All posts by Megan Ravenhill

Task 12: Speculative Futures

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Task 12: Speculative Futures 

It is hard to believe task 12 is here already. The weeks have flown by. This task opened my eyes to the technology that I had a hard time believing already existed. I had a couple different ideas for my speculative narratives, all to find out that those things already similarly existed. Technology has advanced in such little time. I remember sitting in front of my 30lb computer monitor as a little girl wondering, “what is the internet? What am I supposed to do with it?”. Now here we are, posting blogs and learning through the capabilities of the internet. I first considered AI when my dad purchased a Tesla in 2020. I remember being absolutely mind blown from the possibilities it provided; autopilot, car detection, and safety predictions. It truly is an incredible electric vehicle. These ideas felt like the very distant future not so long ago, so it is hard to believe what we will be capable of in 50 years. Dr. Shannon Vallour (2018) talks about the possible negative impacts that could come from AI, however, highlights that those negative impacts have already existed within our society, we just need to learn how to deal with these impacts alongside AI advancement. Dr. Shannon Vallour (2018) notes that artificial intelligence amplifies these social imperfections, failures that preexisted AI. I created my two speculative narratives on ideas that I find I struggle with on a daily basis; ensuring I am equally supporting my students and getting everything done on time. 

My first speculative narrative is:  The Teacher Assistant Hologram. I had help from my husband in order to create a fake podcast interview.

Click here to listen to my podcast about the Teacher Assistant Hologram: https://youtu.be/IkoaZhS8Kvc 

  • Idea: Teacher Assistant Hologram
  • Purpose: To help support students within the class, allow students to have more one on one teacher time, and to engage in technology within the classroom. 
  • Technology involved: hologram and data transfer 
  • How: Teacher is “cloned” into a hologram. The hologram is able to talk, move, and make gestures. All information that the teacher has on the subject will be transferred to the hologram. The hologram is able to use information to create discussions, answer questions, and encourage students. 
  • Why?: Lately, there has been a wide shortage of EA’s (Educational Assistants) within our district. Unfortunately, they do not get paid enough for how much work they do. It is very sad and now is no longer attracting those to apply for the program, especially considering living costs in British Columbia. Due to the shortage, our students, especially those with IEP’s (individual education plans) are left without the support they require to succeed. If the hologram existed, it would provide students another “adult” in the room to help guide them through their questions. 

My second speculative narrative is:  Robotic Health Assistant. I used Google Slides to create a comic to demonstrate the possibilities of the robotic health assistant. 

  • Idea: Robotic Health Assistant
  • Purpose: Clinics and ER’s are constantly overwhelmed with the amount of people needing their services. How efficient would it be if we could get most of our answers right away from our robotic assistant? This robot would be able to check vitals such as heart rate, blood pressure, iron levels, and even emotional health by scanning your body. The robot is also able to detect any signs of cancers, viruses, or infections.
  • Technology involved: rechargeable robot.
  • How: Robot has a health screener within the eyes. The radar detects body temperature and other vitals by using thermal detection and transparency.
  • Why?: The healthcare system has been overloaded since the start of the Pandemic and even years prior. The robot would help relieve stress on the frontline workers and allow them to treat critical patients. The robot would help detect basic ailments and eventually would guide the patient to see an in-person doctor.

References

Vallor, S. (2018, November 6). Lessons from the AI Mirror [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40UbpSoYN4k&t=824s

Task 10: Attention Economy

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Task 10: Attention Economy 

While initially reading through the task details, I questioned why it said you may not finish the game. However, midway through my attempt at the “User Inyerface” game, I well understood the reasoning behind it. This activity was frustrating to say the least, my brain is trained to click quickly and enter information as fast as I can. The game labels me a “true interface legend”, however, I beg to differ considering it took me 11 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the game. 

Throughout the game, there are several misconceptions. For example, the designers use colour to draw your attention to the wrong button, a cancel button would be labelled in green which usually tells our brain that is the way to move ahead. Brignull (2010) talks about how certain companies and designers of those companies use deception to trick their users. For example, placing important information in the middle and knowing that most people will skip ahead (not read the entire thing) and click ‘agree to all terms and conditions’ (Brignull, 2010). We all probably do this but would say that we would never agree to anything we weren’t sure of. The designers of these dark patterns manipulate users’ minds, knowing that we may have little patience to deal with the fine print or for heavy searching. The technological world has transformed to easy accessibility, therefore, we have the desire to do everything seamlessly and efficiently. User Inyerface shows how reliant we are on consistency and simplicity. The game takes you through several questions that challenge the efficiency of a web page design. For example, having to delete the words when needing to enter your personal information and needing to search for the ‘close’ button while trying to exit from a time limit screen. 

After playing, I started thinking about the game from a different perspective. I would say I am fairly tech savvy and have experience using different web pages from online shopping, professional use, and through social media. A few years ago my dad asked me to show him where his desktop was. My immediate response was to laugh. I found it hilarious that he didn’t understand that his desktop was the main screen of his computer. However, after playing this game and feeling the frustration of not being able to understand or complete anything, I finally understood how generations who grew up without computers and were only introduced to technology halfway through their life felt. I now understand why my dad gets frustrated and impatient with technology because it isn’t always easy. User Inyerface taught me how to remain calm and patient while trying to understand the task. So not only did this game teach me how to avoid the dark patterns of web design, it taught me how to be more empathetic with those who are still testing the waters with technology.

References

Brignull, H. (2011). Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. Interaction Design, Usability, 338.

Task 9: Network Assignment Using Golden Record Curation Data

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Task 9: Network Assignment Using Golden Record Curation Data 

Task 9 took a deep look into data interpretations and connections through the Golden Record data ETEC 540 completed last week (song selections). The instructors took the data and entered it into a software called, Palladio. I have zero experience with Palladio and data viewing as a whole, so I found this task fairly difficult to start. However, once I spent time exploring Palladio, I was able to grasp the task a little bit better.

There are several things I have learned throughout this module and task. For example, the video from System Innovations (2015) about Graph Theory introduced the idea that a network is also called a graph, which contain vertex, nodes, verticals, and edges. I have seen these graphs in the past, however, I never took the time to understand the meaning or lack of meaning of these connecting lines.

The following are a few screenshots of different ways to look at the data:

(Image 1: Using Source – Curators & Target – Community)

From this view, I can see that I am part of community #2 alongside four other classmates. I started with this view as I was trying to understand how and where I was represented within the graph. This view represents an undirected graph as there is no indication of which affects what (System Innovations, 2015).

(Image 2: Using Source – Curators & Target – Tracks, focusing on community 2 results)

Using these parameters, I am able to see that my classmate, Lynda, and I have several similar connections between nodes (in this case, music tracks), more specifically, a sequence of adjacent connections (Systems Innovations, 2015). However, although this shows similar track choices, this doesn’t necessarily produce a reason why. Furthermore, this view of the graph represents that I do not have edges between Track 1: Brandenburg Concerto (First Movement), however, there is an undirected connection between different nodes and myself that eventually connect to Track 1.

(Image 3: Looking at the connection between 1 classmate and myself through similar and different track choices)

This view allows me to analyze the similar choices made between myself and ETEC 510 classmate, Robyn. Surprisingly, we only chose three similar tracks. I wanted to find someone who had less than 5 similar choices and Robyn was one of the only people to have so few. This image could potentially explain why these choices are similar if more research into the individual’s understanding and knowledge of music genres, cultures, instruments, etc… However, without further research, we could assume some of these ideas but we would be left with limited clarity.

I believe if you were to look at each students grouping individually and write down facts of each, we could understand the “null” choices by making connections to what they did choose and what they did not. However, there is missing information. For example, connections between two different students based on their similar track choices lack data, the students do share a track choice, however, this could have been person A’s first choice and person B’s last choice. This does make a difference as researchers looking into this data would assume that a similar choice was made because of the like of the song, however, it could actually be because it was their last choice which may have resulted in less strategy or selection.

Algorithms are constantly working through the common apps we use everyday, Instagram, Facebook (Meta), Youtube, etc… We see things because the technological world makes connections out of nodes, therefore, forcing you to see what you want to see (example: you click on things about cats, you are most likely going to be seeing advertisements for cats or cat accessories). The internet has formulated into wanting to find connections for the users. Considering Anderson’s and Raine’s article, Code-Dependent: Pros and Cons of the Algorithm Age”, (2017), Barry Chudakov states;

“The secondary positive result is connectivity. In a technological recapitulation of what spiritual teachers have been saying for centuries, our things are demonstrating that everything is – or can be – connected to everything else”.

Therefore, the whole idea of algorithms is to make connects, pathways, and decisions. However, it is up to us what information we allow these ‘robots’ to implement into these algorithms. After doing a little more research, I started to wonder about the following questions:

  1. If algorithms create connections to things we click, watch, and see, what are we not able to click, watch, and see, because of it?
  2. Will there ever be a way to avoid algorithms on the internet?

References: 

Rainie, Lee and Janna Anderson, “Code-Dependent: Pros and Cons of the Algorithm Age. Pew Research Center, February 2017. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/02/08/code-dependent-pros-and-cons-of-the-algorithm-age

Systems Innovation. (2015, April 18). Graph Theory Overview. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/82zlRaRUsaY

Systems Innovation. (2015, April 19). Network Connections . Retrieved from https://youtu.be/2iViaEAytxw

 

 

 

 

Task 8: Golden Record Curation

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Task 8: Golden Record Curation 

Initially, this task frightened me. After briefly looking through the task, I realized I only knew one or two tracks listed. However, after listening to the podcast describing the project and the specific selections, I realized being familiar with the songs wasn’t the purpose of this project. The Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast on the Voyager Golden Record made the point of saying that it wasn’t about creating a list of music that represented the greatest hits of all time, it was about representing life through music that represented planet earth as a whole. Therefore, I recognized that pieces were picked based on locations on earth, cultural representations, instrument recognition, and emotional impact. While listening to the podcast, I started spiralling about the “what if’s?” What if this never reaches anyone or anything? Yet, my question was answered later on in the podcast after Einstein’s imagination quote was brought up about imagination versus knowledge. We really don’t know if it will ever reach anyone or anything, however, what is the harm in creating any sort of possible chance? There were a couple of ways I developed my list; title and recognition, emotional impact, and cultural significance. I also tried to pick music that represented different areas from earth as hopefully beings who may find this one day will recognize the difference of each track and break down that there may be different ways of life on earth.

Here are my top 10 songs: 

  1. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
    • I chose this song primarily because it was the one song I could recognize the title and know the melody. I find it uplifting and positive and it represents the English language well.
  2. Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
    • I chose this song because I find it intense, challenging, and strong. I believe it creates emotions of empowerment and strength. Furthermore, it was another track that I recognized and resonated with.
  3. Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
    • Although short, the meaning and emotion behind the music is powerful. After listening to the podcast, I learned that this song is about females getting married too young. I sensed pain and sorrow in her voice and realized that it represented humans ability to feel different emotions. If they were to compare this to another track, hopefully those would be able to represent the differences between tones.
  4. China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
    • I chose this track because of the curiosity that formed in my brain after listening to it. The instruments are so unique that it shows the ability to tell a story without using actual language. I think it represents the foundation of music and humans learned practice with instruments.
  5. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
    • This song appealed to me as it’s sound represents optimism and delight. Its tune is infectious and makes you want to keep listening. This song captures humans ability to make musical stories without human voices.
  6. Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
    • I specifically selected this track as I feel it represents the range of human voice very well. The track is filled with long melodies and vocals. It shows the ability to extend our voices in different ways and represent music through emotional sound.
  7. Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
    • This song was an important part of the top 10 as really, Mozart was a genius. If we were to be represented for this by people , I’d most likely pick him for top 10 too. However, this specific musical track shows so much emotion and elegance. The range of the lead vocalist is spectacular and shows contrast to different tracks I’ve picked. Additionally, this track represents humans ability to be complex and exquisite.
  8. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
    • I chose this track as it may help other beings recognize we created different notes with music. The piano is clear and can be easily understood that different notes and tones are being played to create the piece. The piano is more significant in this track and could symbolize humans ability to be innovative with design of instruments.
  9. India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
    • This track represents humans ability to interact with different languages. The song clearly tells a story and if compared to another track using an alternate language, the emotion could be pulled to make connections to languages holding the same purpose — to communicate with each other.
  10. Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
    • My last choice. I chose this song specifically because it reminded me of nature. The sounds represented the idea that humans are not the only living things on this planet, we are surrounded by different species across the world. I feel as this song offers a strong connection to the natural world.

 

Task 7: Mode Bending

Task 7: Mode Bending View all 2 comments

Task 7: Mode Bending

Please Click Here to View My “What’s in My Bag” Video

If I were to say this idea came to me right away, I’d be lying. Truthfully, I questioned how I was going to complete this assignment in an exciting and clever way. I browsed through Powtoon, Prezi, Google Slides, and finally, IMovie. IMovie allowed me to manipulate the visual and audio perspective of my design. However, while looking through the different options, I was able to identify things I’d use in the future for teaching, learning, and mode-bending.

Reflect on the potential benefits and challenges of engaging in mode-changing and describe your own redesign process.

Benefits:

The benefits, in my opinion, out weigh the challenges. Mode-changing takes teachers from their standard practice to a whole new world of possibilities. My goal as an educator is to engage and entice my students, to offer them different ways to learn and process information. The New London Group (1996) highlight the idea that those who will actually learn must be motivated and intrigued. Therefore, I believe teachers need to teach in a way that motivates them to stay innovative and dynamic. Our energy is projected and students learn upon that, if we stay strictly in one mode (ie: textual), students may lose focus, engagement, and overall motivation. Additionally, Cope and Kalantzis (2009) state how those who teach don’t just take information and regurgitate it, that isn’t the goal. The goal is to take information and make it accessible and innovative so people can learn. Cope and Kalantzis (2009) also mention how people are supposed to make meaningful work and that involved accessing their creative side which ultimately enhances their pedagogy. Furthermore, as educator, I have learned to understand that we all learn differently. Some students learn through text where others may learn through visuals and text combined. Cope and Kalantzis (2009) speak on how teaching literacy has pushed past the traditional forms of written language and engaged in more mixed styles of teaching/learning. For example, The BC Curriculum focuses heavily on the different modes students should be able to learn and represent information such as; oral, visual, auditory, and written. The benefits have surpassed the challenges as;

“Today, even more than a decade ago, such narrowing [only focusing on written language] is unrealistic given the multimodal realities of the new media and broader changes in the communications environment.” (Cope and Kalantzis, 2009, p. 179).

Challenges: 

After reading through The New London Group’s (1996) and Cope and Kalantzis (2009) ideas on multiliteracies insight, it seems to be that meaningful multimodal representation is important. As educators, are focus should still remain on the goal for students to learn and process information, however, all while staying engaged and motivated. Cope and Kalantzis (2009) highlight the key importance of understanding that the meaning can never be replaced, that is we don’t use different modes to replace meaning, we use different modes to represent a different idea of that meaning. For example, “meaning expressed in one mode cannot be directly and completely translated into another” (Cope and Kalantzis, 2009, p. 180). Therefore, the main challenge is focusing on the HOW and the WHY of mode-bending:

  • How are you planning on redesigning the learning outcome through different modes?
  • Why are different modes helpful in this process of sharing this piece of information?

My Redesign Process: 

“Design has become central to workplace innovations, as well as to school reforms for the contemporary world” (The New London Group, 1996, p. 73). Therefore, having the opportunity to redesign this task lead me to an innovative and creative idea.

My main goal was to create an exciting and suspenseful way of redesigning my “what’s in my bag” task, which is how I finally got to the idea of a movie trailer. I took a look back at my original post and wondered whether or not I’d be interested in reading it if I were to come across my blog as an outsider. My answer: not really. I am a visual and auditory learner, I need things changing and moving to become engaged. Textual representations of information don’t necessarily catch my attention, for example, I’d choose to read a graphic novel over a written novel.

The four modes I used within my redesign were:

  • Audio:
    • I included both music and sound effects to display my design. I wanted to entice my audience and allow them to understand the theme and mood of my video. Therefore, my goal was to provide meaning to the context of my video.
  • Visual:
    • I included both moving pictures and still pictures (however still moving in the video itself). I wanted my audience to see what was in my bag and understand the purpose of the pictures.
  • Gestural:
    • I included a short video of me smiling to the camera. I wanted to project the expressions of my face (smiling) and allow my audience to experience their own sense of happiness while watching my video.
  • Textual (Written Language):
    • I included headings to help guide the meaning of the video, for example, including the title of “what’s in my bag” as the fake title of the movie.

References:

Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (2009). Multiliteracies: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4:3, 164-195, DOI:Links to an external site.10.1080/15544800903076044

The New London Group.  (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. (Links to an external site.)  Harvard Educational Review66(1), 60-92.

Task 6: An Emoji Story

Task 6: Emoji Story View all 3 comments

Task 6: An Emoji Story

This is my favourite task to date! I really enjoyed looking through the emoji’s to see which ones worked best with my attempt to tell my aimed story.

Did you rely more on syllables, words, ideas or a combination of all of them?

In order to get the most out of the available emojis, I focused on words and ideas to display my story. I related more to the film with images than I did with words, which is why I found this task relatively easy to complete, although, that depends on whether people can understand my emoji story or not. It may be clear to me but not so much to others. However, when you think of a plot of a story, it sometimes is very clear to some viewers whereas other people don’t get the idea at all.

Kress (2005) states the following:

“As one effect of the social and the representational changes, practices of writing and reading have changed and are changing. In a multimodal text, writing may be central, or it may not; on screens writing may not feature in multimodal texts that use sound-effect and the soundtrack of a musical score, use speech, moving and still images of various kinds. Reading has to be rethought given that the common sense of what reading is was developed in the era of the unquestioned dominance of writing, in constellation with the unquestioned dominance of the medium of the book.” (Kress, 2005).

I was drawn to this quote from Kress (2005) because of how much change has happened since the era where writing really developed. As a mid-20’s adult, I recognize that I can understand emotions, ideas, and words through several different types of multimodal ‘texts’ such as; emojis, memes, and gifs. Therefore, this task seemed relatively relatable as I have grown beside these changes in writing as a millennial. My friends and I have communicated through memes and emojis without using any sort of text and can completely translate the message behind them. This is why I focused on using emojis that related to words and ideas as I communicate this way in my personal life. For example, if I am feeling sad, I use a crying face emoji, and if someone asks me what I would like for dinner, I put a sushi emoji. Kress (2005) also mentions how language is specific and concrete, meaning that when you read a word, the understanding is clear. Whereas image can leave grey areas or unclarity. However, I argue that words can leave moments of unclarity. For example, using the word “fine” can point to several different emotions. Is it really fine or are they trying to hint to the alternative? Whereas a smiley face emoji would hint to one thing, things are fine and the person is happy.

Did you start with the title? Why? Why not?

I started with the title because I have always felt that a title is detrimental to a stories plot. The title of the film I chose has a very strong meaning to it and is a symbol that is consistently brought up in the film itself. The title also consisted of two strong representative words. This is where I focused primarily on the words rather than the grand idea of the title, although I do feel my film benefited my emoji story as it is fairly self explanatory. Bolter (2001) explains how the Middle Ages used images and symbols to represent words and ideas, which for my title, was the best way to display it. For instance, the film itself could have used these exact images and would have successfully titled their movie without text.

Did you choose the work based on how easy would it be to visualize? 

I chose this work as it was honestly the last film I have seen and realized that it would be fairly straightforward to choose emoji’s to represent the title and plot. Bolter (2001) explains how readers, no matter what context, are constantly visualizing what is happening whether authors are being descriptive or not. Therefore, the emojis provide the same idea. We know that these emojis don’t represent the true and exact actions of the plot, however, they place an idea, a connecting visual, in the readers brain to formulate ideas and understandings.

References:

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

Kress (2005), Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learningLinks to an external site.. Computers and Composition, Vol. 2(1), 5-22.

 

Task 5: Twine Task

Task 5: Twine Task Leave a comment

Task 5: Twine Task

To date, this has been my favourite task so far. It was challenging, engaging, and insightful. This is a tool I will be incorporating into my lesson plans as either a way to instruct material and for student activity.I found this task challenging as I am new to Twine and coding all together, although, I am fortunate to have explored Twine in order to dip my toes in the world of coding.

Reflection on Strategy:  

Overall: 

My strategy for this task was to understand the software more than focusing on the story I wanted to create. I wanted to be able to explore the different options Twine offers, for example, putting a link that lead to one option and eventually leading back to the original page. I learned this through the YouTube video posted on the module. This technique took some trial and error as I would go to test my game and realize it would accidentally lead me to a dead end due to a mistyped code.

The Process (The Up’s): 

I was motivated to make my Twine comical as I found the sample Twine, “The Temple of No”, quite entertaining with the wit and randomness embedded into the game. Although I didn’t shoot for a clear path for my Twine, I was able to allow my participants to click on different hypertexts to bring them to new and or “wrong” option. My goal was to make my Twine engaging and inevitably, with the software, I was able to do so by creating hypertexts to manage my game. Bolter (2001) describes the e-book as an “authentic” and “immediate” experience for the readers, whereas, Twine uses hypertexts to create just that. It allows for players to identify words and interact with them, for example, an e-book could take you to the definition, whereas Twine brings you to the next interaction in the game. Twine is immediate as when you click on the hypertext, it simultaneously brings you to the next page. Twine’s interactivity allows readers to identify keywords that are needed to evaluate the game.

Additionally, after listening to Helen Zaltzman’s (2019) interview with Gretchen McCulloch, I paid more attention to the punctuation I would use to incorporate suspense and excitement. Zaltzman and McCulloch describe the use of a period and whether or not it signals to something within instant text messaging. For example, they discuss whether adding a period while texting means you are angry or wanting to end a discussion or if it just means you are following proper punctuation. While I was creating each page, I would add multiple periods or capital letters to signal suspense or excitement. However, I did wonder if it will portray that way to my potential players. Will I be the only one to identify these emotional signals or will my audience understand my intentions?

The Downs: 

I found the attached YouTube link in Canvas extremely helpful as the language on Twine was difficult for me to understand. Although I enjoyed the creation process, it was challenging at times. For example, researching ways to try and add photos and or different font and ending up unsuccessful. Unfortunately, after multiple YouTube videos and research through Google, I was unable to come up with the correct code to input my pictures. I wanted to put in a picture of a ghost, however, I was unable to get the correct format of picture to work with the instructed code. In the end, I chose to keep it simple and work on the different options for the hypertexts rather than aesthetic appeal. In the future, I plan to incorporate visuals and auditory options to make it more exciting to play.

Click on my Twine game below: 

Do you want to know?

References:

Bolter, J. (2001). Writing space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. New York, NY: Routledge.

Zaltzman, H. (Executive Producer). (2019-Present). The Allusionist [Audio podcast]. Lingthusiasm Podcast. https://www.theallusionist.org/new-rules

 

 

Task 4: Manual Scripts

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Task 4: Manual Script 

Analyzing the Manual Script: 

Do you normally write by hand or type? Did you find this task difficult or easy? Explain. 

I have always found comfort in writing by hand. Throughout my undergrad, I would attempt to write notes from my computer but always found I would get distracted by a notification or I couldn’t remember the material as well. I found this task easy, specifically because I wrote about something that was very much on my mind and heavy in my heart. I tend to journal when I am feeling anxious or overwhelmed so this activity not only was for completion but for my grieving process as well. I find my thoughts seem to flow well when I had write and I never have to stop and think what I will write next. It is also important to me that I continue to write by hand as the rest of my world is prioritized by digital technologies.

What did you do when you made a mistake or wanted to change your writing? How did you edit your work? Did your choice of media play a part in how you edited your work? 

I take pride in my neat hand writing, however, I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the mechanics of writing. I want all of my letters to be consistently spaced and sitting evenly on the guided line. I felt the pressure to keep things neat when I thought of my printing being up on my blog. There were a few times I made a mistake, naturally, I stopped and thought about whether or not I wanted to fix it and ended up using white out to cover it up. I believe in a different setting, I would have scratched it out and began writing beside it. However, because I was posting it to an online space, I felt the need to make it legible. I edited my work by re-reading each sentence as I was writing. I made sure that the topic of my work was on task and consistent. The choice of media did have a effect on how I edited my work as I was trying to translate my feelings to words which made me worry less about my ideas and more about my thoughts. I believe if I were to write about something less personal, I would have been more determined to edit and make changes to my writing.

What do you feel is the most significant difference between writing by hand and using mechanized forms of writing? Which do you prefer and why?

I believe the biggest difference between writing by hand and writing with technology is the speed and focus on spelling. For instance, if I were to write this exact letter with a computer, I would have completed this assignment in less that 5-10 minutes. However, writing this letter took me at least 15-20 minutes to complete. In relation to our readings from module 4.3, we recognize that the introduction of more advanced printing, the hourly pages were maximized immensely with the introduction of the printing press (Innis, 2007). In comparison, the speed of writing by hand and writing via a computer is a major time difference as well. Additionally, my focus on spelling was much more heightened because of the reliability I have on autocorrect. There were words I knew how to spell but second guessed myself because I paid more attention to the fact that a red line would not be squiggled underneath if I accidentally spelled it incorrectly. Overall, I prefer to write by hand as it makes me pay more attention to the information I am trying to produce, however, writing via a computer is more time efficient and easier. Writing by hand allows me to comprehend the information and comprehend it as I am physically writing it on the paper.

References: 

Innis, Harold. (2007) Empire and Communications. Toronto: Dundurn Press

 

Task 3: Voice to Text

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Task 2: Voice to Text

Inserted below is the screenshot of my “voice to text” attempt:

Analyzing my “voice to text” story: 

This task really tested my desire to control and edit. It was extremely difficult to use “speech to text” and watch your words be manipulated on a screen. Several times I caught myself blanking as I was more focused on the way my words were being translated than what I was trying to “write” about. It took every part of me to avoid fixing grammar and punctuation mistakes which lead to a flat and meaningless story.

How does the text deviate from conventions of written English?

I want to initiate my reflection to this question with a quote from Gnanadesikan (2011):

“As human societies became more complex, those attempting to control them found that their memories were overtaxed. What they needed was an external storage device. What they came up with is writing.” (p. 3). 

This quote directly reflects my ability to create an oral story on the spot. I needed a place to put my thoughts so my brain could do the thinking. The text deviates from conventions of written English primarily due to the lack of clarity and organization. While writing by hand or by device, we have the opportunity to think, stop, rewrite, delete, and so on. This reminds me of what Gnanadesikan (2011) says about the privileges of technology; “The marvelous technology that allows the past to speak directly to the future in this way is by now so per- vasive that we take it for granted: it is writing.” We have the ability to write something and come back to it to completely change our initial words. Unlike written English, it felt as though there was a sense of pressure to continue your words. During this activity, I found myself having “writers block” but I had to keep moving forward as I could see the microphone anxiously waiting to pick up on the sound of my voice. As writers, we forget how privileged we are to have time to think and rewrite sections of our stories. Speech to text limits your ability to have that privilege of changing and rewriting your thoughts as everything you say is going to be translated on the screen. I would anxiously watch my screen to see if it would pick up on similar sounding words and record the one I actually meant to deliver. I feel as though written English, maybe due to the fact that I am more familiar with it, provides a better opportunity for creativity. This story clearly lacked creativity and formality and poorly reflects on my writing abilities.

What is “wrong” in the text? What is “right”?

Overall, I would consider my entire story “wrong”. It lacks structure such as a plot line, intriguing  moments, and proper grammar. It is something I would look at as an educator and think to myself: what is going on here? Who is Sally? Why is she rambling on about soccer practice? Besides the entirety of the story, there are several “wrongs”. Specifically, grammatical errors. There were times I remembered to physically say punctuation terms which caused chaos within sentences. From then, I would find myself flustered and unwilling to move on. There is also a few words that were heard wrong. For example, I say, “within five minutes, Sally fields feels as though she is still a very good player”, where I meant to say feels and not fields. Although I am having a hard time finding any “right” within my text, there are several instances where grammar and punctuation were properly translated. For example, names and places are capitalized and commas are evident.

What are the most common “mistakes” in the text and why do you consider them “mistakes”?

The most common mistakes are the places where I said one word and an entirely different word was placed. I also notice that there are areas where the tense is incorrect and makes the story seem confusing and hard to follow. Although, the idea of the story also makes it hard to follow. I consider them mistakes as I would normally catch errors like these and make changes to them before handing in an assignment or even sending an email. Although pencil and paper writing makes it more difficult to change errors, it is still doable. In this task, we were unable to make changes to our text which left me with a sense of vulnerability for my academic ability.

What if you had “scripted” the story? What difference might that have made?

Scripting my story would have made a world of difference. Like many writers, I would have created a plot organizer, a tool to organize a beginning, middle, and end of the story. It is evident in my story that it held no clear structure, the story wasn’t leading to anything and never provided any thrill. I would have provided more characters, description of the setting, and a clear direction of the plot. These changes would have allowed my story to have more depth and be much more entertaining.

In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?

I believe oral storytelling offers a greater sense of authenticity compared to written storytelling. Although both can still be deemed authentic, the emotions and perspective can be much more clear listening to a story than reading it. Text, for example, text messaging, can often be read in the wrong tone or translated into the wrong context. Therefore, oral storytelling or communicating is more transparent with emotion. If an oral storyteller wants to show emotion in their text, they can raise their voice or speak in a softer or slower way. Whereas a written storyteller uses grammar and punctuation to translate emotion. Hearing a story orally can be more powerful, however, may not give you as much time to reflect. As someone is speaking, you are awaiting for the next pattern of words. As you are reading text, you have time to read, re-read, and reflect on the words that are written. Gnanadesikan (2011) shares how words being written down on a page can be more thoroughly inspected as you have time to process and analyze the information. Additionally, Gnanadesikan (2011) shares how people have a higher belief in what is written down compared to what is spoken. I can understand this as this reflects your ability to do your own investigation on the words and information compared to feeling of hope you have in trusting your oral speaker. Both methods of storytelling have benefits that can change your perspective on the language being presented.

References

Gnanadesikan, A. E. (2011).“The First IT Revolution.” In The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the internetLinks to an external site. (Vol. 25). John Wiley & Sons (pp. 1-10).

 

 

What’s in My Bag?

Task 1: What's in my bag? Leave a comment

What’s in My Bag?

Hello! My name is Megan Ravenhill. I am a Grade 8 teacher for the Saanich School District which resides on the W̱SÁNEĆ traditional territory. I am currently in my second semester of the MET program at UBC. The bag I chose to use is my work back, also known as my “teaching” bag. I use it Monday to Friday and it carries all of the items I need to feel prepared for teaching and being in the workplace.

The contents in my bag include: 

  • Apple AirPods
  • Apple charging accessories
  • Inhaler
  • Face wash
  • Hand Sanitizer X3 (Orange bottle, Clear Bottle, Wipes)
  • Hand Lotion
  • Floss Sticks
  • Deodorant
  • House key & School keys
  • Wallet that carries bank cards, identification cards, vaccination card, gift cards, and a letter from my husband.
  • Soap
  • 1 Blue pen, 1 Purple pen
  • Chapstick
  • My glasses
  • 2021 Agenda
  • 1 Notebook
  • A ruler
  • Ziplock bag of medications such as ginger gravel, Tylenol, allergy medicine, etc…
  • Ziplock bag of extra non-medical face masks

*Items normally in my bag but not pictured: iPhone & MacBook*

Daily Need for Items: 

The items in my bag are items that I can use on a daily basis, and in most cases, I do. For example, as we are currently in an ongoing pandemic and schools are known to carry germs, I use the hand sanitizer to clean my hands before I eat, help other students, or have to touch my face. The wallet that comes with me everywhere allows me to identify myself, make purchases, and verify my vaccine status (due to current BC protocols for non-essential services). Another necessary item in my bag is my inhaler, as it is something I have to take before any type of physical activity. Additionally, my glasses provide me the ability to read my students work, create lesson plans, and respond to emails to my coworkers.

There are items in my bag that don’t necessarily have a required “need” but allow me to feel prepared in case of situations that arise. For example, the ruler is something that comes in handy when I have to either measure or align something, and I prefer to keep one in my bag as I do not have one in my personal office at school or at home. My AirPods come along with me as they offer me a moment of peace during a hectic day and while I am on a prep. Another item that is contained in my wallet is a letter from my husband after a tragic moment in our life and it reminds me to persevere and continue to be strong. Overall, the items in my bag allow me to feel comfortable, prepared, and organized.

Relations to Text Technologies, Language and Communication, and Literacies.  

The items I consider to be most related to “texts” are 2021 agenda, iPhone (not pictured), MacBook (not pictured), and the items inside my wallet. Although, similar to Teresa Dobson’s example from CANVAS, most items in my bag have a label that has been digitally printed coming from a digital device.

My 2021 agenda relates to text as it includes pre-printed text such as holidays, motivational quotes, and calendar dates. I also have the ability to provide text to the agenda and use it as my key form of organization and communication with myself. My agenda says a lot about my obsession and anxiety of feeling prepared and worry of forgetting important dates.  My iPhone represents my participation in the digital age. It is the way I communicate with friends, family, and coworkers. It allows me to stay to have both synchronous and asynchronous communication. My MacBook is a text as it allows me to create lesson plans, use email, and read course information and assignments. Both of these digital devices represent my career as teaching requires the use of text and technology. Additionally, these devices represents my commitment with expanding my knowledge as I use these devices to connect to the MET program which allows me to read, write, and share with my fellow classmates. In particular, these devices help me engage with language and communication by the ability of the keyboard. The keyboard digitally prints words on to my screen and allows me to include various emojis that represent my emotions, language translation for the conversations with my ELL students, and the options to provide punctuation to clarify my expression.

What would this same bag have looked like 25 years ago?

I believe there would be parts of my bag that would look different and similar 25 years ago. Noticeably, the AirPods and charging accessories would not be present, and I believe most people would have left those at home as the charging chords looked much different. Additionally, although not pictured in my bag, there would be no laptop as we have only been somewhat recently privileged with the ability to have bag sized laptops to carry with us. Other items that may have no been in the bag are the hand sanitizers and face masks. 1996 did not have an active pandemic so there would be no necessary need to carry it around. Items that would have made the same debut are the agenda, notebook, glasses, soap, ruler, and bag of medicine. All these items would have had the same use as they do today.

How do you imagine an archeologist aiming to understand this temporal period might view the contents of your bag many years in the future?

An archaeologist would primarily look at the items in my bag that represent the pandemic. In a “normal” time, people would not be carrying around masks or vaccine proof, nor would the bag contain different types of hand sanitizer. Past the pandemic, archaeologists would see this bag as someone who worked a job that required digital access, organization, and communication. The agenda’s text would give clear information of the type of activities the person encountered and or the timeframe of their daily routine. It would give a clear indication of what I was involved in and the people that I associate with. The laptop would provide insight to the current digital age. The other items would represent health (glasses & inhaler) and organization.