Month: January 2026

My story was captured by an iPhone speech to text function in the notes app:

When I was about six years old, I received this Barney doll from my mom for Christmas. I was starting to get out of the Barney phase by that age so I wasn’t particularly excited to receive this gift but thought I would play with it to see if I could kind of rekindle that love I once had for Barney the one thing that made me apprehensive about this particular Barney doll was that it would talk without any prompting so I would just be playing with other toys in my room and then all of a sudden I would hear Barney say play with me or I love you. I was always a child who was fearful of unexpected noises so this Barney doll and me were not a particularly good combination as the days went on. It got even more challenging for me to deal with the Barney doll I would be trying to sleep and in the middle of the night I would hear Barney say terrifying things such as play with me and I love you. My mom remembers seeing this flying Barney doll come out of my room several nights in a row. After quite a while of me hiding Barney around various spots in my house. I decided to take more dramatic action one day while playing outside I decided to bring Barney out to a little forest that was behind my house. I went as deep into this forest as I could go and hit Barney under some leaves and dirt. A very nice week went by where I didn’t have to listen to Barney’s voice and then one day I opened the door to see the same Barney doll sitting on our doorstep. There was no knock when it arrived, and I had no clue how it had gotten there. The only possible explanation would be one of my neighborhood. Friends knew about the doll and brought it back to me when they found it in the woods or that the doll was alive and coming to murder me. Both scenarios seemed equally likely at my young age after this horrifying discovery and likely some tears to my parents. I convince them to donate the doll to OS freaked out child 30 years later I have become a father and my own child has always been nervous around talking dolls and stuffed animals. Perhaps this fear is hereditary

The speech to text function struggled with several conventions of written English. It would frequently miss punctuation marks like commas or periods (“I decided to take more dramatic action one day while playing outside…”). It would also add unnecessary periods, even in sections where I don’t remember making a pause in my speech (“one of my neighborhood. Friends knew about…). Due to the incorrect capture of punctuation marks, there are both run-on sentences and sentence fragments all over the place. Had I written this story, I would have included paragraphs. Voice to text was not able to predict where I would like new paragraphs to start. This also reads like someone talking, rather than a written account of the events. This is especially apparent when I used casual language (“if I could kind of rekindle that love…”). 

Despite the many wrong uses of the English language in voice to text’s capture, I was impressed by the amount of words it correctly understood. The only misunderstood word was “OS”, which was meant to be “a less”. There are some excellent story elements that are right with this story. There was the comical imagery of the barney doll being thrown or its reappearance on my doorstep. The story is also relatable for anyone who has been fearful of an inanimate object. I noted the strong ending I included, connecting my current self to the past. I have always struggled with storytelling, and I surprised myself with the inclusion of a few interesting story elements.

The most common mistakes are the amount of written English convention rules being broken. I feel that this is an interesting story, told by someone who struggles with storytelling and was not captured properly by a mobile device. The device was unable to capture my expressions, tone or chuckling between certain parts. The rules of the written English language exist to make stories easier to read and familiar to the reader. Breaking up paragraphs and allowing pauses from punctuation are essential to capturing the interest of the reader.

Scripting the story would have allowed me to include written conventions to properly communicate my interesting story. I likely would have thought the story out in a more concise way, leading to shorter sentences and more focused work. The structure would have been clarified by using paragraphs and having the ability to edit my work.

I find that oral storytelling is messy and spontaneous. I was quite surprised that I hadn’t said “like” or “um”, though this was likely because I knew I was being recorded. Written storytelling is more intentional, thought out and structured. Both are an important way to communicate in our language, but I felt that this specific story works better through oral storytelling. The power of the story comes from my tone, expression and pauses. To translate this story in written form, more emphasis would be placed on details, conventions and effective word choice. When telling this story orally, it would likely change slightly based on who my audience was. When writing this story, my goal would be to effectively communicate it to a wider audience. 

[03:45] Dr. Boroditsky mentions evidential information and how different languages require different kinds of evidence. I think this is important because different language speakers will pay attention to different parts of an event than I would. The way in which I come to learn information may not be as important to someone who spoke a different language and witnessed the same event. 

[11:04] Dr. Boroditsky shares that “time” is the most frequent noun in English. She goes on to say that this is a common pattern in European languages. Time is ordered left to right in English, but in other languages it is ordered differently (an example being cardinal directions). In my experience, I perceive time as being to the right for the future, and the left for the past. I connect this perception of time to the way that I read words and typically order things (left to right). 

[20:26] Dr. Boroditsky speaks to gender assignments of different nouns in German, French and Spanish. She wonders if speakers of these languages would associate the objects as more feminine or masculine based on their grammatical gender assignments. As someone who went through French Immersion school growing up, I remember the cognitive dissonance of learning how to read in both English and French at the same time. Memorizing which gender to pair with certain nouns lead to associations being made with the assigned gender. 

[30:38] Dr. Boroditsky then mentions the distinctions between intentional actions and accidents. I appreciate how in certain languages, if an event occurs due to an accident it is not seen as important. Since the subject did not intend for the action to happen, remembering who/what caused the accident is unimportant. I truly wish this was a natural part of the English language as well.

[51:58] Dr. Boroditsky talks about universals in all languages. She discusses how all human languages have to be learnable by humans and must have the ability to be passed on to the next generation. This is important because it demonstrates how there are some aspects of each language that are shared experiences for all human beings. Preservation of all languages should be prioritized, and these universal truths make this possible. 

[57:04] Dr. Boroditsky is asked about texting destroying our language, she answers by saying that language continues to change and evolve. This new way of communicating may sound foreign to long-time speakers of the language, but the language is adapting rather than being destroyed. As the youth change our culture, the way our language is spoken and interpreted changes with it.

References

SAR School for Advanced Research. (2017, June 7). Lera Boroditsky, how the languages we speak shape the way we think [Video]. YouTube.

Task 1: What’s in your bag?

My name is Mark Fawdry and I live in beautiful Nanaimo, British Columbia. I am an educator currently teaching grade 7, but have taught a variety of subjects to most grade levels. I have been teaching for ten years, and truly love the work that I do. Beyond work, my wonderful family (including a somewhat rambunctious dog) is where I happily spend my time.

The bag I have picked for this exercise is used on a daily basis to transport items that I consider essential to my life. Funnily enough, I had recently cleared out my bag so it does not have as many items as I would typically store in there. Currently my bag contains a phone charger, lanyard, wallet for bills/cards, wallet for change, Aquaphor, a ginger chew, flash drive and a pen. Normally there would be unneeded receipts or papers that needed filed as well, these typically pile up during the busy school year.

I am someone who likes to feel prepared, the items currently in my bag act as a reassurance that I have what I need for most situations. I have toned down these necessary items in recent years. I used to include items like bandaids, granola bars and cleaning wipes. 

The current items in my bag should be considered “texts” as each item gives a clear picture of who I am, together these items tell a story. My phone charger demonstrates my reliance on technology, as well as my fear of becoming disconnected by running out of battery. The lanyard symbolizes my need for routine, work keys get placed on these as I spend a significant portion of my time working in a school building. The wallets act as a text by showing the financial responsibility I adhere to, with the two different wallets showing my preference for staying organized. The aquaphor and ginger chew relate to reactionary methods for taking care of my body. The flash drive and pen act as a text that shows someone living in both a digital world and a physical one. All together, these items act as “text technologies” that demonstrate my engagement with language with a variety of tools. These items show that I am someone who appreciates routine, preparedness and connectedness with others and my own body.

The items in my bag show my literacies as being varied and adaptable to my daily life. Communication is done both digitally and by analog, depending on what is required. These items show digital literacy as being at the forefront, although financial, health, print and cultural literacies are on display here as well. The image I have of myself matches the contents of this bag, I am very aware that I am an anxious person. It is rare for others to see the contents of my bag, as I feel somewhat embarrassed by them. Others tend to comment on how calm and steady I appear to be, though I feel the contents of this bag tell the story of someone who is not naturally this way and uses these items to feel more confident. The contents of the bag have diminished over the years, this is likely because my daily life has become more stable and I am less mobile in my work situation than I was 20 years ago. My commute to work is incredibly short, meaning less reliance on items in a bag. If an archeologist were to find this bag and its items several years from now, they’d note the variety in the technologies included. They’d likely wonder about our dynamic living situations, and the uncomfortable nature our bodies were regularly in.