For my final linking post, I have chosen Task #10 on the topic of Attention Economy. In this task we worked our way through the game User Inyerface. While doing so, we needed to take notice of the ways the design of the game manipulates our attention and responses along the way. I have chosen to link my post to Juliano Ng primarily because as I was reading through his post I found we have some similar interpretations on the topic and I also connected with how he was thinking of using this with his students. 

My link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/meipsyshack/2021/03/20/task-10-attention-economy/

Juliano’s link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540jng/2021/03/21/task-10-attention-economy/

Both Juliano and I expressed similar frustration with this game as did many of the others in the class. It is one that is a bit challenging, a bit frustrating and yet can help inform you of how we see our information being used and gathered through other information gathering platforms. Both Juliano and I discussed the dark patterns of information gathering and how we often can be oblivious to what is being gathered. As mentioned by Juliano, “I think that darkpatterns.org is a great way to make users more aware of the sneaky practices of some companies and be more alert so that they are not as easily manipulated.” (Brignull, 2011) We most often just skim for information and race to fill it in, in order to move on to the next step without really considering how our information could be gathered and used. As Juliano says, “As adults, we are also guilty of this. How many of us actually read through the Terms and Conditions or Privacy Statements before agreeing to them?.”  This thought connects with what I was mentioning from Brignull (2011) that, “People tend to start reading at the beginning of a piece of text and as they advance, an increasing percentage of people give up and do not read to the end.” This is a reminder of just how unaware we are of these dark patterns of deception that web and interaction designers use to guide users in different directions. It makes me wonder when the last time was that I actually read through one of those Terms and Conditions or Privacy Statements? There are so many of these types of Privacy Statements for things these days, that they just become part of the noise of unnecessary text that we no longer really pay attention to as it is just a means to an end. 

In the beginning of Juliano’s post he mentioned how he wanted to use this with his students and how he could possibly incorporate this into his class. He states, “I will get my students to play after Spring Break as I plan on having them design their own website using sites such as Weebly and Wix. “ This is such a great idea to do with our own students. I wonder just what my students would think of this game and if they would be able to see the ways the game would manipulate them and challenge them along the way. Would they grasp the bigger picture idea of what the game is actually teaching them? My students are in grade six and even though they may still seem young, for the most part many of them (not all) have already been exposed to different ways that information may have been gathered from them. 

I like how Juliano comments on his fear of his student’s ability to persevere through the game and if they would simply give up and avoid the challenge. He mentions, “This avoidance of wanting to work through a problem/challenge and lack of perseverance is what I worry about for my students.”  That connects to what Harris (2017) was alluding to in the video; that “Our youth’s minds are programmed for this instant gratification of their “elicit brain” and having answers or solutions at their fingertips, but not everything can be solved through a quick Google Search or YouTube instruction video. They need to be able to think critically and work to solve problems, especially when they will be facing problems that don’t have a clear answer yet and it will be up to them to come up with the solution.” It is so important for our students to have a better understanding of how to think critically when looking for information and deciphering what they have learned. This is something I feel as a teacher I am constantly trying to reinforce over and over again. As my students are still active consumers of information we need to help them to become better critical thinkers. 

In terms of Juliano’s authorship, he used a UBC wordpress blog but I am unsure of the type of theme he chose. This is not really important unless someone else wanted to duplicate the same theme. I did like the simple layout of his site. It was also easy to navigate to the different tasks on his blog through the links posted on the right hand column, although it is only showing a limited number of tasks and will not populate the full list. However, there are forward and backward button links at the end of his posts that will still take me through his tasks. Being able to read through Juliano’s previous tasks helped provide a better idea of who he is and how he interprets and responds to the course material. Having the ability to leave a comment on his blog space under each post was also beneficial as it points to Juliano’s willingness to receive feedback from those that visit his site. Plus, I can also see a list on the right-hand side of his blog for a list of peers’ comments, which is great if myself or another visitor wants to read through them. 

Juliano – User Inyerface

My – User Inyerface

References:

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

I have connected my fifth Linking Post to the Golden Record activity which was Task #8. For this task we needed to listen to the music on the Golden Record and then narrow down the 27 pieces of music to just 10. I chose to link with Melissa Phillip’s post, as we both used the idea of selecting music from different continents along with a mixed genre.

My Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/meipsyshack/2021/03/07/task-8-golden-record-curation/

Melissa’s Link:https://blogs.ubc.ca/melissaphillipstuckeretec540/2021/03/07/the-golden-record/

I found this to be a very interesting assignment. Like Melissa, I had only vaguely heard of the Voyager Golden Record, yet had never explored it further until this task. It is fascinating that this was created for the purpose of sharing who we are from Earth and compiling it into this Golden Record and then rocketing it off into outer space. I imagine Carl Sagan and his team must have had a lot of fun and engagement with this project. This is something I also noted while reading through Melissa’s post on the task. I liked how she shared her initial thoughts about the Voyager and states, “I love the fact that the scientists decided to include this account of life on Earth in the event that the Voyagers are found by extraterrestrial life forms.”  This links in with some of my thoughts from my post referring to the Twenty Thousand Hertz (2019) podcast stating that it is, “A message to the cosmos. We are here and we are listening.” (31:22) or as quoted on the NASA website (n.d) by Carl Sagan, “The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space faring civilizations in interstellar space.”

As Melissa notes in her post, she considers what this project would look like if it were to be done and just how complex it would be to gather information to compile. I fully agree with how much more complex it would be as there are so many more voices, opinions and knowledge around the world to consider. Melissa draws from a quote by Rumsey (2017) that we are all “creatures” of the environment and culture that we grow up in, which is why we need to share the curation of our cultural memory (Brown University, 2017). This cultural memory would be so much more difficult to curate into a similar project today, as there is so much more to consider of what may be or not be considered relevant.

Looking closer at Melissa’s task, I noticed that she also chose her music first based on continent as she states, “My main criteria was that every continent where humans reside be represented,” as well as a blend of music types, which is how I also had broken down my choices. This is the reason that I initially chose to link with Melissa’s task as we have a similar overlap of ideas. As I looked closer to see just what songs she chose, I noted that out of the 10 song choices she had selected that we shared 6 of the same song choices. Of course that still shows the diversity in our own choices and what we finally considered to be selected. One difference I did note between the both of us was that Melissa provided a bit of a deeper reflection and further reasoning of why she chose her pieces under her categories, where I summed up my reasons in a different way. I like that she had added her thoughts on her choices as it provided a better insight into why she chose the songs, which then allowed me to understand who she is as a person as well. This brought me back to what I had mentioned in my own post, “Representation of information and the ways in which we collect that information has become more diverse and complex over the years. The way the text is portrayed on the Golden Record from the musical pieces to the symbols on the outside, shows the diversity of text technologies that are coming from Earth.”

Screenshot of Melissa’s layout

My screenshot showing the Continent layout

I navigated to Melissa’s blog site from the UBC link and was able to choose what task I wanted to look at before actually navigating to her site. Once there, I liked how she had her page set-up and that I found it to be bright and easy to read through. I liked the feature where as I scrolled down the page that the page would also scroll up, covering her border and giving the impression of a more interactive site. I also liked how we could easily leave comments at the end to share, as well as being able to go forward to the next post or backwards to the previous post. One thing I did notice that seemed to be a barrier was that there was not a menu at the top that could take me to her other posted tasks or even to her main homepage. The only way I could navigate to those areas was if I went back to the UBC main student blog site and click on her tasks from there or just simply keep following the forward or backward links at the bottom of her page. Having a main menu link to her tasks would be beneficial in being able to view her tasks and her interactions with the course content in an easier way. Overall, other than that barrier, the initial page I was on was a great first glance at getting to know Melissa through this task.

References:

Brown University. (2017, July 11). Abby Smith Rumsey: “Digital memory: What can we afford to lose?” [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBrahqg9ZMc

McDonald, L. (2019). Twenty Thousand Hertz, #65 Voyager Golden Record. Retrieved from https://www.20k.org/episodes/voyagergoldenrecord

NASA. (n.d) Voyager-The Golden Record. https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/

This fourth linking post will be focusing on Task #5 which asked us to create our own game using Twine. For this linking post, I am linking my blog post with that of Binal’s. Although we each chose a different focus on the creation of our game, we both shared our journey and experience with using Twine. 

My link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/meipsyshack/2021/02/14/task-5-twine/

Binal’s link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/bk540/2021/02/14/task-5-twine/

Right away I was drawn into Binal’s game idea as she had created an escape room experience which I loved. She also mentioned that she was looking to create her story based on something she could use with her students and in turn focused her escape room idea on that of the periodic table. Although I did not explicitly state this in my own blog entry, my intention was to become familiar enough with Twine that I could try to use it with my students as well. Binal’s escape room would allow her students to become more familiar with understanding the periodic table, whereas I wanted to use my Twine as an inspirational idea to motivate my students to create their own Choose Your Own Adventure story for language arts.

Both Binal and I explained our journey with learning to use Twine. However, Binal provided more step by step experiences with her planning and creation of using Twine. I also noticed that we both drew in the connections of using hyperlinks as well as allowing the user to follow the links that they were interested in. We both quoted the article by Miall and Dobson (2001) where they quoted (Landow 1997, p. 273) in saying that, “Hypertext increases individual freedom,” because, “users are entirely free to follow links wherever they please.” This reinforced what Binal and I both noted; that using Twine allowed that freedom of looping ideas together and circling back to make another choice.

I would have to agree with what Binal said about her experience with using Twine when she said, “Overall, I had a lot of fun making this Twine and it helped me make further connections between writing, planning, puzzle solving and representing it all digitally.” I also enjoyed creating my Twine, and although I had more of a Choose Your Own Adventure type story, I sure liked her interpretation of creating an escape room. 

Over the past few weeks since this assignment, I did indeed show my grade 6 language arts students my Twine and helped them to get started on their own Twine story. The level of engagement was contagious and they were so excited to create their own. By far this was the most engaged and connected I have seen with my students in story writing. My students were so excited to start their stories and can’t wait to get back to their writing. I even have students that use their free time to get back to their stories and keep writing.

Binal has a nicely laid out blog that is easy to navigate. As I explored her blog, I enjoyed learning more about who she is, her background and how she interpreted the learning experiences with this course. One thing that did stand out to me is how she has created a separate section in her blog called Activities where she has a section called 1.4 Defining Terms. These are key terms from the course that she has collected in one place to provide a better understanding of words such as “Text” and their meaning. I actually found this to be a great idea of clarifying the terms and literacies from the course. This is something I think I would like to add to my own blog as it would help me to further understand these key terms and literacies that we have been exploring. 

References:

Miall, D. S., & Dobson, T. (2001). Reading hypertext and the experience of literature. Journal of Digital Information, Retrieved from https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=issn13687506::feae30569d02fbf0a7451897e74be20b

For my third Linking Post, I am focusing on our Task #6, an Emoji Story. In this task we were asked to share the title and plot of a story, movie or tv show by only using emoji’s. Before choosing someone to link to, I explored my peers blogs sites to see what others had created. There was quite a variety of stories out there and it was fun trying to decipher what those emoji’s were trying to convey. For this linking post, I am linking my post with that of Judy Tai’s.

My Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/meipsyshack/2021/02/19/task-6-an-emoji-story/

Judy’s Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540judytai/2021/02/17/task-6-an-emoji-story/

One thing that brought me to choose Judy’s site to link to is that I was able to quickly narrow down what her title and story was about from her emoji’s. When I saw the rat I first thought The Secret of Nimh and then when I saw the fried egg I realized she was talking about Ratatouille. This did remind me of how my movie was also easily identified. By first looking at my title, The Fast and The Furious, the reader would quickly narrow down the movie as it is simple enough to depict. The plot on the other hand, like Judy’s, had some key images that would seem to support the title. I may not have been able to figure out exactly what she was saying, but because I am familiar with the story, the understanding of the plot was much clearer. Like mine, once you figure out the title and if you have seen the movie or one of the many sequels, then you could figure out the plot easier because of the shared background experience of already knowing the movie background. We both began with the title and built the plot from there. We also both indicated the difficulty in just using emoji’s to create the story, as without written text you risk that the story could be misinterpreted. As I had previously mentioned in my reflection on this task, Bolter (2001) says, “Such icons are meant to put the verbal text in context, as the writer tries to enforce a univocal interpretation on prose that is otherwise open to many interpretations.” Therefore, relying purely on emoji script can lead to different avenues of understanding without written text to guide the way. As Judy herself says, written script helps, “Make the reading experience more transparent and easier for readers to relate and understand what the author is trying to convey.”

Judy’s – Ratatouille

Mine – Fast and the Furious

In Judy’s reflection she spoke to how this task reminded her of her struggling students that have gravitated to that of graphic novels. She states, “Graphic novels have gained in popularity because it offers many benefits to struggling readers or even strong readers that are not interested in reading.” I connected to this as this is something that I have also seen with many students and even my own children. They might not necessarily be struggling readers but they have not made the leap from story books to novels. Graphic novels or even comics seem to be that bridge to interest and engage students. These types of books and their heavy use of imagery supports what the story is about along with some text to guide the way. This does remind me of books like Bad Guys where yes, you can see what is happening but the use of the written text is interesting. Key words are often in different types of font or bolded and italicized to convey an emotion to what is happening such as fear or yelling or laughter. They can also engage with readers on a variety of reading levels with both pictures and text along with a fun story. 

Examples are from my own children’s Bad Guys book.

The web authoring tool Judy used is bright, engaging and easy to navigate allowing the clear navigation. I can clearly see where to find her Tasks and Linking Posts through drop down choices just under the header at the top of the page. I also liked how once you have scrolled through her post, that there are links on the left and right to quickly take you back to a task or move ahead to the next task.  I also appreciated that Judy has a place to leave comments to provide communication with others and to receive feedback. 

References:

Blabey, A. (2015). The bad guys in mission unpluckable. Scholastic

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Chapter 4. Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. doi:10.4324/9781410600110

For my second linking post submission, I decided to go with Task #4 Manual Script. When I first decided to use this task, I knew that I wanted to choose a task that had been the opposite of mine. With this task we had the option to write a story or journal entry, etc., by hand or we could choose to create a five letter word with a potato stamp. In the beginning I had wanted to try out the potato printing but ended up going with the manual script as I did not think I would have had the patience to create the five letter word. That being said, I wanted to learn more about that experience of potato printing in relation to my manual script and therefore I chose to draw on Katrina Wong’s Task #4 as she went with the potato printing.

My Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/meipsyshack/2021/02/06/task-4-manual-script/

Katrina’s Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/katrinawong/4-4-task-4-manual-scripts-and-potato-printing/

I was quite fascinated with Katrina’s process of her potato printing and how she captured the experience through a time-lapse video that she posted in her blog space. Her explanation of the process was interesting given the challenges she encountered with the tools that she used, the planning process and how much time it took to create the stamp of the word “alive.” I liked how she stated that she, “began to understand, with a deep appreciation, just how much skill, time and effort it must have taken for people to letter print several hundreds of years ago.” I could see through her experience how challenging it was to just create that stamp. 

As I chose the manual script, my challenges differed from that of Katrina’s. My challenges stemmed more in planning what I wanted to say. Before writing I wanted to think about what I wanted to say and chose my words carefully so that the reader would understand the story that I was trying to depict. I also wanted to try my best to write in my best penmanship in order for the reader to be able to decipher what I was trying to say. I also found that I needed to give my hand a break every once in a while as it began to tire from the act of writing by hand. I can see how difficult it was for Katrina to create that potato stamp and how she had to be careful with creating that five word script so that it would be legible. Both of the literacies, although different, reinforce what Harris (2011) says about, “Cultivating the progress of knowledge in our own time,” and again reinforce how much has changed and advanced with the printed word and how much technology has made just printing the written word that much easier. Although both Katrina and I had chosen a different path for this assignment we both took an approach to understand how text and literacies have changed over the years. This also made me connect with what Katrina was reflecting on with her own observations of the process of creating her word and,  “how students are influenced by what they see as text (print). For example, graphic novels with in text all CAPITALS to highlight and enhance words to engage students [and] is this type of text influencing how students hand write and print.” I found this observation of hers to be quite interesting and it made me reflect on how my own students in grade six are influenced by what they see in text. A conversation I will pursue with my students to gain another perspective. 

Katrina’s Potato stamp for the word “alive”

My Manual Script

As I explored and navigated through Katrina’s blog site, I found that both of us have quite a similar interface. As I looked closer I could see that we both chose the same theme of BookLite and therefore the layout and the script she used were similar to mine. There are only some slight differences, such as she did have her navigation bar located right at the top of the blog so that you can quickly choose where you wanted to go. This is different from my own as I had a navigation bar that displays under the header picture with drop-downs to allow for choice of where you could go. I also noticed that the header remains the same for each time you click on a different place to go in the site, whereas mine changes. Regardless, I still found her site visually appealing and easy to navigate. 

One large drawback however, is that there does not seem to be a place to interact and leave a comment on any of her pages. I know I had a similar issue when I first started to create my blog and through a bit of tweaking I was able to add that feature. Having the ability to be able to interact and leave a comment would allow for a deeper connection to be developed with the person visiting the site in order to develop conversations about the literacies we interact with. 

References:

Harris, B. (Producer). (2011, June 11). How it began: A history of the modern world. [Audio podcast] URL https://howitbegan.com/episodes/

After reviewing some of my peers blogs and thinking about the Linking Assignments, I thought I would start with a task right from the beginning. I have chosen my first linking post submission to connect with Task #1 What’s in your bag? I am linking to Greg Patton’s task. Overall, I have found similarities and differences between our Task 1 entries.

My link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/meipsyshack/2021/01/31/whats-in-my-bag/

Greg’s link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540gregpatton/2021/01/24/task-one-whats-in-your-bag/

I gravitated towards Greg’s What’s in your bag? Task, as this was one that I found to be the most similar to mine. We both chose to use a bag that we use all the time but is not our typical “take to work” bag. 

Let’s first take a closer look at both the similarities and differences between our bags. First of all, both bags are functional for outdoor adventures and for who is using the bag. Greg’s enduro bag or fanny pack is functional directly to him, whereas my bag is primarily for me but due to its size, functions to support the whole family. Both bags contain a device for looking up trails and the ability to document the trails we are using. He mentions the Trailforks app, which I also have on my mobile device. However, I find I use the Strava app more as it depicts more hiking trails in my area. Both bags are meant to take on different adventures in the mountains. He uses his bag for biking and I take my bag for hiking, snowshoeing, fishing and skiing. In regards to the tools that we each use, the tools in his bag are more geared towards biking with his multi-tool, C02 cartridge and tire pump. The tools in my bag are more geared towards backcountry safety and travel such as the first aid kit, hiking poles and even the hand warmers. Another connection between both Greg and I is that other than our enjoyment for being outdoors is that we are both administrators. Although each of us hold the same role, our exact positions differ on the age, level, size of the school and location. 

As was recently brought to my attention and something I had not quite thought of in terms of the text technology is that the mountains I enjoy navigating through are in fact a type of text and how I navigate my way around the mountains in my area and the hazards associated with them would be the technology. Having this brought to my attention changed my scope and lens of the activity to see how text and technology are woven together. As mentioned in our course readings under Thinking about Text and Technology (Module 1.5) that, “Postman observed, that language is a technology in the sense that it is a practical art—an invention to facilitate communication.” I had been thinking quite linear in terms of the functional use of the bag and not fully connecting how that text technology can be interpreted beyond a basic functional use. I can see both Greg and I sharing similar text technology with the bag that we are using with regards to what is inside it and its main purpose for use in the mountains and being outside. 

When I first visited Greg’s blog, I noticed that we each used different authoring tools which also made the interface different from each other. Both of our authoring tools differed greatly in how they were each produced and how the literacies are defined. With mine, I liked to be able to go from my homepage and follow the dashboard drop down links to help me easily navigate where I wanted to be. With Greg’s I found that he captures the viewer with a picture of a bicycle as his header which further identifies his passion for biking. With my blog, I have also pulled in pictures into my headers that identify who I am, my enjoyment of the mountains and my family. Unlike me, Greg does not have dropdown tabs or a main place to navigate to his postings. Rather his postings are all on one page with the most recent post on the top to capture attention of the viewer right away. It is easy to scroll down through his blog postings to read through his tasks. I do wonder if it will be more difficult to pinpoint on one blog as his postings continue to layer on top of each other?