This week in ETEC 531 we are discussing the last chapter of Murphie & Potts (2003) Culture and Technology. The chapter is entitled, “Living with the Virtual.” Each chapter has held my interest, along with the discussion questions and posts. I have really enjoyed reading this book. The authors provide a well balanced look at many different theorists on their views about culture and technology. Their survey approach to theoretical perspectives is a good one as it gave me a broad range of theories to learn about. Murphie and Potts provide a very good assessment of the strengths and the weaknesses of many theories while not interpreting each. I especially found the literature informative and well presented to help me analyze how technology plays a crucial role in culture.

Dr. Franc Feng kept the weekly questions thought provoking. The interesting discussions between students were informative and enlightening.

This week’s chapter on “Living with the Virtual” is especially interesting. Many things stand out for me in this chapter, but one that I find significant is, “Education is not about finding one’s own place, or self-expression, or even about the furthering of general spectative knowledge. It is about performance, and being about performance it is about becoming an expert. It is this, not just the prevalence of computers, which explains the expanding opening of education to the technical and anything to do with computers. Society needs experts, and technical experts for the information age in particular, because society now defines itself as technologically and performatively bound. Murphie & Potts (2003)208-9.

This is important to me as it helps me to understand my own personal desire to do the MET courses. I am a perpetual student of learning. Whether it be taking MET courses, travelling to other countries or Pro Ds, I am draw to this information era with much enthusiasm and excitement. This book helps me to analyze the whys and helps me to look at things in more of an expert way than ever before. I plan to reread it again after I finish all the courses.