Course Summary

Ok, so time for my summary/impressions of New Communications Technologies!

What did I like about it:

I liked that, despite my initial thoughts, the subject was not for people who already know a lot about technology. I knew pretty much nothing about it at the start of the course, but it didn't matter because everything was explained, and even if it was hard to understand, all I had to do was ask my tutor or someone else and it was explained in an understandable way. I also really liked the freedom of choice of the essay topic. When I first learnt we had to do the essay, I was really worried about it. But since there was such a broad range of areas to focus on, I was able to find a topic that genuinely interested me, so doing the assignment was actually a really interesting and even educational experience! I also liked that the blog tasks where we had to use word and excel were directed by simple instructions, but not so simple that I didn't constantly need help! But there was always help available! So it was all good. Also, if I sent an email to my tutor with a question, it was always replied to soon after (good netiquette!) which is good because they were about assessments etc, where I didn't want to be kept waiting for a reply. To quickly recieve a reply is way better than not getting one at all, and still being confused about what I have to do!

What I didn't like about the course/what didn't work:

I don't really have many complaints here, but I would have to say that the main thing was that some of the films (most of them) were really confusing. Maybe it was just to me, but from watching them I never grasped the concept; I always had to read about them afterwards to understand them. Maybe if they were just generally explained to us first, then we could have watched them and had a better understanding of them. I'm not just saying this because I'm lazy and didn't want to have to spend my time reading about them, it's because if we knew first what was happening in them, then we could see the actual parts of the film in which certain/pivotal moments occured, instead of having to try remember them later. This was especially the case in 'Primer.' I had no idea of any of it while watching it, but when I read about it and it made more sense to me, I couldn't relate all the important parts to when they actually happened in the film.
But having said that, the films during the lectures were good; they explored interesting concepts, and it's good to see 'art house' films like those, instead of big Hollywood ones all the time.

Well that's about it, but overall it was a good course!