Unlecture, Week 3: A Step Backwards

This week’s lecture – and I’m deliberately calling it a lecture as opposed to an ‘unlecture’ – felt like a step backwards. It fell a bit flat.

However there were some points that I enjoyed so I’ll start off with those. First, I liked that Adrian incorporated the previous criticism about the lack of discussion about the readings in the unlectures. The readings for this course can at times appear loosely related to the course itself, so whilst they’re highly thought-provoking and engaging, I feel they do need to be brought back into the context of the course. Adrian did this very well, making inextricable connections to the previous readings and turning the abstract nature of the digital fiction readings into easily understandable ‘real-life’ contexts. That was spot-on.

It was also really interesting getting some insight from the tutors as they both offered great insights that would’ve otherwise gone unheard. Personally I agreed with Elliot’s thoughts about education being a transaction. It might reek of capitalism, but it’s the truth. Besides, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. It just needs to be acknowledged.

Alright, time for the whining. This isn’t me slipping into Model 1, either.

1) The ban on laptops is completely backwards and contradicts everything the ‘unlecture’ supposedly represents. I distinctly remember Elliot complaining about high schools banning mobile phones in Week 1, yet somehow that has changed and now he’s not letting university students use laptops. There’s no logical reasoning behind it, especially in a subject about networked media. Why not utilise these vital pieces of technology to create a live Twitter feed, where everyone uses the hashtag “#NetMed2013 to create a live-stream of personal insights, and possibly even questions? I feel like this is a really massive opportunity being lost out of paranoia that people will check their Facebook during the lecture. We’ve been told to take responsibility for our own learning, so why not let those people suffer and let the others flourish?

2) There was no interactivity this week so the ‘unlecture’ simply felt like a normal lecture. A return to the Q&A forum would be great – or at least some elements of back and forth would be great

3) There’s been too much focus on Adrian asking us how we find the course. It’s a quarter of the way through the semester and at this point I’m a bit tired of being asked to give feedback. I’m here to learn about networked media, not to constantly be stopped and used as a lab rat. I completely understand the ambivalent nature of the content and the reason for it, but there’s too much time being spent outside the course looking in.

Of course, these complaints don’t reflect how I really feel about networked media. I really enjoy it, and so far it’s challenged my prior ways of thinking on more than one occasion. I just felt like this week was a bit of a slip-up that I’m sure will be fixed in due time.