You should be able to answer this question once you have read the
material and completed the exercises in Unit 11. The learning outcomes
associated with this question are:
• Communicate with others via an email conference.
• List the three characteristics of wildness.
• Explain how human reach along each of the four dimensions of space,
time, perception and action can be extended using computer-enhanced
technology.
• Define the terms agent, autonomous and identity.
About three weeks before the cut-off date for this TMA, a posting will be
made to your tutor group conference entitled ‘TMA03 Question 4’. The
body of the email will contain the following scenario for discussion via your
tutor group conference.
Scenario
The members of a university literary club regularly come together to
participate in creative story-writing. This involves each member of
the club acting as an author and jointly writing stories involving a
number of fictitious characters in a variety of imaginary situations.
Each story:
• is written by a number of authors, and an author can be involved
in writing more than one story at a time;
• is ‘open-ended’ in the sense that although it has a definite
beginning, what happens during the story and the length of the
story are generally not decided in advance;
• can contain one or more plots (that is, structured sequences of
events that lead to definite conclusions), but this is not
necessary;
• either introduces new characters and situations or develops
characters and situations that have featured in other stories.
Recently, the club has decided to switch from writing stories on
paper, sitting around a table in a room at the university, to writing
stories over the Internet using email. A story-writing mailing list has
been created which can be accessed by all club members, and
authors contribute to story-writing by posting email to the list.
Although most of the members now participate in story-writing
activities remotely, some of them continue to meet in person, either
at one of their homes, or in the room at the university.
During the course of a story-writing activity, authors communicate
with each other in a variety of ways, including through personal
email, by emailing contributions to the story-writing mailing list, by
phoning each other, and, for those players who continue to meet in
person, by talking to each other face-to-face.
Story-writing takes place over an extended period of time in a
number of sessions, each of which lasts no more than a couple of
hours.
page 13 of 13
(i) Using the email containing the above scenario as the starting point
for a thread, discuss the following points with the other students in
your tutor group conference:
• the possible sources of wildness in the above scenario;
• the characteristics of wildness associated with each source;
• the various ways in which the introduction of the computer
application extends human reach along each of the four
dimensions discussed in Unit 11.
You will need to make at least two postings to the conference:
1 One posting must make a new point furthering the discussion.
You need to justify the point being made.
2 Another posting must respond to a point made in a posting by
another student. Again, this should further the discussion, and
you need to justify your response.
Include the text for the above two postings you made to the
conference in your TMA solution document. In the second posting,
you must reference the original posting to which your posting is a
response, giving the student’s name and copying the relevant part
of that student’s posting into your TMA.
You will be assessed on the following:
• making a single point and justifying that point; [6]
• responding to a student’s point and justifying that response. [7]
It is important that you choose postings that show evidence that you
have applied the ideas of Unit 11, using terminology introduced in
the unit.
(ii) In your TMA solution document, provide a brief summary of your
tutor group conference, identifying what you consider to be the four
most important points made and justifying your choice in terms of
the ideas you have encountered in Unit 11, using the appropriate
terminology.
Up to two marks will be deducted if your answer is longer than
250 words (including headings). You should enter the word count at
the end of your answer. (Note that Microsoft Word has the facility
to do a word count. Select the text you want counted, and on the
Tools menu choose Word Count.) [12]
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