What online educators can learn from successful virtual communities
I decided to challenge myself and use Prezi to explore this topic. This proved to be very unsettling as my Tumblr entry on Dec 22 expresses:
My uncanny assignment processDecember 22 2009
I thought I should make a note of my current emotional state in trying to produce a final assignment for the digital culture course. For my virtual ethnography I produced a non-linear virtual ethnography in WordPress of which I am very proud of. I could easily use the same format for my final assignment but I have decided that would not be challenging enough. Also due to running workshops and consultancies for the past three weeks my work on the assignment has had to be intermittent and it feels fragmented. I also feel fragmented at the moment. I feel I have entered the realm of the uncanny. I feel very unsure at the moment that I will be able to pull the assignment together in time given Christmas and family commitments. I feel that the assignment output should give a sense of this uncanniness – and I think Prezi can do that – it should be able to show the fragments but also pull back to see the whole. I haven’t used Prezi before but I just had a look at a few of their videos of how to construct a Prezi and I think I should be able to do it. I think
Well, I did it and the link is below. While there is a linear path through this Prezi (but you are not limited to this path), the Prezi was constructed in a very non-linear way. I felt a bit like a painter with a large canvass (an Impressionist painter) – putting a splash of colour here and there and wondering whether I could pull it all together. I find it a very interesting digital form and I tried my best to work with its affordances. But it is my first Prezi attempt.
