My blog this week has focused on the idea of community, having been part of some very different communities recently this is very real to me. I have felt very much part of the ededc community and I been part of the edcMooc community – which felt quite soulless at times, to the #edcmooc on twitter which inspired feelings of community through shared activity and response. I have left my own community with friends and family and visited a new community with an entirely different set of rules and cultural references. Then I began to dip my toe into an online community of cyclists obsessed with the weight of bike parts – it has been a strange old week!!!!!

It makes me question what is a community and what makes one belong,
I felt I belonged in my home community, in the ededc community and in the #edcmooc community, I was beginning to become part of the community in Kenya and part of the edcMooc community, I didn’t belong in the Weght Weenies community. When I dissected my feelings of community it appears to be based on not only my engagement but the responses. In my own community with family and friends I give and receive feedback. As part of ededc I commented on others blogs and they on mine and we had chatted in real time through Skype. In twitter I was commenting and gaining responses. The edmooc course and Kenya – I still felt very new and the interactions I had were less engaging, which is quite surprising for Kenya as I was very engaged in many things I took part in but I always felt like a visitor. However I did feel a sense of community with the people I travelled with which was a new group of people to me. I have no sense of community with the Weight Weenies group because as yet, I have not contributed just observed.

So what is actually a community? It has to be more than a collection of people who are doing the same thing?

Thank you very much Giraf87 for this link

The Internet map.

This multi-modal representation of the Internet got me thinking about Entry points and how people get to where they want to be on the Internet.This map shows the different sites visited on the internet. I was very surprised to see that although Google is ranked number 1 less than half of internet users visit this site 45.610 %

The map and the journey through the Internet provides and example of what Kress (2005) describes as the use of space and spatial arrangement to represent information and meaning in spatially organized representation, and said that “it is the viewer’s action that orders the simultaneously present elements in relation to her or his interest” Information is present and people come from various start points and get to the information or action they require through which ever method is most suitable to them.

Kress (2005) referred to this as the ” Notion of order” and discusses how this has changed over time from one entry point to many

Its like the video in the film festival – Frightened Rabbit “I feel better” We have different starting points and choices and paths we need to follow if we take a step in one direction the future path and the next choice will change and that will be different for each individual taking the course

Click here to view the embedded video.

” Notion of order” Kress 2005

This weeks readings have looked at the terminology and driving forces for technology in films and books, Bell (2001) suggested that counterculture was the force behind adaption and was influential in driving forward new technology.

This is evident in recent films which have shown “futuristic” technology which has then gone on to be made in real life
Folding LCD screen – Minority report
Exoskeleton suit – Iron man
Invisibility cloak – Predator

It also appears as though “gamification” has come into ‘play’ now and is the biggest drive in technology, mainly because of the revenue brought in from successful games and the virtual life experience of engaging with the technology.

top ten gadgets in movies that inspires and excites us | mikeshoutsmikeshouts.