This is it. Grades are due to the registrar this afternoon, and with that, this semester, my first at UMW, will be officially concluded. I thought I'd use this occasion to post a blog entry here summing up what I think I've learned so I can put some perspective on what has been a truly momentous few months -- both personally, and professionally.

They say that having a baby changes everything. I don't know if that's true, but for me anyway, having a baby is a lot cooler than knowing you're going to have a baby soon but having to wait for her. It is pretty amazing to see her grow and start (already) turning into a little person. Cool little girl.

This class has taught me a lot, just as I hope it has taught you also. To be honest, several things didn't go as well as I'd hoped. And no, I'm not referring to Second Life or Cathy's Book; frequently, there was another level of discussion I felt like we weren't quite making it to. However, I can see in several of your finals that some of you are finding value in uncovering things I was taking for granted, so there's nothing wrong with that. Others of you did find or were already on that level, so there's nothing wrong with having that in the mix as well.

In closing, I hope we can all agree that New Media texts are pervasive in our culture, and so are attitudes about New Media texts. Sometimes those attitudes lead us to buy into the technological determinism of the marketing narratives and extrapolate catchy terms like "virtual reality" into post-apocalyptic warnings about futuristic mind control. Sometimes those attitudes are based in unrealistic paranoia and need correcting. Sometimes the possibilities hinted at in today's technology help us imagine better futures for our culture and our species, and that's a good thing.

More importantly, New Media technology helps us as students/thinkers better understand our responsibilities as such. By finding and experimenting with new forms of expression, including the expressive world-building that interactive fiction and Alternate Reality Games make possible, we can do our part to make the real world a better place, or at least a more interesting one. In closing, hope you enjoyed the class, or at least found something of value to take with you.

This blog and website will remain active, incidentally, and you're welcome to use it. As far as it's official, pedagogical purpose, though, that ends with this post.

Thanks everyone for a great first semester at UMW. I'll see you around.