Coming to the close of Nett11

In July 2008 I had a accident at work. After the accident I had to undergo a drug test and to my surprise I was proven to be positive for athetamines. As some one who has never taken drugs of any type  was devastated and dumbfounded. The company who I was subcontracted to came about with a digital camera and photographed the test results and emailed it around saying that I had failed a drug test. It was later proven that the test  was faulty. The questioned remained about the distribution of the email as it already labelled me as a drug user and with my knowledge of how email distribution worked  concerned me. After obtaining an Independent drugs test I presented this to my employer who in the mean time had printed the email off and distributed it around the workplace. There is a couple of issue here.

1. Sampling for drugs in the workplace is classified under the health act as collection of medical records. When you collect medical records you have an obligation to provide security of those records.  An obligation under the privacy provisions of the act
2. The security of email communication to distribute medical records.

Email can be distributed in a viral like fashion once it is released into the wild. Something as Interesting as a person who failed a drug test creates a good reason for this email distributed as a viral email. I send you an email and you see that this may interest someone else so you forward it on  and this cycle of pass it on then becomes very broad based. Very similar to the way pyramids schemes work.

Living in a small community of 20,000 people it wasn't long before this email became a well known within the community and that I was a drug user. The devastation this caused me sent me into depression for many months. I would sit in a chair  day in and day out playing solitaire on my lap top.

Getting Educated

My son who had started his 1st year on university found that he chosen subjects where not what he thought  and decided that it was not the correct choice of careers. After discussing with him about his future goals he said “I am going to study online.”   I got interested right then. Not just for his future but for mine. Living in a rural community education opportunities was limited and I was critical about this for many years.

When I moved to Horsham in 2002  I was looking for work and was asked if I could teach IT to some agriculture students. I also thought I could use the time to get some qualifications and approached the local TAFE. They recommended I do CIV in information technology. I all ready had 10 years experience in IT but this gave me the opportunity to  to get qualified. The first assignment was to draw input and output computers components and label which was input and which was output. (Keyboard input, Monitor Output). Kindergarten stuff. I rang the coordinator and said come on this is rubbish. He advised me just do the assignments and send them in.  I did this for several months. All very simple stuff. I later found that I was required to get a CIV in Workplace Training to continue teaching.  Then one day I received a phone call from a teacher asking me why I wasn't in his class today. Oh I said was I suppose to go to a class? I never been to a class before why start now I told him. He did how ever convince me to attend this class and I was put into a group of 3 other students to do a project on documentation. I did the project and the other students did not contribute so I received the credit when the situation was explained.  I graduated CIV by doing 3 classes I think with about 13 distinctions of 24 units.   With CIV the next step was to get a Diploma. As the campus did not offer diploma would mean I need to leave town to study. That was not an option.

 

Back to the Online study. This was an option as I had every thing I needed to start now. I contacted Seek and they enrolled me in a Degree course of Information Technology. Considering this is what I do then that seem logical. I enrolled in 3 Units. Text and Context, Information Systems and Internet Communications (net11).  Been a little cynical about these 1st year unit I thought that I would have the skills to walk it in. The Text and Context had me a little concerned but systems and internet communications was my game what will I learn from these units?

 

Well yes Information Systems was a breeze. Read the prescribed text and did the work. Text and context was a little more challenging. Net11 however proved to be something different altogether. Yes we started doing basic internet task that I can do standing on my head and been cynical I plodded thorough with arrogance that this will be easy. I was required to start a blog to record my learning experiences. My son introduce me to blogging and I never really could get into it.  Now I blog almost every day.  My skill as a blogger has improved in the last 3 months as I continue to learn new techniques.

Beating the Depression

The people whom I collaborated with in net11 have been such a fantastic group of people who did not realise that the Chriso was suffering deep depression because they made me realise that I do have a contribution to make to this subject and I do have some worth. My past experiences and life skills I was able to become involved with this group.  I learned from them about social networking on a new dimension and how to be involved in projects with others on the Internet. I never discussed my depression with fellow students as I found that been involved with what they are doing made me feel good and of value. Simple little comments made by other students and teachers made a huge difference to my health. When I could jump in and offer my help and get responses of positive affirmations all contributed to getting out and becoming involved. Yet not one student realised that they helping me through when doing this as they posted their comments.  I must say I owe this to the group.

Is it reality

The discussion thread  “Is social network reality” on the net11 discussion board I posted a thread early in the unit that stated that by the end of this unit some of us will become very good friends by the time the unit is finished. I have seen this develop over the unit where communications between the group(Teachers and Students) often became emotional and  confronting.  As the group became more comfortable with one another their where post about people past and personnel experiences that either explained their view of a topic or just a place to express themselves.  Out of this relationship developed and collaborations started in many forms. We discovered new dimensions about each other and began to develop a picture of each other that probably very accurate.  Some will go on to be good friend for the rest of their lives. At the end of this unit you would have to conclude that social networking is reality.

The future of these skills

Some see this as a waste of time but considering that it is reality it places a whole new meaning on the use of the internet.  By developing a social network places you in a position to communicate ideas and share information with some incredible people. Common interest groups from that enables this development of idea and bring to the Internet to a new level of professional standards. The stumbling block I see at this point is education to the average user  who has a Facebook with 1000 friends and how to get value from those 1000 friends.  By saying value I don't just mean marketing but value can be in many forms. The recent events of the Victorian Bushfires seen groups develop in Facebook of many 1000’s of members to support the Appeals and the Fire Fighters.  One group collected Colouring in books to send to the children affected by the bushfires. This was a very effective way to use your Facebook account for value. There was no personnel gain other than the satisfaction that they had done their bit for the kids in the bushfires but gave value through the use of Facebook by creating an interest group.

I had some short discussion with Peter Fletcher about where this is leading and considered that we maybe emerging on a new world of social media. The use of these new tools brings with it new ways to do things and there is a emergence of corporate  and private operators scrambling to understand what happening here.

The students who continue with Curtin University Internet Studies will find that they will be the next generation of Hi Tech people required it no longer about software but collaborations and networking on the Internet. It is these skills that will be guiding the Internet to its future.  The Internet is a drifting sand but there is a force that is moving the sand and knowledge on that force is your key to success.

Net11

To my fellow students of net11 sp4 2008 I hope you have enjoyed the ride of this unit and found value as I have. I have changed my study career to do BA Internet Studies with Curtin University and believe there are some other coming for the ride as well. I look forward to the next study period with you all. For those who are heading in another direction I hope we cross paths again and be able to maybe meet in person.  For those who have an Interest in what I have conveyed here about Internet Studies contact Curtin University I recommend it.