Introduce yourself as a maker and reflect on your own professional philosophy and how you view yourself as a maker, as a critical and innovative thinker, and as a designer. You will align your own personal and professional philosophy for your learners within a maker environment. Your introduction will include:
A visual representation of your values, approach to making, and educational/leadership philosophy inspired by the course readings
Investigate multimodal means to design a creative and critical introduction
Include your goals for this course within your introduction
Some guiding questions:
How do you describe yourself as a maker, and your maker philosophy?
What is your current educational/leadership philosophy?
How does your philosophy fit into the maker movement?
What is your experience with Makerspaces?
What is your experience with EDIDA Frameworks?
Why are you taking this course? What are your expectations and goals?
We were to listen to lectures on technology from 30 years ago created by Massey College at University of Toronto, and think about the “media ecology” created from these lectures, and how it functions as a form of educational technology.
Then, skimming Ursula Franklin’s text The Real World of Technology, we were to think about Franklin’s categories of “prescriptive” and “holistic” technologies as applied to educational technologies.
Lastly, a close reading of Chapter 2 of Illich and Sanders’ ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind to describe “oral technologies” and how they shape thinking, memory and communication in the context of their concept of “memory palace”.
Some additional questions to consider:
What differences did you see as you switched from listening to skimming to close reading?
Were you able to experience the recorded lecture in any ways differently than when reading the text?
Listening takes more “real world” time, so where did spending that extra time get you in terms of understanding?
Joseph chose to use Twine as the medium to explore the two different futures — a utopian “sweet dream” and a dystopian “nightmare”.
This was a clever design decision, as “Twine was a natural choice [to display two different viewpoints] as I could have a split narrative path to contain both of these options” (Villella, 2022).
In the opening of the game, the player is prompted to enter their name and location in the text box, in which it is used as the main character in the narrative. This already immerses the player within the story, in addition to the background music and sound effects.
Utopian “Sweet Dream”
The utopian viewpoint had a more upbeat, cheery background music that plays throughout the game.
The narrative is set in a world where nature and humanity thrive in harmony. There is emphasis on renewable energy and eco-friendly technology, which is seen on the air-hovering eco-Translink buses and the newest model of Meta Headsets powered by oxygen.
The storyline splits into two side quests, one is finding your “brother”, and the other is the journey to school.
The brother provides more context of the world through the dialogue you have with him. The player finds out that it is 2025, and personal assistant driod eRobots help with taking care of your everyday needs. There is reference to the continuing existence of technology moguls, namely Elon Jr.
On the journey to school, physical classrooms that afford collaboration still exists, yet with heavy utilization of VR headsets. The classroom environment is surprising to me, as one would think there would be complete digitization and heavy emphasis on virtual interaction with the ubiquity of VR Headsets, such that a physical classroom could be deemed unnecessary. However, it seems there is still a focus on human interaction and physical presence in the classroom, especially given the set-up of the desks to be conducive to collaboration.
Dystopian “Nightmare”
The dystopian viewpoint had a more somber and desolate background music. The narrative is set in a somewhat post-apocalyptic and barren environment, where humanity seems to have reach destruction and is in the process of rebuild.
The education environment has become a mere “virtual daycare” where students are there to be supervised as they learn digitally. Remnants of technology is strewn across the classroom, interspersed with analog methods of teaching, yet students lacking the literacy skills to successfully learn.
Through the dialogue between the player and an “officer” with the same name, context of the current world is given. The hyper-development of technology has broken down the geopolitical borders between nations, and the influence of politics has created fear and paranoia of cyber-information warfare, which in turn causes a regression of civilization to the early 2000s. When asked about the origin of this dystopian disaster, we are left on a cliffhanger and wake up from this nightmare.
Reflection
I thought the world-building was very interesting and reminds me of very distinct futures.
The utopian narrative reminds me of the vision of a solarpunk future. Solarpunk is an imagination of the future where nature and humanity are able to maintain an equilibrium without exhausting all natural resources, even proposing that technology can enable humanity to exist sustainably.
On the other hand, the dystopian narrative, “technology has replaced our own abilities” (Villella, 2022) reminds me of the grungy textures of dieselpunk , especially with reference to the “retro-futuristic” aspect of technology. It very much alludes to the downfalls where “humanity collapses on itself” and the unforeseen consequences of needing to revert to previous technology, yet without the ability or skills to do so, due to over-reliance on technological advancement.
Overall, one main aspect I really enjoyed in this Twine game is that the narration brings the player to explore both the utopian “sweet dream” and dystopian “nightmare” scenarios in a way that flows with each other; there are paths that return back to a previous point and allows the player to explore the other option, while staying cohesive to the overall structure within a dream.
References
Dieselpunk (n.d.) Wikipedia. Retrieved August 10, 2022 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieselpunk
Solarpunk (n.d.) Wikipedia. Retrieved August 10, 2022 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk
For this linking task, I decided to take a look at Mark’s post, specifically knowing his background in music, as I wanted to see how he approached this task from that perspective!
Coming from a music background, Mark definitely draws from a lot of music theory when it comes to analyzing and justifying the songs he chose. For his criteria, he wanted to find pieces that “contain an obvious example of universality of musical elements, tempo, harmony, melody and texture” (Pepe, 2022). Some common element included “ostinato patterns, chant, call and response musical phrases and representations of nature”.
The first 4 tracks he chose belonged to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Stravinsky, some big names in classical music history. Mark explains his choice with some musical jargon, but then adds more information in an accessible way for those who might not have as much background knowledge in music. He also points out the significance of the composer or the piece, and uses very descriptive expressions to compare and contrast it with each other, providing some context in the realm of classical music.
"Compared to Mozart where emotions begin to surface, Beethoven brings it to a boil" and later on "If Beethoven brought emotions to a boil, Stravinsky boiled them over"
Mark then picks some tracks in the world music genre, and uses them to demonstrate some of the universal commonality between them, such as the call and response in chanting, pulsing trance-like rhythm, and nature imagery.
Lastly he chose a more contemporary blues song, Dark Was the Night to complete his curation. Mark chose this song specifically as blues took elements from the world music previously listed, and became a foundation of North American popular music.
Reflection
I thought Mark’s post was very insightful, as much of this information about these songs is unknown to me, as I do not come from a musical background and therefore do not have the skills to decipher them directly from the music tracks alone.
The way Mark put each piece next to each other for comparison and contrast helped with extending it into a greater context such that one can see why it was significant to include a certain track. He did not look at each track solely on its own, rather, he built on more to the foundations that he had laid down, such that his track-list curation and decisions felt cohesive as a unit!
Cardiac Arrest Management is a hospital simulation game where you are a nurse making your rounds, helping your patients stabilize in various cardiac arrest scenarios.
Though it was a “text heavy game”, it was interspersed with many vital chart graphics and pictures. It also offered a lot of clues and hints when returned to a previous step upon a mistake. This allowed for the continuation of the narrative, while providing correct information without taking the player out of the scenario.
The bustling hospital environment and sounds of beeping machinery makes it a very immersive experience reflecting the day-to-day as a nurse in medical care.
This game is very much catered towards those with a background in medical care settings, as there is a lot of medical terms and jargon. One should also be literate in ECG charts and know what the visuals mean to make the right decisions of what to do next to save the patient.
Once the patient has been stabilized, the player can return to the main menu and move on to the next patient. The “onus was on me to ensure this virtual pathway through my game was well planned out” (Presta, 2022) given the details and true-to-life nature of the game, was an important detail to keep in mind.
Reflection
This was a very anxiety-inducing game, because 1) I am not from a medical background and 2) I don’t know anything about cardiac arrest management!
Only a few minutes in, due to my medical malpractice and neglect, I already had to perform CPR on Patient #2 and use a defibrillator with maximum of 360 joules and some injection to get him breathing again (ಡ‸ಡ)
That aside, I thought it was very informational, and though I don’t know how to read the ECG charts, I came out of the game with more knowledge about defibrillators than I had in the beginning!
Using Twine as a medium for this game was a great idea, as it co-creates a learning environment where the player is an active participant of their own learning through this hospital simulation game to manage cardiac arrests. I am grateful that Jessica took the time to share her medical knowledge in a step-by-step manner, making professional experience and information accessible in an interactive way!
I chose to link to Erin’s post because of her unique audio and visual form to share what is in her bag in a very familiar, effective and clever way through Tik Tok.
Erin approached the task in a very literal way, showing the contents of what is in her bag. In terms of the content in her bag, I would say we both have similar items with similar purposes. One main difference is that Erin drives and I rely on public transit, which might be the deciding factor of the divergence in our blog posts.
Erin’s post expands across both audio and visual media, with a few components that work cohesively in conjunction, which is distinctive of a Tik Tok:
Background Music: considered the mood and length for the Tik Tok
Text: visually displayed the key words on screen next to items as they appear
Audio Speech-to-text Description: brief text-to-speech description “with key words to describe a sentiment without actually saying what it was” (Duchesne, 2022).
Video: using trending zoom-in/zoom-out effect of items in her bag
Should one isolate any one component, they might not understand the context of what is happening as they rely on each other to make-meaning.
Though it is not required, having some background knowledge of the trends on Tik Tok can help understand the context of the presentation format and why it is “entertaining”.
Reflection
Though I have seen Tik Toks and understand this format of social media, I personally do not use the platform at all, so I am impressed by her use of the functions that the app has to offer. It is a very entertaining way to condense information in such a short amount of time, and grab one’s attention!
” It forced me to think about many possibilities that I normally would not pursue and work out the creative details of different ideas until I found one that would fit the criteria and that I could execute.” (Duchesne, 2022) reminded me that social media can be a powerful tool and robust platform for the intent of creating and sharing information in the realm of educational technology. It definitely breaks down the barrier and idea of “educational technology” being confined to the structure of institutions, and is more ubiquitous than we make it seem!
For this assignment, I have created a soundscape, which seems to be a deviation from “what is in my bag” but I wanted to approach it in a somewhat more “abstract” way , so… hear me out (hehe).
Before continuing reading, please take a listen and see if you can piece together the “narrative” and what the soundscape is about!
This soundscape was created from found sounds that I pieced together to form a more cohesive “narrative” of my commute to work — taking the bus, transferring via Skytrain and walking to school and unlocking the door to my office.
A soundscape can be a combination of sound that forms or emerges from an immersive environment, including sounds from nature, natural elements, and sounds created by humans. It can also include the listener’s perception of sound of “how the environment is understood by those living within it” (Truax, 2001).
Most of the sounds are of the (man-made) environment; the alarm of the doors closing, the beeping at the entrance gates, the movement of the trains.
Another big majority of the sounds are made by people; incoherent conversations on the phone, squeals from children, my own humming.
There are also some sounds that I make as I take out and use the things I have in my bag; unzipping my bag to take out my wallet, my headphones booting up, fumbling for my keys.
Designs of Meaning
Immediately, I introduce the ‘design” of the soundscape — a commute on public transportation. Now knowing the context of this immersive experience, one can assemble the “order of discourse” and the conventions that come with using public transportation, which can be culturally dependent.
This can be inferred through the alarm that sound as the doors are about to close on the bus, a mumbled “sorry” as people try to squeeze onboard, and the beeping of the fare card.
It is further reinforced by the announcements on the train. One can know a lot about the people, culture and history through the languages spoken over the announcement system. In Vancouver, the Skytrain announcements are in English only. In Taipei, the MRT announcements are in Mandarin, English, Taiwanese and Hakka. On my recent trip to San Francisco, the MUNI announcements included English, Spanish, Cantonese and Tagalog, which I found really interesting.
I am unsure where the “designing” and “redesigning” processes take part in this entire experience… I hope that through engaging in the New London Group paper and re-contextualization of What’s In My Bag Task, the process is on its way!
On Changing Public and Private Lives
I wanted to do a soundscape of public transit, as I believe it is a very embodied way of experiencing the socio-cultural-anthropological landscape of an environment. One can catch a glimpse of an individual’s private life in this public space, which I find very fascinating
If each individual is considered a “vessel” (or “bag” in this case), then the subcultural differences –gender, ethnicity, generation, sexual orientation, etc. — can be considered the “contents” that they carry with them, as they traverse through the multiple lifeworlds they are members of, in which their identities are in complex relation to each other.
This ties into the necessity of having skills to navigate through the cultural and linguistically diverse civic pluralism that resulted along with the shift of global geopolitics, especially when it comes to regional, ethnic, class-based dialects, cross-cultural discourses and code-switching amongst them (The New London Group, 1996)
The concept of civic pluralism mentioned in the paper really resonated with me, especially seeing that in the context of public transit.
Civic pluralism changes the nature of civic spaces, and with the changed meaning of civic spaces, everything changes, from the broad content of public rights and responsibilities to institutional and curricular details of literacy pedagogy.
Public transit in some ways depicts civic pluralism on a smaller scale, and it is apparent how diverse and divergent the boundaries between public and private are. It also blurs the boundaries between the multiple lifeworld each individuals carry along with them on their journey, which creates more autonomy and space for them to move more transiently between them.
References
Soundscape (n.d.) Wikipedia. Retrieved July 6, 2022 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundscape
