Redesign of Activity 1 – Tell us more about yourself by sharing the sound notifications you use on your mobile device!

View the transcript below:

When considering how to introduce oneself and one’s interactions with sounds, I considered a few options; sharing the last 5 songs you listened to, 5 of your favourite songs that correspond with a memory or thought about deciphering our shared understanding of sound effects.

Instead of sharing with our peers what is inside our bags, instead, I have redesigned the activity to tell us more about you through your sound notifications! The majority of us use our phones to alert us of important events, times of the day, or reminders. The sounds that you choose may lead to more insight than we may be aware of. The redesign of the task gets inspiration from the meaning-making of audio meaning from The New London Group (1996, p.65)

An alarm in the morning needs to be annoying, and enough of a nuisance to want me to shut it off so it no longer irritates me. Here is the sound of choice for me [play sound]. This sound is called Presto. Even in the lowest setting, it is so loud and deliberate. Did you feel an urge to want to shut it off? I did. Although I prefer this sound, someone may wish to have a peaceful sound in the morning, so perhaps their day begins calm and peaceful.

My ring tone. I mostly have my phone on silent. Perhaps this is because I regularly am doing something that should not be interrupted by a phone alert. In tandem, I have my phone nearby and check notifications to see if they are emergent. I suppose this means I prefer communication to be through writing, and no voice. When my ring tone is not on silent, it is something that is subtle and not too intense or disruptive:

Other alarms are set to a default sound, which is the Super Mario sound [play sound]. Typically other alarms will be for when I am cooking, or timers for my children to go to bed. I choose a consistent alarm, so I know that when I hear it, even when I have a group over, or in a gathering, I know it is an alarm I have set, that needs attention. Particularly, for my children to recognize the noise as a timer alarm.

I considered my ring tones in the past. As a teenager, it was my favourite song that was my ring tone. Having a song as a ring tone to me feels juvenile but also humorous, possibly because it reminds me of my youth. Reading Dobson and Willinsky (2009), was intriguing in that I considered the transformations of the internet over time. My own reflection included a memory of when there was a time you would purchase a particular song for a ring tone. Now it is so seamless to select a song from your music library. Dobson and Willinsky (2009) also brought attention to the digital divide, which may impact my proposed alternate activity. Meaning, that the use of mobile devices to provide audio notifications, may not affect everyone, and is dependent on their access to both mobile devices and wifi/cellular data.

I also considered that there are some people who use default timers, and to them, it may be unimportant or meaningless to select a sound other than the default sound. This in itself, may be telling about a person in that they are easy-going and they may have no emotional attachment to sounds and being reminded.

Classmates, I would love to hear about your preferred sound notifications!

References

Dobson, T., & Willinsky, J. (2009). Digital Literacy. In D. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Literacy (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology, pp. 286-312). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The New London Group.  (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.

Audio Sounds used included: Super Mario, Presto, and Illuminate from Apple IOS 15.5.