Finally, it is done!
Until I can work out how to make WordPress appreciate a little embedding code you can find it over at Prezi: http://prezi.com/akxtn7-ncoww/
Nicola's E-learning and Digital Cultures Blog
Part of the MSc in E-learning at the University of Edinburgh
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11 Comments
Well worth the wait, Nicola. I am impressed by your use of Prezi. I like your point that technology has been changing very quickly but we are slower in adapting to it. And our fears remain the same.
Great artefact Nicola. Some fantastic content – though some of it did make me feel slightly seasick
I thought the point about us not fearing technology but how we will change as humans when those changes finally reach us was extremely interesting. I think I need to mull it over a little more!
Thanks to both of you
What I wanted to say in the artifact really changed as I tried to pull it all together as each image and idea started to make me think about other factors and the connections I intended to make also sparked unexpected connections. In a way I felt I could have rerouted round the same images in lots of different ways so I’m really glad some coherent ideas came through in the end.
I know what you mean about potential seasickness Sarah, it’s always a judgment call with Prezi. I like some of the whooshing around but I’ve not quite got the balance of swishy vs. too swishy I think
Very nice use of Prezi, I agree – I chose to follow your path rather than explore freeform, and it was extremely well done I thought. The zooming in to the tunnel screencap was awesome!
The points you’re making about how quickly what is new and/or unsettling becomes normalised are very important, I think. We talked about this yesterday in a breakout session at the Literacy in the Digital University seminar, after Sian’s talk about the uncanny. I wonder if you’d say that nothing is inherently or permanently uncanny? If so, and if as Sian argues we want to make a place for the uncanny in our teaching and learning, does that mean we must constantly venture into new environments and technologies?
I really enjoyed this, and I think you’ve created a genuinely balanced multimodal text – the text and the images work together and enhance one another, and neither struck me as being predominant. (perhaps others read it differently, though?) Thanks, Nicola!
A thought-provoking artefact, Nicola, that reminded me of a favorite Chuck Palahniuk quote: “When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?”.
So, is weird the new normal? Possibly. I would add to Jen’s comment that it is also important to think *why* what is new and/or unsettling becomes normalised so fast. Could it be because in the globalised world everything has to be sell-able to everyone?
Bah… my eye just caught a glimpse of your comment Nicola as I scrolled down the page. Its confirmed my thoughts. As a viewer,I felt your feelings and opinions grew stronger as the presentation developed. Towards the end, you were making big points about evolution and mankind’s acceptance of technology. As a fellow student, and probably the majority who find themselves in rapid transience with digital culture, I identified with your own sense of growth.
From a personal point of view, until I saw Sian’s contribution, I had never heard of Prizi. It’s quite a dramatic platform for presentations – the way it leaps at the viewer. I will use it some where down the line.
Jen you asked:
“I wonder if you’d say that nothing is inherently or permanently uncanny? If so, and if as Sian argues we want to make a place for the uncanny in our teaching and learning, does that mean we must constantly venture into new environments and technologies?”
I think there are some things we find permanently uncanny – the almost perfect simulation of humanity seems to be pretty persistent across the decades from the Metamorphoses to West World to AI. Having said that plastic surgery and photoshopping are becoming so commonplace that the real unreal human may be finally bridge that uncanny divide.
I think most of the things we find uncanny are not innately that way and do get assimilated eventually so one must venture out to find new environments and technologies as we find these much easier to accept quickly.
Bill I am chuffed that it reminds you of Chuck Palahniuk
Firstly I’m not sure if weird (which I have always prided myself in being) if the new normal exactly – I think bizarre probably is becoming the new normal though. I think there is something about commercialisation of technology and biological technology that does drive rapid acceptance but I also think there are some issues that go deeper than that.
The internet has been adopted with astonishing speed. But so was the industrial revolution. None of these changes automatically wipe out what came before but we adapt to new elements in our life all the time…
Mmmm, like the Prezi stuff – is there any way to incorporate branching during the flow to extend it to non linearly, or some kind of deep zooming to encapsulate more data within it?
I like the ruminations incorporated and think that weird isn’t the new norm, but weird now has friends; we all get to communicate globally about our weird within a mouseclick.
The internet; be weird together…
Hi Nicola, I really enjoyed your presentation – haven’t had a go at using prezi yet but it certainly looks good. I was wondering if the fears and hopes you talk about are personal ones? loved the ‘empathy’ screenshot(or whatever you call it. lol) it remiinded me of an old married couple – don’t ask me why, haven’t a clue!
I think cyber or otherwise the human element will always be important in the form of hopes and fears…so completely agree with you.
Leslie, thanks for commenting and sorry for taking a few days to reply here. I think the hopes I have are probably personal ones but I think those fears are relatively universal. And I think that, since I’m typing this post BNP on Question Time shenanigans, that’s always a challenge for humanity: uniting for positive outcomes as hopes tend to be super personally focused whilst fears are much easier to emotionally connect with and rally round.
The still for empathy is from WALL*E and old married couple is a perfect summation