Task 14. Final reflection of the course.

First I would like to begin with my expectations of the course - as the name suggests, I expected to get acquainted with new environments throughout the Internet that we hadn't used before, and the theory behind them. I also expected the course to have the usual pattern - each task (or set of tasks) would take one week, as we are used to.

The reality outcome was too much theory and a few environments (including PiratePad, Flashmeeting, PLENK 2010), which seemed familiar from other courses. Course tasks had to be planned quickly to your daily schedule, since deadlines and tasks appeared quite vaguely and if missed, you lost points. As an average Estonian MA student, I work and this makes such schedule very difficult to manage.


All in all I would not trash the whole course - I think the group got new theoretical knowledge which can help them in many fields and tasks later. The course should have had a backbone in order to plan the activities and studies. I am sure that a student nowadays learns better from doing things than from reading and reflecting, so a few practical tasks would have come in handy with this course as well. The most memorable courses for me have been practical ones with certain tasks. Although I liked the thought of having the course in my computer, not being physically present in Tallinn.

And what puzzled me was that one lecturer disappeared at the beginning and the other one was left all alone with all the tasks to read. At least it seemed so after the group started "rioting" on the deadlines. Thanks to the understanding nature of Terje, the group got a smoother schedule.

About my contribution - since this year has had many changes, I was not able to work as thoroughly as in the last two semesters, and I disregarded a few tasks from the plan. Regarding my personal schedule, I did my best to pass the course. If the course would have taken place the next semester, I would have done better.