Learning Reflection #3 or "All's Well That Ends Well"
Phew. What a semester it has been. I have annotated amply, read rigorously, typed topically, and participated perfunctorily. I have engaged in my affinity space, with my classmates in their chats, in hypothesis annotations and in the Twittersphere. This has been a challenging first semester, with a lot of ups, several significant downs, and now, as I attempt to finish out this course, a time for reflection.
As I’ve said before, this is the first online course I have ever taken. This is also my first semester as a Grad student, so I’ve been undergoing some mental gymnastics as I attempt to find out where I fit in this world I have created for myself. A lot of things are happening, and I am glad to be here to experience them.
As I have participated in our course activities, I have come to feel that the online space, (affinity, social, etc.) is not always the scary, threatening place I previously thought. There are dark spots to be sure (I haven’t been harassed online) but I know people who have, but in the Affinity space I chose, and within the confines of our hashtag #ILT5320 people have been good, helpful, and generally upstanding humans. I wonder if this is because these spaces are becoming more protected, or people themselves are merely becoming more willing to be good. Either way, I appreciate online communities that fight the good fight for representation, fairness, and a leaning toward the light. Though this is general observation I have had, it has also had an effect on my learning. I have learned that in many ways, online communities revolve around shared knowledge, (think of our affinity space indicators) and my knowledge, in whatever area I choose to share it, can be valued.
On that same note but with a slight aside, my knowledge of shared, community knowledge has also become more developed. I recently read The Circle, and if you haven’t read it yet, what it lacks in character development it makes up for big questions about the commoditization of knowledge. Though I don’t believe “privacy is theft” I do believe that certain online communities could benefit from becoming more transparent with their users. It was an interesting read, and I would recommend it.
Though I still hold some of my preconceptions about video games, (that it is a white, male dominated sphere) after our course readings and my own critical research, I do feel that the white male stereotype that I have is actually not as true as it once was. The readings have also helped me fight this bias, (yes, I know it’s a bias) and I have great hope that there will be female, POC game designers all over the world, making awesome games for entertainment and learning. I look forward to seeing this happen.
I have mentioned before how I hadn’t used Twitter in a long while, and I am happy to report that it has become another method of learning for me. Not only does it compress my normally loquacious blog posts into succinct, poppy quotes, but I am able to follow do-gooders in the online and learning community, which is not something I had considered a possibility before. Twitter also became a solid connection between me and my fellow classmates, and I was able to forge these connections with funny gifs, probing questions, and the ever present #hashtag. I am glad to have the opportunity to explore this platform again.
Though I have more questions now than answers in this course, I know that’s not a bad thing. Having questions means that I have work to do. And I love a good project. The question I suppose I keep coming back to is, how can scholarship learn to keep up with the technology? Though I think that scholarship will always be a bit slow, (it’s the nature of the lumbering beast) but I feel like innovations such as Hypothesis will soon expedite the process of research and knowledge-sharing, and this is especially good for someone like me, who is always looking for new methods of teaching.
It has been a pleasure working with everyone in ILT5320 this semester…now, onward!