Final Presentation

Today was the last day of the module. On the day, I and the rest of the Red Team put some finishing touches to our slideshow and decided to present the slides that we made ourselves. Just before class, I added my slides into my inventory as textures. I was a bit nervous at first because I wasn't expecting the sudden change to present through the Google Slides document itself, but I quickly calmed down. In retrospect, I realise that I didn't have a reason to be nervous since it was a minor change. That being said, I'm happy that I experienced this because sometimes changes like this happen suddenly so you have to slightly adjust yourself to gain your composure back. I was originally going to do 4 slides to match the others, but upon doing my research I felt that this wasn't enough slides to convey all this information, so I decided to do 7 slides instead. Our full presentation can be seen in the video below.

I did slides 6 to 12 of the presentation. Here's a full transcript of my part of the project. -


Slide 6 - 

Emissions caused by the Industry - Statistics

The fast fashion industry greatly contributes to creating emissions that harm the planet. According to a 2018 UN Economic Commission for Europe report...

• 10% of global carbon emissions are caused by this industry. This is more emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
• In 2018, the average consumer was purchasing 60% more clothing compared to 2000, but each garment is kept only half as long. In addition to this, 40% of clothes that we own is never worn.
• Around 20% of wastewater is caused by fabric dyeing and treatment while another 85% of textiles are sent to landfills which is roughly equivalent to 21 billion tons a year.

Slide 7 - 

According to the UN Environment Programme, every second, an equivalent of one garbage truck filled with textiles is sent is to a landfill or burned in an incinerator. This releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, produces dangerous environments for people and wildlife, and more.

Slide 8 -

Emissions caused by the Industry - Fabric

One of the most common materials used to create these clothes is Polyester which is present in around 60% of all fast fashion garments. They are made from fossil fuels and are non-biodegradable. It is speculated that this material alone releases 700,000 microfibres into the environment. This is harmful to the planet because the fiber’s size allows them to be accidentally consumed by wildlife which can potentially poison an entire food chain of fish, birds and other animals.

At the current rate of production and consumption, greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise by more than 50% by 2030 which will harm everyone as temperatures and sea levels continue to rise worldwide.

Slide 9 -

Quality and Sustainability

Due to the rapid production cycle of these garments, they are typically produced in a cost-effective manner that capitalize on popular trends. Combine this with the fact that they are often made of primarily synthetic materials means that these clothes don’t typically last for long term wear. However, there are several ways that sustainability can be improved such as….

• Utilising new technologies to reduce the number of resources being used such as fabric, seams or dyes.
• Using cleaner modes of transportation such as electric trucks, LNG fuel for ships or biofuel for aircraft.
• Increasing the amount of recycling and relying less on landfills/incinerators.

Slide 10 - 

This is an example of using new technology to increase sustainability. 3D sampling and 3D prototyping which can help cut waste by cutting accurate sizes of fabrics in the initial design stage before the fabric goes unused and thrown away in the later stages. More accurate clothing sizes being produced also lowers returns which means that they don’t have to be transported back to the producer.

Slide 11 - 

Green Fuels for Ships

As previously mentioned, ships are the most popular form of transportation for fast fashion. There are several alternative greener fuels that are currently being developed that could be utilized in the future. One of these is Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which has low sulphur and nitrous emissions, which means that it produces fewer greenhouse gases than the traditionally used marine diesel oil.

Another contender is Dimethyl Ether (DME) which is a renewable, non-toxic fuel. In addition to this, it is easy to ignite in diesel engines which are typically used in large container ships. This means that the engines are easy to modify and can adapt to this type of fuel.

Other proposals include solar, battery technologies and hydrogen fuel cells which are in their infancy, but could potentially produce even less harmful emissions.

Slide 12 - 

Green Fuels for Aircraft

Air transport is another popular method of transporting fast fashion products. Thankfully, just like ships there are several cleaner fuel sources being developed. Some of these biofuels include energy cane which is a type of genetically modified sugarcane. It produces 12% less greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels. According to a study done by the Brazilian Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory, energy cane could yield more than 2,500 litres of bio-jet fuel per acre of land.

Other examples of biofuels include using lumber/logging waste that’s typically used to produce paper and palm oil, but these alternatives are in the early stages of development. It would be optimal if this industry and others would look into using these cleaner energy sources in the future.


Overall, I'm very proud of the Red Team because everyone presented their work well and put in a good amount of effort. There were some struggles when doing the project entirely online, but I think that all team projects naturally have some problems every now and again in general. I'm grateful to experience this and learn from my mistakes, I feel that this is an extremely valuable skill to have for the future as the world continues to digitise. I'm excited to take the lessons I've learned throughout this module into my future work. I was also proud to see everyone else's work coming into fruition today and learn some interesting facts about the environment. It's been a pleasure to participate in this unique module, many thanks to John and everyone involved!

Week 11 - Warning!

This week, we looked at Anthropocene and how it relates to our projects. According to Edwards, "Anthropocene....is the concept that we are now living in a time when the global environment, at some level, is shaped by humankind rather than vice versa. Humans have significantly altered Earth’s land surface, oceans, rivers, atmosphere, flora, and fauna. ". 1 This time period is marked by the rise of fossil fuels as a power source, the industrialisation of agriculture and the increase in urbanisation throughout the world. 2 This term has been used for two decades to describe how the environment has shifted to revolve around humanity rather than the other way around. I feel that topic is extremely relevant as fast fashion is an industry-created by humans and has affected the Earth because of the harmful emissions it causes through the production, transport and more. Many people have purchased or know someone who has purchased these garments whether they realise it or not. It is one of the many industries that has caused a large amount of damage to the planet as a whole.

Fast fashion is only one of several marks in the age of Anthropocene. [Image Source - New Atlas]

The slide being discussed in this paragraph. 

I wanted to showcase all the statistics I found through UN reports because I felt that these cold-hard numbers really showcase the harm that the fast fashion industry has done to the environment. One of the facts that I found particularly shocking was the fact that "every second, an equivalent of one garbage truck filled with textiles is sent is to a landfill or burned in an incinerator." I included this as a separate slide because I felt that it was a true mark of Anthropocene and I wanted to emphasise the harm that this industry has done. The reality is that this waste produces greenhouse gases which damage Earth's atmosphere and harms the living environments of both humans and animals. This topic can't be ignored any longer, it needs to be discussed and visualised which is why I made it a point to include as many interesting and relevant images and facts as I could. 

Since my slides were in the middle of the presentation, I felt that it was important to bridge everyone's work together. I did this by continuing to discuss the negative effects created by fast fashion as Rachel did and how that it could be potentially resolved which leads into Chenming's work. After discussing the horrifying facts on emissions, I wanted to highlight the recent developments of improved sustainability and greener energy sources. While humans have no doubt caused great harm to the planet there is still a chance for it to be reversed overtime through these new technologies and more potential developments. We wanted to end the presentation on a hopeful message as even these small efforts could create a more sustainable future. Perhaps the age of Anthropocene can one day be a distant memory.

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1 Edwards, Lucy, 30 November 2015, What Is the Anthropocene? , https://eos.org/opinions/what-is-the-anthropocene

2 Smithsonian, 2013, Living in the Anthropocene: The Age of Humans, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/science/what-is-the-anthropocene/?jwsource=cl

Week 10 - Content Produser

'Produser' is a term coined by Professor Axel Bruns. The term is a combination of the words producer and user which refers to the shift from organisations or professions as producers to the collaborative engagement of online users to create content.


As stated in Brun's website, "Produsers engage not in a traditional form of content production, but are instead involved in produsage - the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement." 1 An example of produsage can be seen on Wikipedia where anyone can produce content, edit, write or rework existing content. Another example of this is a collaborative community such as Second Life where any user can contribute to creating information or content as there are no limitations between the produsers or the users that observe/use this content. The world is interconnected to the internet nowadays. Whether we realise it or not we are producing and consuming content constantly. The lines between a consumer and a content produser have blurred with the popularity of virtual worlds or websites such as the previously mentioned Wikipedia or YouTube.

An image that shows the link between users and producers. [ Image Source - www.produsage.org]

I am a content produser myself. I made and manage this blog to catalog and reflect on the topics that we cover in class and to share my opinion on it. Each week, I learn something new and get to research topics that I never got the chance to learn about before. In addition to this I'm also in the process of making a presentation with the rest of the Red team. We came together to come up with ideas within Second Life in order and create a cohesive body of work. We constantly had discussions on what topics and photos to include in our slideshow. Communication is essential to create a successful presentation. 

I researched my particular topics about fast fashion by reading articles and reports made by the UN in order to get credible information. Upon doing this I realised that there was a plentiful amount of information available about harmful emissions in fast fashion and the alternative fuels that could be used to transport these garments. I was originally also going to cover waste in the medical field such as one use masks or robes, but while researching I realised that this doesn't fall into 'fast fashion'. Because of this, I dropped that topic and expanded on my other ones instead. It's interesting to realise that while I'm not a professional writer or researcher by any means, I am content produser both within and outside of this module without even realising. 

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1 Bruns, A., Produsage: A Working Definition, 31 December 2007, http://produsage.org/produsage

Week 8 - An Update on the Team Project II

Progress on the team project has been going well so far. A day after we discussed our ideas in the previous update post, I asked Rachel and Chenming for their email accounts so that I could add them to a shared Google Slides presentation. I did this because I wanted a convenient way that we could all work together on the slideshow at our own pace and also because of the feature to be able to see what work and edits we've made. It's very convenient in comparison to the alternatives such as working separately and compiling our work together at the end because, with an approach like that, there is always a worry that there might be overlapping information or contrasting tone of voice.


There have been some struggles such as debates about changing the topic enterally into something more general. There was also some worry that another team might be doing a project on fast fashion, but we eventually agreed that even if that were the case we'd probably end up covering different topics such as waste in the medical field. Previously, Rachel created a useful layout for the presentation based on the ideas we discussed. Out of the 12 slides we each chose to do 4 each so that we have an equal amount of work to do. Rachel chose to do the introduction, materials, production of products and the way that companies transport the goods. I chose to fast fashion today particularly with regards to the medical field, damage caused by emissions, the quality and sustainably of goods and alternative ways of transport. Chenming will be covering textile recycling, how employers can reduce the harmful effects of the industry, ways to reduce waste and ways to not overproduce.


I chose my slides because I felt that those were the most interesting topics to me and I think that these topics tend to be overlooked. Fast fashion is often known for its terrible working conditions, which is important to acknowledge and talk about, but there are other negative that it causes to the environment. Team dynamics are playing out quite well as we meet up on Second Life and talk fairly often, always starting with some casual small talk. I'd say that my role in the team is still being a plant as mentioned in the last post and perhaps an implementer. I prefer to work behind the scenes by coming up with ideas and doing the work behind the scenes. I'm fairly efficient when it comes to working with the technicals. I think that so far things have been playing out well. We have a good variety of topics and a plan moving forward, I can confident that we'll make a good presentation.

Week 8 - Omelas

This week we had a fascinating discussion led by Glenn Loughran (feilimy) about the short story ' The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' from The Wind’s Twelve Quarters: Short Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. The story was published in 1973 when the Peace Movement was in full swing in America, which was against violence and exploitation of people. We examined the idea of utopia, the themes of the story and whether we would walk away from Omelas.


The word 'utopia' was coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516. The word comes from the Greek ou-topos meaning 'no place' or 'nowhere' which is a pun on another Greek word 'eu-topos' which means a good place. 1 Feilimy asked us if a perfect world can ever be realized. I personally think that everyone has a different image of a perfect world. My idea of a perfect world can never truly be realized because it is in human nature to overly defensive or greedy. There is no way to get rid of traits like this from manifesting some people. Ironically enough, this viewpoint is very relevant to ' The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' as it challenges the idea of the utopia that we may live in.

The origin of the word 'utopia' is very telling. [ Image Source - Stack Exchange]

Some choose to walk into the unknown and

risk it rather than continuing to live in Omelas

[Illustration by Charis Loke]

The story begins by describing a summer festival happening in the seaside city of 'Omelas'. The city is picturesque and almost has a dreamlike quality to it. The people who live there "were not simple folk, you see, though they were happy.....All smiles have become archaic." Omelas is a utopia where nearly everything is perfect. Nearly everyone and everything is joyous, perhaps too good to be true. Sadly, as the story continues it is revealed that Omelas is not as perfect as it seems. The happiness of the city is dependent on the suffering of a small child. The child is trapped inside a basement and has become "imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect." The child is a reminder to everyone that even a supposed 'utopia' isn't truly perfect. The people living in Omelas are aware of this child who is suffering for the sake of their happiness but, the majority have chosen to ignore it. However, there is a select few who walk away from Omelas "into the darkness" after witnessing this great injustice.



Would I walk away from Omelas? My avatar is a reflection of my real-life self and as someone with a strong sense of morality. In an ideal world, I would like to  I would walk away from Omelas if I were to see a child that was tormented for the sake of my happiness. But, we are already living in Omelas because maybe first world countries take advantage of poorer countries in order to get more resources, luxuries, etc. How do I know if what I'm supporting is truly ethical? I try my best to support goods that give back, but how do I know if every piece of fruit or technology that I purchase is clean? I'm not scared of the dark unknown and I very much welcome change for the better. I don't welcome the exploitation of a few innocent people for the sake of the majority. But considering that I already live in Omelas right now, then I would probably, unfortunately, stay although I wish that I truly had the strength to completely walk away.

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1 British Library, https://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/utopia/utopia.html

2 Le Guin, U.K., 'The Wind’s Twelve Quarters.', 254-262, http://engl210-deykute.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/omelas.pdf

Week 7 - My Framework for Digital Engagement

I would describe my personal framework for ethical digital engagement as being similar to the laws of being a digital citizen. I feel that if you're interacting with someone in a virtual environment it is essential to treat them as you would like to be treated. Everyone making comments on a website, browsing or roaming in a digital space is a person and it's essential to treat them as such.


Digital citizenship refers to the responsible use of technology. It's also about thinking critically about what you see on the internet, communicating respectfully and being safe. Mark Ribble developed a framework of three main principals in becoming a digital citizen along with nine themes. The principals are comprised of being safe, savvy, and social. 1 Safety refers to protecting yourself and others online from potentially harmful tools on the internet. Savvy is the idea of making educated judgments and connecting with others. Finally, social is respecting yourself and other digital citizens by being civil and considerate of other people's views. I find that the concept of digital citizenship happens to line up with the way that I engage with people in a digital environment both within this module and in other online spaces. I would rather use technology as a way to ethically communicate ideas as opposed to using it as a tool to hurt others.

If anyone can be a responsible citizen, they can also be a responsible digital citizen. [Image source - ED 508 Technology]

Cyberbullying is a problem for all ages.
[Image Source - The Irish Times]

I feel that some people take advantage of the anonymity online to insult certain people or communities online. According to a 2017 Ditch the Label survey comprised of 10,020 young people aged 12-20 in the UK, 17% of the survey takers had experienced cyberbullying. As a result of this, 41% developed social anxiety and 37% developed depression. 2 In another survey done by Pew Research Center in 2014 revealed that 73% of adults have witnessed online abuse and 40% have been victims of it. 3 It is shocking to see these statistics, it goes to show that online harassment is a problem for all ages, not just teenagers as commonly assumed. I think that more than ever, it is essential to practice ethical digital engagement to help others who might need it. It is also important to protect ourselves from this as well as being aware of our own actions no matter who we're talking to online.


The majority of the time, in a virtual environment I don't know the people there in real life or how they look like, but I treat them the same way I would as if they were a stranger in my town or my campus. Being a good citizen in real life entails being respectful and responsible which holds true for digital citizenship as well. For example, when participating in this module I act the same way as I would a real-life class. I try my best to be polite and participate as much as I can. I listen to and respect other people's opinions. I wouldn't send a disrespectful private message to someone for having a different opinion to my own, the same way I also wouldn't say an unpleasant comment in real life if I disagreed with someone's opinion. I also try to help others as best as I can such as sticking up for people who I feel need it or privately messaging friends and giving them advice with regard to problems with online harassment. Behind every screen is a person and it's essential to treat them as such.

It's important to be respectful of everyone whether it be in real life or in a virtual environment. [Image Source - International Adviser]

I strive to act the way the same way in a virtual environment as I would in person. I try to be safe and not to visit places that might have malicious content and try to inform others to do the same when the opportunity arises. I practice being savvy by connecting with others no matter regardless of their age, gender, nationality, etc. and using common sense as I would in real life. Finally, I am social by respecting myself, but also anyone that I might encounter online. Ultimately, I feel that I can improve even more especially regarding helping others as I feel that I in some situations I should reach out more. I believe that ethical digital engagement is more important than ever especially with the rise of cyberbullying. I feel that it needs to be stressed more in society, not just in schools to inform people of the effects and how it can be prevented. While I am only one person in a sea of billions, I will continue to follow my digital framework and improve it as much as I can over time.

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1 Ribble, Mark, 'Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship', https://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html 

2 Ditch the Label, 'The Annual Bullying Survey 2017', 2017, 23-25, https://www.ditchthelabel.org/research-papers/the-annual-bullying-survey-2017/ 

3 Duggan, Maeve, 'Online Harassment', 22 October 2014, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2014/10/22/online-harassment/ 

Week 6 - An Update on the Team Project

I reached out to the rest of the Red Team about choosing a topic for the group project. We leaned more towards discussing fast fashion and farming, but we hadn't settled on a concrete topic.  At the time, it was difficult to have a discussion since not all of us were online. This is understandable as we all have different projects and errands to run. A few days later, Rachel suggested that we meet up in Second Life at the TU Dublin Campus which we thankfully did with no issues. I still found it odd to do assignment work through a virtual environment, but overall it was casual and almost relaxing to do work without having to travel to meet up. After some debate, we settled on writing about fast fashion for certain for this assignment. We chose this topic because we felt that it's very relevant to the theme of the project because that industry contributes a significant amount of carbon emissions and waste. Fast fashion is also a very broad topic which means that we could definitely do a 5 to 10 minute presentation. I'm looking forward to researching this topic as I've never investigated it before.


We agreed to do a slideshow because it would be easy for us to work together and see each other's work. We also discussed potential ideas for slides. Rachel and I took down the ideas as we were talking. Chenming suggested the unique idea of waste in the medical field in regards to gloves, bibs, etc. He also suggested good ideas for other topics such as wastefulness of one-use items such as coffee cups, however upon further discussion we all felt that we couldn't do a full presentation on that topic. Rachel suggested discussing the production and transport of fast fashion among other ideas. I suggested how companies could reduce the harmful effects of the industry such as encouraging people to recycle clothes similar to TK Max, using alternative energy sources and producing only as many clothes as needed so there is no excess. Shortly afterward, Rachel created a useful layout for the presentation based on the ideas we discussed. There were 12 slides in total and we all agreed to pick what slides to do based on what we found to be the most interesting.  There is a possibility that we might change the order of the slides or add or remove topics depending on the amount of information available online and it's relevance to the assignment.


I decided to work on some elements myself behind the scenes. I practiced some basic editing using the trial version of Sony Vegas Pro to refresh my memory on how to use it. I figured that it might be a useful skill for the future because I might be able to create a video for the project using relevant footage. Showing the real-life destructive effects of fast fashion could be much more impactful over talking and reading about it. I'm open to the idea of making a video either by myself or with help, however, I am concerned if I'll have enough time to finish it. Depending on how progress on the slideshow goes, I might suggest making the video if I feel it's relevant and if I know for certain I can finish it on time. I wouldn't want to let my team down if I won't be able to make it for whatever reason.


Judging from the current progress on the project I would say that my team role based on the Belbin Team Inventory is being a plant. By nature, I'm an introvert and while I am working with the rest of the team, I also like to work by myself because I want to ensure that this project is as good as it can be. I also try my best to suggest as many ideas as I can to the rest of the team. I'm optimistic about our progress on the team project overall and I'm excited to see the results in the coming weeks.