Final Class Reflection, December 3, 2009

Sad to see the last of this class. It has been enriching and stimulating. This last week was closing the conversation on participatory culture and once again this was interesting and challenging. We finished with a little more on group work and this has been a really good way to put into practice the stuff we've been talking about in class. A great ten weeks. Ryan is very good at facilitating great class discussion with lots of input from him, but freedom for all to share. I'll miss this.

Class Reflection December 1, 2009

Today was a very enlightening discussion on "Participatory Culture". I remember way back in 1995 when we had a meeting with our mission organization before going out to India about this thing called the internet and how it was going to revolutionize our lives. I don't thnk we had any idea way back then!
We definitely need to embrace this aspect of today's culture but it brings up so many issues for education and boundaries etc. One of my biggest concerns about it is in the way it divides society very distinctly. Those that cannot afford it for whatever reason are even more marginalized. We need to address that in this discussion somehow but I'm not sure how. Also it will be interesting to see research done in the future on the effect socially of so much online community and/or virtual community.