ETEC 540

Final Project – Describing Communication Technologies

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Please find the pdf file of my final project below:

Final Project_Winnie Kong

 

I also attached the text version of the project here:

Final Project: Describing Communication Technologies

The Impact of Virtual Labs on Promoting Students’ Scientific Literacy 

Introduction:

       Laboratory activities are an essential part of the process for developing scientific literacy, especially in chemistry, physics, and biology classes in K-12 education. Scientific literacy is a thoughtful citizen that has the capacity to deal with science-related concerns and the concepts of science (OECD, 2019).  Science can be challenging due to amount of new vocabulary words, scientific phenomenon that are unfamiliar to the students, and scientific reactions or molecules unseeable with naked eyes, or reactions that are simply too dangerous to observe.

       With the development of educational technology, as well as the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, virtual labs are more commonly used in online and blended learning among schoolteachers. Nowadays, more students are carrying their personal devices, such as iPads, laptops, smartphones, for school purposes. Virtual lab learning is becoming more popular in the current educational system as a form of tech integration in one’s learning-teaching practice (Bautista & Boone, 2015). The hands-on experiments help to promote students’ conceptual understanding of science and ability to be involved in science issues with problem solving skills that needs critical, logical, and systematic thinking (OECD, 2019). It also helps students to connect scientific concepts and theories to real world problem situations (Cahyani & Setyawati, 2016).

 Educational Implications:

       Digital labs and simulations have been developed in many scientific fields, including physics, biology, chemistry, and earth sciences. They have been used to replace in-person instructions or supplement physical labs for blended learning and flipped classroom. Many studies have found benefits of using virtual labs and simulations for promoting student scientific literacy with inquiry-based learning (Millis et al., 2011; Baker and Verran, 2004; Sommers and Sommers, 2003; Martinez-Jimenez et al., 2003).

      Virtual labs are interactive and online tools, which allow students to perform experiments and get a similar experience with physical labs, such as making observations, collecting and analyzing data, and making conclusions. Simulations can also be used to explain a physical phenomenon but do not necessarily contain an interactive part. They can be useful to offer visualization of invisible phenomena, especially if movement or change is important and hard to see in real life. They are helpful as supporting materials in class or for homework in terms of better conceptual understanding. They can be helpful as prelab preparation, so students become familiar with the lab equipment and techniques. They help replace physical experiments when there’s a lack of resources, in-person instruction is suspended, or the experiment itself is too dangerous or taking too long to perform.

       Virtua labs are often constructed to encourage participation, collaboration, and boost conceptual understanding of a specific field or topic of science to promote student scientific literacy in the topic. The key frameworks support virtual lab in blended learning models are related to Constructivism, Social Cognitive Theory, and Blended Learning. It focuses on four approaches of learning: participatory culture, collaboration, reflection, and multimodality.

      Constructivism is a learning theory which states that rather than being given, knowledge is actively created and represented in learner’s mind (Jonassen, 1991). By practising the lab, students are encouraged to develop their own knowledge system and incorporate new information into their pre-existing knowledge as they encounter new things and reflect on them. At this point, virtual lab emerges as a solution for enhancing the constructive learning as it provides an opportunity for students to “research, inquire, test, seek solutions, wear scientist shoes and deeply reason about the concept of concern” (Tatli & Ayas, 2010).

      The research of Thisgaard and Makransky (2017) found that virtual learning simulations also greatly boost knowledge of evolution when compared to traditional lessons. In terms of social cognitive theory, the virtual learning environment can greatly boost self-efficacy. It can also be utilized as a supplement to traditional educational techniques to stimulate students’ interest in STEM-related careers. High schools can use the simulations’ unique features to give students a realistic preview of career choices while also strengthening their self-efficacy, boosting the likelihood that they would pursue a STEM career in the future (Thisgaard & Makransky, 2017).

       The virtual laboratory is also one of the critical aspects of building a Blended Learning environment. According to the recent study, virtual labs have numerous benefits, including assisting students in developing self-learning and innovative thinking principles as it allows students to design experiments that are not included in the educational curriculum, as well as other experiences that are beyond their educational stage (Abdullah Hussain Assiri et al., 2019). More importantly, through the use of blended learning technology, teachers can conduct lessons and courses in different educational stages and apply these lessons and courses as different virtual labs to students to check their level of mastery of the use and activation of physics lab knowledge (Abdullah Hussain Assiri et al., 2019). On the other hand, students who have access to the simulation software website can practice the lab at any time and from anywhere without risks while also enhancing and developing their knowledge understanding and lab skills.

       In blended learning and distance learning, students will be directed to interact with the virtual labs and simulations as part of the pre-lab activity before they come to in-person classes and labs, or online lessons. This can be considered as the Flipped Classroom model as they will be equipped with a basic understanding of the vocabularies and concepts. They are ready to apply their understanding and skills to physical labs, perform activities in class, answer post-lab questions and ask clarifying questions.

       Blended learning, also known as hybrid learning, is an approach to education that mixes online instructional materials and possibilities for engagement online with traditional place-based classroom methods. In terms of content and delivery, face-to-face classroom practices are mixed with computer-mediated activities. Some students are lacking opportunities for actual lab practices during their online schooling or blended learning. However, the lab applications are indispensable to students because they offer a new dimension to the lessons (Tatli & Ayas, 2010). With the laboratory learning environment, students can discover knowledge freely and build their mind palace constructively.

         A good website providing virtual labs is often a digital space for teachers to introduce the resource for teachers and students. The design principle is to provide them with a series of interactive activities in a constructive environment that can improve their scientific literacy in the constructivism approach. The virtual lab can also be accounted as an element of blended learning which helps teachers with the preparation of lectures. Students often participate in the virtual labs and simulations accompanying the K-12 science curriculum to learn the basics and have a conceptual understanding of the topic. A beneficial resource can often support an engaging, meaningful, and reflective online space that will facilitate the growth and development of our target students, leveraged with direct instructions and lab experience.

Limitations and Future Applications

        Despite the benefits of virtual labs in increasing students’ scientific literacy, many teachers are still reluctant to use them in teaching. It might be due to the lack of resources, the school culture of educational technology integration, teachers’ technological proficiency, or socioeconomic status of the student population. School districts are invited to provide professional development opportunities to science teachers on using virtual laboratory, or any educational technology integration, in science education. In addition, funding should be spent on promoting a school culture of tech integration by equipping with proper devices and fast Internet.

References:

Abdullah Hussain Assiri, E., & Abdulaziz Mohammed Al Shalhoub, S. (2019). Impact of

blended learning in developing the skills of using Virtual Math Labs among postgraduate female students at the College of Education in Riyadh. International Journal of Advanced Research, 7(10), 420–430. https://doi.org/10.21474/ijar01/9845

Baker, N., & Verran, J. (2004). The future of microbiology laboratory classes – wet, dry or in combination? Nature Reviews. Microbiology, 2(4), 338-342. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro868

Bautista, N. U., & Boone, W. J. (2015). Exploring the Impact of Teach METM Lab Virtual

Classroom Teaching Simulation on Early Childhood Education Majors’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 26(3), 237–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10972-014-9418-8

Cahyani, H., & Setyawati, R. W. (2016). Pentingnya Peningkatan Kemampuan Pemecahan

Masalah melalui PBL untuk Mempersiapkan Generasi Unggul Menghadapi MEA. In Seminar Nasional Matematika. 10(1), 151-160.

Climent-Bellido, M. S., Martínez-Jiménez, P., Pontes-Pedrajas, A., & Polo, J. (2003). Learning in Chemistry with Virtual Laboratories. Journal of Chemical Education, 80(3), 346. https://doi.org/10.1021/ed080p346

‌Jonassen, D. H. (1991). Evaluating Constructivistic Learning. Educational Technology, 31(9), 28–33.http://www.jstor.org/stable/44401696

Millis, K.K., Forsyth, C.M., Butler, H., Wallace, P.S., Graesser, A.C., & Halpern, D.F. (2011).

Operation ARIES!: A Serious Game for Teaching Scientific Inquiry. Serious Games and Edutainment Applications. 169-195.

OECD. (2019a). PISA 2018 Science Framework, in PISA 2018 Assessment and Analytical Framework. Paris: OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/b25efab8-en.

Sommers, B. A. & Sommers, R. (2003). A virtual lab in research methods. Teach. Psychol. 30, 171–173

Tatli, Z., & Ayas, A. (2010). Virtual Laboratory applications in Chemistry Education. Procedia -Social and Behavioral Sciences, 9, 938–942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.263

Thisgaard, M., & Makransky, G. (2017). Virtual learning simulations in high school: Effects on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes and implications on the development of STEM Academic and career choice. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00805

 

Link 6: Task 11-Algorithms of predictive text

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[11.3] Algorithms of Predictive Text

Being fluent in both English and Mandarin, I tried predictive texting keyboard from Apple using different platforms. I was surprised to see that the Mandarin keyboard provided me with far more options of words and phrases to use. I was able to compose a sentence that better describes what I really wanted to say. I wonder if it makes a difference in other languages as well.

While Jocelyn only used English, it is interesting that the predictive texting gave away that she is a mom of more than one daughter without even knowing her. It’s probably based on her previous typing habit and words and phrases she used before. It is probably similar to the algorithms social media Apps use to track our browsing habit to know what kind of posts should appear on the homepage as soon as we open the App, so we are more likely to keep clicking and spend more attention on it.

I had similar experience about auto-correct, and I usually find it annoying half of the times. It keeps wanting to correct the acronyms or the Pingyin I used to speak in Mandarin without changing my language input source.

Jocelyn also discussed about the benefits of predictive texting on struggling student writers. In contrast, I have expressed my concern of the ELL students relying too much on this feature instead of improving their own brainstorming and fundamental writing skills, such as spelling, sentence structure, and proper transition words. A couple of them just could not write even a complete sentence with properly capitalization and a period using pen and paper. Sometimes, they asked if they could complete the writing task on their phones as it checks complete capitalizations, punctuations, and spelling for them.

 

Link 5: Task 10 Attention Economy

ETEC 540, Linking Assignment Leave a comment

Linked with Junel Lapinskie

Tasks

I thought I was one of the slowest to complete the game, then I realized a few of my collogues actually didn’t even make it to the end after visiting their blogs. I took a screenshot of the page marked with a timer and someone dancing, assuming it is the end. Again, the image was followed by paragraphs of written reflection favouring reading and writing literacies.

While looking at Junel’s page, she posted multiple screenshots about some key steps throughout the process of the game accompanied by her thoughts. It feels like I’m walking along the game with her while she explains further. I see that she was also annoyed by the constantly popping-up timer clocks as I did.

If I get a chance to do a similar assignment, I would probably use videos. I would be interesting to use software such as Loom to record my screen while I play the game and also use the front camera on my laptop to record my face with a verbal explanation. I thought that would be more engaging for users to see the level of frustration based on my facial expression and my voice and tone. They can experience the game with me and watch how it tricked me and all the mistakes I made.

Link 4: Task 9-Network Assignment Using Golden Record Curation Quiz Data

ETEC 540, Linking Assignment Leave a comment

Linked with Junel Lapinskie.

Tasks

We both chose to use screenshots from Palladio followed with written words to explain. Now I’m reading my post again, I found that this kind of layout is not very user-friendly as they have to constantly scroll up and down to refer to different parts of the images to be able to understand the written text. Using genially again would be easier for the users.

Meanwhile, Junel only chose 2 screenshots: one from all the parameters shown with many nodes representing a track or a member and edges to show their connections. Later, she shared the screenshot of the top 5 choices of tracks without the parameters she used. I wish she could’ve include that in her blog so the audience can replicate the process. I noticed that she actually counted the edges and nodes one by one to see the strengths of each connection. This is due to the unweighted network Palladio uses. We could use the data below to see the numbers of connections. However, visually, the network does not reflect them directly. I wish Palladio could use weighted edges and nodes.

We both agreed that the visual does not reflect the reasons behind any of the choices and we can’t possibly know background of the participants for this survey. I’m actually quite into the field of effective data visualization to see explore how different ways of data representation can add a context and to tell the true stories behind just numbers, nodes, or edges. I saw some fascinating exhibits, which involve the audience to engage and co-create the projects. I wonder if it would be the trend for data scientists to collaborate with artists for a better visualization.

One of my favourite examples of data visualization:

What made me – Dorota Grabkowska & Kuba Kolec, 2012

spatial net data net Data installation interactive Threads complex graph visual complexity

WMM-WEB-4.jpg

spatial net data net Data installation interactive Threads complex graph visual complexity

Link 3: Task 7-Mode Bending

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Linked with Jane Wu

Task 7 – Re-What’s in my bag

When I was reading Jane’s post (I went back to check her original post for Task 1), I made a lot of connections with her. I was also working in a BC offshore school in a southern province of China at the time, but only for a year comparing to her 9 years of service. I chuckled a bit when I saw her package of tissue paper as It was a big problem for me when I forgot to bring tissues to public washrooms in China. Things have changed a lot in the past 15 years though, I would say 90% of public washrooms in China are now providing free toilet paper. I also commented on COVID situation and how convenient the digital payment is in China now in my post. The only thing you need to go around in China now are your keys, ID card and your smart phone. People rarely carry around wallets anymore. I brought this habit to Vancouver as well by using Apple Pay instead of carrying around actual bank cards. A lot of places even accept Alipay and Wechat Pay. So much more convenient!

I noticed that Jane also took a picture of everything in her bag followed by paragraphs of explanation in words in her original post. One difference I liked was that she listed out all the items in her bag right under neath the picture just in case it is not clear. It is interesting to see how bags (to me, is a very personal item) reflect personal, cultural identities and are able to connect to others in this sense. It makes me feel like I start to get to know Jane even I have never met her in person. It made me turn to look at the mode-bending version of her bag.

She also chose to use genially to add multimodalities to her post. I liked how she added notes on her original picture and created the interactive buttons so her audience can click and listen to her voice. I think it gives more of a personal touch about Jane on top of her personal items in her backpack. I also liked how she noted what had changed in her bag over the last few months, so did her life.

I noticed she switched from teaching to working for an ed tech company. I wonder what has changed to make her switch from paperless note-taking using iPads to pen and notebook. I tried taking notes using devices, but it just doesn’t work. I always carry a multi-colour ball-point pen and some kind of paper (lined paper, back of scrap paper, half-broken notebook, etc) to write down daily to-do’s and random thoughts. Even thought I would misplace them here and there and it makes my place super disorganized.

I do hope she could include more modes in her genially interactive image besides written text and voice messages. Maybe add some videos, website links, images, etc.

Link 2: Task 6-Emoji Story

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Linked with Emily Wu

Task 6 – An Emoji Story

I used to play guess the movie title or song title game using emoji with my cousin all the time, especially during Christmas time. We also challenge each other for guessing the famous Chinese proverbs represented by various emoji’s. It is always the other way around, from emoji’s to words. And I remember I would try different strategies, such as rhyming words, homophones, meaning represented by one or multiple emoji’s, etc. I really struggled when I had to translate a movie, filled with characters, dialogues, different plots, into a series of emoji’s.

Same with Emily, I also started creating my emoji story using the webpage and realized there were limited selections, so I also switched to my phone. Layout is very simple for both blogs.  Visual wise, we both chose to make a screenshot of the emoji story and post it on the blog with written reflections on the bottom. This makes the audience have to switch back and forth between the visual and the blog text.

We both started with title. I thought mine was quite straightforward as long as one has watched the movie. I couldn’t really guess her title right away, but I noticed that Emily listed out all the characters in the movie at the beginning, this reminded me that the intro songs in the beginning of a movie usually list out the main casts as well. She also used “+” signs to use multiple emojis to describe a single character. I also listed out the main characters in the title, but without giving too much detail for each one.

I see from her reflection that she had trouble describing the entire movie so she had to omit some parts of the plot and only included the major event. I’m not sure how she did the process, if she remembered the key events from her memory and she used emoji to write out the idea straight away. For me, I actually managed to find a script for the entire movie and I was trying to translate the key words into emoji so I could have a fuller picture. What I noticed was I was literally typing the key words and trying to see if a suitable emoji pops up. This actually reminded me of my personal experience leaning a different language. When my English proficiency is low, and all I did was think, read, and write in Mandarin then translate my best into English. I remember my English teacher used to say, the moment that he knew he became proficient in English was when he realized he was thinking in his mind and talking to himself in English, instead of Mandarin. This makes me feel like my written words-to-emoji translation speaks to the fact that I’m not proficient to express my ideas not using words at all.

Link 1: Task 1-What’s in my bag

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Linked with Liana Ranallo

What’s In My Bag

For this task, I simply took a picture of everything from my bag laying on the floor, followed with an extensive list of text-based explanations. It is very straightforward and probably the least creative. My users are just expected to look at the picture and scroll down the webpage to read the words.

Later, I realized this form of presentation privileges reading and writing literacies and assumes my audience can all read and write at the level of my text expression. It ignored those who might be visually impaired, who do not speak English, and those do not share the same level of knowledge. I tried to add less words, so the webpage doesn’t look too busy. However, when I looked at Liana’s image for everything from her workbag made with Genially, hers already looks more engaging for the audience adding the interactive feature.

From just looking at the image, I guessed that she’s also a teacher, and later confirmed I was right. I like how users can hover over their mouse and click on the buttons on each individual items to see a more detailed explanation. However, by using this format, she assumed her users are equipped with certain levels of digital literacies to know they should hover over the mouse to the buttons to click to see the expanded windows. In addition, I thought it would be more engaging if she could include some audio and visual components, such as videos, her own voice, images; while she used just words to explain each item.

Another reason why I chose her site was because I actually ended up creating an interactive image using Genially later in Task 7 myself for mode-bending purposes. In my interactive image, I tried to include different modes of audio, video, images, animations as a form of digital storytelling, to be more inclusive of my audience who assumed to have this level of digital literacy.

I also felt connected to Liana’s post as we both used the same theme on WordPress. It’s a fairly old fashion blog format, but it is well-suited for word-intensive posts.

Task 12-Speculative Futures

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Part 1. Utopian Speculative Fiction

A typical school day for Sean, a high school student, in 2050

8:00 AM

The alarm from Sean’s personal AI system rings. Sean gets up, eats breakfast, and gets ready for school. It’s optional to physically go to school, unless you have PE classes, or it is requested by your teachers. But Sean enjoys seeing his friends in person, so he chooses to go.

8:30 AM

Sean drives to school. Traffic is quiet and roads are not busy as work-from-home or study-from-home is the norm now except for essential service workers.

9:00 AM

Sean arrives at school and gets ready to go to history class. School seems very empty as nobody likes to physically come to early morning classes.

9:05-10:20 Period 1

During today’s Art class, they get to go on a virtual field trip. Ms. Smith uses virtual reality to show a simulation so that the class gets to tour the Louvre. They get to examine the art works very closely with explanations from AI.

10:20-10:35 Break

Sean realizes none of his best friends has come to school, so he stays in his classroom and plugs in his headsets and goggles to “meet” and chat with his friends in a virtual space they designed and created together. It is a beachside with different kinds of buildings and their favourite anime characters. A couple of his friends are still lying in bed. It’s like their secret place they hang out all the time.

10:35-11:45 Period 2

During Sean’s study block, he sat at a table at his school’s study space as he has to work on a group project with his English classmates.

Only one of them shows up in person. The rest three appears at the table using VR in a few minutes. It’s a productive meeting.

11:45-12:30 Lunch

Sean orders lunch from the cafeteria through his personal AI assistant and it is prepared and delivered to his table as soon as he enters the cafeteria and sits down at a table.

He is a little disappointed that his friends choose to stay home for that day’s class. He is hoping to have lunch with them at the table and play frisbee after that.

12:30-1:45 Period 3

In Sean’s biology class, they use VR to act like Read Blood Cells in the blood stream, which travels through a human heart. They get to experience the pumping from the inside and get a better sense how a heart works. It is way easier for them to memorize the on-way traffic system for blood flow as they act as RBCs and go through the whole process inside a heart. It also helps them to understand how the heart valves work and how every heartbeat comes from.

1:50-3:00 Period 4

In Sean’s physics class, they have been talking about astronomy lately. As a result, Mr. Lam initiated a VR so the class get to visit Jupiter’s Moons. The class is able to “travel” to the space to stand, walk and touch the surface of the moons. Mr. Lam, standing on Jupiter’s moon, explains how Jupiter and the moons formed while the scene changes according to his explanation. It is quite a visual experience for everyone.

3:00-11:00 PM

School ends and Sean drives back home. The roads are empty as usual. He plays video games with his friends using VR again.

After dinner, Sean works on his English projects for a bit as well as his biology homework to create a simulation of blood flow in human heart using VR.

11:00 PM

Sean goes to bed and hopes to see his friends tomorrow at school so they can play frisbee.

 

Part 2. Dystopian Speculative Fiction:

The “Perfect” Education

In the future, there are no “schools” with concrete walls or subject teachers. There’s no set curriculum about what kids need to learn. There is ONE administrating body deciding what is good and needed for the entire human population. They make all the rules, and they want to make sure they can get use of everyone’s talent as much as possible to achieve what they want.

Every child will be genetically assessed even before they were born to decide what they might be good at: fine art, engineering, astronomy, literature, politics, etc. Once their talent is assessed, a teacher will be assigned to only one child when they reach school age, around 6-7 years old. The teacher, an actual human, will change their physical appearance to be the same age as the child. The teacher will mentor the child and grow up with them together outside of family time. The teacher, or the mentor, will guide the child through their life one-on-one, teaching them social emotional skills as a friend, show them how to solve real life problems using the skills have learnt, whether if it is math, science, arts, etc.

In this way, the government can also make sure no child accidentally slips to the wrong direction. They are able to ensure that the teachers teach the kids exactly how and what they want. For example, if they think the country needs more soldiers, they will direct the teachers to guide the kids in that particular direction.

Task 11 – Algorithms of Predictive Text

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The English Version of Predictive Text using Twitter:

 

The Mandarin Chinese Version of Predictive Text using Microblog:

 

Reflection: 

I personally don’t rely on predictive texting too much so I decided to try it in both English and Mandarin. I would have read those kinds of statements in people’s blogs or microblogs, such as some of the motivational quotes. They both don’t sound like how I would normally text using my phone, especially the English post. To be honest, I rarely post anything except updating my moments with friends I actually know in person. Both statements here sounded a bit more formal than I would normally post. This reminds me that I actually use smart compose a lot more while writing formal emails. I often would use the prompts popped up while I was composing the emails for booking an appointment, writing the closing sentence, etc.

I also noticed the difference between using predictive texting in English and Mandarin. English keyboard only provided me with three options, mostly just words. The limitation of choices and also English not being my first language might have resulted in extra thinking time while I used predictive texting in English. I found myself struggling to make a grammatically correct sentence. On the other hand, the Mandarin keyboard gave me way more options of words and phrases to choose from. I was able to scroll left and right for a better way to express myself.

Also, the reason why I tried two different platforms is to try to see if that affects what the predictive texting give me. It turns out that it’s just Apple’s keyboard and I came up with relatively same choices using both platforms. Nowadays, even upper intermediate school teachers encourage their students to type their good copy of writing and proof read using Word. It is very useful for its autocorrect feature to help the ELL students with misspelled words. However, sometimes the suggested changes and the red underlines can be very distractive and may not be better.

In my own experience, my students don’t even rely on laptop that much for writing anymore, more on their phones instead, especially the younger ones. When I was teaching in a BC offshore school in Asia, 70% of my students writing time in English was on their phones, messaging each other, and the rest 30% would be at school using pen and paper. As a result, the autocorrect and predictive text features have a massive impact on their ability and style to write. I often find them very stuck when they were asked to hand write a piece of writing, even as a draft. I’m not sure if the technology is helping or slowing them down from practicing the correct spelling and sentence structures for writing. And if they are able to learn how to write in English using the autocorrect and predictive text features? If yes, are they able to transfer those skills to academic writing eventually?

Weekly Task 10 – Attention Economy

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I might be one of the slowest to complete this game while frantically clicking everywhere on the page. I haven’t played a game which is this frustrating for a while. To be honest, I do like to play these kinds of games, not about an interface necessarily, but like solving mystery games which requires a slight brain twist. However, it almost feel like every single design of User Inyerface is meant to trick or frustrates me. It makes me think all the different ways we got trained about things like how to create a profile, where and what to click, what each button is usually used for, etc.

First of all, I had a lot of trouble getting into the game. Refreshed the page a couple times, and clicked everywhere on the page, including the green button “no” (which draws my immediate attention), the grey and tiny letters of “click here” and “go” (which is harder to see if the webpage designer put hidden messages there in this kind of colour). I still have no clue how I got in.

Later, I was stuck on the creating profile page for a while. It was annoying that I had to delete the letters in the text boxes before I was able to type my own information. The instructions for password were not given at the first place and I didn’t seem them until later as they were hidden on the bottom. The ticking clock and the 1,2,3,4 were very distractive as the main focus on the page. I feel pressured to try to fill it quickly, instead of carefully create a safe password. The clock also constantly locked the page and it took me a few tries to figure out how to unlock it. During the process, I even tried the unhelpful help feature and just ended up sending it to the bottom.

I went through the rest of the game pretty smoothly. I laughed when I saw the “unselect all” box near the end of the list when I was un-clicking every single box to delete the random items. Also, choosing the right image to verify that I was an actual human part was funny too. I sometimes struggle with this type of verification questions when I’m using other websites. My instruction was to choose the images with glasses, and I was given pictures of reading glasses, sunglasses, buildings made of glasses, glasses of wine, glasses of water, and empty glasses. The instruction was not precise and was misleading.

Although, I do like one feature of this game. Instead of scrolling right down to the bottom of the terms and conditions to click the “I agree” button, it forced me to slowly go down the information and I actually found myself reading more than half of it. Maybe this is how web page designers need to do for the other webpages.

This game showed how we got trained by filling out hundreds of these forms on the other websites and I got frustrated when none of that worked. It also makes me reflect that I need to be more cautious in the future when I use any sites. It indicates that why it is necessary and ethical for web designers to have clear instructions and information for web consumers to understand as it is so easy to be misleading.