Monthly Archives: July 2013

Blogs in Media Education

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 Reading: vlog 4.0 [a blog about vogs]

Still having the pen license I worked so hard to receive in year four and always reading books in print I can’t say I’m an embracer of new technology. For one so much of education is built up around being able to physically write and now it seems I don’t even need that pen license anymore. As Adrian puts it we have received several years of ‘intense, specialised and very high quality’ training in print literacy, and for me it would seem a waste not to use it. However, it is interesting to note the idea that successful blogging is to use print-literacy as a basis to create what is closer to what can be thought of as a ‘post-literacy’.

In teaching the usefulness of blogs are many: documentation of practice, to encourage and support reflective and process based learning, allow peer support and learning, to provide a record of achievement, assisting idea creation, supporting collaboration and developing of multi-literacies as ‘creators, rather than being limited to being passive consumers.’ The last point is quite an interesting idea, because much of education is built up around students being consumers of information without getting a chance to put their knowledge into action.

Adrian notes that a  blog is like a journal, allowing a record to be maintained of ideas, reflections, activities things to be done, and so on. However, the key differences of this to a journal or diary is that a blog is a public document and it can be linked to by others. It is written with the assumption that it has readers (that’s you). The number of readers doesn’t matter, but what you write about needs to be written about in such a way that it makes sense for other readers, differenting to the personal diary or even journal. There is an idea of publicness and therefore care needs to be exercised with the knowledge that a post will be read by others. Being public allows a blog to be linked to by others and it is this shift of semi-private to public that allows you recognise that your work is able to ‘make a contribution to a larger community’.

Week Two’s UNlecture

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This week’s UNlecture really focused on the blogs for the course and it was helpful to get some information regarding all the technicalities we should know about; like copyright, content we should post about and security. But I think the key idea of the UNlecture was ‘participation’ and just how important it is in this course. The fact is that the assignments are a product of your own nurturing, and primarily what you achieve is up to you.

Aside from the content, I did find the UNlecture to still be in a lecture-ey format with Adrian up the front talking for majority of the time. Like he noted this is somewhat to do with the architectural structure of the room, as it’s built up around the notion of how the space should be used, slanting towards a common viewpoint. However I think that the UNlecture has the ability to develop into a more discussion based environment with time. I like the idea of handing paper around to write down questions to be answered, but perhaps this could be done beforehand as it takes some time to sort through the paperwork before actually getting to the questions.

The edge is rocky

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I was recently on holidays in Hawaii and this is one of my favourite pictures I took on the trip. It was at a beach just out of the city, where people had stacked these rocks on top of each the near the edge of a cliff. Firstly, I thought it was quite funny, the fact people climbed fences and went against regulations to make their way to the edge of a cliff and then sat there and stacked rocks. But then I realised just how much of a statement it was. A sign of presence long after people had gone. It’s amazing to think that anyone from anywhere could have done this and they’re still standing. It became a little following where people contributed their own stacks as they passed.

Did someone say ‘UNlecture’?

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Lecture – An educational talk to an audience, especially to students in a university or college. 

Ok you may be wondering why I am defining the word lecture, well being a university student it is a word that has kind of lost meaning and become more of a process that we all are accustomed to. It’s pretty easy to forget the structure that all of them are built up around and get lost in the space as another number.

In the Networked Media course they have come up with the idea of an UNlecture. Some of you may be asking what is this mystical ‘UNlecture’? Well kids gather ‘round. I suppose to define it in one word would be a conference or discussion. Its purpose is to deviate from the idea of a talk ‘to’ students but more so with them. A collaborative learning space where anyone can have the chance to have an input.

After attending the first one for the semester I am really intrigued. Though it’s still early days  I like the idea and it will be nice to have a fresh way of learning once a week. I’m looking forward to the weeks that follow.