This Linking Assignment is meant to connect other members of the class through our reflections. My responses here are based on the initial comments I left on my peers’ work.
Louisa Green: Task 2 – Does language shape the way we think?
Note: This was a WIX website. As there is no commenting feature on the website in contrast to the ones usually found in WordPress, I used the Contact feature to send a message to Louisa.
In this post, Louisa connects her language learning experiences with what is being stated in the embedded presentation by Dr. Boroditsky. She interrogates her personal experience learning Japanese and Spanish, linking the presentation with how her own perception of the world and mannerisms shift depending on the language and cultural norms.
She utilized Wix for her website, which has similar functionalities to WordPress in many ways; however, the way she formatted her assignments places them all on a singular webpage without anchors. In contrast, I used WordPress through UBC Blogs, upon which it is much easier to post each task as an individual post. However, her formatting and individual posts tend to be more varied in style due to the easy customizability of Wix. Still, the content capabilities of our bespoken tools are quite similar, and her ability to embed the video rather than merely placing it into the post as a hyperlink adds to the accessibility. To leave my reflection on her site, however, I did have to use the Contact form to email her rather than being able to leave an immediate comment, as one can do using UBC Blogs. This reduces the immediacy of the exchange.
As a language teacher as well, a lot of what she said while examining Dr. Boroditsky’s presentation really resonated with me. I’m sorry to hear about the trauma of French conjugations though, since I mainly teach in French Immersion programs! French verbs are definitely overly complicated, and they do pose one of the biggest challenges to my students trying to express themselves in Career or Social Studies classes. However, I completely understand just how much verbs and verb tenses can limit one’s ability to express oneself in another language. Japanese was actually my first language, and keigo has always been very difficult for me as well since I left Japan when I was very young, thus never really necessitating learning to use it. Now, when I try and speak Japanese, I also have that mental block out of fear of not being formal enough when speaking to anyone outside of my family or close friends.
Her comment about personality shifting depending on the language in use is also very accurate, in my opinion. I speak Japanese in a similar manner to Louisa, being more reserved and careful based on both cultural norms and the difficulties of using another language; however, when I speak French, I become incredibly academic and confident as I mainly learned French in university. Still, my French is much more formal than my English, which is my primary language. My students who have me in English and French always joke that my ‘English personality’ or ‘French personality’ is present, depending on the context of the class. Each language really does define the way one presents oneself and examines the world.
The concept of formality in language is also an incredibly nuanced one which is so reflective of culture. Although it is not as severe as in Japanese, French also contains formalities in verb conjugations depending on the public to whom we speak. As this is not as explicit in English, teaching students the different contexts of vous- versus tu- forms of verbs is one of the most difficult things for students to learn, especially if they were not introduced to it at a young age. However, I find that my students whose first languages are like mine and emphasize the importance of respect in action through language have a much easier time of seamlessly switching between appropriate pronouns. What is actually quite interesting is when I teach ELL students from such cultures, they actually struggle with the informality of English and never know how to address others.
Jerry Chen: Task 3 – Speech-to-Text
In Jerry’s post, Jerry explores the Word 365 STT feature and uses it to transcribe a story about a recent trip. Then, he analyzes the transcribed text and examines the difference between oral and written language.
Like myself, Jerry chose to use WordPress through UBC Blogs to manifest their work. The formatting of our webpages is quite similar due to this, although the base layout differs slightly in aesthetics and literacies. The main difference is that for this assignment, I posted the directions as well to guide the reader through the assignment, while his reflections may be without context for the uninitiated reader.
For his actual assignment, it is impressive to see how coherent the text was using STT from Word 365; for my task, I used the Google VTT feature, and punctuation would usually not appear. My phone also made frequent transcription errors. Jerry’s story, in contrast, did make sense overall, and it provided a clear narrative to follow despite the occasional transcription mistake. It sounded like an extremely rewarding, if busy, vacation! Our reflections on the organization of our texts were quite similar in regards to the immediacy of spoken language in contrast to the planning which can be put into a written text.
However, what I find really notable about his response is his comment on the transience of oral storytelling in comparison to written stories. He hit the nail on the head; oral storytelling consists of so much more than just the words, as it is the tone, body language, facial expression, movement, and speed which gives oral storytelling context, weight, and breadth. No retelling is ever the same, as no storyteller truly mimics their performance with complete synchronicity each time. Written storytelling is simultaneously much more nuanced and much more ambiguous. While the words never change, through generations, the reader’s use of previous contextual knowledge can greatly impact interpretations.
Nick Robitaille: Task 7 – What’s in my bag (Redesigned)
In this task, Nick personifies the bag he had explored in the first assignment. He gives it a grounded personality and, through the use of audio editing software, shifts the mode of the task from a written and visual assignment to an audio interview in the form of a short podcast-like recording, including music and vocal edits to give the bag a different pitch. He then analyzes his process of design, which forced his thinking to move from a written form to understanding all the elements needed to create a compelling audio piece.
Like myself, Nick chose to use WordPress through UBC Blogs to manifest their work. The formatting of our webpages is quite similar due to this, although the base layout differs slightly in aesthetics and literacies. However, he decided to turn his assignment into an audio piece with written reflections afterwards. In contrast, I created a Genial.ly to combine the visual, written, gestural, and auditory modes. Due to this difference in our modalities, the resulting assignments diverged quite a bit; this is especially clear as the main purpose of my Genial.ly was to provide interaction, so the end-user could curate their own experience, whereas for Nick’s interview, the end-user is a passive audience.
I thoroughly enjoyed this personification of Nick’s bag. The personality given to the bag is quite entertaining, and I like how distinct its own self-perception was in contrast to the initial definition of simply being ‘Nick’s bag’. There was great writing and thoughtful responses for the interview as well- I took a look at Nick’s initial project and the comparison was interesting to dissect. Written texts are very different from auditory works. The change in mode here is quite clear; I think he did an excellent job shifting his thinking from the written and visual medium to an auditory one, complete with the other elements required to create a compelling podcast, such as music and pacing, versus the interview format of it all. I’ve recently begun listening to the Everything is Alive podcast, so the similarity brought me a lot of joy. Shifting the pitch of the ‘bag’s’ voice also added another layer to it. Overall, it was an awesome way to design and demonstrate mode-bending.
Michaelle: Task 8 – Golden Record Curation
Like myself, Michaelle chose to use WordPress through UBC Blogs to manifest their work (I believe it is the same preset format as Jerry’s page). The formatting of our webpages is quite similar due to this, although the base layout differs slightly in aesthetics and literacies. The main difference is that for this assignment, I embedded the links to all the songs which made my final list to provide more context for the uninitiated reader.
Michaelle’s process was such a treat to read as it was so juxtaposed to my own. Michaelle made all selections subjectively, analyzing the emotional response to each song and choosing the songs which provide the most diversity amongst each reaction.
I really appreciate the emphasis on the emotions evoked through each piece- as pointed out, it is a potentially daring response to the New London Group’s (1996) discussion on biases, but I still think Michaelle’s interpretation is a valid one. My own version of this task centered on examining the tonal differences and instrumentality to provide the greatest range of diversity of human sound, but the emphasis on emotionality and the ability of music to generate and inspire feeling in this post was fantastic. I do find it very interesting to see just how different our lists became due to our own methodologies; we only have two overlapping songs (Jaat Kahan Ho – India – Surshri and Beethoven 5th, part 1, Otto Klemper) in our selections although there were only 27 songs to choose from.
One thing which I noticed as a potential critique, however, is the first point in Michaelle’s criteria for music; being able to ‘tell a universal story’, despite stating in the start of the post that personal history and context creates associations and emotions unique to one’s own worldview, which shapes the story that music is trying to tell you. Whether or not the stories told through music are truly universal is not entirely clear, so I wonder about what the similarities between our lists could be if I had followed a similar method.
Rich Payne: Task 10 – Attention Economy
Rich examines his own performance in and reactions to the game User Inyerface through multiple attempts, eventually noting three main takeaways: the presence of a timer has the ability to drastically impact one’s perception of their safety, security, and freedom in a task, even when they are not being restricted; the usage of defaults can either be used to support the user or to trick the user, but when they are not created with care, they can be disastrous in supporting seamless performance; and that UI is far more intentional than what one might realize without further reflection.
Rich also used WordPress through UBC Blogs to create his work, just like Jerry, Nick, Michaelle, and I. Due to this, similar layouts, functionalities, and literacies are utilized in the navigation of this website.
Honestly, I initially gave up on this task when I tried the game; it triggered my fight or flight instinct immediately! However, seeing that one can actually complete it, I did go back and try it, so I appreciate the inspiration (I got through in under 4 minutes!).
Rich did a great job at outlining key reflections here, and I think he really hit the main point of this; the challenge of rewiring one’s brain away from taking the shortcuts which have been ingrained in us through familiarity with online UI. With so many faux-pas committed in this UI to distract the player, it forces the player to slow down and genuinely understand what is going on. This is antithetical to human nature, as we try to create as many mental shortcuts as possible to redistribute our resources in the most efficient way possible. The ability to apply this understanding both honestly and deceptively, as per the article he quotes, truly is the dangerous part of UI development, as human nature simultaneously allows us to ease through our work and be taken advantage of entirely.
Cody Peters: Task 12 – Unprompted Prompts
In this task, Cody examines 3 prompts about the future given by the Speculative Futures document. Using these prompts and the Bing AI art generator, he explores these scenarios in various levels, from initial brainstorms to creating a fully-fledged scenario for one of the prompts.
Cody used a very similar WordPress layout on UBC Blogs as myself, and so, there is very little difference between the navigation and textual literacies required to explore his website. Regarding our individual tasks, he incorporated images and visual modes into his reflections through the AI art generator. I, on the other hand, created a Genial.ly to add interactivity and audio into my submitted piece. Both tools are integrated well into the WordPress sites.
I absolutely love the direction he took this assignment. Adding the AI generated images provided a really nice touch to each prompt and reflection, setting the tone for each idea. The third prompt, focused on society coming apart, was quite bleak, but I honestly understand where he was coming from as we watch the disparity between socioeconomic classes only astronomically widen as text and technology advances.
The scenario for his first prompt was incredibly well thought-out, centring on a future where pharmaceuticals have been put into the hands of AI who have decided that humanity is inherently flawed and must come to an end. I would love to read something built off of that scenario! It has such potential as a science fiction mystery thriller. It does remind me a bit of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, where everyone is implanted during childhood with a chip that, at random, could cause a heart attack. Selected individuals are chosen based on an algorithm, and they are given a 24-hour pass to access previously-inaccessible goods and services before they are killed. It is a form of population control which nets in a zero sum.
For the second prompt, discussing AI and robots drinking alcohol and willingly dampening their functioning, I couldn’t help but think of the 2016 video game VA11 Hall-A, where you play as a bartender in a cyperpunk dystopian metropolis called Glitch City. Your customers are from all walks of life, both from a socioeconomic angle and from an AI angle, as some customers are fully human, some are augmented with cybernetics, and some are fully AI. It leads to a lot of hilarious and heartwarming narratives, as well as leaving a lot of (frankly horrifying) food for thought as we utilize more AI in our lives every day; the game deftly explores what happens when all aspects of media, governance, beauty, industry, military, police, and daily living is put into the hands of AI.
Final Thoughts:
What a journey it was to explore everyone’s assignments. Overall, while there were some differences in everyone’s reflections, I am both surprised and comforted by the fact that so many of us had extremely similar responses or observations in our own writings. As we are all critically reflecting on what we are reading each week, there is bound to be similarities amongst what struck us as valuable and engaging.
In general, everyone utilized UBC Blogs as their platform (aside from Louisa) which allowed for familiarity to develop whilst engaging with this UI. Hyperlinks and scrolling were used in abundance. There were other forms of presentation embedded into posts allowing for multimodality, such as audio files, videos, and images. Amongst the posts I explored, I was the only one who embedded third-party platforms such as Genial.ly to create interactive multimodal assignment submissions, which I did find a little surprising; still, AI art generators and audio software was used to create audio and visuals which were accessible to the end-user. The multimodalities demonstrated throughout the posts all utilized multiple literacies- written texts, images, symbols, hyperlinks and understanding of UI, audio, interaction, and other visuals.