NET11 Conclusion

Description

Completed this unit except essay (assignment 2) * Given extension for essay and blog. Am a day behind in sending them.

Evaluation

Overall, this unit was really useful and a lot of fun and very well organised. If I had a critisism, it would be that the annotated biblio was placed aquwardly in the units time line. I would have prefered to have covered all the unit work first. It would have made for a stronger assignment.
I can understand there isn't much 'give' in where to place this assignment. Perhaps I should have requested an extension. Next unit I will read the modules more carefully when I get them.

Some of the wording in the assignment descriptions caused confusion. However the unit DB is an excellent forum for gaining clarity. I never waited long for a reply.

Analysis

This unit has taught me soooooooo many technical skills and a good conceptual understanding of the internet. The best thing (coz it crept up on me-I used it before I recognised what it was) was an understanding of why a conceptual understanding of the internet can greatly enrich my online skills, especially in effective communication. It has broadened my understanding of the size of the content and community inside "cyberspace".

Its introduced me to blogging and learning logs for which I am eternally grateful. As simple as they sound, these tools have been invaluable to me. They have assisted me in an area I have struggled with for a long time - organisation. Via this learning log/blog, I have found the method of organising thoughts, lessons, references and unit work that I've been searching for. It has literally changed the way I study.

The first work I started on when this unit begun was establishing 'work-sheets' for my assignments' (these initially included description, tips, suggested reference sites and some I'd found myself) and everytime I'd come across useful information, I'd add it to these work sheets. The headings in the learning log doc gave me a way to organise all these elements and make them easier to refer back to. It was the last peice of my successful study method puzzle. This is something I'm glad I did and I'm noting it now so I do it again next unit!

If I was to do this unit again, what I would do differently is read the whole ciricullum more carefully initially, communicate more frequently on the DB (often I was too shy to post a question so I left it until someone else did-they almost always did. All this achieved was delay in my progressing through the work) and not be so shy about my technical inability.

Conclusion

There are so many areas of life where this new knowledge can be applied. In my everyday email, discussion board, real time chat and newsgroup communications (yes, I am an active member of 2 newsgroups!!) I have become almost automatically more aware of how and in what format I communicate in. Like I said above, I was doing it before I recognised it was happening!! That a great gift :)) The way I use search engines and evaluate results now is very different from how I did before I completed this unit. I gathered a great deal of excellent communication skills information while researching learning logs/blogging/writing for web sites that I can apply everytime I communicate anywhere, with any one. Now thats a broad application!