The Week 2 Video - "Sight"

"increasingly blurry line between the digital and the material might play out in the sphere of human relationships."

This commentary on the #edcmooc week2 resources page under the "Sight" video made me think of a number of scenarios, some older, some newer of the increasingly blurry line between the digital and material. Playing WII bowling, WII tennis or WII exercise - feels pretty realistic, pretty much fun, and gives you somewhat of a workout - all without the inconvenience of having to leave your home. Makes me think of the GPS - the dystopia being that some people become so dependent on these devices to navigate the countryside when driving - that it has led to the ridiculous situations of people driving much farther than necessary because they were blindly following a machine, someone who drove off the edge of a wharf into the ocean because the GPS told them to turn right, someone who followed a GPS and didn't realize they had crossed an international border. Makes me think of school where for a few misguided students, a shortcut to writing an essay is cutting and pasting text into something that has the appearance of an essay - or the blind dependence on using a calculator to do the math without having a basic understanding of the principles being carried out - leading to that cashier who has no idea how to make basic change when the computer isn't working. Students who can't tell time with an analog clock - students, who when asked to make a poster to illustrate some research, don't think of bristol board, markers, drawings, labelling etc. but do all that digitally using desktop publishing tools. I guess what all these things have in common - including the film's premise of using digital tools to mediate a relationship is that used thoughtfully and appropriately, all these tools can be highly valuable - used blindly, they have the great potential to mislead. Thoughtfulness in the use of digital technology in teaching and learning is a must - should go without saying.