Task 4: Manual Scripts and Potato Printing

My potato printing of the word MOWED

Instructions:

Choose a five-letter word and print it twice using potato stamps (a short tutorial on how to create these stamps is available below). The word cannot have repeated letters. Try to make both copies as identical to each other as possible. Take a picture of both copies together and post it in your personal space along with a reflection on the process of preparing, crafting and producing both copies (approximately 300 words). 

Was there something particularly challenging in the process?

For someone who spends little to no time in the kitchen and who is not artsy in any way, I found the actual cutting of the potato particularly difficult. Where for some cutting may come naturally, for me, it is foreign. In addition, I was concerned about cutting my fingers or my hand as I carved out the centre of the O and the centre of the D. I do not have muscle memory as it pertains to cutting or prepping food. Hence, it made me realize that this is a learned skill.

How much time did it take for you to create the stamps? 

Given my relative ineptitude for cutting food, I took far longer than I anticipated. As a result, I spent approximately 35 minutes, after some trial and error on letters.  At first, I attempted to create the stamps, as shown in the YouTube clip.  This process proved frustrating, as I could not complete the letters as I would have wished, so I decided to cut thick slices of the potato and cut the letters out that way and use toothpicks to dip the letters into the paint.

Have you notice anything particular about the letters that you have chosen to reproduce?

I figured from the outset that this would be a bit of a struggle for me, so I strategized in choosing my word. I knew the letters M and W could be inverted to represent one another. So, to minimize my cutting, I decided on a five-letter word that used an M and W and what I figured to be the more simplistic letters to cut.

Considering the time and effort that took you to create a 5-letter word, how do you feel about the mechanization of writing? 

I have a greater appreciation of the physical skill and muscle memory required to write. It is not easy, and it takes a significant amount of time to become second nature.  As I contemplated the letters without repeating any of them, I wanted to choose a word where one letter could ‘double’ for a different letter.  This very conscientious decision made me reflect on the idea of when writing was completed by the printing press and the deliberate intention of how letters were used to create written work during times when resources and materials were finite.

Utopian – Year 2051

Today Torie celebrated the forest reclamation of the Oil Sands and Fort McMurray in Alberta!  After decades of raw material exploitation of the area, the Global Green 2075 agreement between all nations, made possible by her contributions to Virtual Reality technology, is yielding monumental result after result.  As we work as a species to find a balance between healing the Earth and progressing mankind, her gift of virtual connections has given all of us a unified objective.

It seems hardly believable that it was only 30 short years ago that Torie’s revolutionary breakthrough in Virtual Reality programming finally brought about a concrete understanding of what our world was facing without a global shift in ideals.  Struggling as an environmental activist, she shifted her focus to creating solutions rather than pointing out problems.  Her brilliant

concept of creating a VR platform where persons developed empathy for the environment, by immersion in the role of plants and animals, has saved our world from the brink.

The continued integration of VR technology throughout our combined global curriculum, has brought about a harmonious global society, unlike anyone could have imagined.  Living virtually as a tree, as they struggle to breath amongst smog and the constant threat of forest fires due to deforestation and greenhouse emissions, let us all finally understand that our world wasn’t going to make it without our help.  Being a polar bear, struggling to find food as your icy home continues to melt, catapulted our sense of empathy for our fellow creatures.  We owe our successes to her tireless campaigning to have her programs integrated into our schools despite several initial setbacks.  Thanks to Torie and her vision we are breeding generations of environmental warriors, changing our world and our future.

Dystopian – Year 2051

Shelley felt the unfamiliar touch of a hand on her shoulder.  She pulled away in disgust and a touch of fright.  She was unaccustomed to human touch.  It didn’t matter that it was her mother trying to summon her to dinner.  She was pulled from her reality of swimming amongst the jellyfish bloom in the Indian Ocean, as a part of her biological history project regarding the extinction of 80% of marine life.

As the environment has crumbled, those who can afford it have sought refuge in the virtual; an escape from the brutal realities that surround us.  In the 25 years since the devastating tsunamis, heat waves and ice melts of 2026, we have found ourselves crammed into one third of what used to be habitable earth.

Shelley had found herself quite comfortable though, as her parents were wealthy and prosperous, owning several hundred acres of land in the exquisite oceanside properties of Edmonton, Alberta.  Those who were less fortunate, 90% of the global population, found themselves barely able to make ends meet to provide the most simplistic basics of survival.  With resources at a premium, Shelley’s parents found themselves on oil and agriculturally rich land, desirable by everyone.

Membership in the elite has its privileges.  Shelley was able to avoid the awful images of the world.  Behind her walls, both real and virtual, in her fortified compound, she could enjoy the world as it used to be, living most of her life in a virtual reality.  Those in the elite had their own community in this realm, apart from the misery and depravity on the outside.   She and her friends could meet on mountaintops, looking down at the now extinct, grizzly bear.  What a beautiful sight!  She oft times felt a sense of pity towards the others, those who toiled so they could benefit from her parent’s wealth; those who had to reside in the other world, reality, not virtual, where it is hot and unforgiving.  But that pity is short lived as Shelley dives into other virtual worlds, each distancing herself further from the real world around her and any degree of empathy for her fellow man.

References

Unsplash. (n.d.). Beautiful Free Images & Pictures. Retrieved November 28, 2021, from https://unsplash.com/

Instructions:

For this task, work your way through the game by clicking the link above. While you do, notice the ways in which the GUI is designed to manipulate your attention and responses, you will use this information as a prompt for your reflection on this task.

This task will be considered complete when you get to the end of the game and post a screenshot of the final screen in your webspace, along with your reflection. If you fail to reach the end of the task, don’t worry, just add the reasons behind this in your reflection.

Reflection

When completing this assignment, I will admit, I took a long time to get through it.  The time shown is not a true reflection of the time it took.  I attempted this task a minimum of five times before moving past the password section.  At one point, I had to walk away to take a breath, as I had thought I was following all the directions but was not moving beyond the first screen and prompt.  This assignment reminded me of the pen and paper “quiz” teachers would give, so students followed instructions. For example, the one where it said, “read all the instructions first,” and then the last instruction was “write your name on the top of the page and then turn it over.” Once I managed to get past the password section, I took my time with all the instructions and read them very carefully.

Doing this, and ignoring the clock, allowed me to focus more on the task.  As I went through it, I realized how easy it is for website and interaction designers to manipulate one’s attention away from what they are reading to steer them towards another article or clickbait.  I now see similar distractions daily when surfing the internet or signing up for an account on any given platform.  So, I began to wonder if the website or interaction designers’ job is getting easier or more challenging?  I wonder this, as it takes a lot more to grab a user’s attention but also, many of the teenagers I teach quickly scroll through sign-up steps with minimal reading.  I would also be curious if website and interaction designers must “work harder” to achieve these interactions when their particular website is geared towards a different generation of individuals.

When reflecting on the visualized data and playing around with this tool, I considered the questions below.

Is the visualization able to capture the reasons behind the choices?

This visualization cannot capture the reasons behind the choices. That would require the individual to have access to the quiz and everyone’s choice for each response. Instead, this visualization is a good representation of connections between individuals and their choices. It also affords the onlooker to understand the relationships and where to focus their attention or further research.  What this visualization did allow me to interpret is the number of data entry points that were made in connection to each song.  However, in order to achieve this, it required me to play around with the various settings.  Nonetheless, although, I was able to see the number of data entry points connected to each song choice, I was not able to understand the reasoning behind each choice.

Reflect on the political implications of such groupings considering what data is missing, assumed, or misinterpreted.

When reviewing such a visualization tool, the onlooker must view it with caution or a degree of skepticism. Such a tool, from the outside, can appear to be very easily manipulated to meet the needs of the group that presents the data. Although this Stanford group had the best intentions when creating a relationship-linking tool, this same tool can be manipulated to meet the needs of the organization requesting a visualization of their data. This tool could provide individuals with data that can be interpreted to meet their needs or opinions. Likewise, this tool could be manipulated to meet the needs of the group entering the data. As stated on their website, this graphing tool “does not offer models against which to test hypotheses. Instead, tools need to support scholars in building an understanding of the historical material through working with it (Stanford Humanities and Design, n.d.).” Therefore, when using such a tool, one must assess the validity of the raw data entered to have a fair and honest look at the connections between the data points. A person should question where they get their media, the same person should be ready to analyze the data entry points of any one of these visualization tools to make a proper assessment.

Can the reasons for these “null” choices ever be reflected/interpreted in the data?

To a certain degree, the null choices can be reflected in the data through the sizing of the circles. When referencing the circles and connection piece, this program seems similar to the program iMusic uses when setting up an account. The iMusic program can curate the music that appeals to you most.

This curation begins as the curator can choose floating circles.  These floating circles begin with similar sizing.  The circles change size based on your previous selection to the last question.  This Palladio program appears to be similar, as each track, from the Golden Record album that peers more frequently select is reflected by a larger circle. What is appreciated in this data is that the circles will move based on the positioning of other circles.  It is almost like a trance watching them move as you play around with them.

Reference

Stanford Humanities and Design. (n.d.). Palladio. Palladio. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from http://hdlab.stanford.edu/palladio/

Did you rely more on syllables, words, ideas or a combination of all of them?

When completing this assignment, I would say that I relied more on the combination of words and ideas. I did not consider syllables, as this may have been harder for the viewer to guess the title and plot. However, when I thought about the ideas and words, I attempted to view them in combination, as I would consider this task like a game of charades.

This task reminded me of rebus books I would read to my children when they were beginning to read (Bolter, 2001).  I appreciate that the universal symbolism can be understood by many, regardless of language, and that the stylistic nature that comes with formal writing can afford “designers a new typographic freedom” (Bolter, 2001, p. 49).

Did you start with the title? Why? Why not? Did you choose the work based on how easy would it be to visualize? 

I started with the title. I wanted to think about a title that I would be able to translate into emojis. My first attempt would be ⚫️||||oO|||| (this is meant to be black widow) simple enough, but I decided it would be too easy to use. Instead, I decided to nix that idea and came up with my choice, as expressed in emojis. The plot of the film is not overly complicated, as it seems is the case with most ❒busters (this is meant to be block busters). I wanted to keep the emojis simple enough, like a game of charades, where the individual guessing would be able to come close to guessing without growing frustrated. In charades, the game’s object is to guess the clues that are being acted out by your teammates. To maximize chances of success, the clue guesser should try to keep it simple and use words and terms in their simplest form. I did this while also considering that I am not good at interpreting emojis, and it seemed reasonable that others may struggle as well. In addition, I considered that those who may come from different countries may have had the title released in different words than the English version.  Accordingly, it occurred to me to present the universal basic symbols of the title that would likely capture it, regardless of what it may have been called in other languages.

Reference

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. doi:10.4324/9781410600110

*It was my hope that you were able to guess this movie not only by working through the emoji but also by recognizing the subtitle clues I gave in the body of my writing. ????????

Please consider that my original post was attempting to insert emojis into the written portion, however, I have just realized that UBC blogs does not recognize emojis as text and instead inserts question marks.  That is a good example of irony for this assignment.  

Screen capture of speech to text exercise.

Speech to text dictation with comments added.

Task 3  – My notes with guiding questions

How does the text deviate from conventions of written English?

When reading Gnanadesikan’s (2011) thoughts about writing, they noted that “[w]riting is one of the most important human inventions of all time” (p.2). Although these are the written words, through dictation, my specific text deviates from the conventions of writing, as many grammatical errors are present. Thus, even though it is recorded and by all accounts according to Gnanadesikan (2011) should be considered reliable. Someone reading this could not make sense of my thoughts, as this piece of “reliable transmission” (Gnanadesikan, 2011, p. 3) does not have many of structures of writing that would convey more meaningful message.  

As I have had previous experience with such tools, not just my iPhone, I had an understanding there would be many mistakes when it came to how I would dictate my words. For example, I had to refrain from adding the appropriate punctuation when dictating.  Therefore, I am not surprised by such software.   

What is “wrong” in the text? What is “right”?

Wrong:

The text is one long sentence. This text is not scripted and does not contain any coherent and logical thought process.  Only towards the end, can the reader follow a more coherent thought process as I have attempted to play with the software and learn what word will delete text I did not want.

Right:

According to Haas (2013), this text should still be considered part of language as it is material which is “having mass or matter and occupying a physical space” (p.4) and that the tools of writing “have mass, as do written products” (p.4).  This is contrast to Gnanadesikan’s (2011) thoughts, who states it could be ‘lost in translation’ as the story is passed around from one person to another via speech, where the memory of a human is not as reliable.   What this software did do correctly was recognize my pronunciation of conjunctions. The dictation did capitalize all my pronouns “I” without stating, “capital I.”

From my personal experience with dictations software in previous years, this was not always the case, and I am happy to see AI in this software has improved.  

What are the most common “mistakes” in the text, and why do you consider them “mistakes”? 

The dictation did not capitalize any of the words until I told it to. The AI of this software was unable to recognize proper nouns. I consider the lack of capitalization a mistake, as it will not tell the reader if it is a proper noun or pronoun. 

Therefore, without proper grammar or punctuation, one cannot recognize nuances such as “intonation and emotional” (Gnanadesikan, 2011, p. 9), which, if I were speaking, could have presented the listener with a very different story.  

 What if you had “scripted” the story? What difference might that have made?

If I had a scripted story, I would have been able to avoid the long pauses between my thoughts which would not have led to such a random assortment of thoughts dictated into the software. Gnanadesikan (2011) has said that “[w]riting is generally done more deliberately than speaking, so finished written pieces are much more carefully crafted than a typical spoken sentence” (p.5). 

Therefore, if I had a scripted story, would I have been more mindful of my speech and pronunciation, making more effort to pronounce all letters more clearly? However, if I had a script, would I have spoken much faster, which could have hindered the pronunciation of my words and may have led to even more mistakes?  These are questions I have when writing this piece.    

In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?

Oral storytelling can differ vastly from written language. As noted by Gnanadesikan (2011), “the message would be very different by the end” (p.3) as each individual may interpret words or sounds differently. A similar scenario was presented by Lera Boroditsky (2017) in her talk “How the languages we speak shape the way we think.” She explained that there might not be a direct translation from one language to another, thus requiring an intermediary to bridge the gap between the two languages. Therefore, if an oral story was being told to a different language group that may not have similar nuances, would the same meaning be conveyed in the retelling? In addition, oral storytelling is only as good as the individual who tells the story. Their memory may fade, or the words are immediately gone when escaping the original storyteller (Haas, 2013).  

References

Boroditsky, L. (June 2017). [Video]. How the languages we speak shape the way we think.

Gnanadesikan, A. E. (2011).“The First IT Revolution.” In The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the internet. (Vol. 25). John Wiley & Sons (pp. 1-10).

Haas, C. (2013). “The Technology Question.” In Writing technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy. Routledge. (pp. 3-23).

The contents of A MacPherson’s bag.

For this task, I picked the bag I bring to and from work every day.  We are very fortunate; our administration always has a “welcome back” gift at the beginning of every school year. This bag was the first year where the gift has proven helpful year after year. This bag is my go-to carry-all for what I need five out of seven days a week.  It can carry a laptop, plus file folders, and students work without getting wrinkled or damaged. I am always amazed at how much I can fit in this bag. This backpack can even extend at the bottom to afford a deeper pocket. I bring this bag to and from work every day. It carries most of the items needed for me while at work or after. I have redacted out some wording on the items for privacy.

What is in my bag and why do I need to take them with me?

• Keys to my classroom and various filing cabinets and drawers
  • Each filing cabinet and desk drawers have different locks, so I have to carry many keys.
• The pouch contains my necessities such as hair ties, hand cream, Tylenol and ibuprofen, a hairbrush.
  • This pouch comes with me, wherever I go, so I would say that although it is in my backpack, you could easily find it in my weekend day pack.
• The binder contains class lists and my marks.
  • I will generally only carry this binder at the beginning of the year because I have set up many O365 apps for my classes, and I want to make sure I have all the names correct.
• Ziploc bag with headphones
  • These headphones/earbuds let me listen to music or student projects while in a joint office.
• McCafé coffee reward card
  • I drink coffee every morning and would hate to lose out on a free cup of coffee.
• Three masks
  • COVID, need I say anything else?
• Pencil case with pens
  • I do not know why I had this in my backpack, as I have everything in here at home. I will rethink bringing this home in the future.
• Laptop
  • We are a district that is BYOD. Most teachers are issued a laptop from which to work and take with them. This laptop is how I keep in touch with my students and colleagues.
• Rubbermaid container
  • I am always bringing some reusable container home, as it contains my leftovers from the previous night’s dinner.
• Smoothie cup
  • When you have yourself and kids to get ready in the morning, there just isn’t time to drink it all at once.
• Coffee mug
  • I always have a coffee at home but this mug will contain my second cup of the day.
• Reusable shopping bag
  • • On the day of the picture, I had a bag to bring home, as it had brought some supplies to school. As I took this picture, this bag made me a bit sad, as I am disappointed that I cannot go to Trader Joe’s for the moment. Their Vanilla Bean cake mix is my favourite boxed cake mix and a significant reason for shopping there.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that…

These items are all considered text, as in some capacity, they have literal words written on them or are using symbols on how to use them. The stickers on my laptop, which have written text, provide a brief glimpse into my professional experiences and personality.

When viewing these items, such as the binder, laptop, and other items, an “outsider” might believe that I am either a student or individual who must carry many objects, as I have two different versions of bags but each with its advantages.  With only two items considered “typical” technology (headphones and laptop), they represent how I interact with text and technology.  The laptop is an asset with which I can communicate with my students and provide documentation to complete assignments.  This laptop has proven helpful, as it has also taught me how to use speech to text in Word, read aloud in various apps, and help my students use different apps to translate English text to their native language.  Although this one device is just one piece in my bag, it has allowed me to teach all students with varying knowledge or capabilities.  In addition, I have a set of earbuds, although wired ones, that affords me the chance to listen to students’ audio projects while I am in an office with other people.  The paper copy of the McCafe card is not a proper form of technology, but to get this, I had to use technology, a chip reader, and a credit card to purchase the coffee from which this card is attached.  As they are a mix of text and technologies, these items demonstrate that I am an individual who can weave between many digital and written literacies. If you haven’t noticed, I do not have my phone in the photo. At this time, I was using it to take the picture. However, to take the photo, I had to go to my charger upstairs and retrieve it. I feel very fortunate to keep my phone in place, out of sight, and my mind when I come home.

Questions I considered for the above paragraph: 

• How might these items be considered “texts,” and what do they say about you, the places you inhabit, the cultures with which you engage, and/or the activities you take up?
• Thinking about the title of the course, what are the “text technologies” in your bag, if any? What do these items say about how you engage with language and communication?
• What do the items in your bag say about the literacies you have?

What would this same bag have looked like, say, 15 or 25 years ago?

This question was a favourite.  If we are meant to go back in time, I would like to revert to the backpack being called a knapsack.

The year is 2006. My bag would have likely had:  This bag would have been in the style of a ‘messenger bag,’ had many more binders, a lot more paper, a much bigger laptop that would have probably had a USB wired mouse, a much smaller wallet, fewer keys, hair elastic, wired headphones, food containers of some sort.  The bag would not have contained any masks, reusable bags, and no rewards card.

The year is 1996 (yes, that is 25 years ago).  The bag would have been a knapsack.  It would have contained my school lunch, likely in a paper bag with Ziplocs, a wallet with cash (for buying French fries at the school cafeteria), textbooks, an anti-skip Discman, and transit tickets.  However, this knapsack would have had a whole set of necessities to keep me dry had the day called for rain.