Final Reflections

This semester has continued to push me outside of both my comfort zone in some of the activities we participated in, as well as the traditional classroom approaches to learning.  We have redefined what qualifies as literacy, what we use to communicate information, how what we are using can be applied within a learning environment and how all of these channels tie into our day to day lives.    With changing technology, definitions of terms like literacy, place, culture and infrastructure all continue to evolve and expand to incorporate virtual existences.  There is a movement between the conceptual and the actual, and the space between continues to become less and less evident.  As the virtual world becomes the reality of our world, we need to make sure we understand the implications such dependencies on it can create. This course was eye opening in quickly students, coworkers and people all become dependent on new medias.  As we continue to learn various medias we should explore both the value and devaluation of its evolution. This course did not discuss much about the devaluation of information because of the readiness of it, or ability to find it "at our fingertips." It also did not get into discussions of media based assessment strategies or many of the challenges faced as we continue to move to a technology based learning group.  My guess is that these two topics could be entire courses of their own, alongside this one.  I have fulled enjoyed the coursework, and as stated in my individual assessment this has been one of the most interactive online courses I have ever taken-an element that is typically lacking in online courses.  Continuing to use various methods of information gathering and presentation will continue to keep material and presentations differentiated and lead to a broader appeal across audiences.