Monthly Archives: July 2022

Linking Assignment #6 – Emily Wu’s Task 10:Attention Economy

For my final linking assignment, I chose Emily Wu’s Task 10:Attention Economy. After reading through Emily’s write-up, I recognized we both experienced similar frustrations and difficulties using the program. Emily shared her confusion (exactly like mine) when the random timer popped up during the game, and consequently, neither of us could figure out how to continue playing the game for a while. I also felt relieved that Emily experienced the same frustrations as me regarding the random clicking that had to occur and somehow miraculously get you into the next screen.

I thought Emily highlighted a significant point in her travel experience website bookings, again similar to mine and how she felt seeing the hidden fees. She shared that on Booking.com, although the prices initially seemed lower – just like my experience with Airbnb, the costs were significantly higher when you arrived at the final booking screen. Emily explained ‘Of course, as a business, the best strategy is to include these extra fees at the checkout because it means that the customer has already made their decision with their booking (or commodity in general) and is more likely to spend the extra dollars to get the product.’ I completely agree with this statement, and now, based on our experience, it seems like we will be looking more closely at the various marketing and booking techniques when booking travel in the future.

Linking Assignment #5 – Sage Capogreco’s Task 9: Network Assignment

For Linking Assignment #5, I chose to look at Sage Capogreco’s Task 9: Network Assignment Using Golden Record Curation Quiz Data. I appreciated Sage’s write-up’s thoughtful detail in hypothesizing why our classmates chose the songs they did. In addition, she shared which tracks were the most popular: Track 18: Fifth symphony (first movement)”, and “Track 3: Percussion (Senegal).”

However, similar to the questioning I shared in my assignment, we both wondered or wished that further data could have been collected to explore the reasoning behind the song selection since there was such a vast array of song choices. It was interesting because Sage shared that she ‘I justified these choices because I wanted a variety of geographical locations and I wanted to prioritize cultural impact.’ Whereas for me, I simply picked the songs I thought had a catchy beat and were enjoyable to listen to. I enjoyed reading her reasoning and her explanation was not something I had considered before, therefore emphasizing even more how interesting it would be to learn our peer’s reasoning behind their song choices.

Linking Assignment #4 – Erin Duchesne’s Task 7: Mode Bending

For this assignment, I chose Erin Duchesne’s Task 7. I was drawn to her mode-bending task because I thought she did an excellent job recreating her initial work using TikTok. In addition, I’ve never personally used TikTok before, and I was curious how she felt creating content for this type of task.

Erin shared that the assignment put her out of her comfort zone, and through her work, I learned that you could add different background voices as voiceovers to enhance your video. Just by her description, I can tell the amount of time and effort she put in to create her final product, and I appreciated her sense of humour in describing the different items in her bag and her song choice. It was upbeat and fun to listen to!

Overall, I felt her work encouraged me to rethink how social media platforms such as TikTok could enhance educational activities and connect with students to showcase their creative side through a popular platform.

Linking Assignment #3: Emoji Stories – Trista Svennes

The Emoji Stories assignment was one of my favourite tasks this term, and both Trista and I were very excited to guess each other’s Emoji stories. When viewing Trista’s emoji, I quickly identified her story summarizing the TV show the Amazing Race. The following sentence in her story shared that 10 teams were racing around the world to win a cash prize. Because I’ve watched the Amazing Race and understand the premise of the TV show, I could easily guess the rest of her emoji story. However, I wondered if you hadn’t seen the TV show before – how easily would you be able to guess it?

Trista shared in her post that she uses emojis daily, and I thought it was an accurate statement she explained, stating ‘it’s quite interesting that we use these symbols so freely to replace text in order to communicate and get the point across without being face to face with someone” (Bolter, 2001 p. 56). Reflecting on how emojis can replace text can provide opportunities for more detailed understanding and for emotions to be expressed in text conversations, where often you can portray your feelings appropriately via text.

I thought Trista also made a great connection by comparing this activity to Ellen DeGeneres’ Game of Game’s called ‘See Ya Later Alligator’, where players face off in a challenge to be the first to read an emoji sentence. I watched the clip she shared and thought these activities would be fantastic ways to encourage students who may be opposed to writing to engage in a fun way to tell their story.

Linking Assignment #2 – Task 3: Melissa Santos
For this linking assignment, I enjoyed reading Melissa’s Task 3 submission about her daughter’s birthday party experience. When I first read the story, my eyes were drawn to 70 girls (which Melissa later clarified was meant to be seven years old), and I was trying to wrap my brain around having 70 girls over for a birthday party, which made me laugh!

I thought Melissa’s speech to text overall made sense, and I could easily follow the story she was sharing about the day. Also, I commend her for all the great activities she planned for her daughter’s party – from origami to colouring canvas pouches and designing washer necklaces; it sounded fabulous! I agree with Melissa’s comment about forgetting to say specific punctuation cues; otherwise, it turns into a long paragraph (which is quite annoying). I also made the same mistake while completing this task.

One piece of Melissa’s writing that resonated with me was her explanation that without completing this task, a written record of her daughter’s birthday would not exist. As she mentions, she may have shared verbally or shown photos of the party itself – but nothing may have been documented summarizing the entire day. I think of many important events that have happened, and often we capture them through photographs or video; however, do the minor details get lost because they are not physically written down? I admire the people that write a daily journal because I genuinely feel those memories and emotions may fade over time without written documentation.

Linking Assignment #1 – Trista D
I chose to reflect on Trista’s Task 1, “What’s in Your Bag?” for this assignment. I was drawn to her post because I have the same purse and was very impressed that she could speak three of the languages on the care card!

I thought Trista shared several significant points regarding text technologies and multilingualism. I only speak English fluently, and Trista’s post made me consider which items in my bag offer multiple languages on them – which languages were they and what did they say? Trista states ‘it also reminds me that the influence of globalization is affecting everyone whether people are aware of it or not’. This statement is important because, as Trista mentions, text technologies play a crucial role in our lives, and the influence of globalization is constant. It’s incredible to think that now, no matter where you’re from or what language you speak, you have text technology at the tips of your fingerprints.

Trista mentions she moved from China, and since English isn’t her first language, she relies on her phone to translate or offer English subtitles. When I was in Japan, I relied on my phone more than ever for translation support (thank goodness for the Google Translate conversation app) and English subtitles for Japanese shows. I appreciate Trista’s entry and am grateful I had the opportunity to reflect on our connection to text technologies.