Link Week 1 – What’s in your bag? (Janice Roper)

Janice Roper:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/janicer/2020/05/22/whats-in-your-bag/

The purpose of this assignment appears to me to be twofold:  (i)  to introduce the students to each other; and (ii)  start the conversation and realization that text is found in many forms and can tell us many things about each other.

In terms of an introduction, Janice’s observations about the contents of her bag, and my observations about same were similar.  The contents identified what needs we have (had – her bag and mine were both much about travel) and how they are used by both her and her entire family.  The contents did disclose, in part, her foreign travels;  for example the boarding pass for a flight from Delhi.  The contents did not disclose that Janice and her family had been living in India and that this was a flight back to Canada – not a vacation trip.   Other “text” items in the bag gave clues to Janice’s life;  in particular, “Gravol kids” suggests that she has children (she does) and laptop with a Patagonia and “Smith” stickers on same, gave at least me, an impression that the user was athletic.

Janice’s own attempts at the use of text technologies are a little bit different from mine.  Janice noted that she is trying to go paperless.  My bag instead included a two inch thick legal briefing book (well tabbed) indicating that I still use paper and rely on same in my legal work.

One interesting, and old school piece of text in Janice’s bag are business cards.  (I did not have any).  Janice does not she does not refer to them (even though she has interacted with some of those people since receiving those cards).

Finally, one comment on Janice’s blog posting from Ryan Dorey is very interesting.  Therein Ryan commented on the Patagonia sticker on Janice’s computer saying that that text means “quality matters” to him.  It is interesting that Ryan took something different and something more from the Patagonia sticker, reminding us that text symbols can mean something different to different people.

As an architectural tool, Janice does not appear to use WordPress, or she has modified same in a way I have not.  Janice’s choice of presentation is clear and provides links to her prior and next blogs;  something I did not do, and would do going forward.

Link Week 3 – Voice to Text (Laura Ulrich)

Laura Ulrich:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/lauraulrich/2020/05/20/voice-to-text/

Laura’s approach to the task was very similar to mine.  We both dictated a personal story using a dictation program.  Laura used the Google void-to-text and I used the dictation app connected to Word.  Both programs resulted in text with no punctuation – that made both stories practically speaking unreadable.  (I have since learned that if I had dictated using the Word app including punctuation, that punctuation would have been translated from voice to text.  (This is something I have previously done in law when dictating for an assistant and then laterally for a computer generated service to create documents from dictation.  I think this process is likely foreign to those who have not dictated punctuation – but it comes pretty second nature after a few tries).

Laura’s blog post architecture is (I think) in WordPress, with modifications done to personalize the blog so much as to look like a website.  My architecture, a basic WordPress blog provides the information in a clean, useable manner, but lacks the polish of Laura’s presentation.

Laura and I both had the same view as to our end result – the oral story, with and without some scripting.  I think that really speaks to how we now process text.  Both of believed that with scripting (and for me atleast some notes), our stories would have been better organized and more cohesive.

The issue of editing came up.  I would personally find it tougher to edit a voice text versus a written text.  The technology for editing on a computer (or tablet) is for me much simpler than editing voice.  (Perhaps with practice this is possible – but without being able to see entire sentences or paragraphs to put the voice text into context, changing same might be difficult).

Laura importantly noted that voice-to-text may be used for convenience, but that it should not be considered “oral storytelling”  Laura goes on to explain that oral storytellers can use non-verbal communication, expressions and movement to captivate their audience(s).  This is an important distinction – but tells us, that voice-to-text may have limitations, notwithstanding that tone and attitude in an oral commentary can convey additional information that written text.

Link Week 6 – Emoji story

Daniella Bababuk:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/dbalabuk540/2020/06/19/task-6-an-emoji-story/

I chose Daniella’s emoji post to link to my own.  At first I thought our approaches to the assignment were similar and upon further reflection realized they were somewhat different.

Daniella uses the same presentation architecture as me – WordPress (the basic format).  It is usable, but not as sophisticated and “pretty” as some other blogs.  (Although as I have learned, pretty does not always result in a more useable (readable) format – so if making the word easy to communicate, WordPress does it all.

To attempt to actually create an emoji story, Daniella chose a book that she was reading while I chose a television show that I was watching, but one which I also thought might more easily translate into an emoji story.  Daniella’s attempt to translate her book (I now know it was Aftermath by Rachel Cusk) was a challenging one.  She identified in her post that she relied more upon the expression of ideas than syllables when trying to convey the book title in her emoji story.  Daniella also advised that while she did start with the title, she divided that word into two – in an attempt to try to translate same.

In my emoji story I took a slightly different approach.  I used a very linear thought-process and used symbols to try to describe the plot – which I thought were clues to the title of the television show (Homeland).

I used the emoji keyboard made available in this assignment, which I found very limiting.  Had I more experience or another more expansive keyboard I thought I might have been able to do a better job trying to convey hints to the name of my chose television show.

One interesting note – in her blog, Daniella states that she things her book title can be described by emojis – she gave a few hints and I tried a few ideas but surmised that I had not likely figure it out.  In a comment, I asked Daniella if she could tell me the name of the book – her answer was different – that she thinks (I think in hindsight) that she did not do the assignment correctly and didn’t think I would be able to guess the book name (I was not)).

Symbols are difficult.  Maybe it is all in the eye of the author.  That the person telling the story with the symbol may think that others can decode same, but when given an almost infinite range of options, it is much more difficult than that.

I think Daniella and I had similar experiences with attempting to use an emoji story to convey information.  That is it difficult, limited by the emojis available and unclear if any information will be conveyed to an end user.

Link Week 7 –  (Alanna Carmichael)

Alanna Carmichael:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/alannacarmichael540/2020/06/26/task-7-mode-bending/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=122&action=edit

I chose Alanna’s post for the assignment – Mode Bending – to link with my post regarding same this week.

Alanna and I chose very similar architecture(s) for the audio file required for this assignment.  We both used mp3 files to present the audio.

But Alanna I chose very different content for our audio presentations.  Again (this has happened before in this course) I interpreted the instructions for an assignment in a completely different way than another student.  The assignment in Mode Bending was to “change the semiotic mode of the first take to a different one…and instead, think about the original purpose of the task and redesign it, as entertained by the New London Group.”  I chose to redesign the task to ask the student to deliver the same content using a social media platform.  Alanna chose to change the introduction – from a focus on the items in her bag to instead a day in the life of a  TTOC reader.  During her audio, she went in and out of her bag, but the real focus was on understanding on her day progressed, from entering the school, to entering the classroom to filling her time on breaks.  The audios were two ships in the night.

But why – it comes from the text.  The text was read very differently by Alanna and myself.  Both ways to read the text were possible and plausible.  Neither of us went off on a lark that did not stem from the assignment instructions.

The architectures as between Alanna’s post and my own were also very different.  Alanna used an audio file but added sound-effects to amplify her program.  My audio file was basic (something for me to think about – I am getting more advanced every MET course and expect by the end to be a tech wizard!).

Week 8 Link – Golden Record Curation Assignment (Rania Ismail)

Rania Ismail:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/met2020/2020/07/02/task-8-golden-record-curation-assignment/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=135&action=edit

Preamble

This assignment had me immersed in the idea of how music can be a mode of communication to others.  It can, sometimes more easily than words, text, convey and emotion to sentiment.  Think of music in church – the difference between the music at a funeral and the music at a wedding.  Movie soundtracks are essential in films – without them much of the meaning the director is attempting to convey would otherwise be lost.  I was intrigued by the addition of music to a class on text – and then it all made so much sense. 

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” ― Plato

“Music is … A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy” ― Ludwig van Beethoven

The task this week was to curate 10 pieces of music from the 27 included on the Gold Record.  Further, the selections should be explained with regard to what parameters and criteria were used to chose them.  The assignment outline stated “[t]hree to five thoughtful sentences will suffice for your justification”.

My first observation when comparing Rania’s submission to my own, was the interpretation of the direction – “three to five sentences”.  Interestingly, it appears that Rania took that to mean three to five sentences describing her selections.  I took that to mean, three to five sentences for each selection.  Re-reading the instruction, I think fairly, the instruction could be taken both ways.  It is always fascinating to me how language, which appears to be so precise, it not necessarily precise.

Rania and I took fairly different approaches to this assignment – both in content and in presentation.

Rania curated her music selection based on the emotions evoked by the music.  An interesting choice.  I took a more global, culturally expansive approach to the assignment, selecting a wider range of music choices in an attempt to represent a broader global perspective of same to any one/being/thing, out in space that might hear the music.  Rania also chose Beethoven, Mozart and Bach because “[t]hese composers were immortalized by their work and their music which represent [sic] our ethereal, aesthetic universe”.  I love European classical music, but, I was brought up with European classical music.  I might think that world citizens who were not brought up with European classical music as the “gold standard” for composition would have selected, and thought that there should be selections of music representing other cultures.

I was also so enthused by the assignment (shades of constructivist teaching – I got enthused and therefore spent a fair bit of time contemplating the assignment and the multiple meanings it could have – not only selected my choices, and explained same in some detail, I added my personal non-global selections!.

The tool selected by both Rania and myself was WordPress.  However I did take advantage of the ability to drop in media and added Youtube videos of my additional personal musical selections.

Allison Rankin:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/arankinetec540/2020/07/10/task-9-network-assignment/?unapproved=10&moderation-hash=a2d500d106ba0dae4f9ebb9a2b3961d0#comment-10

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/2020/07/12/week-10-discussion-of-a-palladino-project-data-review/

This week I chose Allison Rankin’s Network assignment to link to my own because while Allison had, in part, a similar approach to my Network Assignment, there were some differences regarding the use of the Palladino visuals.

The similar intellectual takeaways in both Allison and my discussion on the selection of music choices is that the Palladino format gave us “a teaser” that really lead us to wanting more information.  Allison noted, as did I, that the data from the connections did not inform the reason why individuals selected a particular song, why other songs were not selected and if there what criteria one used to make their selections.  Allison asked the question (that I did not ask – but actually did in making my own selections), did the other students engage in other research to make their selections.  The interesting angle being:  do people just rely on the data they are given or do they go behind the scenes and do more research to make a decision.  An important observation – that text is not necessarily enough – more text is enough.

A significant different in Allison’s post and my own are the number of Palladino visuals posted.  In my examination of the question I tried a variety of data points and alternatives when determining what information I could devise from the app.  While Allison may have also tried a variety of Palladino visuals but only posted one.  I posted a number to demonstrate my attempts at ascertaining different data (if possible) from the app.

In terms of architecture, Allison and I both used a basic WordPress format.  It serves the task, but after having seen other student’s more interesting websites or annotated WordPress blogs, think we both could have done more.

At the beginning of my post I “fangirled” over the program.  I really loved using it (and thinking about how it might be better used with more data points to plot).  My enthusiasm came through in my post – and while Allison certainly seemed to like the program – she didn’t have the same off script comments as me.

Link Week 12 – Speculative Futures (Tamara Vaughan)

Tamara Vaughan:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/vaughan/2020/07/30/task-12-speculative-features/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=149&action=edit

In Week 12, I chose Tamara Vaughan’s dark narrative entitled “Dystopia” to link to my dark speculative narrative entitled “July 1, 2050” because the tone was so similar to mine.  Our views as to a dark future was illustrated in a common dark, dystopian speculative view of the future.  (It was interesting to note, that this week a number of students posted speculative futures that were dark including:  Tanya Weder and Rebecca Hydamacka ).  One has to wonder, is that a normal response to this assignment (if it has been done in prior classes) or is the possibility of a dark and foreboding future as result of the current work disorder as a result of Covid-19?

Tamara’s Dystopia video was presented using Videoscribe.  It is a video program that easily integrates images and music.  The program also allows for easy “handwritten” text messages to pop-up throughout the video.  I chose to make a video using iMovie.  It has the same features, video, ability to insert still photos and music;  but it does not (or does not obviously or easily) allow for handwritten type test on the screen created by the app.  The presentations were quite similar.

Tamara’s post for Dystopia provided some in-context narrative that explained the authoring tool she chose and decisions she made to create the video – in particular, intentionally choosing not to use voice.  My post entitled July 1, 2050 did not provide any narrative to describe or put into context the video.

Tamara’s architecture is founded on a video (with enhancements).  As noted above, Tamara noted in her post that she had intentionally chose not to use voice.  In contrast, is fundamentally a voice presentation.  My video is all black – in the video I note, in character, that it is shot without video, just audio, to “save power” in the problematic power grid of 2050.

Tyler Senini :  https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540tylers/2020/07/24/task-11-algorithms/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=149&action=edit

For this week, I chose to link the post by Tyler Senini on predictive text to link to my post on same. I chose this link in particular because I wanted to compare and contrast the text architecture that Tyler chose as compared with my own.

Author’s note – my text architecture is very basic – using WordPress to simply post typically a blog.  In my MET career (I am not on my fourth and fifth courses contemporaneously) and am just now, as an older student, branching out and learning new applications.  I have now:  created a really spectacular website (Winter 2020), created content on Canva, used various mind mapping apps, used Padlet and other multi-modal educational apps.  In my prior life, my work was, in that environment as a lawyer, pretty

The substantive approach and discussion about the assignment – to investigate predictive text using a phone, tablet or computer – were similar.  We both experimented with the various prompts to see which next predictive words the algorithm(s) would suggest next.  Tyler used both his phone and his computer.  I only used my phone but did reference gmail prompts that are generated on both my computer and my phone in that app.

An another interesting substantive comment that was common to both Tyler and myself was the frustration with autocorrect.  And that in particular, in haste, we both draft texts that are sent before we have realized that autocorrect has changed a word rendering our text either unintelligible or just odd.  But, I would note, that we are all used to that phenomena and when we get a text message that is strange – we often receive a quick one word correction or consider if the text as delivered was not as intended.  Detectvie work within what should be simple conversations.

Tyler uses WordPress with impressive an impressive and beautiful photo of a farm (the prairies?) as his background.  And with all due respect to Tyler, it just doesn’t work.  The background photo – in multiple colours, makes the text very difficult to read.  The background remains set while the text scrolls down.  While the presentation was impressive, in my opinion it was not a good choice as a delivery system for information.

An screenshot of his post illustrates the problem.

My final comment was on a question posed in the task:  is the use of predictive text in public writing spaces a problem, for example in politics, academia, business or education?   My commentary on this issue was broader than Tyler’s.  I referred to issues in politics (lies) and gender specific issues discussed in the weekly listening assignment.  Tyler’s view was more general, simply noting the impact of, for example, writing a text too quickly and that autocorrect might change the words and impact politics and business.  I took the question very literally.  Perhaps that is just my perspective, based on age or prior occupation (lawyer) that a misstatement might really impact issues versus a younger student would might be more aware that there are often errors in the use of text – so to check those first before coming to any assumption/decision.

Brian Ham:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/brianhametec54066b/2020/07/17/task-10-attention-economy/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=149&action=edit

I chose this link because Brian’s experience with the actual game was totally different from mine.  My level of frustration got the better of me so soon in the process that I failed to complete the game.  After reviewing Brian’s excellent post, in my opinion, my frustration impeded my enthusiasm to take a step back and properly consider and appreciate the technical aspects of the game that link to our study of text(s).

Reading Brian’s blog regarding the “Use Inyourface Game” identified the following concepts and themes in the game and their relationship to common text frameworks.  Brian’s blog reminded the reader that there exists a commonly accepted semiotic frameworks for user interface design in technology – and that by digressing from same, the game player typically encountered challenges in the beginning, before realizing the counterintuitive game design.  (It was interesting Ernesto’s discussion of the 1990’s history and debate about what type of symbols were best in web design to assist the user in almost figuring out how to use same).

Brian had a detailed discussion of the various parts of the design.  He identified, interestingly, that his time at 7 minutes, may have been better than other students because at age 41 he had seen some of the worst design elements before and could more easily deal with them.  His point about age is interesting in that he has had to go through the various stages of design before arriving where we are today.  And, as I am aware in other work, if you have had to live through mistakes, you are more likely not to make same in your own work.

Brian’s blog is hosted on WordPress, the same tool I used to present my blog.  The tool is pretty good (in my opinion).  It allows the user to draft (and save drafts) of posts, add various kinds of media and when posted, easily allows reply and comments by other students.  I have sometimes seen “flashier” digital platforms for student blogs, but when the content is clearly set out in a usable format – it is a good platform choice for me.

Linking Assignment (McLean)

Link Week 1 – What’s in your bag? (Janice Roper)

Janice Roper:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/janicer/2020/05/22/whats-in-your-bag/

The purpose of this assignment appears to me to be twofold:  (i)  to introduce the students to each other; and (ii)  start the conversation and realization that text is found in many forms and can tell us many things about each other.

In terms of an introduction, Janice’s observations about the contents of her bag, and my observations about same were similar.  The contents identified what needs we have (had – her bag and mine were both much about travel) and how they are used by both her and her entire family.  The contents did disclose, in part, her foreign travels;  for example the boarding pass for a flight from Delhi.  The contents did not disclose that Janice and her family had been living in India and that this was a flight back to Canada – not a vacation trip.   Other “text” items in the bag gave clues to Janice’s life;  in particular, “Gravol kids” suggests that she has children (she does) and laptop with a Patagonia and “Smith” stickers on same, gave at least me, an impression that the user was athletic.

Janice’s own attempts at the use of text technologies are a little bit different from mine.  Janice noted that she is trying to go paperless.  My bag instead included a two inch thick legal briefing book (well tabbed) indicating that I still use paper and rely on same in my legal work.

One interesting, and old school piece of text in Janice’s bag are business cards.  (I did not have any).  Janice does not she does not refer to them (even though she has interacted with some of those people since receiving those cards).

Finally, one comment on Janice’s blog posting from Ryan Dorey is very interesting.  Therein Ryan commented on the Patagonia sticker on Janice’s computer saying that that text means “quality matters” to him.  It is interesting that Ryan took something different and something more from the Patagonia sticker, reminding us that text symbols can mean something different to different people.

As an architectural tool, Janice does not appear to use WordPress, or she has modified same in a way I have not.  Janice’s choice of presentation is clear and provides links to her prior and next blogs;  something I did not do, and would do going forward.

Link Week 3 – Voice to Text (Laura Ulrich)

Laura Ulrich:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/lauraulrich/2020/05/20/voice-to-text/

Laura’s approach to the task was very similar to mine.  We both dictated a personal story using a dictation program.  Laura used the Google void-to-text and I used the dictation app connected to Word.  Both programs resulted in text with no punctuation – that made both stories practically speaking unreadable.  (I have since learned that if I had dictated using the Word app including punctuation, that punctuation would have been translated from voice to text.  (This is something I have previously done in law when dictating for an assistant and then laterally for a computer generated service to create documents from dictation.  I think this process is likely foreign to those who have not dictated punctuation – but it comes pretty second nature after a few tries).

Laura’s blog post architecture is (I think) in WordPress, with modifications done to personalize the blog so much as to look like a website.  My architecture, a basic WordPress blog provides the information in a clean, useable manner, but lacks the polish of Laura’s presentation.

Laura and I both had the same view as to our end result – the oral story, with and without some scripting.  I think that really speaks to how we now process text.  Both of believed that with scripting (and for me atleast some notes), our stories would have been better organized and more cohesive.

The issue of editing came up.  I would personally find it tougher to edit a voice text versus a written text.  The technology for editing on a computer (or tablet) is for me much simpler than editing voice.  (Perhaps with practice this is possible – but without being able to see entire sentences or paragraphs to put the voice text into context, changing same might be difficult).

Laura importantly noted that voice-to-text may be used for convenience, but that it should not be considered “oral storytelling”  Laura goes on to explain that oral storytellers can use non-verbal communication, expressions and movement to captivate their audience(s).  This is an important distinction – but tells us, that voice-to-text may have limitations, notwithstanding that tone and attitude in an oral commentary can convey additional information that written text.

Link Week 6 – Emoji story

Daniella Bababuk:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/dbalabuk540/2020/06/19/task-6-an-emoji-story/

I chose Daniella’s emoji post to link to my own.  At first I thought our approaches to the assignment were similar and upon further reflection realized they were somewhat different.

Daniella uses the same presentation architecture as me – WordPress (the basic format).  It is usable, but not as sophisticated and “pretty” as some other blogs.  (Although as I have learned, pretty does not always result in a more useable (readable) format – so if making the word easy to communicate, WordPress does it all.

To attempt to actually create an emoji story, Daniella chose a book that she was reading while I chose a television show that I was watching, but one which I also thought might more easily translate into an emoji story.  Daniella’s attempt to translate her book (I now know it was Aftermath by Rachel Cusk) was a challenging one.  She identified in her post that she relied more upon the expression of ideas than syllables when trying to convey the book title in her emoji story.  Daniella also advised that while she did start with the title, she divided that word into two – in an attempt to try to translate same.

In my emoji story I took a slightly different approach.  I used a very linear thought-process and used symbols to try to describe the plot – which I thought were clues to the title of the television show (Homeland).

I used the emoji keyboard made available in this assignment, which I found very limiting.  Had I more experience or another more expansive keyboard I thought I might have been able to do a better job trying to convey hints to the name of my chose television show.

One interesting note – in her blog, Daniella states that she things her book title can be described by emojis – she gave a few hints and I tried a few ideas but surmised that I had not likely figure it out.  In a comment, I asked Daniella if she could tell me the name of the book – her answer was different – that she thinks (I think in hindsight) that she did not do the assignment correctly and didn’t think I would be able to guess the book name (I was not)).

Symbols are difficult.  Maybe it is all in the eye of the author.  That the person telling the story with the symbol may think that others can decode same, but when given an almost infinite range of options, it is much more difficult than that.

I think Daniella and I had similar experiences with attempting to use an emoji story to convey information.  That is it difficult, limited by the emojis available and unclear if any information will be conveyed to an end user.

Link Week 7 –  (Alanna Carmichael)

Alanna Carmichael:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/alannacarmichael540/2020/06/26/task-7-mode-bending/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=122&action=edit

I chose Alanna’s post for the assignment – Mode Bending – to link with my post regarding same this week.

Alanna and I chose very similar architecture(s) for the audio file required for this assignment.  We both used mp3 files to present the audio.

But Alanna I chose very different content for our audio presentations.  Again (this has happened before in this course) I interpreted the instructions for an assignment in a completely different way than another student.  The assignment in Mode Bending was to “change the semiotic mode of the first take to a different one…and instead, think about the original purpose of the task and redesign it, as entertained by the New London Group.”  I chose to redesign the task to ask the student to deliver the same content using a social media platform.  Alanna chose to change the introduction – from a focus on the items in her bag to instead a day in the life of a  TTOC reader.  During her audio, she went in and out of her bag, but the real focus was on understanding on her day progressed, from entering the school, to entering the classroom to filling her time on breaks.  The audios were two ships in the night.

But why – it comes from the text.  The text was read very differently by Alanna and myself.  Both ways to read the text were possible and plausible.  Neither of us went off on a lark that did not stem from the assignment instructions.

The architectures as between Alanna’s post and my own were also very different.  Alanna used an audio file but added sound-effects to amplify her program.  My audio file was basic (something for me to think about – I am getting more advanced every MET course and expect by the end to be a tech wizard!).

Week 8 Link – Golden Record Curation Assignment (Rania Ismail)

Rania Ismail:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/met2020/2020/07/02/task-8-golden-record-curation-assignment/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=135&action=edit

Preamble

This assignment had me immersed in the idea of how music can be a mode of communication to others.  It can, sometimes more easily than words, text, convey and emotion to sentiment.  Think of music in church – the difference between the music at a funeral and the music at a wedding.  Movie soundtracks are essential in films – without them much of the meaning the director is attempting to convey would otherwise be lost.  I was intrigued by the addition of music to a class on text – and then it all made so much sense. 

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” ― Plato

“Music is … A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy” ― Ludwig van Beethoven

The task this week was to curate 10 pieces of music from the 27 included on the Gold Record.  Further, the selections should be explained with regard to what parameters and criteria were used to chose them.  The assignment outline stated “[t]hree to five thoughtful sentences will suffice for your justification”.

My first observation when comparing Rania’s submission to my own, was the interpretation of the direction – “three to five sentences”.  Interestingly, it appears that Rania took that to mean three to five sentences describing her selections.  I took that to mean, three to five sentences for each selection.  Re-reading the instruction, I think fairly, the instruction could be taken both ways.  It is always fascinating to me how language, which appears to be so precise, it not necessarily precise.

Rania and I took fairly different approaches to this assignment – both in content and in presentation.

Rania curated her music selection based on the emotions evoked by the music.  An interesting choice.  I took a more global, culturally expansive approach to the assignment, selecting a wider range of music choices in an attempt to represent a broader global perspective of same to any one/being/thing, out in space that might hear the music.  Rania also chose Beethoven, Mozart and Bach because “[t]hese composers were immortalized by their work and their music which represent [sic] our ethereal, aesthetic universe”.  I love European classical music, but, I was brought up with European classical music.  I might think that world citizens who were not brought up with European classical music as the “gold standard” for composition would have selected, and thought that there should be selections of music representing other cultures.

I was also so enthused by the assignment (shades of constructivist teaching – I got enthused and therefore spent a fair bit of time contemplating the assignment and the multiple meanings it could have – not only selected my choices, and explained same in some detail, I added my personal non-global selections!.

The tool selected by both Rania and myself was WordPress.  However I did take advantage of the ability to drop in media and added Youtube videos of my additional personal musical selections.

Link Week 9 – Network Assignment (Allison Rankin)

Allison Rankin:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/arankinetec540/2020/07/10/task-9-network-assignment/?unapproved=10&moderation-hash=a2d500d106ba0dae4f9ebb9a2b3961d0#comment-10

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/2020/07/12/week-10-discussion-of-a-palladino-project-data-review/

This week I chose Allison Rankin’s Network assignment to link to my own because while Allison had, in part, a similar approach to my Network Assignment, there were some differences regarding the use of the Palladino visuals.

The similar intellectual takeaways in both Allison and my discussion on the selection of music choices is that the Palladino format gave us “a teaser” that really lead us to wanting more information.  Allison noted, as did I, that the data from the connections did not inform the reason why individuals selected a particular song, why other songs were not selected and if there what criteria one used to make their selections.  Allison asked the question (that I did not ask – but actually did in making my own selections), did the other students engage in other research to make their selections.  The interesting angle being:  do people just rely on the data they are given or do they go behind the scenes and do more research to make a decision.  An important observation – that text is not necessarily enough – more text is enough.

A significant different in Allison’s post and my own are the number of Palladino visuals posted.  In my examination of the question I tried a variety of data points and alternatives when determining what information I could devise from the app.  While Allison may have also tried a variety of Palladino visuals but only posted one.  I posted a number to demonstrate my attempts at ascertaining different data (if possible) from the app.

In terms of architecture, Allison and I both used a basic WordPress format.  It serves the task, but after having seen other student’s more interesting websites or annotated WordPress blogs, think we both could have done more.

At the beginning of my post I “fangirled” over the program.  I really loved using it (and thinking about how it might be better used with more data points to plot).  My enthusiasm came through in my post – and while Allison certainly seemed to like the program – she didn’t have the same off script comments as me.

Link Week 10  – Attention Economy (Brian Ham)

Brian Ham:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/brianhametec54066b/2020/07/17/task-10-attention-economy/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=149&action=edit

I chose this link because Brian’s experience with the actual game was totally different from mine.  My level of frustration got the better of me so soon in the process that I failed to complete the game.  After reviewing Brian’s excellent post, in my opinion, my frustration impeded my enthusiasm to take a step back and properly consider and appreciate the technical aspects of the game that link to our study of text(s).

Reading Brian’s blog regarding the “Use Inyourface Game” identified the following concepts and themes in the game and their relationship to common text frameworks.  Brian’s blog reminded the reader that there exists a commonly accepted semiotic frameworks for user interface design in technology – and that by digressing from same, the game player typically encountered challenges in the beginning, before realizing the counterintuitive game design.  (It was interesting Ernesto’s discussion of the 1990’s history and debate about what type of symbols were best in web design to assist the user in almost figuring out how to use same).

Brian had a detailed discussion of the various parts of the design.  He identified, interestingly, that his time at 7 minutes, may have been better than other students because at age 41 he had seen some of the worst design elements before and could more easily deal with them.  His point about age is interesting in that he has had to go through the various stages of design before arriving where we are today.  And, as I am aware in other work, if you have had to live through mistakes, you are more likely not to make same in your own work.

Brian’s blog is hosted on WordPress, the same tool I used to present my blog.  The tool is pretty good (in my opinion).  It allows the user to draft (and save drafts) of posts, add various kinds of media and when posted, easily allows reply and comments by other students.  I have sometimes seen “flashier” digital platforms for student blogs, but when the content is clearly set out in a usable format – it is a good platform choice for me.

Link Week 11 – Algorithms (Tyler Senini)

Tyler Senini :  https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540tylers/2020/07/24/task-11-algorithms/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=149&action=edit

For this week, I chose to link the post by Tyler Senini on predictive text to link to my post on same. I chose this link in particular because I wanted to compare and contrast the text architecture that Tyler chose as compared with my own.

Author’s note – my text architecture is very basic – using WordPress to simply post typically a blog.  In my MET career (I am not on my fourth and fifth courses contemporaneously) and am just now, as an older student, branching out and learning new applications.  I have now:  created a really spectacular website (Winter 2020), created content on Canva, used various mind mapping apps, used Padlet and other multi-modal educational apps.  In my prior life, my work was, in that environment as a lawyer, pretty

The substantive approach and discussion about the assignment – to investigate predictive text using a phone, tablet or computer – were similar.  We both experimented with the various prompts to see which next predictive words the algorithm(s) would suggest next.  Tyler used both his phone and his computer.  I only used my phone but did reference gmail prompts that are generated on both my computer and my phone in that app.

An another interesting substantive comment that was common to both Tyler and myself was the frustration with autocorrect.  And that in particular, in haste, we both draft texts that are sent before we have realized that autocorrect has changed a word rendering our text either unintelligible or just odd.  But, I would note, that we are all used to that phenomena and when we get a text message that is strange – we often receive a quick one word correction or consider if the text as delivered was not as intended.  Detective work within what should be simple conversations.

Tyler uses WordPress with impressive an impressive and beautiful photo of a farm (the prairies?) as his background.  And with all due respect to Tyler, it just doesn’t work.  The background photo – in multiple colours, makes the text very difficult to read.  The background remains set while the text scrolls down.  While the presentation was impressive, in my opinion it was not a good choice as a delivery system for information.

An screenshot of his post illustrates the problem.

My final comment was on a question posed in the task:  is the use of predictive text in public writing spaces a problem, for example in politics, academia, business or education?   My commentary on this issue was broader than Tyler’s.  I referred to issues in politics (lies) and gender specific issues discussed in the weekly listening assignment.  Tyler’s view was more general, simply noting the impact of, for example, writing a text too quickly and that autocorrect might change the words and impact politics and business.  I took the question very literally.  Perhaps that is just my perspective, based on age or prior occupation (lawyer) that a misstatement might really impact issues versus a younger student would might be more aware that there are often errors in the use of text – so to check those first before coming to any assumption/decision.

Link Week 12 – Speculative Futures (Tamara Vaughan)

Tamara Vaughan:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/vaughan/2020/07/30/task-12-speculative-features/

Patricia McLean:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/course9fa832d3ed5e9bc0e2a4b9d769b3ff09f6e98b71/wp-admin/post.php?post=149&action=edit

In Week 12, I chose Tamara Vaughan’s dark narrative entitled “Dystopia” to link to my dark speculative narrative entitled “July 1, 2050” because the tone was so similar to mine.  Our views as to a dark future was illustrated in a common dark, dystopian speculative view of the future.  (It was interesting to note, that this week a number of students posted speculative futures that were dark including:  Tanya Weder and Rebecca Hydamacka ).  One has to wonder, is that a normal response to this assignment (if it has been done in prior classes) or is the possibility of a dark and foreboding future as result of the current work disorder as a result of Covid-19?

Tamara’s Dystopia video was presented using Videoscribe.  It is a video program that easily integrates images and music.  The program also allows for easy “handwritten” text messages to pop-up throughout the video.  I chose to make a video using iMovie.  It has the same features, video, ability to insert still photos and music;  but it does not (or does not obviously or easily) allow for handwritten type test on the screen created by the app.  The presentations were quite similar.

Tamara’s post for Dystopia provided some in-context narrative that explained the authoring tool she chose and decisions she made to create the video – in particular, intentionally choosing not to use voice.  My post entitled July 1, 2050 did not provide any narrative to describe or put into context the video.

Tamara’s architecture is founded on a video (with enhancements).  As noted above, Tamara noted in her post that she had intentionally chose not to use voice.  In contrast, is fundamentally a voice presentation.  My video is all black – in the video I note, in character, that it is shot without video, just audio, to “save power” in the problematic power grid of 2050.