One of my favourite quotes from McLuhan’s classical Understanding Media is found in the chapter about radio. I think it is still valid and applicable to other and more modern media forms: “Radio affects most people intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and the listener. That is the immediate aspect of radio. A private experience. The subliminal depths of radio are charged with the resonating echoes of tribal horns and antique drums. This is inherent in the very nature of this medium, with its power to turn the psyche and society into a single echo chamber.”

I think this is relevant also for the experience of communication online. More and more we have understood the joy of sharing experiences online, and having person-to-person meetings, and last but not least, experience learning together in online communities.

With the questions echoing from my screen “What are the most important things that you have learnt through your engagement in the ONL course? Why?” I must stop and reflect once more. First of all, one of the most important things have been the learning process in the PBL group. How we have worked through the weeks are an excellent reminder of how we can help our own students to find great collaborative ways. And to encourage them to try out new things; that is another important lesson from the ONL engagement.  

I think ONL is different for us participating during 2020 and it will probably be for all during the spring of 2021. Of course, we did put a lot of emphasize in online learning and spending time on the internet before the pandemic. But for everyone being teaching this year so many things from the course have made sense. And I am sure that many of the things (already existing before March 2020) connected to online learning would have passed me by unnoticed. If I should try to pinpoint some important lessons of all the great things that have been part of my scene (sorry I mean screen) for the last 10 weeks or so, I would start with the very beginning: Visitors and Residents. That was an excellent start of this journey. Where am I? Why am I just a visitor and not a resident and so on…

Also, the redefinition of blended learning was important to me. It made so much more sense to discuss this from a perspective of an online environment. Furthermore, I would like to address the importance of Personal Learning Networks. I have thought more and more about this and what investments in learning could be.

My own experience of being part of ONL is only positive and I am sure that our PBL group will stay together. The individual part of the experience has also made me realize that you really need to have something to say if you are going public. No matter how much I love to write, I think this is the most difficult part of the journey. McQuire writes about “do-it-yourself media” and I made a quote of one of his questions in the meme above. I will take it into consideration if I should develop my personalized media skills and try to write with some kind of impact. But for now – thanks for listening. And I will for now do the same as Frasier Crane did, that is leave the building.

McLuhan, M. (1964/1994). Understanding Media. The Extension of Man. London: Routledge.

McQuire, S. (2008). The Media City. Media, Architecture and Urban Space. London: Sage.