Category Archives: Uncategorized

Link 6 – Task 10 Attention Economy Agnes

https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540ag/2022/07/24/task-10-attention-economy/

Upon reading Agnes’s reflection with Task 10, I couldn’t help but connect to it and think of the difficulties my parents and some of my colleagues would have completing this task. I also heavily connected to Agnes’s discussion piece on older adults being stereotyped as not as tech-savvy as well as being hesitant to input any personal information. With the new digital era, I definitely find myself amazed yet skeptical all at the same time, especially when inputting personal information. In addition, similar to Agnes, I also felt frustrated while completing this task. For myself, it mainly had to do with all of the clicking. The main reason why I felt like I was able to complete the GUI myself was because of my experience with both technology devices and the internet. Furthermore, both of us expressed different experiences with the internet which played a role in our experiences with this task.

Link 5 – Task 8 Golden Record Curation Helen Zhang

https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540helenzhang/2022/07/08/task-8-golden-record-curation-assignment-helen/

Upon exploring my classmate’s reasonings for their golden record curation of songs, similar to Helen, the criteria for their song choices were both specific and diverse simultaneously. When I curated my list of songs it was solely based off of which songs I liked best and my strategy for choosing was simply by listening to and critiquing each song. I never thought to set a criteria such as including cover songs from different continents or even considering having a balanced selection of instrument and vocal songs. Helen similarly also chose songs that had a joyful and friendly message to it which was naturally the way I curated my list.

Overall, the differences in the criteria we assigned for curating our song choices resulted in our lists being drastically different. If I calculated correctly there was only one song choice that was found on both of our lists which was the first track, Brandenburg Concerto First Movement. Due to the differences in criteria, this result was no surprise to me, however, I did think there would be at least one or two additional songs that overlapped due to Helen including friendly and joyful sounding songs as part of the criteria. This made me reflect on my own song choices and if I considered the lyrics at all or if I was simply including songs that sounded joyful and friendly when the song choices could have reflected a different lyrical meaning.

Link 4 – Task 7 Mode Bending Emily MacDougall

https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540emilymacdougall/2022/07/03/task-7-mode-bending/

Upon reflecting on the affordances of mode bending, Emily and I both touched on the importance of multimodal spaces as a means to diversify the learning and in order to connect with learners at a deeper level. I also appreciated how Emily added that different modes of representation also models, “different ways of knowing, which the students can then use in their own assessments.” (MacDougall, 2022).

The ways in which Emily and I engaged with mode bending was drastically different. I described the items in my bag through a poem where Emily used a multimodal video. This difference would also change the expectation from the audience. Another difference in the ways we changed modes was our narration choice, in which Emily took her bag on a journey and was speaking in third person. In addition, the approach Emily took in presenting information from her bag I found to be similar to myself, in which I focused on items in my bag that are most important and best speak to me. I also noticed that Emily spoke slowly and clearly in her video which I emphasized as critical when using audiological forms of communication.

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 11 – Detain/Release

As a true crime documentary enthusiast, it is no surprise to me that I was heavily engaged in this task. The resources to go along with this task particularly piqued my interest and the task itself left me mind blown and questioning my own thinking while also leaving me with an increased sense of both discomfort and awareness. I particularly enjoyed listening to the podcasts that provided insightful information into real life examples of how predictive software works.

While completing this task I found myself feeling conflicted with many of my decisions as I did not feel I had enough information to make a just decision. I also noticed that the statement for prosecution rarely recommended release and when it did I typically agreed with its response. However, the majority of the scenarios recommended detention which left me feeling even more conflicted with many of my decisions. The criteria I had to go off of was minimal for a decision that carries such heavy results and consequences. This task opened my eyes in many ways to the unjust decisions that are made every day by large corporations that the public rely on and speaks to how much we rely on technology and its systems to solve our problems.

It is evident that everyone who uses the internet is affected by algorithms and upon understanding and thinking about algorithms in its simplest forms as, “a set of instructions for which to solve problems” it is particularly terrifying to think about in regards to topics of legal issues and crime (Malan, 2013). The ways in which crime prediction software is carried out was both surprising to hear and not in many ways and also reminded me of the constant ways people are rated and categorized, including with credit scores, insurance premiums, etc. For instance, the location of where your vehicle is parked overnight will affect your insurance premium. Similarly, this predictive model focuses on the geography instead of the individual and these measurement tools do not capture the ‘full picture’ of individuals (O’Neil, 2017). In addition, hearing about the different quota systems in place and strategies to achieve quotas was rather disturbing and reminded me of how my friends and I used to joke about being extra careful on the road towards the end of the month when cops were needing to make their monthly ticket quotas.

O’Neil, C. (2017, April 6). Justice in the age of big data. Retrieved June 18, 2019, from ideas.ted.com website: https://ideas.ted.com/justice-in-the-age-of-big-data/

TED-Ed. (2013). What’s an algorithm? – David J. Malan.

Vogt, P. (n.d.-a). The Crime Machine, Part I.

Vogt, P. (n.d.-b). The Crime Machine, Part II.

Task 10 – Attention Economy

GUI (https://userinyerface.com/) manipulated my attention and responses in many ways. According to Brignull, “deception is evident in various guises in user interfaces on the web today” (2011). This task definitely forced me to pay close attention to what each section of the game was asking and in order for me to complete my reflection, I worked my way through the game twice. The first time I was so focused on getting through the game that I forgot important details to include for my reflection. In addition, I believe this task would’ve been significantly easier to get through if I had a separate computer mouse as the keyboard mouse definitely slowed me down. Furthermore, I had my fiance and brother do this task as well and I had the best time, just saying :P. This could speak to my attention span, the amount of time I spend using technology, as well as my current experience in a text technologies course.

The functions within the GUI that especially stood out to me were the ones that inconvenienced me the most. The timer stood out to me first as I initially thought the time was decreasing instead of increasing. When inputting my personal information, having to backspace existing characters was time consuming and inefficient as well as inputting the street name and number separately. In addition, the GUI required manual clicking of the arrows to increase or decrease the address number. My address number is 80 which means I clicked the arrow 80 times, but what if my address number was in the hundreds or thousands? On this page, I also noticed it was difficult to input my exact age with the sliding scale and I kept sliding to the age that is one year before or after me. The flags were displayed in black and white which required me to spend extra time on finding the Canadian flag and I also noticed that the months of the year were in alphabetical order which you don’t normally see and which I found to be inconvenient. Furthermore, when selecting the images to authorize that I am not a robot, I noticed that it required me to read between the lines. For example, the word “checks” had a variety of different images associated with it including a check mark, engine check, etc.

Brignull, H., (2011). Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. Retrieved from: https://alistapart.com/article/dark-patterns-deception-vs-honesty-in-ui-design/

Link 2 – Trista Ding Task 4

LINK 2 – Trista Ding Task 4 Manual Scripts

https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540trista/2022/06/11/task-4-manual-scripts/

Trista chose to write a journal reflection for Task 4 and reading Trista’s ideas and the reasoning behind the reflection gave me deja vu. Trista’s ideas were very similar to my own when I did this task, I felt like I was reading my own reflection. Similarly, Trista also chose to write her reflection in pen and mentioned that she would just cross out any mistakes or tear out the page in her journal entries because she views this type of writing as informal. I also found it interesting that Trista’s main difference that she commented on between mechanized and manual forms of writing was efficiency as this was the exact word that I used. Mechanized and manual forms of writing are both regularly used by Trista and I and it depends on the task itself for which form of writing we choose to use.

One difference that stood out to me was the way we presented our reflections. I chose to write both my journal entry and reflection manually while Trista wrote her journal entry manually but reflection mechanically. Another difference is the way we presented our manual pieces of writing. I chose to individually take pictures of each page of my journal so my classmates could read the entry in comparison to Trista who posted her journal entry in more of a private way where you aren’t able to read the journal entry.

Link 1 – Erin Duchesne Task 3

LINK 1 – Erin Duchesne Task 3 Voice to Text

https://blogs.ubc.ca/erinduchesneetec540/2022/06/09/task-3-voice-to-text-task/

I personally connected to Erin Duchesne’s Task 3 Voice to Text Application. I found a lot of similarities in the way we defined mistakes in the voice-to-text application. We both described our text as one big run-on sentence and reflected on the importance of speaking clearly when using voice-to-text applications. Despite the many mistakes that were present in both our written texts, we were pleased with the accuracy of the written text. In addition, I appreciated Erin’s comment about how pausing when speaking doesn’t translate to a period in written text and how unnatural it is to say “period” when speaking orally.

One difference that stood out to me was the way we chose to write our reflections. Erin made it very clear what question she was responding to by writing out the question and then responding. This made it straightforward for myself to read. When I did my reflection I responded in a way that to some extent, requires the reader to read between the lines. Another difference was Erin’s experience with voice-to-text applications. This was Erin’s first time using a voice-to-text which differs from my own experience. Although we had very different experiences with voice-to-text applications, our experiences with this task were seemingly quite similar.

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.