The Perfect Reading Companion

I have always struggled with maintaining a strong focus while reading. With the need to take frequent breaks and sometimes repeatedly reading paragraphs of words without understanding, I like to imagine the possibility of having an effective reading companion that is able to decode our level of understanding and ability to focus while we read. In my utopian fiction, I envision a reading companion that has the ability to guide readers according to their needs to read more effectively and productively.

Angela’s Perfect Reading Companion #1 (Video)

On the other hand, in the dystopian fiction, even though the companion has the ability to help users analyze choices in life (in this case, users’ choices of courses to study in university), biases are explicitly evident and implicitly influencing its users.

Angela’s Not-So-Perfect Companion #2 (Audio)

If you would prefer to read, this is the transcript:

Hello Angela, are you still trying to decide what to study in the university?

Based on the information I have about you, it seems promising that you will excel if you study engineering. However, after all my analysis, I would not recommend that you do an engineering course. Women engineers usually get paid less than their counterparts. It is also nearly impossible to break the ceiling. Why would you want to challenge the impossible?

Well, after reading through all the materials, I highly recommend that you study for an education degree instead. Teaching is a female-dominated field and you do not have to worry about being treated unfairly at work. On top of that, you can be more effective in teaching your own children in the future. After all, you should be prepared in making adjustments to your work schedules and make compromises when the needs of your future family members collide with the demands of work.

 

Reflection

I found curating the dystopian fiction to be more difficult than the utopian fiction. For someone like me who is not very imaginative to begin with, creating a frightening and threating narrative takes the challenge to a whole new level. Having said that, I must say that I enjoyed production stage after the narrative is structured.

This is only my second time using Powtoon to create the video for Angela’s Perfect Reading Companion #1, so there was a lot of back and forth between tutorials and Powtoon. For Angela’s Not-So-Perfect Companion #2, I decided to record an audio. To mimic the voice of a robot, I used the text-to-speech online tool. This user-friendly tool allows users to upload text, change speaker and set the pace the text is read. However, the free version of this tool does not allow for downloads of MP3 of the recording. Hence, I played the audio on my computer, have it recorded on my cell phone, and then uploaded it to the blog. I thought the extra step was worthy for it brought a robotic voice to this task.