Maybe both.’
    I agree Jen. I think that things are moving very fast- not only in technological development, but the effects on people also. We seem, as usual, to be led by technology and may be doing some damage to ourselves as we go. It’s been in the press a lot here lately (e.g. http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/in-their-sites-20091115-igeu.html) (as it has been at home on the other side of the pond) about privacy issues, especially with teens. Couple that with the possibility of McAfee’s ‘Cyber warfare is a reality’ headline in todays papers and it may be a ’spiral’ indeed. Don’t know if it’s e- or de-volution though.. and possibly dangerous too.

    http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/in-their-sites-20091115-igeu.html

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