The following are some of my comments on colleagues various works in ETEC 540. I found reading through my classmates submissions was quite inspiring. Doing an online program can get lonely at times and you wonder if you are on the right track. Having the opportunity to read through peers reactions, thoughts and productions adds so much to the experience.
~ Rich Payne September 30, 2023 at 2:52 pm
Hi Anne,
Great to read your oral story about a written one. I love the fact that you still had this unfinished book series lingering in your mind from childhood, how powerful is that? And that you finally got closure!
You must be well spoken; I found your text to be quite free of errors. In those you described, punctuation, undesired habits of speech etc., I had much the same experience in this exercise. I also came to some of the same conclusions about the differences between organizing thought that is meant to be written and that intended to be spoken. One word you used when describing the difference, ascribed to the latter, was performance. Yes, that is a good way of describing it. The act of oration places a real time onus on the speaker to keep the attention of the audience and offers the opportunity to use vocal expression to pique interest, that makes it somewhat of a performance. Especially as a teacher!
- How do the constraints of the course design manifest in your architectural choices? How have you responded to the pedagogical underpinnings of this course design in your own webspace?
- Here the task is clearly asking us to challenge the way we think about our interaction with literacies, texts vs speech. Anne and I had many of the same experiences in regard to the accuracy of speech as compared with writing. What intrigued me about Anne’s comment about the impact of the unfinished book series from her childhood had on her is a powerful testament to the written word on the formative mind. From a pedagogical view, while we find ourselves in a new technical reality in which more literacies are present, we mustn’t undervalue the written word in the form of books and story. I am seeing the same impact with one of my daughters who is 8 right now, I’ve been struggling to help her to read at grade level for a few years now. Finally, we stumbled upon a graphic novel book series at a yard sale. I thought it wasn’t exactly age appropriate, probably more for a 11–14-year-old audience, but I was excited that she was excited about a book. She has read the whole series cover to cover about 4 times. This one powerful story has finally made her fall in love with reading, and I am forever grateful! Anne’s comment made me think of that in my own life and how important it is for children.
3. Thought on “Task 10: Attention Economy” Link to Jerry’s post.
Hi Jerry
I thought I should leave you a reply as I have you to thank for completing this task. I had actually given up on the UserInyerface game after many tries and thought, okay it’s an optional task, I’ll skip this one. Then I read your submission and saw from your screenshot, oh, the game can be completed. So, I went back to task and got through the UserInyerface on the first try that time. Good old healthy peer pressure. Thanks.
I don’t share your background in game design, so some of the aspects in this task were a bit foreign to me in terms of thinking about the defaults and assumptions or as you say telegraphs. Foreign not in terms of being exposed to them, but rather actually thinking about it and analyzing the why and the designer intention. I can appreciate what you said:
When playing a game, it’s important for the player to know when they think they’ve done something. Games usually have feedback in place to confirm the player’s action.
These little cues and rewards seem to be built right into our evolutionary psychology. It would seem to me that’s why game-based learning can be very powerful in some educational contexts.
~Rich
4. Thought on Final Project, link to Mike’s publication
Rich on December 5, 2023 at 6:27 pm said:
Hello Mike and Simon,
Great job on the final project. I too believe that the world of podcasting and other forms of long form audio (and video) content that are now so accessible are having a huge impact on education and culture. I feel like it is the greatest time to be alive in terms of access to information and lifelong learning. I appreciate Simon’s comment that podcasts will democratize who can be heard. There certainly are far lower barriers to entry in cost and knowhow to be a creator/producer now. I appreciated reading your thoughts on it as I am working on my final project and trying to sum up some much older text technology and map the lessons learned onto the modern change, we are seeing in communication technology. I agree that these new forms of accessible audio learning are changing things rapidly. What educational role do you see for audio or podcasts in the academic world for an online program like the one we are in?
Thanks.
Rich
5. Thought on Final Project. Link to Louisa’s site
Dec. 5th . As Louisa created a website, I couldn’t post on the UBC blog, I commented directly to her website
Hi Louisa,
Commenting on your final 540 project, Podcasting as a Language Learning Pedagogy.
Wow, I can really relate to your words as I am sure a lot of people can. I too have fallen in love with podcasts as a way of absorbing a lot of information while doing other tasks in our very very busy lives! I think it is a revolutionary technology for people around the world for that very reason. I’m also surprised that your students had not heard of a podcast! How old are they? Are podcasts big in Japan too? I also used to teach in Japan (long before the days of podcasts) and can imagine that would be such a cool tool to use in your English instruction. Do you, or do your students utilize the function that allows them to slow down the speech? Does that make it easier for them? I know people who listen to books on double speed, I just can’t do it. If anything, sometimes I need to playthings back if I want to take a minute to think deeply about it. That’s one of the beauties of it as an educational tool! I loved your idea to do a group project where student groups create their own podcasts and then post them together on a Padlet. Brilliant. I can appreciate culturally it may not have been easy to have some students “put themselves out there” to use your words in how you felt about your first pod cast. I can relate, that can be daunting. In the end it sounds as though it was extremely successful. Well done!
Rich
6. Thoughts on Task 12 Speculative Futures. Link to Garth’s blog
Really excellent work on this task 12 Speculative Futures.
It sent shivers down my spine as it was so realistic. It starts in a similar style as the speculative journalism article in our readings The Chronicles of Now and The Bellwether podcasts. It took me a few sentences to realize that it was ‘in character’ fiction. Perfect. To me the idea that made it so believable was that in the scenario you laid out it was, at least how it was presented on the surface was as well intended. Isn’t that the truth when we try to take any large-scale action, no matter how well intended there are always unforeseen consequences. Or it could be more dystopian, and this ‘evil’ corporation may have had these ideas all along. In true form, you left that to the reader to imagine. This is very thought invoking. I find the same can be said for much of the technology that we are analyzing in our program. Well intended but we are trying to consider consequences, how to take the good and steer clear of the bad. Again, well done, you really nailed it.
Rich
I too found this concept of time as described at 10:56 in the video fascinating, and also commented on this point in the lecture, so I enjoyed reading your reflection on it. Yes, it does seem to ‘make sense’ as Dr. Boroditsky points out that the past is a known and could be seen as in ‘front’ of you as opposed to the future in front. It reminds me of when I studied economics in university, I heard a flipped metaphor that the job of an economist is like driving forward, trying to keep a consistent speed over the hills while only looking in the rear-view mirror. That is a metaphor of predicting the space in front, moving into the future while only knowing the space behind representing the past. It would seem however that the consistency across languages as far as I am aware is that the metaphor of time always involves moving through space. That is interesting, Einstein’s work on the theory of relativity went on to prove that space and time are inextricable. I like your closing thought on this “I could see myself getting used to this logical interpretation of time and gesturing” Once we become aware of these other ways of visualizing concepts of time, what an interesting exercise to set out say a week where one could experiment with thinking about time though a different conceptual lens. I wonder if the Aymaran people focus excessively on the past. What do you think? For me personally I tend perhaps to focus a little too much on the future on the other hand I have friends who always focus on the past. One of my favourite things about having young kids is that they really focus on the present and always have a way of sucking you right into the present moment! Conceptualizing time is so strange.
~ Rich Payne