Danny's reflection

I think this course is very helpful. First of all, the content is quite "new" for me, as I never thought about the problem of cybrog and do not know there are courses discussing it. The course is a bit philosophic to me, questions about cybrog are all about the future, althought something is actually happening around us, but I still got a feeling that they are quite far away from us, why we need to dicuss them? It is just like the situation of philosophy, the topic is quite abstract that we are hard to make connection with our daily life, but of course, this doesn't mean it is not important, it can help us thing logiclly and to notice the moral problem of technology. I think it's very helpful with the form of discussion  during the turorial class, since we have got more examples with our daily life, help us to link the the concepts of lectures to our living. I think this is important for learning.

But as I mentioned, I think some of the content of this course is too abstract, it is hard to encourage students to be interested in them. And most of the examples in lectures are foreign's one, they are a bit far away from us, and may be the cultural difference could provide differnet approachs to some concept, and raise the interest of students.

Kenji's reflection

When i knew i have to study this course, i was wondering what will be including in this course. After the first lesson, i knew it is related to digital media. Although i understood what will it include, i felt strange. Because it is a little bit irrelevance to what i have studied in this 2 years. As we study Asian studies, i expect the subjects that we study will mainly related to social; but this subject seem to be related to technology. Especially the first few lecture which talk about Cyborg. It talk about the relationship between Cyborg and Human, and so on. It is interesting, but actually, i am still confused the function of this topic.

Excluding this topic, others are really useful. Normally, we only study by focusing social, economic, etc. but this course give us another view to study in any other social issues. Like the topic i have studied, work and play. The improvement of technology give another way to work. It is also a kind of gender issue. 

At the end, this this is a interesting course. it give us more information in this Internetional world.

Course Reflection

The course forces me to think more about our relationship with machine. Before attending this course, I am unaware of the boundary between human and technology now becoming blurred. The development of technology helps us a lot in our daily lives. At the same time, our lives being deeply influenced by technology. We would put a lot of time participating in cyberspace, such as communicate with friends via facebook, writing blogs, playing online games, etc. We seem to become a cyborg as we should perform such activities through technology. Spend much more time sitting in front of the computer, we would find that the relationship with technology becoming very intimate. We would then rely on the technology to help doing works.

Besides, the course also makes me to imagine human in the future. Is it possible that human can be embodied with machine as a part of body? Since the robot would become more human like, will it become one of the citizens in the community? Is it necessary to differentiate between human and robot? It is quite interesting for us to consider the posthumanism.

The blog serves as a platform to interact with our classmates. Through posting the comments or feedbacks on blog, I can revise what I have learnt in the lectures. On the other hand, the classmates may have different points of view on the topic. It would let me use another way to rethink and generate more ideas about this. The blog undoubtedly is a good way for learning.

By Annie Cheng

Haze's reflection on the course

This course is really something new to me that I have never get in touch with before. The concept of cyborg and the impacts of advancement of technology do open up my mind. The concept of cyborg let us to rethink about our future that is how we can combined with computer or cyber technology to address disability or enhanced body ability; yet it does faced a dilemma that is the development is also something like playing god, committed with immoral aspects and other unexpected hazards (e.g. Everyone got relied on cyborg technology, if one day the device gone down, what will we become?). It is certain kind of new concept making us to be debunking, especially about the matter of absolute boundaries.

Apart from cyborg, the topic of resistance really captured my attention as its discussion on the culture of Internet online communities and forums was definitely what usually happened in our daily life. Personally, I almost view the forum called Hkgolden everyday which is famous in Hong Kong as its contents always related to subculture and online bullying. This topic made me to think more about the problem created in certain area, rethink how advancement of technology is not a double-edge sword, it also brings trouble to our life. Besides, it also let me understanding how irresponsible that online communities, forum or users can be.

The subject is interesting and helpful to our living. Yet, perhaps I had never studied about certain subjects before, there could be really difficulties for me to understand all about it. Anyway, this course is creative and critical but it could be better if there is no essay to hand in although I do believe it is impossible.

by Haze (10463287)

Christy's Course Reflection

This course is very interesting and meaningful for me. I still remember the new term “cyborg” introduced on the first lecture, I was very confused at that time. But after the 12 weeks, I have much more understanding about “cyborg”. Most of the time, something are very common in our everyday life that are also related to “cyborg”. Besides, I think the study of “cyberspace” and “work and play” are the most interesting topics throughout the whole course. In the digital age, the boundary between “public” and “private” become blur. After I attend this course, it leads me to have much more reflection on technology. When we over-rely on technology, is it a blessing or a curse for us?

Moreover, this blog is helpful for us. It is not only used for submitting assignments, but also a very useful and effective tool for us to learn. We can share our works with our classmates. Through reading others’ works, I have learned a lot. This blog allows us to leave comment and discuss on the topics. The blog acts as a communication tool which we can interact with others.

I think I am a cyborg, because I rely much on the technology. When I am awake, I need to use technology – glasses. In addition, if I cannot use computer or mobile phone for one day, it is already uneasy for me.

Cho Ka Ian, Christy (10381371)

Valerie's course reflection

At the beginning of this course, what would this course include? I have no ideas what do digital media do with our identity. Not to mention how it connect and affect women’s liberation, feminism. I just know that technology is affecting our daily superficially like computer make our communication easier and also make us lazier.
After studied this course, the idea of cyborg, digital economy, digital culture and how digital technology affect people’s concept of space, gender and identity. After a lot of deep thoughts and discussion which almost held in every week’s tutorial, the course do make me have a new understanding and thought of how powerful and influential of the technology. The topics of the course are really interesting; the topics are fascinating because it connects to our daily life which can easily stimulate my interest and curiosity. Through these topics and examples, I have a deeper understand of identity and able to think more on it in this digital age.
At the end, I have to say our lecturer Franco is a really good lecturer, the new concepts in this course is not easy to understand, yet Franco successfully makes these concepts comprehensible and arouse my interest. I really think that worth to attend any lessons.


Chan Ching Yi, Valerie (10349849)

Henry's course reflection

Time flies and it is the end of the semester. In this semester, we have this course. For the first lesson, we have learned a key concept ‘Cyborg’. It keeps appear in different topics. The human transformation is based on the technology development. The human rely on the technology in their everyday lives. The concept of cyborg is about the combination of human body and the technology to help them in lives. I am a cyborg because I need to wear glasses otherwise I cannot see. I need to rely on the technology to be my eyes. The cyborg concept is not just only focus on the combination of human body and technology. It is also related to the concept of dualism. There is no absolute boundary on everything. The boundary is set by the power. Yes, in our ordinary lives, there are many things related to this dualism. However, we seldom pay attention on. After this course, I may have more reflection on the gender aspect. We may have many stereotypes on the image of male and female.

Furthermore, the development of the Internet is very important in the course. The Internet is a part of our lives. We need to access to the Internet for communication, getting information or even doing homework. The morality in the virtual and the reality is totally different. In the reality, we have many regulations which limited our thoughts and our actions. We liberate our true self in the Internet. We express our comments in the Internet but not the reality. It is because we think the Internet is safety to us. However, people may abuse the safety and become the internet bullying. Do the Internet users think that their responsible comments may hurt others?

For this course, there is a online blogging for us on education purpose. Nevertheless, we have the same thing in last semester. We need to have online discussion on the online platform. The reactions seem frustrated both of these two courses. It is because we view the online platform is a place for doing homework. If we finish the mission, we ignore the blog. I do not is it related to the culture differences. In Australia, the reaction is different with Hong Kong. The students in there are more enthusiastic in participating the blog. Maybe the students in Hong Kong like face to face communication more than online communication when related to academic aspects. We use the Internet for exchanging the gossip information more than the academic purpose. Maybe when we were young, we do not have much interaction with the Internet. In our mindset, the boundary of academic and entertainment of the Internet is quite strong and it is quite hard to go beyond this. XD

Chau Ka Leung Henry  (KU)

10380315