Link to Duncan’s Hypermediafication of what’s in my bag.
Hey Duncan, I initially played with the task in an auditory way as well. I wanted to try to find the commercial jingles or memetic songs that represented each object. That proved to be a little difficult so I opted for tag-lines or corporate/product slogans. I love that you were able to incorporate audio into your mode-bend. I find that we are bombarded with audio, chimes, jingles, songs in pretty well every aspect of our online existence. What I appreciated with yours was the sensory element of the sound. This was quite refreshing and unique. I imagine if I was blindfolded, I could probably guess most of the items before the description. It really personalizes the experience and exemplifies the New London Group’s concept of designing and redesigning – the re-contextualization and re-presentation of meaning (1996).
Cazden, C., Cope, B., Fairclough, N., Gee, J., Kalantzis, M., Kress, G., … & Nakata, M. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard educational review, 66(1), 60-92.
Link to Joti’s Network Assignment
Hi Joti,
I shared very similar sentiments to your post here and what I want to expand on is your thoughts on omission. Initially, I was going to do assignment 8 through the lens of omission rather than inclusion. Given my background in music and having done some art history and ethnomusicology courses, I have a decent background to try to tackle the assignment with some objectivity. When I was exploring how to respond, I started to write my post by describing why I omitted certain songs but changed to one of inclusion after re-working my post to include a type of rubric that I used for omission. What we both address in our posts is the arbitrary nature of the data without context. For me I felt at home in this assignment, but I would not feel confident if I was supposed to curate a list of water polo highlights. That is out of my depth of understanding! I also appreciate your thoughts on the political implication of this type of data and how governments use (or don’t use) types of data. If you’re not familiar, it’s worth looking into the Cambridge Analytical scandal to see how networked data was used in very precise and predictable ways to influence voting choice. It is interesting to me that much of the data necessary to make really well informed choices is owned, or rather stored on our behalf, by private companies. The disconnect between government technology and private industry technology is almost laughable and it brings up questions of the privatization of algorithms and AI and how these technologies will shift government policy. I always found it interesting that the “liberal counterculture” of the 1960’s and 1970’s was rather anti-government. Free folk did not want Uncle Sam overreaching. Now, many progressive or liberal stances are asking for, what would be considered decades ago, government overreach. We tend to mythologize history and I wonder if a critical look at the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s would reveal some interesting perspectives on what would seem to be a shift between government corporate trust.
Link to Steph’s Twine Task
Steph, what a great use of Twine! As I was reading your description, I imagined a type of True/False quiz but as I explored the pathways, I realize that the application in your work is quite fitting! As you mentioned, with graphics and different text/fonts, this tool could be a really good way for your students to differentiate between lessons. I teach elementary music and I often feel that the full scope of technological interventions in education is quite limited due to levels of student literacy on devices like desktops and laptops. My imagination did not go in the direction you went in the Twine task and I think this is a great testament to the variety of pathways provided by technology.
Just out of curiosity, have you created online quizzes before? When it comes to linking the different passages together in Twine, do you find that creating the pathways are an efficient quiz format? I imagine that in an environment where answers are diagnostic in nature, the pathway somewhat create themselves.
Link to Steve’s Attention Economy Task
Hi Steve, What stood out to me about your experience was the desire to complete the processes for fear of missing out. You tapped on a very real and intentional strategy of many internet sites (specifically social media). It is wild how our desire to be included and belong is manipulated to the point that completing an intentionally bad website login routine becomes something that brings up such strong emotions. To be honest, I had to use an online tutorial to see what exactly was going on… I missed out that the picture box window was intentionally too large for the frame and some of the check boxes were missing. I really wanted to finish without help and also felt this desire to make it to the end so I wouldn’t miss out. FoMO is a huge area of study now. I did a Google Scholar search for peer reviewed articles with the keywords “social media” and “fear of missing out” between 2020-2024 and got over 17,000 results. The attention economy is massive, persuasive, and pervasive. I don’t use Facebook other than for Marketplace. I’ve unfollowed all my friends, left all groups, and turned off all notifications. I also have a time limit on scrolling-based sites like instagram, facebook, and reddit. I find that I have very low self-control over my desire to use these sites and have to put into place barriers of access – build my own speed bumps if you will. For my generation, I think that there is enough social awareness regarding social media design that there is a decent movement around leaving the sites or finding alternatives. I remember talking about leaving Facebook 10 years ago and my friends said, “ya I wish I could but I’ll miss out on so much stuff”. That was during Facebook’s domination of scheduling events. Now I don’t know a single person who singularly uses Facebook or social media for inviting people to events.
Link to Robyn’s Detain & Release Task
Hi Robyn,
When I was listening to the Reply All podcast episodes (2022), I knew a reasonable amount about algorithmic policing bias but didn’t know exactly how it worked. I was shocked at the level of corruption that was accepted as normal within day-to-day operations. It is also interesting to reflect on how one individual (Jack Maple) quite valiantly and unpredictably re-structured policing in New York and is, more or less, single handedly responsible for the creation of CompStat. I find it fascinating that the very virtuous intentions of Jack Maple have left a highly contested and questionable legacy.
My mother is also a nurse and teaches LPN courses – including ethics – so growing up I became familiar with some of the issues within the health care system.
On that note, I am always curious about how the bureaucracy of well-intentioned policy become so problematic. I see it almost daily in my school I teach at. It can be very ethically challenging to know how to deal with “problematic” behaviour when there is no “real” recourse that isn’t either a) disruptive or b) devastating. For example, there are students who’s behaviour is truly problematic. Having them in the building is a daily challenge. We could send them home… however their home isn’t a safe place. There might be abuse, substance issues, food shortages, and a myriad of other problematic behaviours that facilitate “acting out” at school. I imagine the comparison is similar to health care – where we are charged to take care of individuals but the tools to take care of them fall short of their needs. The language and policy around taking care of at-risk individuals is clear and available, even championed. But the actual implementation of policy is strenuously difficult.
In your work-place, have you seen policies such as clean drug supply, safe injection sites, or decriminalization of personal possession have a positive, neutral, or negative impact on your community? If you could change a policy, what would it look like?
Reply All (podcast).Links to an external site. (2022, September 23). In Wikipedia.
Link to Kris’ Speculative Future Task
What a great scenario! … or terrible, depending how you look at it ????
Not sure if you’ve watched Fallout on Amazon Prime or played the games but your description of the future sound like it’s in that vein. I didn’t know anything about Fallout until I watched the TV show and I absolutely loved it! The 1950’s retrofuturism combined with re-imagined advanced technology is very cool, not to mention the writing and acting is fantastic.
One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is how the internet has re-created a from of digital feudalism. Within traditional feudalism, there is a hierarchy: The King (chosen by God), Nobles (chosen by the King and swear and oath of loyalty), Knights (largely appointed by Nobles), and Peasants (the lowly and hard working) (2017). I’m working on a digital comparison, and you’re welcome to comment and suggest different players on the board. The King today would be “market forces” or economics. These forces are rather “god-like” and really do dictate how our lives are lived and who is in charge. Economics (as an entity) appoints Nobles (corporations) as it’s vassals to do their bidding. However, I really do think that digital corporations are the ones that have most of the power and resources. Digital Corporations (Nobles) appoint Knights to fight on their behalf and Economics’ (The Monarch) behalf. These could be personified as businesses or individuals that profit off of the systems and platforms created by Digital Corporations. Knights come in many different shapes and forms but the one thing they must do is tow the party line – profit, profit, profit. Many Knights are trying to change things from the “inside-out” but we all know that Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic adage “the medium is the message” is far to powerful to be toyed with (1968). Any Knight that profits off the power and structures of Kings and Nobles is guilty by association. And now to us mere mortals. The Peasants. Just average citizens doing their best to navigate the economic and social structures we’ve been born into. However, the major difference between historical feudalism and digital feudalism is the illusion of control and participation. Some Peasants can work the system to become Knights and even Nobles. In fact, a major tactic of keeping social order is to encourage Peasants to work their hardest to become Knights and Nobles. This is central to digital feudalism. Even if a Peasant isn’t working towards becoming a Knight/Noble, they have been given the illusion of control. The Nobles give the Peasants their systems and architecture for free – allowing them to create, network, and thrive within their fields of labour. The Knights and Nobles benefit off their labour and use their data to then target them deeper and more profoundly. The Peasant is often unaware of this feedback loop of creation and exploitation by their own hands. If they only knew that deleting the apps and closing the screen would give them MORE power, not less…
I am curious how digital feudalism will evolve and project 100 years into the future…
Anyway, I appreciate you reading this and being a sounding board for my thoughts on the matter. Your writeup helped direct some of these thoughts ????
What was the feudal system?. International School History – MYP history. (2017). https://www.internationalschoolhistory.net/IB/myp_history/4/unit1/feudalism_above.htm