The deadline for the submission of our lifestreams approaches – just 90 minutes left as I write – and I realise how important the blog has been to my lifestream with other technologies in walk-on roles (Twitter to advertise blog posts, YouTube, Slideshare and Flickr to host the media I embed in them etc.). These retrospective summaries will focus primarily, then, on my blog.

Week 1: 21 September

Other than a short post on the Wallwisher ice-breaking activity (an idea that’s already been used on a KU course I’ve had an influence on), my first blog post was Walking the walk on the technologies used on this distance learning but VLE-free course. I was intrigued by the idea of a course that allowed us to use a range of technologies of our own choosing – a PLE if you like – whilst retaining something of the centralising, pull-it-all together in one place characteristics of a VLE. But who needs a VLE when RSS can pull together disparate media? I also had a go at a film review – not quite pulling off Pauline Kael – and a third, slightly superficial blog post bringing together my reading of Hand, Twitter and Iran.

Week 2: 28 September

Week 2 began with one of my early reflections on visuality with a blog post on the polysemous nature of the visual image. I enjoyed writing it – and name checking artists I enjoy – and the comments of Sian and fellow students. This post, like the next one, We’re (culture) jammin‘, was written in response to another student’s reflection. That week I took a rare foray into the multimodal – uploading a short film made on my iPhone to YouTube. Finally, I had another go at a film review – Girlfriend in a coma. At the end of week 2 I did a rare and beautiful thing and wrote one of my few of-the-moment summaries of my lifestream (http://digitalculture-ed.net/tonym/2009/10/04/reflections-on-my-lifestream/) which has some comments on the lifestream I’d still stand by.

Week 3: 5 October

This week began with a bang: a longish post on one of the set readings, another go at the multimodal (another video) and a quick swipe at Prezi (ed techies’ new preferred presentation software). I posted quite a lot that week (a lull at work perhaps or real enthusiams for readings and tasks?) and managed to select the visual artefact I wanted to share. I also thought of the phrase that best sums up why I love Twitter: “ambient collegiality”.

Week 4: 12 October – literacies

Well, this too looks like another very busy week. Looking back I’m clearly much more into the readings and ideas explored in block 1 than perhaps any of the other blocks. I took another stab at creating more visual artefacts (still and moving images) and got into an interesting discussion with Sian about Kress (who I find interesting, but disagree with – especially about the decline of the textual). I enjoyed engaging with fellow students’ visual artefacts – and their engagement with my own. I also found debating the hidden cultural politics of the ‘cabinet of curiosities’ with Jen to be really stimulating. So, sort of a week of disagreeing with the course team but in an intellectually rewarding way. You know, without disagreement, there’s no learning … sort of thing.