Visual representation of data:

• At first, it seems very messy and unorganized with whole bunch of unweighted nodes and edges. 

Filter by source:

• Music selection of each source

• It allows you to see how many and who else chose the same piece of music if you click into the specific target (piece). However, it is an unweighted network of all the undirected nodes and edges and do not allow visual differentiation directly from looking at the graph. Also, it’s a bit frustrating that you can’t click on the nodes and edges on the graph directly to trace the hyperlinks.
• 

• If two sources chosen, it is able to show a connection between these two sources. For example, Track 3, 11, 13, and 21 are the common choices between Jade Lee and Tamara Jabbour. However, when more than 2 sources were chosen, it was a bit hard to spot the common choice among them. Again, I wish it could use weighed edges and also highlight or enlarge the size of the common nodes for the visual representation.

• 
• When you choose a specific track, it shows who in the class has made the same choice.
• 

Communities:

• I’m not quite sure how the communities were created. My guess is that is a group of sources with most similar music choices. From the graph, it is hard to predict the reasons behind the common choices.
• 

After listening to the Voyager’s Golden Record, researching about the background information, and reading people’s comments about each piece, I chose the following 10 tracks for my playlist:

1. Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
2. Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
3. Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
4. Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
5. Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
6. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
7. Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
8. China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
9. Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
10. Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20

While I was listening to it, I was curious to know why and how they picked these particular 27 tracks to be sent to the space. It reminded me of this week’s reading about selecting content based on power and authority (Apple, 1992). It seems like the Golden Record project initiated in Western society and was lead by middle-upper class, causation scientists, such as Carl Sagan. Does their selection of music truly a representation of Earth’s sound from all culture? When they have decided these tracks to on go the record, what are we not including? “Why can we afford to lose” if those end up being the only proof of music left from the Earth after humanity disappears? (Brown University, 2017)

I’m trying to pick and choose a variety of music based on my listening preferences as an East Asian living in the western society for the past decade. I’m also trying to choose pieces that are more likely to represent the cultural diversity of humans. In addition, just like what the 20kHz Podcast Channel mentioned, the aliens might only be able to hear high/low pitch sound, or no sound at all but only the rhythms.

References:

Apple, M. W. (1992). The text and cultural politics. Educational Researcher, 21(7), 4-19.

Brown University. (2017). Abby Smith Rumsey: “Digital Memory: What Can We Afford to Lose?”

https://view.genial.ly/62c19630ebf04f001ddbe597/interactive-image-interactive-image

References:

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

Dobson, Teresa M., and John Willinsky. “Digital Literacy.” The Cambridge Handbook of Literacy. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Reflection: 

I use emoji’s or meme’s all the time when I’m chatting with friends using my phone. Reading about this task first reminded me of the Christmas song emoji quizzes and some other emoji pictionary quizzes that I would compete with my cousin all the time.

This task was a lot harder than I thought as we were only allowed to use emoji’s, not a combination of both words and emoji’s. I was originally going to create an emoji story about my favourite crime shows. Later, I figured there were too many characters and individual stories and it would be extremely hard. As a result, I switched to this one.

I started with the title and I worked very hard on it as I thought it might give people some hint if it is accurate enough. I had a lot of trouble finding the exact emoji to represent the words referring to a specific character, object, place, or concept. I found myself typing the word using the search function in my emoji keyboard on my phone to look up for the exact icon. I failed 60% of the time and I was getting frustrated.

In consequence, I had to switch to representing the ideas and using the emojis that are related. I also used some emoji’s to show the body language, emotions, and feelings of the characters. When I looked back to my emoji story, I was actually surprised by how little of the feeling emoji’s I used, such as “lol”, “facepalm”, “eye-rilling”, “happy”, “sad”, etc. Those would be the emojis I use 90% of the time when I communicate with friends.

The process reminded me of the language I read, write, and speak. Chinese characters were originally pictograms and ideograms, which means that the words actually come from how people drew an object/idea/concept and it symbolizes that.

For example:

• Pictogram：
• Ideograms: convex 凸, concave 凹

I thought using emoji to share stories is a great way for communication among people using different languages and with varied literacy levels. I might actually do a similar activity for my ELA year end lessons as my students are slowly losing their focus. However, I think there are many limitations as different cultures have their own interpretation of the same emoji. Some would be considered appropriate in one place, and totally offensive in another country, depending on the context. In addition, there are lots of words that I couldn’t find a best fit emoji for. I also use different “emoji” Apps, such as Bitmoji to help me better express my feelings beyond the limitation of text on a screen.

Weekly Task 4

Instructions：

1. 1. 2. 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).

      You may use the following questions to guide your reflection:

      • Was there something particularly challenging in the process?
      • How much time did it take for you to create the stamps?
      • Have you notice anything particular about the letters that you have chosen to reproduce?
      • Considering the time and effort that took you to create a 5-letter word, how do you feel about the mechanization of writing?