Net11 Reflections

Well I have come to the end of my journey for Net 11, and what a ride it has been.

For me, this study period and Net11, has been an enjoyable, yet challenging, introduction to Internet Studies. Like many others in the group, I thought this unit would be a relative stroll through park, or Internet if you like, boy was I wrong. A lot of the material I have covered previously, whether through work or day to day mucking around on the Internet over the years. Yet when working through the material, I constantly found new things, new ways of looking at old things and was generally forced to really think about the way we, I, communicate on the Internet and what that truly means.

New becomes old and old becomes new
As a result of this I have explored many new technologies and found many new ways to share, and communicate what I have discovered: Twitter, Delicious and Blogs all spring instantly to mind. I have been exposed to fantastic concepts such as the Networked Student and The Machine is Us/ing Us. Seriously, check these out!

I have explored social networks and what impact they have on modern relationships and how they allow people to communicate on an intimate level with friends and family. In fact I think over the course of my studies this will probably be something which pops up again and again. I have explored old technologies such as IRC and Usenet which helped shape the early days on the Internet, and I have come to understand that without these legacy protocols, then many of the tools I have previously mentioned may not exist today.

Now as I rummage around the corners of the net, I feel my eyes and mind are more open and I am further aware of the power the Internet holds. I feel that I can see more of the potential the Internet holds for change to social interactions and the way we do business. This is an exciting time and I relish the fact that I am here, now, discovering all these things.

The human side of learning
Finally for me, and probably most importantly, this unit has been about the interaction with my fellow students. Whether this has been via Twitter or WebCT (oh how I loathe you) or each of our blogs. The communication and interaction has been amazing. The ideas we have shared, the help which has been forthcoming, it all has been amazing. In fact fellow Net11 student Tim Kennington made the comment in his blog "I can’t recall being part of an online unit before where I’ve actually felt like I’ve been studying right next to other students". I think that remark alone says volumes on how far this group has come with communicating on the Internet.

That's it for me, Net11 is done. See you in Net12.

Net11 Reflections Week Eleven

Another week down and some interesting things have come and gone through the course of it. I am now finally catching up on course work while reading blogs and forum posts has been a bit slower.

The last couple of tasks in module four have given me a couple of interesting things to think about, particularly the types of tools I use to manage my time and productivity online. The more I have thought about it the more I am looking at stripping back the applications I use, and where possible move more into the cloud.

I have achieved this in a couple of places such as email and RSS feeds. I am starting to use Delicious more and more for bookmarks and have just set up a Pro Flickr account to get our photos online (and backed up). I have also come to appreciate my browser more, including how it can interface with so much more than just a simple web page: I now have plugins for Twitter and Delicious amongst other things.

So now we are drawing quickly to a close for Net11 (just two weeks to go). There still seems so much more to learn and discuss and I still have a couple of tasks and the like to complete. To date this has been a fantastic journey and reading through some fellow students blogs I can see they too have been impacted by what they are learning. I think both Cynthia and Peter can be proud of what this group is taking away.

Don't you think so?

Net11 Reflections Week Ten

After completing the concepts assignment and getting through three weeks of wedding, honeymoon and holidays, I now feel somewhat distracted from study.

With 855 plus posts on WebCT and over 170 blog posts to read plus modules 4 and 5 to complete the task seems, sometimes, insurmountable. I suppose now is the time to knuckle down and get crackin'.

Net11 Reflections Week Five

Well week five as come and gone just like 2008, and like 2008, week five offered me lots of exciting new opportunities and a few challenges on how I look at things.

Last week saw me finishing up module two and starting to tackle module three, Contributing to the Infosphere, and in particular how we write on the internet. Jamming all this in around work commitments (yes I still worked over the Christmas new year period) and social commitments, has proved a challenge albeit a rewarding challenge.

In fact it has been this time hungry schedule which has caused me to stop and reflect on a few discussions I have had with fellow students over the previous weeks, plus a comment Peter Fletcher made refering to Barry Wellman's paper "Connecting Community: On- and Off-line". Simply put Wellmen posits that technology, online communities, communication on the internet allows us more face to face time of greater quality with our friends and family.

As a result I have begun to take notice of the quantity and quality of the face to face social interaction I have with my friends. Through this self appraisal I have found myself in agreement with Peter's comments and Wellman's paper. I am beginning to see how keeping up to date with my friends via social networks and technology is allowing me to have deeper personal conversations with them. My partner also pointed out how she is able to keep up to date with those friends she is not so close and doesn't see as frequently and as a result those friendships are far stronger.

This it seems is not a random phenomena linked only to myself. Recent studies have also shown that social networking and technology can indeed benefit real life skills, even the business world is starting to realise the benefits of customer interaction through online social networks and media. I think that we are now only starting to see the beginning of how technology, internet communication and particularly social networks can change our world.

Net11 Reflections Week Four

Before this week (and year) gets away from me I thought maybe a word or two about last week was in order.

After my comments last week about managing my time online more efficiently, I got smacked by the on coming train that is Christmas. So while I had every intention of getting more uni work done and being productive in general, this wasn't the actual case. In fact, I had less time on the net in general. May I point out though this was not necessarily a bad thing! :)

So while I didn't get a chance to set in place life changing program, I did have plenty of time to think about how exactly I will approach this seemingly mammoth task. And after much thought, I have come up with cunningly simple plan: Before I sit down in front of my Mac, I will state out aloud to myself what it is I want to achieve. I will then also write this down on paper for later reference. In this manner I put accountability on my session and upon myself*. By placing accountability upon my time on the net hope that I will focus on the task at hand and procrastinate less.

Of course I will do this regardless of if the session is for study, work or just surfin' the interwebs!

With the little time that I did have to spend on course work, module two revisited some interesting areas of my past. I enjoyed the technical aspect of relearning some old tools and protocols such as IRC and Usenet, and discovered some great insight into their impacts on the net and contributions to the world. Also to date the discussions and insights from my fellow students has been inspirational, and I really am looking forward now to where the next couple of months are going to take me. Let the learning continue.

*No really this took much thought on my part.

Net11 Reflections Week Three

Forgive for father for it has been a week since I last blogged. Actually I can't believe it was a week but here's the proof.

Week three really got away from me, it must be this thing called Christmas taking up all my time, definitely not my poor time management. I do feel a bit deflated after so many grand plans for the last week went astray: get ahead, plan out my assignment and contribute comments to fellow students blogs. Unfortunately the realities of life and a smallish helping of procrastination brought me tumbling down.

Not to worry though, some time away from the internet machine gave me some space to think, and asses how I utilise my time online. The results I must say are far from pleasing and they have brought me to an interesting conclusion: I waste time on the interwebs. Oh surprise!

Over the last few days particularly, I have found that I am getting online and just procrastinating, surfing from site to site with no specific task in mind. Of course this is not always a bad thing and some mindless surfing is always fun and occasionally useful, but I need to focus and utilise my time online effectively.

So, after a little Googling and reading some of the millions of self help 10-ways-to-be-more-productive-and-manage-your-time websites, I have come up with my challenge for this week; to be more purposeful when online. So now when I sit down in front of the internet I will have a plan of attack, a goal to achieve for the session.

For large chunks of time I will plan out what I wish to do and how long I have to do it before I even take to the computer. If I have a 30 minute window online, I will do some quick research or blog a thought rather than poke a friend or check my email every 15 minutes. Of course I won't stop my social shenanigans online, I will now also plan out my time socialising rather than flitting over to Facebook on a random whim every five minutes to see my friends status updates. And if I go of on a tangent, clicking through to site after site, I plan to share some of the gold (or not so gold) sites I may come across (it's not really time wasting then is it?). Consider yourselves warned :)

So now my dirty little secret is out, how do you manage your time online and protect yourself from the procrastination traps of the web?

Net11 Week Two Reflections

It seems that I have successfully navigated week two of Net11 without having any adverse reactions or blowouts. It feels fantastic to be getting stuck into topics which I find both interesting and worthwhile. It's interesting to note that while I am familiar with the material we are studying, I am still taking a lot away and feel I am gaining a greater understanding of the core aspects of the internet and its underlying structure.

To me this is the reason why I have restarted university study; to build on the knowledge that I all ready have, and to a lesser degree, validate what I have previously been doing in life, the experiences and knowledge it has given me.

I am also finding the discussions in the forums are invigorating with so many informed points of view. Coupled with the simple fact that people are not afraid to share their thoughts and ideas, this is making the time I spend on there so worthwhile. It really is a refreshing change to my last unit where people were not interested in any type of online discussion or debate :/

OK so now I can turn my attention to week three, and to get me through I have set myself a few little goals including:

1. getting ahead on my module 2 tasks,
2. determining which concepts I will begin writing on

and the big one for me

3. comment on more fellow students blogs.

I know they seem a little big once they are verbalised, but I think they are achievable for week three. So do you have any of your own learning goals for week three?

Net11 Week One Reflections

So after a week of finishing off my previous OUA unit and some procrastination over the weekend, I have finally made a second post on my new Net11 Learning Log.

So far I am finding Net11 both stimulating and daunting at the same time. Tonight I spent a couple of hours catching up on all the posts on the units Webct page, and I must say there are so many interesting and varied people completing this unit with me. Truly I can not wait to learn more about my fellow students and myself as we all learn more about the internet and discuss it's implications on society and communication.

All ready there have been some amazing and insightful comments made, discussions begun and concepts thrown out there, so much so I have had some new ideas thrust at me which have simply blown me away. One such idea came from fellow student Rhys Moult who posted this link to the Connected Student. If you haven't watched this video yet then do yourself a favour, as this is just the most amazing learning concept I have come across.

Tutor Peter Fletcher also made a comment early on which I am also striving to take to heart. As I can't link to the post I am quoting Peter below:

"Blog everything. All your research notes. All your reflections. Links to interesting resources. The lot. I did that here during my honours year. I used tags as a way of finding stuff months later. It's mint and way better than rummaging through piles of paper. I too hadn't blogged before Net11. Now it's central to my information management. Love it. Someone call Bloggers Anonymous."

Some pretty amazing concepts here, or maybe they're not that amazing and I am just behind the times. What do think?