Category Archives: Weekly Tasks

Task 12 – Speculative Futures

For this task, I chose to take the perspective of a teacher in the year of 2052 who has been teaching for 30+ years, to focus on speculative narratives surrounding digital technology in education and in conjunction with human connection. It can be said that digital technology has the ability to make us feel more connected yet more lonely all at the same time (Turkle, 2011). This lack of human connection is something I especially fear for future generations in relation to technology systems and AI. As discussed by Hariri, determining the winners and losers of AI early on is critical in order to maximize AI’s potentials (2017). I especially see this as true for students and their learning and development.  As a teacher of 30 years, I reflect on the development of students overtime with digital technology. 

Speculative Narrative #1 Utopian

It is 2052 and the general public has a much better understanding of AI, its functions, and how they affect our daily living and in turn, the way we choose to interact with it. School districts focus on AI systems in conjunction with digital wellness in their curriculum for learning. We now have multiple generations of digital natives who strive to use technological systems intentionally and responsibly. It is 2052 and human enrichment is the focus for developing technology systems and online education and global internet systems have made education more accessible, especially in rural and underdeveloped parts of the world. The digital divide has definitely decreased since I first started teaching and the structure of the education system has completely changed where technology is everywhere in schools and classrooms. AR and VR systems have allowed students to explore and learn about different parts of the world and take them on new adventures and since the environments created by AR and VR systems are engaging and highly realistic, users are able to develop an emotional connection to it. AI has allowed for assessment to be more efficient and accurate for teachers and has engaged learners more personally and independently. Tablets are now accessible to all learners and online games and immersive learning are a focus where all students are highly engaged in their learning. Students are able to participate in endeavors of their own interests and also connect with like-minded individuals online. Students are no longer distracted in class as they always have something they can connect to. 

Speculative Narrative #2 Dystopian

In 2052, we will have multiple generations of digital natives and be more lonely and disconnected from human connection than ever. There are an increasing number of students using AR and VR systems for personal use which have provided them with an escape from reality, a means to not deal with and solve their own life problems. These systems have also decreased outdoor play time in students. I was once told by a teacher of mine that, “we will not protect what we don’t love”, and if we don’t get children outside at a young age, we will not be able to teach them to love and take care of our earth. Technology has provided a means for efficiency but has diminished the need for human connection with each other and to nature as well.  

After 30 years of teaching, I’m starting to see the harmful effects of digital technology mainly in the realm of human connection. We wanted paperless classrooms to help our environment but we have created a system of disengaged citizens with a bigger divide between humans and nature. We wanted more technology in the classrooms to engage our learners but now they’re more disengaged with their peers and teachers. Furthermore, I feel grateful that my teaching career is coming to an end as I fear that future teacher’s jobs will be replaced by virtual robots and further diminish the need for human connection. 

Hariri, Y. N. (2017). Reboot for the AI revolution. Nature International Weekly Journal of Science, 550(7676), 324-327.

TEDx Talks. (2011, March 25). Sherry Turkle – Alone together [Video]. YouTube. (17 mins.)

Task 9 – Network Assignment Using Golden Record Curation Quiz Data

The various functions in the Palladio application showed an interconnected web of data that can be visualized and interpreted. In doing so, this task required extensive analysis for my reflection and made me realize how time-consuming it can be to interpret graphs. One thing that stood out to me was how interconnected our song choices were yet my song choices seemed to overlap with each of my classmates’ at least once. I also noticed that there was one song that was only chosen by one classmate which made me wonder why. When I narrowed down my search to those in my assigned community, I noticed that there were many (four) song choices that were only chosen by one student. In addition, I also noticed that these songs that were chosen by just one member of the community, sounded vastly different from each other.

Our selection of song choices differed for many reasons. Ultimately, I believe that our experiences, interests, values, etc shaped the similarities that were presented in the Palladio application. Our musical choices are influenced by a variety of different factors and people use music for a variety of different reasons. Therefore, I do not believe the graphical visualizations are able to capture the reasons behind the choices. As a viewer, we can make our own connections and assumptions about the data but to understand the reasoning behind the why would require the viewer to have more information. In addition, there is no way for the viewer to validate their assumptions about the data collected.

Task 8 – Golden Record Curation

Top 10 Choices:

  1. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
  2. Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14 
  3. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
  4. Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
  5. Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
  6. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
  7. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48 
  8. Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
  9. Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
  10. “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15

When choosing my top 10 pieces of music from the Golden Record, I found myself instantly gravitating towards songs that sounded familiar to me. I also chose songs with softer melodies and/or had a relaxing tone to it.  I found myself fast forwarding through songs that had more of an intense beat to it and did not sound comforting. I often find comfort in music which could explain why I didn’t find the songs that had an intense and frightening beat to it sound comforting. 

Task 7 – Mode Bending

 

Through this poem, I invited my listeners to interpret the items in my bag in their own way and to pick up on clues that tell about myself and what’s in my bag. I chose to use a playful form of audio communication to invite my listeners to reflect on the potential benefits and challenges of using different modes of communication. 

Some potential benefits of using audio in playful ways that come to mind are the agency the listener has in how they engage with and connect to the content. They also do not need to be literate to listen to the audio and can still connect to it in their own unique ways. Some potential challenges of using audio in playful ways that come to mind are the open ended nature of it causing confusion rather than connection. Listening to audio may not be as straightforward as reading written text and require existing knowledge in order to read between the lines. In addition, the digital divide was brought up in Dobson and Willinsky’s paper, which is critical to consider when designing appropriate learning spaces (2009).

We are living through an increasingly digitized world and understanding how information can be best transmitted is critical to consider when designing learning spaces. When considering the mode in audio form, it’s important to consider what information should be included and how information should be presented that varies from text in written form. For example, speaking clearly and slowly for listeners would impact their ability to connect to the voice speaking to them. In other words, you tell your story in different ways depending on the audience and the mode of transmission which needs to be considered when designing multimodal learning spaces that provide multiple access points for students. Mode bending is an ongoing process when designing learning spaces and the way information is presented can influence engagement, connection, and overall understanding of the material. When considering educational designs and changing the mode of administration it’s important to consider both the mode as well as the audience and what mode works best for learners (Kress, 2005).

 

Dobson, T. & Willinsky, J. (2009). Digital Literacy. Cambridge Handbook of Literacy, Retrieved from: https://pkp.sfu.ca/files/Digital%20Literacy.pdf

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

Task 6 – An Emoji Story

For this task, I chose to use the last movie I watched and I focused on words and ideas to convey messages about the movie. I didn’t rely on or even think about syllables when conducting my plot using emojis. I did not start with the title because I found it difficult to find emojis on the keyboard I used (https://emojikeyboard.io/) to accurately represent the title so I ended up developing the title last. I ended up using emojis that best fit its name given the available emojis. During this time, I challenged myself to not switch the keyboard to a more diversified one or my movie up to choose one that I could more accurately represent with emojis. This made the task quite challenging for me as I filtered through each emoji page many times before deciding on the most accurate title and plot. According to Kress, modes of representation influence the meaning behind messages and it is important for educators to engage with the affordances of new media (2005).  In conducting my movie emoji plot, I was mindful of the different meanings each emoji could convey to different people and therefore, tried my best to stick to the basics by not using too many emojis and by being strategic in the chosen emojis that would most clearly communicate the plot. In addition, the placement of the emojis made a difference in the message I was trying to convey. If I wrote the plot as a continuous emoji train, the message would convey an even more diverse set of meanings. Furthermore, the plot length for this task was open-ended which also played a role in my decision to not overuse emojis in my plot.

In addition, Kress also makes a good point that, “aptness of mode and what is represented is not the only issue, equally significant now is the aptness of fit between mode and audience” (2005, p. 19). This led me to reflect upon the varying emoji keyboards that exist in new media today and how they consistently get updated to more accurately reflect the society we live in. 

This task also had me thinking about how educators can use every day new media like emojis in the classroom as a means for learning and communication. I haven’t tried implementing emojis in any way in my classroom but I believe it has potential for more connected and engaged learning for students. Emojis serve as a non-verbal means of communication which could be beneficial especially in diverse learning communities.

Task 3 – Voice to Text

So today they finally announced the walk 30 challenge winner it was a five week health promotion campaign that was a competition between the city of Burnaby in the city of new Westminster and so they’re not finally announced the weather today unfortunately Bernie did not win new Westminster one but we all did really well and it was super fun because my class actually got a honorary mention for walking the most to school for all of the classes in Burnaby and new Westminster that participated so that was really fun I’m so proud of the kids they were super happy that they actually won were not one but they were recognized for their hard work and for their efforts in this challenge so yeah today was also a super active day we played our very first basketball game that was fun we played four on four and the kids were able to learn some basketball rules and they actually learned how to play a real basketball game they practice their shooting their dribbling their passing and like I said they were able to learn some of the actual rules to play a real basketball game so they were pretty pumped about that and they actually did really well it looked like a real basketball game they one of the kids actually got three shots and another student was able to get to and I really enjoyed watching my students show good sportsmanship today and then on Friday we’re going to be having sports day it’s the first sports day for some of my students in grade 3 who have never actually had a sports day because of Covid so that’s exciting a super eventful week this week for the kids at school we’re also going to be watching a play tomorrow at Burnaby Mountain it’s called beauty and the beast so we’re gonna be walking down to Burnaby Mountain to watch the high school students perform I’m so Nother kind of walking field trip for my kids tomorrow and then sports on Friday they have early dismissal I’m so lots going on in the schools this week lots to be proud about the kids are just really enjoying being at school which is great the weather made a difference today students were excited and because it was sunny we how do you spend at least sometime in the afternoon outside playing in the sun definitely have to make the most of it while we have it

 

Reflection:

This task especially made me reflect on the ongoing and recent advancements with voice-to-text applications. From my experience, more people are using voice-to-text applications nowadays because the technology with it has improved significantly in recent years. For myself, previously, it was more of a hassle to use voice-to-text applications because the written text would be so incorrect that you would have to manually edit it anyways. Now, the voice-to-text technology is so advanced that it actually makes sense to use because it makes texting easier. For example, when I was recording myself, I noticed that the text was being edited as I was talking once the application had a better idea of the topic that I was talking about. It was able to recognize that some words did not make sense given the context and was deleting and adding words while still recording what I was saying. It was interesting for me to see the application editing the written text and recording my voice at the same time. 

Despite these advancements with voice-to-text applications, the text still deviates from conventions of written English. For instance, the text is one big run-on sentence where there are no commas or periods present, even though I made pauses throughout my recording. I also found that the application was able to pick up on some conventions of written English but not all. For example, it used apostrophes correctly and recognized when to use some capital letters. The application was able to recognize that days of the week and cities should be capitalized, although I found it surprising that it did not recognize “New Westminster” as a place. It only recognized “Westminster” as a place, even though “Burnaby” was recognized and is beside New Westminster on a map. One might assume that this resulted because the word “new” is most commonly used as an adjective and not to name a city and the application was not able to pick up on this function too (I wonder if it would have recognized New York). This stood out to me because there is evidence in the text that the application is quite multifunctional. For example, I noticed that the application used homophones such as their and they’re correctly in the written text, knew how to correctly write numbers (30 vs. thirty; five vs. 5), and even recognized “Burnaby Mountain” as a place.

Overall, the written text was pretty accurate and reflected what I was saying. I do believe my knowledge and experience with voice-to-text applications played a role in this accuracy and made a significant difference in the outcome of the written text. For example, I found myself to be naturally talking a bit slower than I would in a normal conversation because I know to do this when I am using a voice-to-text application. It’s also important to speak clearly and this task reminded me just how clear I am needing to be for the written translation to be correct. I also noticed that I use the word “and” and “um” a lot orally. 

Oral storytelling differs from written storytelling in many ways. The most obvious to me is that you need to be literate for written storytelling – anyone can speak orally but not everyone can write. Writing is done more deliberately and in order to do so there are many conventions of language that are necessary to first understand. With oral storytelling, it is often more informal which is also shown in the translation of the voice-to-text application that deviated from conventions of written English. 

Task 1 – What’s in my bag?

This is my work bag that I carry around with me five days a week. whats in my bag

The items in my bag include:

  • Another bag filled with some of my personal necessities such as wet wipes, hand sanitizer, band aids, bobby pins, tied to go, pen/pencil, chapstick 
  • Laptop and charger
  • Cellphone (not featured as it was used to take the photo)
  • Sunglasses
  • Wallet (includes ID cards, bank cards, gift cards, scan card for work)
  • Keys
  • Water bottle
  • Coffee cup
  • Lunch bag
  • Speaker
  • Dog treats

The text technologies in my bag include my laptop and cellphone that help me learn and stay connected. These items make it known that I personally value and enjoy using technology on a regular basis. My laptop charger that is carried around with me further points to the extent that I use technology. As a classroom teacher, my laptop plays an important role in the way I communicate with my students and peers. In addition, my cellphone has become both my planner and wallet that helps me stay organized and demonstrates the value I place in technology for both language and communication. 

The items in my bag best speak to my health, digital, financial, and cultural literacies that I have developed over time. My water bottle and lunch bag best speak to my health literacy. I always pack a home-made lunch and strive to make something that I look forward to eating (lunch is a big deal for me!). The dog treats in my bag could also represent my health literacy as I bring treats on all of my walks with my dogs. My laptop and cellphone best represent the value I uphold in digital literacy and learning through technology. My keys and wallet speak to my financial literacy in which saving, budgeting, and planning are important for obtaining both a car and financial cards. My wallet also includes my identification cards and some gift cards that I received from my students from Christmas which reflect my identity and lifestyle. The gift cards are for Chapters and Sephora, I enjoy reading and pampering myself with a relaxing face mask. My sunglasses, speaker, coffee cup, and personal bag, best speak to my cultural literacy in which I value travelling and being in the sun, listening to music, and ‘being prepared’ for every day tasks. My coffee cup and personal bag help me to feel prepared for my day. In addition, I especially love travelling to explore different cultures and to enhance my cultural literacy. 

I believe the items in my bag also reflect my teaching style. For example, my speaker is used often to play music for my students and reflects the sense of play I try to incorporate. My sunglasses are part of my daily bag as I enjoy taking my students and the learning outside quite often. We recently just finished a community health promotion campaign put on by the city of Burnaby in which my class walked for 30 minutes every day for five weeks. During this time, we took the learning outside while also prioritizing our health and wellness, which are both emphasized in my teaching practice. Furthermore, the technology readily available in my bag is used daily in my classroom to enhance the learning environment. 

The main difference that stands out to me when reflecting on what my bag would have looked like in past years is the technology. Technology these days is a lot more accessible and highly encouraged in the school systems. An archeologist trying to understand my bag in future years might assume that I live an active lifestyle.