Encyclopedias played a large role in our current history for sharing reliable information to the general population.
Please click on the following link to view my video on the History of the Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedias played a large role in our current history for sharing reliable information to the general population.
Please click on the following link to view my video on the History of the Encyclopedia.
In the next 30 years it’s hard to speculate as to how much our lives may or may not change due to technology. Although hopeful that there will be many positive outcomes, I am also not naïve to the fact that the technology industry is in the business of making money. Let’s look at utopian and dystopian speculation for the not-so-distant future!
From an education standpoint, technology could in fact help in many areas that our teachers are struggling to find time to address fully. With schools using one to one devices, artificial intelligence could be used to tailor student learning putting the students truly at the center. Students will complete their work fully online where algorithms will be used to check student work and provide next steps including extra instruction or challenges. Programs will update teachers and parents on a student’s progress. Learning will be at the appropriate level and will use topics the student is directly interested in. These programs will provide students with choices for how they will complete the work as well as choices in topics. This will provide much needed autonomy over student learning. A teacher’s role will move into facilitator. They will be responsible for ensuring students are physically using the device to do their work, whether that is at school or from a remote location. Teachers will focus on social-emotional learning situations, monitoring online group work as well as in-person interactions. Students will no longer be able to “fall under the radar” and fall behind in their studies. All students will be able to read and write thanks to access to the assistive technologies they require to be successful. Students will be well versed in sharing their ideas to the global community through the publishing of their work on public platforms. Because the learning will be tailored to individual preferences, students will be presented with opportunities to become involved in projects that affect our global health in line with their own passions (environmental concerns, climate change, children’s rights etc.). A classroom teacher in our present day must choose which topics will be presented to the whole class, there is often little room for individual choices as there is not enough time to fuel the passions of 30 students for every subject taught! Students would benefit from this use of artificial intelligence as they would be motivated to keep learning and there would be an excitement about what is next.
On the other hand, artificial technology developments could actually hinder our education system. The use of artificial intelligence to track student progress would inevitably create a focus on achievement only. We would lose our holistic approach to education. Students would have to login to a program to complete their school work. This same login information could be used to access other services as well such as community centers. The programs could flag students as to whether or not they should be granted access based on their study progress. Students not achieving the success indicators AI lays out for them could suffer consequences such as not participating in extra-curricular activities until success indicators are met. It would force compliance on students and take away much of their autonomy. Student participation on global platforms will also be monitored. Students who are writing about their passions or their activist views will have their posts read by algorithms looking for aggressive patterns in writing or key words. This will be in the name of safety of the students but it will take away freedom of speech. The programs will inhibit students from “getting themselves into trouble” by only allowing certain content or speech patterns to be posted. Students will learn how to beat the system and create new language that will go undetected. Students are not happy with or focused on their learning, they are merely programmed to play along.
During this simulation, I find myself giving weight to the risk of violence when making my decision. I am a bit surprised at some of the assault charges that state there is a low risk of violence. It makes me wonder how the risk is determined. I also find I am not very concerned with what the defendant’s statements are. It seems likely they will say whatever they feel will help them stay out of jail whether the statement is true or not. I found the stories that popped up interesting, they relayed information that people were not showing up for court. I would assume this happens more than the public is even aware of. I did notice though that it was not common to see a story that someone released committed another crime.
This simulation was difficult because I didn’t really feel I had enough information to make an informed decision. I was left deciding what I felt was important in regard to the limited information I had. I would like to know how the program chose the category for violence, appearing in court or committing a crime. What was this based on? Personal history? Demographics? Or something else entirely? I would have liked to know if this was a first offence or if the person was a repeat offender as that would have altered some of my decisions. Before using a program such as this to make important decisions, I would hope that the judges have an in-depth understanding of how the program works and what information it is using. The outcome of these decisions has implications on both the defendant as well as the general public.
This week I found myself connecting to Trista’s post.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540trista/2022/07/21/task-10-attention-economy/
We both noticed the way in which we had to read every word and every line on each page in order to complete the game. She highlights Bringnull (2011) statement that designers, based on psychological insights, can easily use dark patterns to deceptively manipulate users in business owners’ interests. I found this also connected with Harris’s (2017) TED talk that identified how peoples’ thoughts are being steered in such a way that we end up thinking about things we hadn’t planned on effectively losing agency over controlling our lives the way we want to. As a human race we need to begin acknowledging this fact and intentionally focusing our attention on things that drive our value systems and supports our goals. I appreciated how Trista highlighted the subtleties of how our attention is being focused elsewhere in small enough ways that we allow it or don’t deal with it, such as an inbox full of junk mail that we don’t unsubscribe to. She points out that it is easy to attend to the game but much more difficult to attend to these same issues in our everyday life. I am in absolute agreement with this. We often give our attention to things that are easy instead of saving it for what we truly care about!
Reference
Brignull, H. (2011). Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. Interaction Design, Usability, 338.
Harris, T. (2017). How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_the_manipulative_tricks_tech_companies_use_to_capture_your_attention?language=en
From the first screen I am concerned about my speed and accuracy. I am aware there will be distractions and am telling myself to stay focused on the questions. I need to look closely beyond the large green no button to find where to click to move on. I begin to realize how tough this will be for me!
Filling in information is frustrating, my letters do not type on top of theirs, I must delete first. I can’t use tab to move from block to block. The timer popping up every minute is annoying as I feel like I’m not moving fast enough. I must pay so much attention to get through every screen and realize I must look at for the details that are smaller or in the background versus those that jump out at me right away. It took me two attempts to realize that number, age, and birthdate all had to match. The manner in which everything was worded made me really think about what I was wanting or what I was being asked to do. There were a lot of double negatives used throughout the site. This creates confusion for users and entangles users in multiple ways (Brignull, 2010). There were so many buttons to click on the last screen to verify I was a human! This program goes against everything I have been programmed to do using the web!
This task has made me more aware of critically thinking about what I see and interact with on the web. I must be more intentional about the information I am sharing and what I notice is explicitly stated and what is not. Knowing about practices such as the inverted pyramid where important information is found further into reading versus upfront (Brignull, 2010) will help users to critically examine the information they are agreeing to on websites. We must be aware of how user interface is designed in order to think about how it is trying to manipulate our responses!
References
Brignull, H. (2011). Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. Interaction Design, Usability, 338.
Using the Golden Record song choice data to analyze connections was overwhelming at first. One of the first things I noticed was that track 4 seemed to be an outlier with only one edge. I immediately wonder why this song was only chosen by one person. Looking at my community I was grouped into I notice that there are several tracks with only one edge. Out of six people in the community there was only one person that had every song fully connected to another person.
This shows that although we think similarly regarding our track choices, we are not in total agreement with everyone else. This does represent the largest community out of the four groups. This tells me that these connections were the strongest and perhaps the tracks were also the most chosen. Systems Innovation (2015) identify that how connected a node is in the network determines its significance. We need to dig much deeper in order to determine what this significance is. Each person’s justifications must be explored in order to have an understanding of what the significance might be of these connections. It would be interesting to explore if our backgrounds are similar thus influencing our selection process.
When I compare my community to a smaller community, I notice that only 3 tracks were common among the three people in the community. This makes me wonder about the criteria people used for song selection and their justifications for how the tracks represented earth. The graphs do not provide the necessary information to answer these inquiries. The graph does provide a provocation for an inquiry.
This process made me reflect on how the algorithms on the web work and how they are ranking connections to create significance. There are many assumptions made in the process. To understand the ranking systems, one would need to have a certain amount of understanding of the company running the search engine (ex. Google, Bing, etc). By understanding the purpose of the company, one can begin to understand the significance of the connections and the search results. This is important as what is ranked high on the search results may be of little significance to the person doing the searching. This task has made me realize the importance of understanding how networks work as well as critically thinking about the information that is presented and asking questions about what is missing.
References
Systems Innovation. (2015, April 19). Network Connections. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/2iViaEAytxw
https://blogs.ubc.ca/gkadawong/2022/07/03/task-7-mode-bending/
I found Georgia’s mode bending post very interesting! She redesigned the task by creating a poem about what was in her bag. This was a completely different approach than my own. I explained the story behind different items in my bag where she left her bag much more open to interpretation. Georgia does express in her reflection that this could ultimately create confusion. I enjoyed her poem and guessed what items may be in her bag based on my own experiences of an active outdoor lifestyle and some of her other descriptions. My guess is that the items are different than what I am picturing. It begs the question though, do the items themselves matter in this case? From the poem I was still able to discern that she is active, outdoors, snacks often, connects with family, teaches, and that the bag is full and heavy! This redesigned task fits in with the idea I pulled from the New London Group (1996)that we are part of multiple life worlds and that our identities have multiple layers that are complex and related to each other (p.71). Georgia’s poem depicted how her bag held the key to these multiple layers and created a picture of how they are all jumbled and packed together to form who she is. Her post made me think about how I could use the same technique to share my multiple life worlds and identities.
References:
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. (Links to an external site.) Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.
Choosing 27 songs to include on a record that would be sent to space to hopefully one day be found by another species is no small task. Pairing that list down to a selection of only 10 with no expertise in the area of music, math, space, or history is even more difficult! My choices reflect my biases; what sounds pleasing, what represents different aspects of our world, and representations of different cultures. I did try to reflect how the music might communicate the evolution of our society and technologies on earth. If I listened to a recording of noises from another planet that was completely foreign to anything I had ever experienced, I believe I would have a difficult time understanding the messages they were trying to convey to me as it would not have any context. This record could be viewed as what Rumsey describes as a community collection of archiving (Brown University, 2017). Although the project was led by one individual, many experts and perspectives were considered before making final selections for the record. Although not music, I would choose to include the sounds of the Earth track as it is incredibly interesting to listen to and I think provides a large amount of data about the Earth. My 10 musical choices are in no order of importance.
Song Choice | Rationale |
Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
|
The idea of representing strong mathematical foundations in music makes sense when thinking about communicating with a species that may not be able to hear as we do. This might enable the information to be interpreted in another way. |
Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43
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I like the rationale behind including this song. It is an introduction. If the language could be deciphered, it would give information about the flora and a belief system where the spiritual world is represented. |
Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
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The Didgeridoo is a unique sound to me that reflects a particular culture in the world. It is completely different than the other tracks found on the record and shows how cultures began layering different instruments into compositions. |
“Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
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This is the only rock track on the record and shows a more contemporary realm of music at about the time the Voyager was launched. |
Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55 | This piece shows classic composition of instruments as well as voice. This is not something that you would come across seeing performed in a backyard get together. It shows the complexity of the organization of our society. |
Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18 | This piece shows how humans communicate to organize ourselves. The multiple voices show the complexities of singing with others in harmony. |
Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
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There is something very primitive, tribal, and beautiful about this song. I can feel the story even though I can’t understand it. The song makes me feel something which is a big part of what music is meant evoke in us as humans. |
Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57 | This song makes me think about the start of music on earth. Using voice and simple instruments such as shakers and drums. Many of our cultures use the beat of the drum to represent the heartbeat. |
Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
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These panpipes are a primitive flute. I am drawn to many of the more primitive sounds as these are sounds that we could still reproduce without our modern technologies. |
Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38 | A purely vocal song without any instrumental accompaniments is a very intentional choice. No outside technology is required and a choice is being made to sing instead of speak. It shows a different form of communication. |
References:
Brown University. (2017). Abby Smith Rumsey: “Digital Memory: What Can We Afford to Lose?”
https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/
Redesigning this task allowed me to think about the original purpose of the task in a new way. When writing about what was in my bag I approached the task very literally. When speaking to what was in my bag I told more of a story, or tried to! The New London Group (1996) explore the idea of being simultaneous members of multiple lifeworlds and that this shows how our identities have multiple layers that are complex in relation to each other (p.71). This is very reflective of my identity and that to know me well you would need to understand the complexity of my layers. By talking about what was in my bag, without a script, I was much more willing to share more information about the items and the story behind them. I did refer back to my original post and picture for what was in my bag to create a transformation that was a new use of old materials and a re-articulation and recombination of the given resources of available designs (NLG, 1996, p. 76). As a teacher, I am constantly re-designing materials and resources to best fit the needs of my students and hoping that they will create new meaning. When a task is not meeting the desired outcome it should be re-defined. Teachers need to be open to developing new ways in which students can demonstrate how they design and carry out new practices that include their own goals and values (NLG, 1996, p.87). This will motivate students to continue their learning and design new meaning. The challenge with mode-bending is to ensure that you are not just redesigning for the sake of redesigning. Goals should be intentional. Creating new ways to complete tasks and think about our learning allows us to create new meaning and in the process continually re-make ourselves.
References:
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. (Links to an external site.) Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.
I enjoyed Trista Svennes’ Twine story!
I found I had a similar process to her. We both needed to figure out the program first, struggled a bit with the flow of elements, moved to paper and pencil, then back to twine. I enjoyed the moving gif’s she used. That was not something I had even thought I could add. Her point about creating the Twine in a similar fashion to a lesson plan, with the end in mind, was important for me too. I find it very difficult to plan how to get somewhere unless I know where I am going! Although the sounds I used in my Twine story were simple, I did find that playing Trista’s Twine without any sounds made for a much different experience. I also agree that I want to learn more about using Twine before attempting to create another story.