My Emoji Story

I knew right away what recent text consumption I wanted to present in emoji fashion for this assignment. This recent indulgence was satisfying in so many ways, but I really valued the story telling, characters and depiction of events that were thoughtfully portrayed in this text. Having said that, thoughtfully portraying this text in emoji form was something else. I would definitely say that I stick to the “old fashion” way of communicating through text messages and emails using written words. I rarely find myself scanning through the emoji smorgasbord for an image to convey my thoughts, ideas, or feelings. Because of this, I did find this task challenging. I knew what I wanted to say about the text that I picked out, but I had no idea what emojis were out there to get my description across. This led me on my first journey through this task which involved raking through the emoji selections on www.emojikeyboard.io. I really had no idea how many emojis existed in the world, let alone the fact that there are different emoji keyboards and styles. Scanning through the different emoji keyboards gave me my weak but now existent foundation on which I could build the plot of my text.

To build the plot using emojis, I decided to use the symbols to represent the keywords that I thought were important to the plot. I presented the keywords in some form of an emoji sentence separated by a new line in an attempt to add some clarity and readability to my description. I went back and forth on this decision, not really knowing if an emoji sentence required punctuation that would be standard in a conventional english sentence. This specific process in this task really made me think about other languages and whether connecting words (was, and, etc.) are really required in order to get an idea across.

When I was comfortable with the selection of emojis, I decided to start with the title instead of jumping right into my description of this text. My reasoning for this was to figure out some standard symbols that are important to the title that I would also use throughout the rest of the text to continue with a consistent theme and description. In the case of this particular text, these symbols were a TV, a flag, and two other common symbols. It is very noticeable how important these symbols are to the plot of this text just by scanning the emoji description.

I selected this text as the example for this task because of the pure enjoyment that I got from the consumption. I enjoy any text that provides thought provoking messages, ideas, and visualization. After finishing this text, I knew that it would fit perfectly with this assignment based on the immense amount of description and detail in the work. I figured that this would easily translate into images portrayed through emojis. And, although this task definitely was not easy, I did find almost all of the symbols that were required in order to paint a complete picture of the plot.

My Manual Script: Ilithad and Avalisks

Ilithad and Avalisks

Commentary

Do you normally write by hand or type? Did you find this task difficult or easy? Explain.

I have been an avid typer since I first entered university back in 2006. I remember getting my first laptop and being so excited to type out lecture notes and projects instead of penning them manually. Since this time, I have always preferred typing. Even though typing is my preference over manual writing, I did not think that I would find this task to be difficult given that we were asked to only write 500 words. Now, 500 words type is a quickly fulfilled request, but I learned very suddenly that 500 words manually written was labor intensive and strenuous. My hand cramped multiple times and I found myself not able to get my ideas out on the paper quick enough. My brain was moving quicker than my hand could write and this caused some confusion and lost thoughts along the way.

What did you do when you made a mistake or wanted to change your writing? How did you edit your work? Did your choice of media play a part in how you edited your work?

I chose to write using a black “Trend” pen because this is my preferred pen choice for any manual writing that I do in my regular and professional life. I double spaced my writing to allow myself the room to add ideas and make changes above each sentence during the editing process. When I went back and edited my writing, I followed the steps of editing that I try to teach to my students in my classroom. These editing steps address conventions (capitalization, punctuation, and spelling), word changes, and sentence shake ups. I crossed out words that were spelled incorrectly, and changed words that did not fit. If I wanted to add words into my writing, I used a “carrot” symbol to show where those words fit into the sentence.

What do you feel is the most significant difference between writing by hand and using mechanized forms of writing? Which do you prefer and why?

From this exercise, I definitely feel that writing by hand forces one to slow down and be thoughtful about each word. This slow down also allows for a deeper connection between the ideas in your head and the words on the page. Things seem to become more ingrained through the physical formation of the letter shapes and words. I sometimes find that when I get into that autonomous state of writing using a mechanized tool, I can lose my thoughts and the strength of my ideas. This then results in scattered sentences and weaker writing all together. These reasons would not necessarily change my preference for writing away from mechanized tools, but it definitely makes me think about the importance of slowing down and being mindful of the writing process no matter which form it takes.

My Voice to Text Story

9 years ago was the day I got married I can remember that day just like it was yesterday waking up early in the morning or barely sleeping at all and thinking about everything that was going to happen I remember going for Breakfast early in the morning with my groomsmen at the Eldorado and not even being able to focus on my breakfast because of the anticipation for everything that was gonna come for the rest of the day I remember how long of a drive is it to get to Midway which is a small town where we got married and Midway is located and the Drive Salt light for 5 or 6 hours and then we got to Midway I remember the weather and how the rain a little bit like a grey cloud Over the Hole start the wedding day I remember the weather being in a difficult thing to do think about and comprehend because I wasn’t able to talk to my wife about it because she was somewhere else getting ready for our wedding ceremony and so I was just trying to think about what she was thinking about and I had a feeling that you wasn’t going to be happy with the rainy weather for that day and the rain proved to be a problem in concept because in Midway we were getting married on a large farm and so everything was muddy and people were coming and dressing up for a wedding and they would have to be walking in mud to get to ceremony site and I just remember feeling anxious about all of these moving pieces that were going on that morning even though when I look back I know that those moments and the rain and the mud and all of that really did not take away from the whole experience in the moment it’s hard to have perspective all of the grievance and got ready in Alvin and we all got our suits on and are ready and made her hair was right and all that going to stop and then we headed to the ceremony site which is about a 10-minute walk from the cabin and I just remember seeing all the wildflowers that we planted these earlier in the spring popping up in the rain and and the excitement of all our hard work yet site ready when we got up to the site where the ceremony was happening we had to set up the benches and put the flowers up and the site ready for the final touches to get the site ready for the for the rest of the day and I just remember that was a good thing for me to have jobs to do because my mind busy and I started have less anxiety about the rain and the mud and all these other things that were going on and and I felt like I was contributing and getting ready for the day and then finally we started arriving we and the rain was still coming down and everybody had umbrellas but everyone seemed to be really happy and then as we started to get closer myself and the groomsman I wish were my brother we went to the mouth of the tunnel where we would my wife and I would be getting married and we stood there with our pastor and waited for the music star that would bring my wife down the aisle and course in typical wedding fashion we had to wait quite a while before my wife came to the aisle or what was in concept denial but was actually just a pathway and that led to the tunnel and isn’t that the way things happen you know the bride is always late right and and then I remember the music starts playing and it is some kind of miracle that the rain stopped right before the music started playing and then my my wife walk down the aisle and still no rain and we went to the ceremony and still know when train and ceremony ended and we were married and still no rain and it was amazing Sunny break in this rain storm that that came over our heads and and then as soon as everybody left at our ceremony was done and everyone was heading back to Kelowna for the reception and it started pouring rain again and my wife and I had to do our wedding photos in this pouring rain and again we are both worried about what this meant for our pictures you know weddings are once-in-a-lifetime things you know we both wanted the perfect wedding photos and in our minds of perfect wedding photos were taken in a Sunny Setting but what ended up happening is the rain and the created an amazing fact and everything was so great and so vibrant in the rain that our wedding photos are representative of all of this Vibrance that plants and grasses were all giving off and when we look back on them today 9 years later we both talked about how we would not have changed the weather for our wedding and how the rain was an important part of the whole story that ended up being our ceremony and reception on our wedding day and these are still things that people talk about to this day about how the the rain cleared rate for the Ravens at the right time for the ceremony and we have this beautiful sunny weather for the ceremony when everyone left to start pouring rain again and then by the time I got back to Kelowna the rain stopped and it was beautiful sunny weather for our our reception back in Kelowna and all of these things should add up to a meaningful memory and when I look back on it 9 years later it’s still so vibrant just like the plants and the grasses on that rainy day this memory is so vibrant in my head and it’s because of those circumstances in the rain and the worry and the amazing Sunshine that came out during the ceremony is because of those things that I remember everything so clearly to this day and I am thankful that we didn’t just have a sunny day because I believe that all of the small details from that amazing day are ingrained in my brain because the way things unfolded 

Analysis

I find voice to text technology to be an interesting technological innovation, especially in terms of its use in an educational setting. I have used this technology in my classroom for students who have difficulties with written output, but I do not have a lot of experience with using the technology myself. I am not a voice to text texter on my cell phone, nor am I a voice to text writer on my computer. I really did not know what my conversational voice would look like in text form and was surprised when I read back my story. For the purpose of this assignment, I used Google Docs’ Voice Typing Tool to record my story.

In terms of conventions, I realise that there are a lot of conventional errors in my voice to text recording of my story when compared to written English. First off, there is no recorded punctuation in the whole story. I understand that I could have used the words “period” or “comma” to add punctuation into my text, but I wanted to make sure that the story was authentically conversational for the recording purposes. This made me wonder if there exists a voice to text technology that includes punctuation in a predictive manner? 

There are also some conventional errors in terms of capitalization. Some words are capitalized that should not be such as “Sunny” and “Over”, and some words were properly capitalized, such as the names of places. Finally, the overall spelling of words was consistently correct. Even though the voice to text tool did record the wrong word in many instances (and thus changed the meaning), the actual spelling of each of the words is correct. Sometimes these wrongly recorded words changed the meaning of the sentence and thus altered the story. For example, the words “music star” were meant to be “music to start” which makes it seem like we had a “music star” at our ceremony waiting to play the music for my wife to come down the aisle. This technological misunderstanding has the power to change the meaning of the actual story.

Most of what is “wrong” in the text is conventional in nature. If we are looking at this story from a written English perspective, there are many punctuation, capitalization, and word replacement errors that affect this text in written form. But, if I were to read this story aloud using this text as a script, I think the meaning would not be lost and these conventional errors would be less impactful. Apart from the odd word replacement that changes the meaning of the sentence, the actual meaning and truthfulness of the story is fairly accurately portrayed in this text. I was surprised with the accuracy of the Voice to Text Tool because I sometimes found myself rambling quite quickly, and the tool definitely kept up with my speaking pace.

The common mistakes in the text are similar to what is stated above. Conventions, such as punctuation, capitalization, and word replacement definitely stand out as the most common mistakes that are fairly consistent throughout the text. In addition to this, the Voice to Text Tool also picked up a lot of “ands” in my story. When I went back and read this text, I realized how often I say the word “and” (83 times to be exact for this text). If I were assessing this piece of writing from an educator’s lens, I would definitely see the overuse of the word “and” as a mistake. I see both the conventional issues and the overuse of “and” as mistakes in this text because when I see text in a written English format, I automatically put on my editor lens to seek out these common areas of mistakes. This text in particular just does not look right with the lack of punctuation and paragraph formation. 

If this story had been scripted, I feel I would have come across as a lot more eloquent and refined in my story telling ability. When I am writing text, I enjoy the process and time that is allowed for developing thoughts and ideas before getting them down. I feel like I would have included a lot more details, and there would have been a concise arrangement of all of the ideas so that it came across as a well worded and developed story. Also, if I had scripted this piece before using the Voice to Text Tool, there would have been less of a conversational sound to the text with the elimination of the conversational connecting words such as “and.” Overall, I believe scripting this story would have been a more comfortable process for myself, knowing that I had time to process and accurately record all of the details in the order that makes the most sense for the story.

Reflecting on this task and these questions definitely has reinforced my opinion and praise for oral storytellers. I have been very lucky to have seen some talented Indigenous oral storytellers through professional development opportunities and I have always thoroughly appreciated the art form. It is an amazing ability to be able to thoughtfully and accurately retell stories that portray meaning to the listener. Conversationally, it is too easy to get side tracked or to misrepresent the order of events when compared to scripted or written stories. Written storytellers have the luxury of time and editing, whereas oral storytellers have to be accurate with their words, meaning, and order in real time. In my opinion, this is a much larger responsibility to carry with far more room for error.

Does Language Shape the Way we Think?

For this task, we were asked to add annotations to a video lecture from Lera Boroditsky using the CLAS Annotation Software.

Annotations:

My name is Kelvin Nicholls and this is what is in my daily messenger bag. I take this bag with me almost everyday. This bag houses all of the essential gear and supplies that I need in order to be effective and efficient in two different lifeworlds that I am currently living in. Simple in contents, I feel that this bag is a symbolic narrative of exactly who I am. I tend to live a life based on essentials, without the need for clutter and complexity. I enjoy feeling the light weightedness of my bag, knowing that I have everything that I need to be successful in what I am doing each day. The contents of this bag are thoughtful for my current life needs and knowing that I have these essentials is key to my feeling of comfort throughout my day.

I am an elementary school teacher, teaching in a grade 3 and grade 4 combined learning community. For my role as a teacher, this bag is foundational as the starting point for everything in my day. My car keys and wallet provide me with the means for transportation to school without stress or anxiety. Since I am an early riser and usually the first to my school, my school keys allow me the ability to open the school and access my classroom when the time is right for me. The pens, pencils, and highlighters in my bag allow me the flexibility of writing lists and notes whenever the moment strikes. And finally, the band-aids in my bag are essential for myself and my students as a precautionary measure when we are out on walks around the neighbourhood or to our community garden.

I am also a graduate student in the MET program at UBC. For this role in my present life, this bag contains the simple but principal components for success in this area. Since the program is online, my MacBook allows me the ability to work on my coursework from any location. And to avoid any “range” anxiety, I always carry around an extra charging cord to keep my computer powered. My bluetooth mouse connects to my computer to quicken my on-screen movements and increase productivity. And finally, my EarPods allow me to get lost in broadway musical soundtracks and movie scores to clear my mind and focus my thinking.

Understanding the word “texts” is an essential piece of literacy learning that I look into every year with my grade 3 and 4 students. We investigate this term in order to gain a deeper understanding of the diversity of the word. Through discussion and brainstorming, we always discover that texts are anything that communicates meaning. And as time has gone on, the definition of “texts” has continued to change and will always be dynamic, especially with the evolutionary continuity of technology. In my messenger bag, there are many examples of texts. If you were to open up my wallet, you would find many things in credit card shape that include text and convey meaning. For example, you would find my driver’s license. My driver’s license contains all of my personal information (weight, height, eye colour, hair colour, sex, address, date of birth), along with my driver’s license number that is tied directly to me. In this one card, an abundance of information is being communicated through typed text.

In terms of “text technologies”, my MacBook fills this definition for my bag. My MacBook is the only piece of digital technology that I carry around in my messenger bag. It allows me access to all the technological tools that I need in order to engage in regular communication.  This communication comes in many different forms, including: email, messenger services, video conferencing, and various online platforms (such as Canvas). My MacBook also makes the cloud readily available, which is essential for both my professional teaching life and graduate student life. The digital cloud allows me to have continuous and updated access to everything that I work on from any computer and any location.

When diving into the items in my messenger bag, I realized that my professional and student life relies on my proficiency in digital or computer literacy. My MacBook is the central hub for the majority of what I do throughout my day when it comes to teaching and being a graduate student. It is always the first tool I grab when I am sitting down to be efficient with my work. Reflecting on this, I realise that 15 or 20 years ago, this bag would have looked very different. It was not efficient or smart to rely so much on computer or digital literacies and tools to be productive in our everyday lives. There would have been a need for more physical note-taking tools and other text technologies to effectively get things done as a teacher or a student.

In the future, a bag like mine might provide an archaeologist with information about society’s reliance on cloud-based services and technology in general. The simplicity of my bag allows my MacBook to stand out as the main text component. The reliance on digital and technology tools is always an interesting area to reflect on. In the evolution of technology, it is hard to know how things will progress. Will technology continue to go the direction of cloud and server-based data, or will we learn that these tools are not as safe as they seem and change direction and habits?