Ying’s Task 1 was very interesting to me because like her, I also teach Chemistry. I loved her photo with the Christmas Chemistree sweater – I have one, too, of course. She laid out her bag and contents photo on the left with her photo on the right. For my task, I also have my bag and contents on the left and an emoji avatar of me on the right. Funnily enough, I had wondered if I could get my avatar to wear my Chemistree shirt. I relate very much to Ying’s perfectionism and attention to detail. She does come across as someone who is always prepared, as she mentions in her reflection. While the kind of bag we have are similar, and our professions are the same, the contents are different. She has a brown bag, mine is black, both are plain. We both have lip balms and a wallet, but that is where the similarities end.
Throughout this course, I have been thinking of the missing pieces more than the visible ones. In my post I mention that my phone and the Acer Spin and Sylus are missing. Ying’s post emphasized the missing pieces even more. This year, my classes are all online and I teach them remotely because they cannot be placed in one cohort for a safe in-school experience. Thus, my calculator, teacher planner, Sharpies, whiteboard markers and other miscellaneous stationery all live on my desk at school instead of my bag. Mints and sanitary pads can be found in a drawer there as well – since I am not teaching in different classrooms, I do not need to carry them with me constantly. This was striking to me because a year or so ago, my bag would have looked EXACTLY like Ying’s. Ying mentions how it would not be possible to guess her profession, or rather the subject she teaches, by just looking at what is in her bag. The thing is, the calculator, the planner and the stationery actually gives away her profession quite clearly. While it does not say chemistry, it does say teacher. Contrarily, my bag and its contents are more obscure and generic, and do not even say teacher. I also appreciate what Ying says about using Sharpies on lab glassware – I have countless different colours of them, but none in my bag as I have not been in the Chemistry lab at all this year 🙁 .
When I further compare my bag picture to Ying’s, what I see is a more playful, “quirky” (in her words) version in Ying’s depiction. Mine has shades of blues and grey/blacks, and while there are more browns and some black in hers, there is a larger range of colours and playful patterns, too, including the cute keychain on her bag. Her Sharpies are also colourful, while mine would have been blue and black. My Surface Pro stylus is also blue. Ying mentions she hopes that the presence of the kazoo would characterize her as a “quirky” person, and yes, that comes across. Not just because of the kazoo, but through the colours, patters, and her awesome photo of herself on the right.
Finally, through the presence of her iPhone, Ying highlights the modern need “to text” and explains how it can be a creative tool for artistic expression even in the simplest of messages. She mentions the assumption of the owner to be literate because of the text-based nature of the menus and navigation. (While I agree this to be true for someone carrying such a bag wherein this phone will be found, anyone with a smartphone need not necessary be literate. There is a multitude of evidence of babies and toddlers successfully using tablets and smartphones, who, I would argue, are not yet text-literate.) I was intrigued also by Ying’s final comments about media literacy and the implication of digital media literacy in particular. This idea may be more prevalent from the contents of my bag, however, the question still stands – just because one consumes media or uses digital media regularly, are they necessarily “literate”?
Artifact layout:
Ying’s blog site is neat – plain white with mostly black text and a different colour to highlight items and chunk information. Her banner is a dark brownish gray – the same colour as my site background. Her menu only has the 6 Linking Assignment links. While this minimalistic appearance seems to be representative of Ying based on her description, it lacks the quirky side of her personality. It is also less user-friendly when trying to find individual tasks. Her tasks are posts on the home page, and to reach Task 1, the user would need to scroll past all 12 tasks to get to the bottom of the page. This was a little surprising to me given how organized she comes across as, but then again, it makes the menu bar less cluttered. She could have organized all her links on one page and tasks on another though, and have only 2 of these buttons on the menu. Lastly, her light background makes it easy to read during the day, while my dark background makes it easy to read during the night.