I started the course by reflecting upon my previous experience and engagement with games, gaming and play (see "Flashbacks of a Fool") that had largely seen me leave videogames and computer games back in the 1990s preferring the more traditional games that had a largely social element to them, i.e. playing games with family or friends. The course had literally thrust me back into the digital gamesphere (see "All work and no play?" and "The Agony and Ectasy of Social Gaming") using a range of game consoles like the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox, Apple's iPod Touch as well as my own PC.

I had reflected that some of the games currently on the market and online had "enchanted me and brought out a child-like wonder in me (not seen since 1999)". This "enchantment" extended to the papers written by Pat Kane and Brian Sutton-Smith on their notions of play (see "The Language of Play") which can be a catalyst for creativity, originality and new developments and should actually be incorporated in each and every one of our lives as normal as it is eating, breathing and sleeping. Howeve, this "enchantment" is a little offset by the "moral panic" that sets in whenever the popular press or eminent scholars and thinker have their tu'penny worth to say on the subject (see "Videogames: A moral panic?").

Inevitably, the course would eventually touch upon my favourite hobby horse (my thanks goes to the course leaders of the "Digital Environments" modules and my colleagues at work for introducing me to it) that being Marc Prensky and the "Digital Natives" / "Digital Immigrant" dichotomy (see "Digital Natives Revisited"). Given that Prensky works in the games industry and feels passionately that learning and games can go hand-in-hand. No arguments there, it's just the grand rhetorical statements backed up by hardly any empirical research that has turn this issue into something of a pathological obsession for me - I should learn to take Michael Winner's esure advice, though James Newman's paper riled me more than Prensky's papers (see "Videogames: A tug of war").

One of my interests is identity and the course has given me ample to think about and experience. From Second Life, using the voice activated feature within it with Iris Bosa had raised questions about voice modification, personalisation and identity (see "The Curious Case of Voice Identity"); to J.P. Gee's concept of the “tripartite” of identities and the notion of the "other" in games, was presented in a very compelling and original way (see "The Learner with a Thousand Identities") that is an interesting addition to the Identity literature.

The module also called for group collaboration to design a Google Earth game (see "The New Seven World Wonders Quiz - A Team 2 Production"); solve a WebQuest (see "WebQuest DSV"); and devise a role playing game for Second Life (see "Dragons' Lair RPG - A Team 2 Production") that saw some fantastic online collaborations using Skype and a Wiki which led me to comment that it was the "most amazing brain-storming, project management session ever conducted virtually. We went from an idea to a fully-realised project plan in 1.5 hours". I have rarely seen online collaborations work at this frenetic speed and intensity before, so thank you Team 2 for an exhilarating experience. The group tasks themselves could also have been envisaged as a "game" that involved overcoming a number of obstacles and difficulties to arrive at the finish line in time with a fully realised product.

J.P. Gee presents some rather interesting concepts of "affinity groups" and "affinity spaces" (see "The Affinity towards Groups, Spaces and Learning") which I could use in relation to my insitution's new £35m library and learning centre, Augustine House, in terms of how learning spaces are been used physically as well as virtually by the student corpus and the academic community; and would such learning spaces present opportunities for real learning to take place (see "The Four Horsemen")?

So for now, I bid Hamish, Fiona and the challenging "Digital Game-based Learning" course a fond and affectionate adieu.

Until next time gamers, until next time ...

"Block A - Orientations" gets the ball rolling very quickly by using discussions boards to introduce yourself to the group and to discuss a number of presented scenarios - immediately I can see that the communication element is far superior here than the correspondance course which relied mostly on sending material via Her Majesty's Royal Mail, possibly e-mail which was read on certain days or a telephone call which may be picked up during a two hour window on Sunday's only. Oh and no fellow students to talk to about the course or the assignments.

The communication dimension of the course aside, the really big thing that impressed me the most was how fantastic the course Blackboard/WebCT was laid out (see "First Week Impressions"). For example, all the reading lists were located under the relevant week's topic folder (not in a completely separate reading list folder that my academics tend to do - but then we don't do course design as part of the basic Blackboard training that we offer academics if they want to be Blackboard Instructors).

Despite not having met (yet!) Sian Bayne and Rory Ewins, their digital presence has been strongly "felt" (sorry Dreyfus! Wasn't he Inspector Clouseau's boss?). This has also been true of the more prolific students (Tony McNeill, Henry Keil, Nicki Brain, Andy Miller and Bill Babouris). The feedback from blog and discussion board posts from Sian and Rory have been pretty much immediate - so much better than a correspondance course (or even a classroom-based course come to that!). On the subject of discussion board posts (I've made 44 posts in total), I did find myself not participating on some of the more popular topics. This, in part, has a lot to do with me coming to the discussion boards after 7.00pm when everyone has gone on a discourse feeding frenzy like a plague of locusts - much discussion and research has been done about this.

"Block B - Environments" allowed us to explore "structured spaces" like e-portfolios and virtual learning environments (VLE); "volatile spaces" like Web 2.0 and Hypertext; and "new spaces" such as Second Life. One of the reasons for doing the MSc in e-Learning at Edinburgh was the richness and diversity that the course offered (see "And so it begins...") and it is here that it is at it's most apparent.

For me, the discourse and the theoretical underpinnings of the e-portfolio was a lot more exciting and interesting than trying to "knock up" an e-portfolio on Blackboard/WebCT (see "Betwixted, bothered and bewildered"). The Web 2.0 section of the course made use of a number of activities such as adding a bookmark to Delicious (whilst I appreciated what was going on here, the activity could have benefitted from adding a bit of extra meat to it) and placing an entry onto the Group Wiki (interesting that no-one wanted to mess around with other people's entries). We also discovered that the volatile nature of the Web 2.0 application / service is fraught with opportunities and dangers (see "Web 2.0: A Game of Snakes and Ladders").

One of the big delights for me on this course was the opportunity to use Second Life in an educational context and to interact and engage with my tutors and peers in a very relaxed and friendly environment. The nature of digital identity, personalities, group dynamics and digital discrimination and prejudice was explored and discussed; along with that of "presence" - by now this had become the course arc word (see "Return to the Rabbit Hole").

"Block C - Contexts" introduced us to the more philosophical (and highly explosive) discussions of "learning bodies" (or the importance of human embodiment to teaching and learning) and "digital natives" (the controversial metaphor, the generational rift that it appears to have opened up and the implications to 21st Century teaching and learning practices). Indeed, the course material should have been rubber-stamped with an "highly inflammable" symbol. On the subject of course material, I should say that the quality of the reading materials and the scanning have been first rate and easy to read.

Whilst I can see that the "digital native" / "digital immigrant" dichotomy would have offered a useful conversational starter on the perceived changes in student behaviour and learning that Higher Education (and in education as a whole) would have to address - it has now been insidiously absorbed into something far greater and more menacing than anyone would have imagined (see "Digital Imperialism: The Tyranny of Technology").

So for now, I bid Rory, Sian and the inspirational "Digital Environments" course a fond and affectionate adieu.

Thanks for the digital memories.