Summary: Week 11
We’re nearing the end of the taught part of the course and the beginning of the assignment section so my time has been used this week to refine my lifestream, correcting any errors and employing a consistent style for any references in the weekly summaries. More on this subject in my final summary, but for now my other main focus has been on beginning the final assignment.
I am still very much interested in the themes of post humans and distributed consciousness and I have spent some time considering these ideas in greater detail this week (lifestream 27.11.2011 #1 and 01.12.2011 #7, #9, #11, #12). I’ve also spent a little time revisiting the ideas of Artificial Intelligence and human computer interaction (lifestream 03.12.2011 #2, #3) and this has lead me to think about how humans and groups of humans interact with computer systems (lifestream 03.12.2011 #1). It’s fascinating to think about how groups might become empowered beyond the now well recognised notion of emergent collective group intelligence, through interaction with computer systems (lifestream 04.12.2011 #3 to #10). If groups can be extended and enhanced through the use of artificially intelligent agents and expert systems, then this must of course have profound consequences for teaching and learning.
So having finally selected a topic for the assignment, it’s time to settle down properly into a single research area. My lifesteam is already beginning to reflect this, with the range of topics and ideas narrowing daily and moving I hope, towards a focal point. It must be interesting to watch this process from the outside and to see how I have refined my ideas as I progress. I now see clearly what a perfect lens the lifestream is to document this journey.