Monthly Archives: October 2021

Task 7

The first thing that stood out to me about Ping’s post was that her interpretation of Task 1 was the roughly the same as mine. Though we worded it differently, the main purpose was the same (letting others get to know who we are). We both included audio for Task 7, however, Ping also included a visual component, which is something I left out completely. How we decided to carry out Task 7 was very different.

Ping decided to reuse some of her materials from the Task 1. In Task 7, she had images/sounds of the items in her bag included in it and how it was used in her daily life. I found this fascinating since we got to see how she used the items in her bag. Like Ping mentioned in her post, you can get a lot more information about someone from the unspoken text (in this case, seeing/hearing her uses of the items). People can use the same items differently for different purposes. Getting to see how the items in her bag were used allow for viewers to get to know Ping in a deeper matter. Furthermore, Ping added more audio elements to the visual design. I would argue that Ping also included gestural mode to Task 7. She included movement and gestures within her character and her hand drawing as well. This adds another element to her audio-visual mode of presentation.

When compared to mine, I only emphasized auditorial mode. I am more of a visual person, but I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone and focused on a mode that I am not as comfortable with. It really required me to think outside the box since I prefer to have things done visually.

One point that I like that Ping mentioned in her post. “I don’t find audio-visual modes dominating written modes or writing seeing a resurgence, I see both methods working together to deliver a message better than ever.” I completely agree with this statement. Why only focus on one mode when we can use various modes together to deliver content better? There are many people who have a preference for one mode over the other. Instead of focusing on one mode, incorporating many modes allows for text to reach a wider range of audience. Of course, there are people who will still prefer to focus on one mode (eg. Having too many different modes may be distracting to some).

Another thing that Ping points out is translations. She mentions that as technology develops more, it may not be necessary to learn a new language when we can have headsets that may help us understand what others are saying/ expressing (doesn’t even need to be language). This reminds of foreign shows/ movies I watch. I often watch Korean and Japanese drama/shows and when I have friends know the language, they will point out that the translation is not completely correct and makes the sentence lose meaning. When I watched Shang Chi, I noticed that the English subtitles for when the characters were speaking in Mandarin weren’t completely accurate for some scenes. It lost some of its meaning when it was translated to “suit” the sentence structure of English. Like Ping mentioned, there is a beauty in languages and text that is hard to translate. How can we preserve meaning during translation or during different modes?

Task 6 – Emoji Story

The first thing I immediately noticed about Jacob’s post is that the style of emoji’s he used were very different than mine. The art style and design were very different than the emoji’s I used for the task. Though the emojis all showcase the same idea, the style differs. I noticed that the devil emoji for Jacob was red, while the devil emoji I have as an option is purple. Another thing I noticed was that all the characters he used were “yellow” in colour. I do not know if Jacob is able to customize the colour of his emoji’s. For my set, I was able to select the colour of my people emoji (most of them) to fit the looks of the characters from the show I was talking about. I used my iPad’s built in emoji keyboard option (Apple’s own collection) which may be why the style and options differed. I do not know which one Jacob used.  Does the different art styles in emoji’s lead to different interpretations?

From what Jacob wrote, we had similar issues when completing the task. Like Jacob, I used direct substitutions to convey messages. One major difference between us is that I did not use emojis to convey similar sounding words. I focused more on the visual parts of the emoji. If I couldn’t find an emoji for a certain word, I would find an emoji that looks as close to the word I was thinking of as possible. For Jacob, he picked emoji’s that would sound similar to sound of the word. I never thought of looking at it from an auditoria perspective. I wonder if Jacob collect a lot of information through auditory ways as well as visual. For me, I always take in more information visually. I rarely try to show or collect information through other means. Jacob brings up a good point where he told the story directionally and had a hard time incorporating other characters plots/roles. For mine, I only focused on the main protagonist as talking about other characters story line would become way to confusing. I missed many key information by doing this, but it made it easier to showcase the main points in the plot. Furthermore, like Jacob mentioned, my interpretation of the plot may differ than someone else because of how we see the emoji and the meaning we get from it. An emoji’s meaning in one cultural context may mean something different in another. I tried very hard to pick emojis that would gather the same/similar meaning in another cultural context. Overall, visual art/images can be interpreted very different between people and across culture. Would people who have similar upbringings interpret an emoji story more similarly than those who had different upbringings? Are there other factors (eg. Generation) that contribute to different interpretations?

1.4 Activity: Defining Terms – Internet Age Words

I really like how short and sweet the podcast was. I really enjoyed how Victoria started off with land acknowledgments and giving a bit of background of Indigenous culture and ideas. Using a podcast is a great use of technology to inform listeners. Podcast allow for anyone to listen to the audio at anytime. It is especially great during car drives or transiting from place to place as you are not distracted by attempting to read a text. I have only ever created one podcast and that was during my last term in the BEd program. My group would have an open conversation about a topic and then we would take turns in editing it down within the time limit we had. I sometimes get nervous during recordings and it can show in the tone of my voice. Victoria was very confident and her voice was very clear and concise.

I like how podcast can capture a whole conversation and listening to someone’s voice allows for listeners to determine the emotions and thoughts of the podcaster. Reading text doesn’t always capture the thoughts and emotions of someone. With our voice, we are able to control it in a way that showcases our thoughts and emotions on topics. People are able to capture it and relate to it. All the words that Victoria listed out are word that were ones I was thinking of as well. What I noticed is that the “main” definition of the words have been tech related. The secondary definitions listed are usually the ones of the past. It is really interesting to see how the definitions of words change and the slang that is used during certain time periods. It is interesting to see how language evolves. My one major question is: How does the evaluation of language become widespread? Who starts it? For example, Victoria mentioned the word “meme” was coined in the 1970’s and currently is used to describe pictures with text on it describing experiences. Who popularized the words “meme” in today’s context?

Task 4: Manual Script

We had very similar answers to the questions regarding the manual script. I noticed that we use technology to do most of our writing. We both started to have hand cramps after writing for a short bit. I wonder if this is because of the lack of use of the muscles in our wrist primarily. Just like working out, if we don’t use certain muscle groups often, they can easily get sore due to the lack of motor units and lack of endurance. The one thing that differ between me and Kirn was that she engaged with writing more during work and in her private life. For me, I stopped writing manually after high school for the most part. If I wrote by hand, it was because I had to (eg. In-class essays, midterms, exams etc.)

We both used ink pens and crossed out errors that were made and wrote over it when possible. The one thing I noticed is that Kirn mentioned that if this was formal writing, she would have used white out. Based off the teachers and professors I had, they say that regardless of what you are writing, you should just cross out the word and refrain from using white out. The reason if I recall was due to plagiarism. It was never fully explained to me, but all the teachers and instructors I had always told us to cross words out and not to use white out.

I liked what Kirn said that physically writing requires certain brain processes. Typing requires a different skills and processes. I mentioned in my post that I do not have the best printing. My printing has always been on the messier side and typing allows for me to worry less about my printing skills and focus more on the content. I wonder if things will change 20 years from now. Will students even require to learn how to physically write? Would everything be digitized instead? Or are the foundations of printing fundamental that this will always be part of education?