The first post which I felt a connection to came from my classmate Analesa who wrote about her Task 3 experience while using the Talk-to-Text feature.\u00a0 Here is a link her post:<\/p>\n
This was my response to Analesa’s post: https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/54064c\/2021\/10\/03\/week-3\/<\/a><\/p>\n Bonjour Analesa,<\/p>\n Your experiences using talk-to-text technology were similar to mine. Missing punctuation, misspelled words, and really a lot of the context from the story which doesn\u2019t get missed when speaking face-to-face.<\/p>\n What stood out to me in your analysis was something short, but vitally important:<\/p>\n \u201cAnother difference that exists is the value put on the type of storytelling. Indigenous cultures value oral storytelling and it is a significant part of most Indigenous cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up on the West Coast on Canada and living within the very strong and proud indigenous communities, oral story telling is the cornerstone of their culture. Written histories were never kept, and throughout the colonization of Canada, languages were banned and most of the physical artifacts which had any meaning to indigenous groups were either confiscated or destroyed.<\/p>\n But what lived on through the forced change of language were the stories. In his 2003 Massey Lecture, Thomas King notes \u201cThe truth about stories is that\u2019s all we are\u201d (CBC, 2003). Once you have the honour of hearing a story, it can\u2019t be taken from you like physical objects or beat out of you like a language.\u00a0 It can passed on to another person who can keep the story alive and pass it on to someone else.<\/p>\n While living in Prince Rupert for the past 7 years, I have had the honour of welcoming in many Ts\u2019msyen elders into my classroom to share local \u201cadawx\u201d (stories) to students about a variety of subjects including salmon, weather, and celestial objects such as the sun and the moon. These adawx are some of the only things that have remained from this area over the last several thousand years. That\u2019s why these adawx are so powerful and treasured when shared with my students. Though the stories may slightly changed how they are told from person to person, the messages remain the same.<\/p>\n As you also rightly point out \u201cIn general, Western and European cultures tend to value written storytelling more than oral.\u201d For many reasons many of the adawx have never been put to paper, which sometimes makes it difficult to share with students as you need to arrange a time with a particular elder who has the right to share the story. Although it may be challenging for scheduling purposes, fear of losing control to whomever publishes the stories is always on the mind of the local Indigenous Education Department. Over the last few hundred years the Ts\u2019msyen have watched colonialists come and take nearly everything they have known as valuable, so I can\u2019t blame them if the are extremely carful how some of their last items of value of treated and shared.<\/p>\n Reference<\/span><\/p>\n Canadian Broadcast Company. 2003.\u00a0 The Truth About Stories: Part 1.\u00a0 CBC.ca.\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/player\/play\/2398900256<\/a><\/p>\n _____________________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n The second post I am choosing to highlight is one from Angela.\u00a0 She was completing Task #5 and creating a digital story with Twine, which she have never used prior to this class.\u00a0 This is her original Blog Post: https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/angelamhluk\/2021\/10\/10\/20\/<\/a><\/p>\n The following is my response to her post:<\/p>\n Bonjour Angela,<\/p>\n I can understand your feelings about not particularly liking this type of text, as I am more of a fan of non-fiction myself. But what I have come to learn over the last few years is there are some major educational benefits for students when using software such as Twine to create stories.<\/p>\n I was fortunate to be introduced to Twine back in 2017 when my employer sent me to a Professional Development opportunity set up by the Province of BC with Microsoft in Vancouver. At this Pro D session, dozens of educators from across the province were learning about the educational benefits of computational thinking strategies which were being added to the the provincial curriculum.<\/p>\n Programs like Twine allow students to move from just ideating like a computer (computational thinking), to actually putting these coding skills into practice (computational participation). As UBC Professor Dr. Jennifer Jensen notes, through computational participation \u201cyou don\u2019t have to know how to code, but you need to understand what code does.\u201d (PDCEUBC, 2020). Furthermore, Jensen & Droumeva (2017, p. 221) found that using programs similar to Twine \u201callow kids to practice applying key computational thinking constructs such as variables, operations, functions and conditionals.\u201d It is a fallacy to think that every contemporary students comes born with this skill set. These skills need to be taught, developed, and practiced.<\/p>\n Finally, there are still noted gender differences when it comes to confidence and attitude with using computers. For a variety of reasons girls tend to have less time and access to forms of technology at home which allow them to fail and learn in a safe environment. The classroom then becomes the most important environment to receive computational literacies and skills training. (Jensen & Droumeva, 2017, p. 222)<\/p>\n References<\/span><\/p>\n Jenson, J., & Droumeva, M. (2017). Revisiting the media generation: Youth media use and computational literacy instruction. E-Learning and Digital Media, 14(4), 212-225.\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/2042753017731357<\/a><\/p>\n Professional Development & Community Engagement \u2013 University of British Columbia. (2020, Feb 12). Computational Participation with Dr. Jennifer Jensen. Video [YouTube].\u00a0https:\/\/youtu.be\/cCtiQlPMnJ8<\/a><\/p>\n ____________________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n The third post that I connected with was Grant\u2019s Emoji Task, found here: https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540dgm\/2021\/10\/17\/task-6-an-emoji-story\/<\/a><\/p>\n Grant chose to write out the script for a series I only watched a few months earlier (Ted Lasso).\u00a0 Grant\u2019s ability to choose his emojis with precision, made it easy for me to recognize the show and plot.\u00a0 As Grant notes in his blog post, \u201csuch icons are meant to put the verbal text in context, as the writer tries to enforce a univocal interpretation on prose that is otherwise open to many interpretations.\u201d (Bolter, 2001, p.72)\u201d<\/p>\n I would agree on the point that there can be many interpretations when trying to read emojis.\u00a0 Some of the emoji stories I read from the collection that our class created were difficult to pick out, mostly because without actually knowing the complete plots of the particular stories being shared, certain symbols have no meaning.\u00a0 If I had never seen the series Ted Lasso on TV, I\u2019m not quite sure I would have correctly picked it out from Grant\u2019s emoji story.\u00a0 Although images, such as emojis, are always specific, full of meaning, and can pass on ideas, interpreting such images to their full extent is greatly aided by words and context.<\/p>\n As Kress\u2019 notes \u201cSpeech and writing tell the world; depiction shows the world (2005. p. 16).\u201d \u00a0I would argue that in the 21st<\/sup> century, the visual medium is more powerful than the spoken or written medium.\u00a0 As the world becomes more connected through the power of the Internet, the power of the image becomes more dominant as billions of them are passed across all parts of the globe.\u00a0 Language matters less, but in the end, still matters!<\/p>\n I also asked Grant about his experience when reading other people\u2019s emoji stories?\u00a0 I know correctly selected my emoji story, but I wondered if he’s already seen \u201cNo Time To Die\u201d? Would he have selected it correctly if he hadn\u2019t already seen the movie?<\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n Kress (2005), Gains and losses:\u00a0 New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning.\u00a0 Computers and Composition<\/em>, Vol. 2(1), 5-22.<\/p>\n ____________________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n The fourth post I made a connection with was from Karen Wang’s Mode-Bending task, found here: https:\/\/karenw0801.wixsite.com\/mysite\/post\/week-7-mode-bending-what-is-in-your-bag<\/a><\/p>\n I believe Karen’s mode bending exercise was a complete success.\u00a0 After reading her initial \u2018What\u2019s in my Bag\u201d post https:\/\/karenw0801.wixsite.com\/mysite\/post\/task-1-what-s-in-your-bag<\/a> where she simply detailed what was in her purse, but I gained a totally different perspective by watching her mode-bending video.<\/p>\n By adding a video with her voice, and including some other pictures to gain references to her life in Taiwan, through this transformative practice (New London Group, 1996) the post became something completely different to her original post.\u00a0 I would argue that she, as the learner, took control of the overt instruction of the task (New London Group, 1996).\u00a0 She chose what extra photos to share, what pieces of information from your personal to share, and what sort of meaning and connections they have to you in your life.<\/p>\n I also feel that through her video and explanation of how important 7-11\u2019s are to life in Taiwan helped me reconsider my own presuppositions with a fresh set of eyes about what 7-11\u2019s can be (Dobson & Willinsky, 2009).\u00a0 Having grown up in North America for my entire life, 7-11\u2019s were just corner store to get a slurpee and candy.\u00a0 After listening to her explanation, they appear to be much more, including a place to purchase concert tickets, pay bills, or do some photocopying.\u00a0 Nowhere near what I had in mind originally when I saw the bill in her original post.<\/p>\n Finally, I like that she flipped the video to something of a game where people can use the items within her bag and guess what Karen’s job is.\u00a0 Not exactly what was in your original post, but something that seems suitable in this new video context.<\/p>\n References<\/u><\/p>\n Dobson, T.M. & Willinsky J. (2009). Digital literacy. In D.R. Olson and N. Torrance (Eds)\u00a0The\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Cambridge handbook of literacy<\/em>\u00a0(286-312) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n The New London Group.\u00a0 (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures.\u00a0 Harvard Educational Review<\/em>\u00a066<\/em>(1), 60-92.<\/p>\n _______________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n The fifth post I made a connection with was from Maurice, who posted about our Golden Record Task, which can be found here:\u00a0https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540texttech\/task-eight\/<\/a><\/p>\n Here is my response to his post:<\/p>\n Bonjour Maurice,<\/p>\n I too loved the experience of learning more about Voyager and it\u2019s encapsulated Golden Record, as I\u2019m a big fan of everything space.\u00a0 I agree with you that Sagan and his contemporaries had an impossible task to choose songs and sounds which fully encompass what it is to live on Earth.\u00a0 Many of your songs were ones that I myself chose including \u201cDark was the Night\u201d by Blind Willie Johnson, \u201cNight Chant\u201d by Navajo Indians, and Beethoven\u2019s Fifth Symphony.<\/p>\n What I wondered in my own task was given all these years later, if a NASA group were to complete a similar task, would they choose any different songs or sounds?\u00a0 If so, which ones, and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sadly, what stood out to me most from your post was your reasoning why you didn\u2019t select the Chuck Berry song!\u00a0 I chose \u201cJohnny B. Goode\u201d as one my song selections, but after now reading the article<\/a> which you shared, I definitely have a different impression of Chuck Berry.\u00a0 And his song \u201cMy Ding A Ling\u201d doesn\u2019t really have that playful context anymore.<\/p>\n Merci,<\/p>\n Mike McD<\/p>\n __________________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n The sixth post which I felt a connection came from DeeDee’s “What’s in Your Bag?” Post, found here:\u00a0https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ddperrott\/2021\/09\/17\/what-is-in-your-bag\/<\/a><\/p>\n This is my response to her post:<\/p>\n Bonjour DeeDee,<\/p>\n I think what stood out to me the most about you post was not so much the items within the bag, but how many iterations that your bag has gone through in 30 years.\u00a0 From being a travel bag in Europe, to school bag for university, to a mom bag anything from diapers to Nintendos, and now teacher bag \u2026 that leather bag must have some stories to tell!<\/p>\n I also like your reflection about the different types of technology that bag has seen and held over the years from CD players, to notebooks and pens, and laptop computers.\u00a0 It makes me reflect on some of the different types of technologies that my own previous bags have held, which is something I didn\u2019t mention within my own assignment.\u00a0 Sadly, I had to retire my old backpack a couple of years ago, as the wear and tear finally caught up with it.\u00a0 It too had seen man different types of technologies including CD players, MP3 players, DVD players, a leapfrog entertainment system for my daughter, along with a cell phone, and perhaps the odd alcoholic beverages or two as well!<\/p>\n Thinking about my new bag, I wonder what types of technology it will hold over the next twenty plus years?\u00a0 Where will the future take us?\u00a0 Or will the changes simply come through the ever-changing mobile devices which we already can\u2019t do without?<\/p>\n Merci,<\/p>\n Mike McD<\/p>\n ___________________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n