Sunday, April 24, 2011

Solomou, M. (2011). The final chapter!

I joined this course thinking that I knew most of the major work around new media. I was excited that I would have the opportunity to create projects and reflect, but I wasn't sure how things would look like in the online version. Throughout the semester, I came to realize that what I was experiencing (with the readings, the concept maps, the studio projects) was a great, creative process. Organizing my thoughts on a concept map was a very helpful activity. Especially by adding to my concept map every week helped me realize how concepts and ideas relate to each other, how authors' work is related with the overall theoretical field of constructionism, what the value of the particular theory is for explaining how people learn with new media and technologies, as well as how I can relate to the field.

My work within the class generated ideas for future work around media, games and literacies. I see games (this is the major area of my research focus) as contexts for creation and authorship, not just consumption. When I played with atmosphir, for example, I realized the potential that such games have for the future of play and the ways creativity can be expressed. The web 2.0 technologies that were introduced in one f the VoiceThresds  showed that the direction participation is taking leads to a different level of online presence.

Overall, this course has taught me valuable things and pushed my thinking towards being more critical and reflexive. I enjoyed it and I must say that I am taking the thinks I learned outside the course, towards my future development. I love it when a class affords that!

P.S. Comparing the VoiceThreads with the forums... I think I prefer the VoiceThreads. When I was receiving notifications for the forum posts, I didn't know which post they were referring to, unless I logged on Oncourse and viewed them. On the other hand, VoiceThread gives everyone's responses for each question and I could see everyone's pictures along with the responses. Like that better!

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, I think that I liked the sense that we were having a conversation about something and the gestural qualities of VoiceThread as well...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I also liked the concept maps! This course helped me outline future projects, learn about new Web 2.0 tools - and most of all it really motivated me to dive into research! I liked the informal blog posts and studio times - too! There is much more - but I will organize my thoughts and post at a later time - I am in the midst of completing a paper - but I didn't want to forget to respond to Maria's Final Chapter! :) -Kate

    ReplyDelete