Linking Assignment
1st Link: Erica Task 5: Twine Task
I appreciated Erica’s blog right from the get-go as it mirrors my own layout via UBC Blogs. Their layout, flow and aesthetic are similar enough to my own that it’s easy to dive right in. The Twine Task they’ve completed represented a significantly different experience than my own. They have a coding background and had no issues using generative AI to write a Twine story. Based on their narrative commentary on the experience, it seemed quite within their comfort zone and didn’t seem to stretch their capacity. I found the Twine task quite challenging as the application was quite different than any other program I’ve used. It reminded me of Macromedia Flash from 2003 that I used to play around with when I was a teenager. The cosmetic changes they made with their coding background certainly elicited envy.
I found myself agreeing with their sentiment that the hyperlink construction was too linear. When I did it myself, I found it quite frustrating and went out of my way to add lines that let the user backtrack to an earlier decision tree, giving a greater sense of freedom. The subject matter, being content notes, I also appreciated as a clever usage of time. On the subject of literacies, I feel like Erica’s layout, usage of free space, and multimodal usage are more user-friendly than my own. I’ll certainly steal some of these layout approaches for my next tasks.
2nd Link: Brie Limb, Task 7: Mode Bending
Mode Bending! What a wild exploration of redesign. In completing the assignment myself, I was bewildered by the sheer scope of options available to me: limited only by my creativity. Brie accomplished something I definitely did not consider: a total aural transformation that also used visual imagery, paired with undertones of gamification. I thought their work really took the activity in an excellent direction for schoolchildren. I struggled a bit with some of the objects. Brie’s discourse on sound and the importance of emphasizing hearing for ELLs was quite interesting.
The space design was almost very similar to my own before Erica influenced my space economy. It’s a long string of narrative text that is attached to a single or several pieces of media. I think it fits the nature of the semiotic exercise, but there’s definitely room for a bit more creativity (in my space as well!).
I think that, in stepping back, I would have excluded the visual portion in this mode-bending exercise. As the discourse focuses on sound, a purely audio exercise may have helped direct my attention, or perhaps simply a black space to minimize distraction. All in all, it was well done and I think displayed an excellent grasp of semiotic transformation.
3rd Link: Kelly, Task 6: An Emoji Story
Navigating several of my colleagues emoji stories was surprisingly quite fun. I have significant doubts that I was able to properly identify many of the stories, but it was stimulating to guess and realize how many stories such semiotic symbols elicited. I really liked Kelly’s as it followed a format of almost every hallmark Christmas movie and Disney princess story. A story of betrothal, conflict, discovery, and a happy resolution where “everything” is now changed. Kelly did a great job in ordering the flow and “chapters” of the story archetype. It’s reminiscent of the commonly used plot device “The Heroes Journey”.
I found Kelly’s justification fantastic: “It is a familiar story to many people and it features distinctive imagery that lent itself to this task. I chose it because it paints strong mental pictures which made it easier to express through emojis.”. On one hand I absolutely agree, on the other hand the semiotic display is so familiar it feels almost impossible to pin down the exact story! I’m also impressed how they managed the flow of content, I really struggled with not putting in “connecter” images, Kelly mastered the emoji flow.
The architecture of Kelly’s space is quite difficult to navigate. It requires alternating from horizontal to vertical scrolling wayfinding when switching between pages. Otherwise, their page layout, design, and text is very similar to my own. I find her writing personable and clear in linking her creation to the underlying theory.
4th Link: Mike, Task 1: What’s in your bag?
In reviewing some of the more “ancient” tasks for variety when completing this assignment, I’ve stumbled upon Mike’s task 1. I found it very refreshing! Mike clearly lives a very different lifestyle from myself and the mismatch of digital/analog artifacts that he carries with him was quite revealing. Massage roller ball and “Japanese Relief Patches” are objects I don’t think I’ve ever seen, much less carried regularly on my person.
I really enjoyed Mike’s discourse on how this mixture of objects in his bag represents to him the state of modern education. With a foot in the future and one in the past, the blend of traditional tools like pens and books, alongside a laptop and earbuds, it’s a potpourri of generational tools that new learners have to engage with. The thought hadn’t occurred to me before about how modern learners have to adapt to tools so vastly different from a technological and age perspective, and apply them appropriately in a dynamic and industrial way. My parents used books, pencils and papers and that was roughly the extent of it. I learned with both those and typing on a computer keyboard. My kids will use those things, and tablets, and VR headsets, and GenAI, and other wireless devices. The list of necessary literacies only seems to grow.
5th Link: Ice, Task 4: Manual Scripts and Potatoes
“Handwriting pushed me to write with greater intention than typing usually does”
This statement made on their blog really struck me as hitting the core of my own experience completing this task. The handwriting required significantly more cognitive effort as the cost of mistakes was much higher. I admired their dedication to the assignment and using correction tape/white-out stripes to fix their mistakes, I found myself just rather brazenly scratching out the errors. Ultimately the student’s feelings about how the mediums of type and handwriting relate to time were stimulating and led me down a path of contemplating the approach I take to written work.
Outside of important emails, I usually spend as little time as possible writing something out: when mistakes are made, Grammarly or auto-correct near-instantly allow my flow to continue. This made me think of my last three years completing the MET courses. How often when I sat down to write out an assignment or take notes of a reading/video, did I do it with speed and efficiency as a primary focus? What have I missed in the last three years by using type instead of handwriting as my medium of text transfer? It reminds me of a time long past when I attempt to switch my personal journaling from hand writing to typing. Very quickly I realized that something just didn’t feel quite right. In hindsight I can see that the slow and intentional process of hand text led to more fruitful reflection. The context in which I type is too associated with the need for speed, I think I need to rethink my approach to text-typing.
6th Link: Jonathan, Task 2: Does language shape the way we think?
Jonathan’s space, design, and layout follow a similar pattern to most of what I’ve now seen completed by myself and our peers. It’s a simple and easy space to navigate and follows a standard blog format. I’m a little bit disheartened that no colleague really stepped out to try something out of the ordinary, but then again, neither did I. It’s a throw back to my discussion about typing, time, and intention in the 5th link. I would suspect that it ultimately boils down to managing time and in the idealized world we would pursue more of a constructivist approach to our spaces.
I didn’t complete Task 2, so reviewing somebody’s post who did was very illuminating. Their layout with timestamps an impact quotes was helpful and guided me in digesting their thoughts and musings. I found his standout point regarding the role of language when attempting to scaffold learners to more complex subjects quite relatable. In the emergency nursing world, we start simple with describing what “sick” and “less sick” look like in a quantifiable manner. We then progress to broaden the learners horizons with key pieces of knowledge and subject matter that ultimately link to more complex topics. If we started with the complex topic, it would sound like a totally different language, scaffolded with the same terminology they’ve been exposed to, it goes much farther. Ultimately, Jonathan’s phrasing of language as being far from a neutral tool, but a framework for memory, reasoning and perception is very helpful for how to ground the center of my thoughts about language and processing.