Author: Bryce

Emoji Story

Discussion

Before deciding how to tell the story, I looked at the emojis that I was working with to see how detailed I would be able to be. I quickly noticed that there were not enough emojis to tell certain important details of the story. I have read the book that this movie is based on and it became clear in this exercise very quickly that “by the standard of phonetic writing… picture writing lacks narrative power” (Bolter, 2000, p. 9). Bolter goes on to explain that the broad range of verbal meanings that can be associated with a picture give it too much meaning as opposed to too little (Bolter, 2000). 

This realization made me decide to make the story as simple as possible, while still hitting enough of the plot elements for someone to recognize it. 

I decided to tell the plot by breaking the story into separate “scenes”. Then I asked myself how I could explain each scene in one sentence, and tried to depict that one simple sentence with emojis. To make the chronology clear, I placed each scene on its own separate line.

I began with deciding how to use the emojis to depict each important character, event, and object. As I was doing this I copied and pasted emojis onto a word document so I could see only the ones I wanted to use in one place before deciding how to arrange them. I then realized I had created a collection of “salient recollected entities” (Kress, 2005, p. 14) from the movie similar to the student who was asked to draw a picture to depict their recollection of a recent field trip to the British Museum in London (Kress, 2005). 

An experiment I would like to try would be to submit the chronological emoji story to one group, and the random assortment of recollected entities to another and see if the chronology has a benefit to helping people recognize the story or not. 

I do think that this story has many striking visual elements to it that will hopefully allow someone to recognize it from my emoji story. What do you think? 

References

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kress, G. (2005), Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 2(1), 5-22.

Classroom Behavior Scenario

POTATO STAMPING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenging aspects of the task: 

1. Carving curved letters

I found getting around the corners of an “S”, or taking out the inside of an “R” was really difficult with a knife. As I went I started making a series of straight cuts instead of trying to make curves and eventually my letters became block letters. You might be able to see this change between the first “S” and the last “S”. Additionally, letters such as I, V, W, X, L, are much easier to make a potato stamp for than S, R, B, G, and so on. 

2. Realizing that the carving had to be backwards

I carved the letters from left to right as if I were writing, but afterwards realized that the stamped word would be backwards. This is where modern technology saved me. I made the prints, put them on the shirts and then took a photo. We were then able to do a mirror-image flip of the photo within the phone’s camera app. That is why the printing appears the correct way in the photo. 

3. Making the letters small

Similar to Guttenberg, the first letters I cut and designed were quite large (Clement, 1997). Although they were easy to see, you would not be able to fit many on a page if you were trying to write a book. According to Clement (1997), smaller and more compact script is a more economical form of writing. This would be very difficult with the potato stamp as you need to carve it with a knife. Your knife would need to be very sharp to cut smaller letters, and it would be much more difficult to get into the little spaces. 

4. Stamping the letters

When applying my stamp, I stamped straight down. When I lifted up the stamp, certain parts of the letters did not appear. I realized I had not cut the face of the potato perfectly flat before carving the letters. I then had to rock the stamp side to side and back and forth to ensure that all edges of the lettering contacted the paper. To prevent making uneven stamps in medieval times, the woodcutters would use a saw and planer to get their plank surface flat before carving away the spaces they wanted to leave blank to create their text or image (Clement, 1997). 

Analysis

I feel that writing is something that we take for granted (like so many things in our daily lives). This week’s readings, listenings, and viewings reminded me that it has been a long, slow evolutionary process for writing to become what it is today. My potato stamp was a lot like an early version of the premolded, reusable wood and metal letters used by the letterpress technician at the University of Plymouth (Cooke, 2012). Over 500 years later, I am able to make those same images with the flick of my fingers on the keys of a laptop. I am also able to shrink, enlarge, change color, alter font, or delete entire thoughts at the click of a button; all things that would have taken incredible planning, time, and physical effort at one time in history. 

After completing this week’s task, I have a much better  understanding of the need for symbols like the ampersand, designed to take the place of a commonly used three letter word. Anything that would have saved the letterpress workers time and energy must have been a welcomed advancement. It makes me wonder why more symbols weren’t developed to take the place of other commonly used words like “the”, “with”, “for” and so on. 

Lastly, I feel glad that I do not have to go to a drawer and place letters upside-down and backwards into a tray everytime I need to write something. Although, if everyone still had to go through this process every time they wanted to write something, it might limit the number of impulsive emails that I spend way too much of my day responding to, or in many cases, avoiding. 

References

Clement, R. W. (1997). Medieval and Renaissance book production. Library Faculty & Staff Publications, Paper 10.

Danny Cooke Freelance Filmmaker. (2012, January 26). Upside down, left to right: A letterpress filmLinks to an external site.[Video]. YouTube.

 

According to Ong (2002) written text is the residue of oral language which forever locks oral speech into the visual field. This is a perfect way to describe what speechnotes provides with their speech-to-text program. It is a visual residue of the story that was dictated that can be kept for as long as the internet exists, or for as long as a digital or printed copy could be preserved. However, it does not perfectly capture the oral speech. For example, when dictating the speech, I paused several times to gather my thoughts. These pauses are not reflected in the written text because the program simply stopped writing when I stopped talking and then picked up right where it left off when I started again. There is nothing in the text to show these pauses. 

There is also nothing in the text to show the reader what the speaker’s tone was when telling the story. For example, at one point in the story the judge asks “can you pay [the ticket]?” The tone of my voice went up at the end of this sentence when telling the story because it is a question. However, since there is no question mark, the reader would probably not add this inflection at the end of the sentence. At least not on first read-through. This is where choosing the right words is vitally important. I said “the judge said can you pay it” but what I should have said was “the judge asked can you pay it”. This way, even without a question mark, the reader would still know a question was coming and would be more likely to read the sentence with a questioning tone.  

In speechnotes defence, there are ways to add punctuation to the text while dictating. For example, saying the word(s) period, or question mark at the end of a sentence will add that punctuation. However, since the assignment was simply to speak as if we were telling our friend an anecdote (Horst, 2026), I didn’t stop to say comma, period, or new paragraph. Therefore the story is completely punctuationless making it an imperfect recreation of the oral version.  

Scripting the story would have allowed me to add many more details of the story. This dictated version was limited by my memory of the event. If I had scripted a version of this story I would have had time to recall, and add in, many additional details. 

One part of the story that I left out was before the officers placed me into the police van, they handcuffed me with my hands in front of my body. Once I was in the back of the van, I tried to step my feet through the handcuffs and get my hands to the back of my body because I had always wondered if it was possible. I was able to successfully do it and just as I did, the van stopped at the courthouse and the officers opened the door to see me sitting with my hands handcuffed behind me. They then joked about how they don’t like it when people are able to get their handcuffed hands from behind them to in front of them, but they have never seen anyone try to go from in front to behind before. I left this part of the story out because I felt it would be much easier for the reader to understand it if I was able to do the gesture while telling it. According to Ong (2002), gesture is a rich form of communication but it falls short of the deep sense of language that articulated sound provides. I agree with Ong (2002) that gesture alone does not have the depth of spoken language, however I would also argue that spoken language alone does not have as much depth as it could if it is not accompanied by gestures. I believe that gestures help the listener get a fuller understanding of the events that they are hearing about. I believe that the activation of another sense (sight) while listening helps to absorb the listener into the story even more. 

 

References 

Horst, R. (2026, January 24). [3.4] Task 3: Voice to Text Task (Optional task). ETEC 540 65A 2025 W2. https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/179955/assignments/2325665?module_item_id=8719783 

Ong, W.J. (2002). Chapter 1: The orality of language. In Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word (pp. 5-16). Routledge. (Original work published 1982).

Speech-to-text story 

Good morning how are you today today I will be telling a story about something that happened to me a long time ago I was living in Saskatoon and I needed a criminal record check for a job that was applying for so I went to the police station and went to the room where you get your criminal record checks done once I went up to the window and told the Constable that I needed a criminal record check he looked up my name and told me that I had an unendorsed warrant out for my arrest and that I would need to go with an officer to another room an officer came and escorted me to another room where he again told me that I had an unendorsed warrant for my arrest due to a traffic ticket that I have not paid he then asked me to put my hands on a Ledge where I was searched and then placed into a holding cell after waiting in the holding cell for several minutes two officers came to the door of the cell opened it and escorted me to an elevator we got into the elevator went down to the main floor and an elevator door opened leading to a parking lot where a police van was waiting I was handcuffed and placed into the police van and told that I would be driven to the courthouse when we arrived at the courthouse I was taken out of the police van and escorted to another cell where several other individuals were waiting for their court appearance I joined the individuals in that cell until my name was called and I was told that I would be going into the courtroom to plead my case in front of the judge when I was escorted out of that cell an officer had me lift up my right leg and he attached a leg shackle to my right leg he then attached the other shackle to my left leg I was now handcuffed and leg Shackled and I walked very slowly while being escorted by an officer into a courtroom I sat down in the courtroom until my name was called and when my name was called I stood up and the judge looked at a piece of paper that she had in front of her she quietly read to herself the charge and with a confused look on her face looked up at me and said this is what you’re here for I replied yes and she said can you pay it and I said yes I can pay it right now and she said okay this officer will escort you over to a window to pay it so I said okay so I went over to the window once my shackles were removed and I paid my fine and then I turned to the officer and I said can you give me a ride back to the police station because I’m a legally parked and they said no you have to walk so I walked back to the police station and thankfully I didn’t have a parking ticket so I plugged the meter and I went inside back to the criminal record check window the officer who I had initially talked to saw me enter and said where were you and so I told him the entire story and he looked at me shocked because he had no idea that that could happen from not paying a parking ticket sorry for not paying a traffic ticket even completed my criminal record check and I left.

Now I will be doing a test of the features of this program if I say. It adds a. If I say, it has a, if I want to add a? I need to say? However what if I’m telling a story about dinosaurs and I’m saying that a specific species of dinosaur lived in the Jurassic. One flaw of this program is that it is unable apparently, to write the word..

I’m Bryce Glendenning. I am currently working as JK-12 principal in a remote community in the Northwest Territories. 

In the winter I often crosscountry ski to work. Although it is a relatively short ski, the temperature can be quite cold so I require animal hide mitts, a toque, a facewarmer, and goggles to keep me fully covered.These go in my bag once I get to work otherwise I will never be able to find them when I need them. 

I also carry my gym gear with me as I often workout either before work or after school. I take a protein shake as well as some trail mix with me to get me through until lunch. I also have my work keys to get into the school, my wallet which contains my work VISA that I sometimes need to make purchases with throughout the work day, and my toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant as I try to respect those who might need to be in the same room as me at some point throughout the day. 

The item with the bag with the most noticeable text on it is my workout T-shirt with the mantra: HARD. FAST. No cuddling after, written on the front. The first crossfit coach I had wore the same T-shirt. When the gym had more available several years later I jumped at the chance to purchase my own. I love the mantra because it makes me laugh every time I read it. I also love the t-shirt because I purchased it at my favorite gym in the world in my hometown of Saskatoon. When I workout in faraway locations, wearing this T-shirt makes me feel like I have a little piece of home with me. 

The ski and workout gear are a statement that fitness and physical activity are regular parts of my routine and personality. The protein shake and trail mix convey the point that I need energy while at work in order to perform my job to the best of my ability. 

I think that these are the items anyone who knows me well would expect to see in my bag. They convey the fact that I like to be active, I try to be healthy, and that I am a very simple person who doesn’t need, or want, to carry more than the essential items I need to survive. 

The bag contains a mix of modern and ancient technology. The animal hide mitts are a form of ancient technology. Early humans used animal hide to protect themselves from the elements since time immemorial. The fact that this technology is still useful today is a reminder that it is important to respect and preserve the knowledge and traditions of those who have come before us. I also have some modern technology such as the goggles. They have an elastic headstrap which keeps them in place, padding where they contact the face for comfort, and a tinted shield to not only block wind but also provide better visibility of the terrain in bright sunlight. There are some digital technologies such as the key fob for my truck along with the microchipped credit and debit cards in my wallet. 

An archaeologist examining my bag would discover that people travelled long distances during this time period. The location, Saskatoon SK, is printed on the back of the T-shirt, and they would find a NWT driver’s licence in the wallet along with currency from the Middle East, Europe, South America, and beyond. By examining these items they would determine that this was a time period in history where the world was a relatively accessible place for people to move around, travel, and work in locations far from their homes. 

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My thoughts on the terms Text and Technology

Text: writings, drawings, diagrams, symbols, images, or combinations thereof which attempt to convey information

Technology: a tool, a process, or a procedure that has been developed and improved over time to assist someone or something in completing or performing a task