Some Final Reflections on the Module

I have really enjoyed this module. It has helped me overcome initial concerns about my technical abilities and definitely made me more confident than ever to embrace new media. Whilst I have learned basics such as making a screenshot of a website, I have also experienced how easy it actually is to construct your own website.

I have particularly benefited from the discussions we had in class, which made me question some of my assumptions. I have also really enjoyed attending the Walking the Digital Dog lecture advertised by Nigel earlier this term, as well as learning about Open Source Software. What’s more, more often than not I now tend to use Firefox as a browser instead of Internet Explorer. Initially I haven’t noticed much difference between the two of them. Having worked on our group wiki though I was soon to find out that our project website looks appalling and incredibly chaotic when opened with Firefox. This made me realize how, even online, it is difficult to escape corporate claws.

Our expectations, as Nigel repeatedly mentioned, for things online to be free is also something I’ve come to question. I have already briefly touched upon this in my post on Second Life so I won’t go into further detail here.

Indeed, the module has aroused a fascination with Second Life in me. I have now established a Second Life presence and I’m still taken aback by the virtual world. Upon noticing that most avatars are designed according to prevailing cultural ideals, I’ve tried my hardest to go against this trend. My avatar is thus old and chubby. Maybe this is the cause for my unpopularity within Second Life as I have yet to make friends there.

This leads me to another observation in regards to Second Life that strikes me: the emphasis on and obsession with appearance and accordingly consumption. It seems as though our online actions are a mere perpetuation of our offline actions.

By now I even got into the habit of blogging. As aforementioned I believe in many cases blogging is very valuable for it often provides a counterpoint to mainstream media coverage. Reconsidering my previous reflections on blogging, I would like to add that I now understand how blogging might help me share, explore, shape and develop my ideas by putting them into the public domain and leaving them open to feedback. Hence, I’ve come a long way from being extremely insecure about sharing my thoughts online even if I might not continue to keep a blog immediately after this module.

I have certainly become more careful with revealing personal information about myself on both Facebook and StudiVZ so as to avoid advertising myself for identity theft.

Finally, I have one minor reservation in regards to the module: Although I can’t deny that I have acquired some important technical skills, I would have liked the module to put more emphasis on the technical aspects. Since our course is generally more academically charged, I think it would have been nice to do something more technologically challenging.

Nonetheless, with the growing ubiquity of new media technologies in the workplace this module was undoubtedly useful for my future, regardless of what career I will be pursuing.