From E-Leraning and Digital Culture

This animated film tells the story of technological development in terms of ritual and worship - the characters in the film treat each new technology as god-like, appearing from the sky and causing the immediate substitution of the technology before it. What is this film suggesting are the ecological and social implications of an obsession or fixation on technology? Do the film’s characters have any choice in relation to their technologies? What are the characteristics of various technologies as portrayed in this film?



Inbox is a quirky representation of the ways in which web-based technology connects people, the limitations of those connections, and the nature of communication in a mediated world. Depending on how you interpret the relationship between the two main characters, and the ending, you might argue that this is a utopian account, or a dystopian one - what do you think, and why?



Thursday depicts a tension between a natural world and a technological world, with humans caught between the two. What message is the film presenting about technology? What losses and gains are described? Who or what has ‘agency’ in this film?



You will likely have seen this video many times - it’s a now-classic representation of the difference of the digital and the history of the web. Whether you are watching it for the first time or not, try considering it again from the perspectives we’ve been exploring. What is being left out of the story of the internet here, and from what position is this story being constructed?

Text under videos from Coursera class E-Learning and Digital Culture

https://www.coursera.org/course/edc