Tagged: unlecture

Are Books dead? Week 6 Unlecture

 

One of the discussions that stuck with me after this weeks ‘un- lecture’ was the topic discussing whether or not books are dead.This is what I took away from todays discussion.

Vinyl for instance may not be the main source of listening to music anymore, however people still choose to listen to vinyls because of the aesthetic effect and style of sound that a vinyl emits. More people download music online compared to going to a music store, simply because it is easier, however it does not mean that the production of CD albums has completely stopped. It has just decreased because of the preference of downloading music as it is easier. Some people still like to have vinyl records playing simply because they prefer it for whatever reason aesthetically or maybe because they want to go against modern movement and wish to keep the traditional beauty of music alive. I think the same goes with books.

Although the use of ebooks are increasing books still have value, however many choose to download books now as well, simply because it is easier, cheaper and faster. When your at home and want a new book to read, it is easier to use a kindle and see the recommended books and browse through book genres and find a story that might suit your interests, rather than going to a book store and spending 30 minutes looking through the isles for a book and reading the blurbs to find a book that appeals to you.
I don’t think the use of books has died, however the platform in which we access these books has changed. It is not the book that is ‘dead’, but the book store.

 

 

Week 04: un-lecture Group Descussion

Today we have smaller computers, smaller cameras, smaller phones, all this technology that is getting smaller, better looking, cheaper and basically an all over better result. If a man came up to you and said “I’ve got two phones, an iPhone 5 and an old Nokia brick phone, choose one both are free!” You’re obviously going to choose the iPhone 5 because you can’t do jack on an old Nokia. The “latest models” are being updated and released more frequently, meaning we get new phones more often because the technology has begun to change so quickly.

So many book stores are going out of business because we have the internet and don’t have to dedicate time to going to the store and buying a book because we can literally order one online within 5 minutes.

My partner in my Wednesday tutorial brought up a point about how because owning a good camera these days isn’t a big deal anymore, the need to have a deeper meaning behind our photographs makes us good photographers or not. 30 years ago if you owned a camera, your photo would be a lot more respected because you simply were able to take that photo in the first place. Whereas in today’s modern culture were almost everyone owns a camera or technological device to capture the world around us, we need to have more meaning and structure behind our work.

 

 

Networked Media Unlecture?

I am not normally a negative person, however when it comes to this ‘unlecture’ business I don’t know if this is me just being too closed minded, but I simply just don’t get it! I get that it is a new radical way of experiencing your lecture session, however to me it just feels like another tutorial class with more people…

Some people struggle to say anything in their classes as it is because they are nervous of scrutiny or getting the ‘answer wrong’, and I feel that having a big lecture room full of people doesn’t make anyone want to speak up more as there are now more people to embaress themselves in front of. I do believe that we should all participate in class, but isn’t the purpose of having two scheduled classes in university for the same subject so that we hear everything the lecturer has to say about the weeks content, and then discuss this content in class unpacking the ideas and having the ability to have one on one discussion with your teacher.

I don’t want to ramble on because I hate ramblers, but I just feel that this idea needs to be worked on more because I don’t see the benefits at this stage of the course and it is already week 3!

I am definitely one for new approaches to learning especially considering our current learning system needs to be updated as it is an old style of learning for when we didn’t have the modern technology and abilities we have today. Networked Media’s ‘unlecture’ structure, however,  just doesn’t work for me.