The posts to all 6 of my links can be found on this page below. Overall it was super engaging reading through my classmates’ tasks and exploring their take on the tasks. I appreciate how each task gave us freedom to present our post how we like it. For example in the Mode-bending task it was so lovely to see the different forms of media my classmates used to revamp their original “what’s in my bag” task. When approaching this assignment I took the time to look through my classmates’ posts and participated in the activities where possible (e.g., playing a game, figuring out the emoji story, read through a digital book, going back to listen to the songs to see what songs my classmates chose). I took into consideration of the reflection questions situated in our linking assignment criteria and answered them where applicable, but I have also shared my thoughts on the posts; what stood out to me, how they are similar to my posts, and how they differ.
Linking Assignment Site 6
Linking to my classmate’s Marie’s post: Task 12 – Speculative Futures.
For our final task Marie has chosen to create a game to present her task. I love that her take on this task focuses more on the user than the author. In other posts we see our classmates share their ideas on what a utopian and dystopian educational society would look like in 30 years. In Marie’s game, she provides a question with 3 choices to answer from. Depending which question we decide to answer the game will tell us if we chose a utopian or dystopian society. The game allows users to pick the answer they think is the most correct and makes the most sense and the answer will tell us which society we chose (similar to a personality test).
Sharing my experience with the game, after a few questions I started to notice a pattern in which answer would signify a utopian and dystopian society. I found that answers related to technology surrounded a utopian society. Marie’s thoughts to what she portrays a utopian and dystopian society is very similar to how I perceived it. We all know that a utopian society involves a perfect, happy, and problem-less society. In the game, a utopian society would include the most advanced technological device, everyone is happy, and not a single problem would exist.
Our posts differ where my task is embedded into my final project while Marie’s post is on its own. I decided to go in depth of what the educational system would look like 30 years from now in a dystopian and utopian perspective through my final project. I have also explored the task in a first person point of view, reflecting on my ideas and opinions. This is also another aspect where Marie and my post differs, as her site has a privilege that involves user interaction which is her game. What I love about having mini games embedded in websites is that it encourages engagement and motivation for the user.
Linking Assignment Site 5
Linking to my classmate’s Joseph’s post: Task 10 – Attention Economy
I really appreciate the approach Joseph chose for his Task. While a few of our classmates (including myself) expressed our frustration with the User Inyerface game, Joseph took on a more “glass half full” approach and expressed his enjoyment with the game. He points out a really important aspect of human behaviour and how many of us consumers have been conditioned to follow certain patterns on the Internet. This also reminds me of the idea of the concept of usability from ETEC 511 when designing tools, especially learning tools. Woolgar’s (1990) article mentions the dangers “configuring the user” when designing a tool because the system will create a set of actions that predicts what the user will do.
I recall during one of my undergrad courses that my prof mentioned how many of us will overlook the terms and conditions and by default click “okay” without knowing what we have agreed to. When we don’t see these default features on an application, we start to question the accessibility and usability of the interface and this game provides an excellent example of it. Joseph brought up another valid example of the dangers when downloading programs. At times when we want to download a program and the system asks which version or type we want to install, if I’m not familiar with the program (which I am usually not) I will by default click the one that is recommended for us. However, this can be dangerous if we accidentally downloaded a virus or malware into our computer. A few years ago I installed Norton security onto my devices that passively scans for malware and if it detects a shady website or program, it will warn me ahead of time and asks me to confirm if I still want the program/website to be installed. It serves as an additional level of comfort but definitely not something I am immune to and should always be careful with what kind of websites and programs I’m installing.
References:
Woolgar, S. (1990). Configuring the user: The case of usability trials. The Sociological Review, 38, 58-99.
Linking Assignment Site 4
Linking to my classmate Alan’s post: Task 8 – Golden Record Curation.
I appreciate that Alan’s selection of his 10 songs followed a set of criterion; if the song was instrumental, vocal, or culturally diverse. He also included the song purpose; if it describes a human or Earth type of story.
Some of the similarities that both our posts contains is we both first listened to all the songs and and then narrowed down our selections to only 10 songs. Since there were so many beautiful songs to choose from it was difficult to immediately narrow down my song selection to 10. I first listened and chose a set of songs, then went back and re-listened to them and chose the ones that fit best with the theme I had which was songs that expressed exploration and nature vibes. Where Alan and my posts differ is Alan took it another step forward by categorizing the different song types. His post provided a type of culture literacy that allows individuals who visit this site and presented with a type of playlist. Here are a set of songs if you preferred to listen to instrumental. For those who want to listen to cultural or vocal type songs there are separate playlists for that as well. On top of these playlists Alan included a description of each of his 10 songs which is a type of content-authoring that he presents in his post and mine does not. I appreciate that the description allows users to read through the songs and figure out the type of song without having to listen to all of them.
Linking Assignment Site 3
Linking to my classmate Jade’s post: Task 7 – Mode-bending.
Jade’s take on the Mode-bending task was super intuitive for me as I really appreciate her re-design of Task 1. While many of our classmates took on a podcast type of route for this assignment, she created a digital book. The content of the book consists of the items she carries in her bag along with the purpose of why she brings those specific items. Further her book was very interactive as it also included many multimedia features for users to explore with (from a small activity to a video).
Jade used Book Creator to create her assignment while I used Powtoon to create mine. What differs from my assignment is the type of literacies we chose to represent in our re-designed assignment. Jade’s digital book presents reading and writing literacies as it requires her audience to read the content in the book and be able to understand it in order to complete the activity. My video contains media literacy as it presents itself as an “advertisement” and requires my audience to understand the message I attempt to convey. Another tool that I appreciate Jade including in her digital book is the interactive activity which is a great way to facilitate learning. Thinking back to a time during COVID-19 where all learning and teaching was conducted online, many books were unattainable if they were not available online. This digital book is a great alternative for educators who are still working online or within a hybrid environment. It adds a third dimension to books (from text to audio to video) which gives creators endless ideas depending on what Educational field they are surrounded in.
Linking Assignment Site 2
Linking to my classmate Winnie’s post: Task 5 – Twine: Personality Test
I found Winnie’s take on the Twine Task to be particularly interesting because she choose to create a personality test rather than a game or story. The personality test consists of 4 questions and each question provides 3 options to choose from. Based on your answers the system will produce a response about your personality. She mentioned that this personality test was specifically catered to her students as a way to check in with their mental health.
What I love about Winnie’s Twine is that each page she created gave the user a choice. That was a challenge I encountered when creating my Twine as I took on a story based route, and often times I struggled with creating choices for my audience to choose from. As mentioned Winnie’s purpose in creating this personality test is a way for students to share their mental health state without feeling pressured or invaded. One literacy that her Twine presents and mine does not have is cultural literacy. Not through a specific cultural but through communication and behaviour. Having the correct tools to effectively communicate with our students is what allows students to feel safe and comfortable sharing within their classrooms.
Linking Assignment Site 1
Linking to my classmate Jacey’s post: Task 1 – What’s in my bag.
I found the items in Jacey’s bag to be very similar to my bag. For one we carry many toiletries with me including Advil, chapstick, hair ties and clips, as well as masks. We both used the UBC WordPress site to display our tasks for this course. I really appreciate how Jacey went into specific detail of each of the items she carries in her bag and why she carries them. Items such as Science lab supplies and Naloxone kit are not are commonly found when comparing to our other classmates’ bags, but they play an important role in Jacey’s everyday life.
Based on our experiences, what differs between Jacey and I is where we grew up and the type of individuals we interact with. For Jacey, she grew up in Saskatchewan and carries a tick-removing tool with her as her geographical area is more prone to ticks compared to where I live. Here in Vancouver, B.C. I am much more likely to carry and use an umbrella rather than a tick-removing kit. Second, Jacey works with an older age group and carries a special kind of First Aid kit (Naloxone kit) which is specific for students who uses substances. This demonstrates that even though we are both educators we work in a very different sub-field as the students I work with are generally younger and are not involved with substances (at least not to an extreme level).