Reflective Post

Weblogs have been an effective learning tool in this course and, I believe, could prove useful in other courses. Having our own tutorial blog has been particularly effective in this course since this course is preoccupied with notions of technology and our human relationship with it. I like the practicality of working within one of the technological structures that we are analysing in this course. For general english courses, blogs are useful because we can prepare for tutorials more thoroughly by reading eachothers posts before the tutorial and using the blog as a forum to discuss issues related to the course outside of tutorial time. Unfortunately in our particular blog, there was not a significant amount of this type of discussion, but this is possibly due in part to the (relative) unfamiliarity with the medium and preoccupation with writing mandatory posts.

Now to turn to the elusive sixty-four dollar question. Do I believe I am a cyborg? I remember in the first tutorial of the course verhmenently disputing this idea. I believe the ability to identify as a cyborg is based largely of notions of the cyborgian creature. If we associate the cyborg with the overtly machinical creatures from popular film culture such as The Terminator then it is very uncomfortable to identify with these creatures. I would definately agree with the notion that people who have been fitted with prosthetic body parts in surgery can be considered as cyborgs. Upon re-evaluation those, I think the notion of the cyborg is one of those slippery terms, like postmodernism that means everything and at the same time nothing. Let me qualify that statement. I think that Haraway was trying to use the cyborg to describe a new way of being where the discrete boundaries between 'technology' and 'nature' are blurred. Also concrete descriptions of any individual subject are blurred in this definition. In this sense I agree that we are all cyborgian subjects. We define ourselfs in interrelated and sometimes contradictory ways. Although I would live and breathe without digital technology, it is so enmeshed in my life, that my lifestyle without it would be unrecognisable. In that sense, I am a cyborg.

Overall I have found this course to be a challenging learning experience. I liked the course set up with workshops and blogs, it was refreshing to have different to the norm components in the course. The tutorials were great, it is the first unit when I haven't thought "When is this tute going to end!" I liked the practicality of the course aswell. Examples were given of current as well as dated sources, which I guess is crucial in a course about current technology. I also liked the interactivity of the lectures.

See you all! :)