Teagan Laverock’s Task 6: An emoji story

• How has your colleague’s experience differed from yours? And how do you know?

Task 6 was an optional task that Teagan decided to do and I did not. I wanted to use her task in my linking assignment because I thought it would be interesting to see her feedback on it. Teagan writes in her reflection that, “This was a fun task to complete! I regularly use emojis in my texts and emails to convey more context or emotion to my words, which I believe helps for the recipient of my messages to have a deeper understanding as opposed to just words” (Teagan Laverock). Personally, In my own texts and emails, I tend to use more facial expression emojis rather than objects. It’s probably a generational difference. I know that my students send coded messages to each other all the time using emojis. I’m a hybrid between having the majority of my texts written and then emphasizing a mood with a facial emoji at the end.

After looking at the emojis Teagan chose and piecing together the literal meaning of them, I deciphered her movie! Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone! I’m not very strong at solving riddles and puzzles, so I was proud of myself. Teagan does note that delivering messages using emojis can be problematic depending on the cultural backgrounds of the author and audience. Kress also supports this idea, stating that authors clearly have in mind that readers will come from quite different cultural and social spaces, in differing ways, and with differing interests, not necessarily known to or knowable by the makers of the original work (Kress, 2005). I agree that there is a lot of room for misinterpretation when just sending written texts and emails, let alone emojis!

• What web authoring tool have they chosen to manifest their work?

Teagan mentions in her reflection that for this specific task she noticed that the emojis on her iPhone didn’t fully translate to Google’s emojis, so she had to take a screenshot and use that in her webspace. 

Teagan chose to use Google Sites as her webspace. She has a home page where she has posted all of her tasks for ETEC 540. They are in numerical order and have a different font and background to differentiate them from one another.

• How does their tool differ from yours in the ways in which it allows content-authouring and end-user interface?

Teagan’s Google Site has her email address at the page of the homepage where the user can get in touch. This is different from my webspace as I have a comment box after each task for readers to give feedback. 

I also have a “task” tab at the top of my page to direct users to specific tasks. I do find it adds another step to stroll through her home page to get to the most recent task. However, it is nice to have all of the tasks in one location.

• What literacies does their site privilege or deny in comparison and contrast to yours?

On Teagan’s homepage, I can see where future posts are going to be. There is a template with spaces allocated to each task. This is a good indication of which tasks she is hoping to complete. I think a more accessible comment box, or means to provide feedback would benefit the space.

• What theoretical underpinnings are evident in your/your colleague’s textual architecture and how does this affect one’s experience of the work?

On Teagan’s website, each task is identified with a different font and background colour. This is helpful to differentiate between the tasks. Also having all of the tasks on one page prevents the user from being unable to find anything. A suggestion from a user’s perspective would be to add a comment box at the end of each task in order to gather meaningful feedback.

• How do the constraints of the course design manifest in your architectural choices? How have you responded to the pedagogical underpinnings of this course design in your own web space?  

Teagan and I have organized our web spaces so differently and, I think, they represent Kress’s notion that there are distinct potentials and limitations for representation of the various modes. There is a difference in organization using the possibilities of space (Kress, 2005). We both have organized our blogs differently, using different online formats, each having their own limitations and privileges as previously mentioned. 

Reference: 

Kress (2005), Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning.Computers and Composition, Vol. 2(1), 5-22.