PJ ETEC 540 2021

Jennifer R 

An Emoji Story

https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540jenniferr/2021/02/21/task-6-an-emoji-story/

I agree with Jennifer as far as being stuck in conventions of language and how we communicate meaning.  There seems to be a logical progression in communication through language or oral communication.  But we almost have to throw those conventions out when we use something new like the emoji.  What is an emoji?  How does it disrupt the way we tend to communicate through the written word.  I’d be curious to do this assignment on a few different layers.  Try it once with no words (as we did) then try to layer in a bit of writing and then a bit more.  I look at Jennifer’s emoticons and fixate on the first line where there appears to be something that looks like a curling rock.  And I can’t shake it.  I don’t think the TV show actually has anything to do with curling but I keep coming back to that as I study it.  

Her use of repetition could be very successful if I knew what show or even if I was in the right ballpark as to what she was trying to communicate.  The emphasis is great and I was totally clear that someone wasn’t happy at the very end.

Manize

What’s in Your Bag

https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540manizenayani/2021/01/20/task-1-whats-in-my-bag/

I spent a fair amount of time looking at many of my classmates ‘Bag Photo’ projects.  I found that there were a lot that just kind of spilled things out of a bag and took a quick picture.  I finally came across Manize’s bag picture and I was impressed by how detailed it looked.  There was a lot of attention to the way things were placed, the decisions that were made in the combinations, and the framing of the shot.  Interestingly I didn’t know the gender of Manize.  I’d played tennis when I was young with a guy named Manize so I thought it was a he.  I first saw the Game of Thrones book and then I thought there were two condoms in the middle of the picture.  Ok?? Umm really.  I looked more closely and the name of the product was strepsils…hmmm.  OOOh right.  It’s just a lozenge.  Then I saw lipstick beside the lozenges and I thought ‘oh maybe this isn’t a dude!’  No judgement if the fella wants to wear lipstick but I think I started to put together that it was a woman and not a man.  I loved the colour of the glasses case and how it popped in the picture.  

Now – should this be the new tinder?  I know the question sounds facetious but bear with me for a moment.  We are all creating our digital selves online.  Do our digital selves equal who we truly are?  Now most of us don’t know who we truly are and so that digs into another level of existentialism.  I won’t go there but let’s stay with the concept of ‘our digital selves.’  There is a digital curiosity to this exercise.  Manize shows that she goes to the library, she drives a modest car, and she has a sense of style.  This exercise might show more about who she truly is then even some of the exercises that we do to introduce ourselves in this program.

Olivia M

Voice to Text

https://blogs.ubc.ca/omarin/2021/01/26/voice-to-text-flaws-and-fortes/

I’ve read a few novels recently where the author played with the rules of punctuation.  In particular in one of the books didn’t use quotations to indicate that a person was speaking.  I wondered why did they choose to do this.  At times I wasn’t sure if they were speaking aloud but as the novel went on I began to find the context of their speaking and it became natural and clear when a character spoke.   I think perhaps the author did it because they wanted the reader to be more conscious as they read.  And I suppose it simply has us ask the question – why punctuation?  In reading Oliva’s story I found that I was torn between loving punctuation and kind of shrugging and thinking maybe it’s not necessary and maybe it enhances things by not having it in there.  I found that I could hear her voice more clearly.  I heard tone and intonation in a way that I hadn’t before.

I agree with her that the amount of coding necessary to successfully create voice to text is astounding.  How did anyone even think it could be done?  I wonder where the idea for it germinated?  Did they think of all of the implications?  Did they consider people who have slurred speech or speech impediments?  Will there be continued work to improve this to help draw those in who are left on the sidelines?  What about accent and those who have an accent that the program doesn’t recognize.

Olivia highlighted the challenges that she faced when she attempted to use french within her story about french.  Ironic.  Or is it ironique?  And would voice to text be able to tell the difference?

Anne E

https://anneemberline.com/edu/task-7-mode-bending/

Mode bending

Anne’s exercise in mode bending is mind bending.  Wow.  Well done.  Lots to think about and digest.  On first glance and read through it is clear that she had a good time expressing herself by playing with different mediums and looking at how to express herself in alternative ways.  I wonder if there is something here?  IE how much does the enjoyment of communication help with the clarity of communication?  In other words that person who loves to lecture, does that love of the format help with their ability to convey the idea?  Of the videographer who films the video and loves to do it, does that make the communication better?  I think so.  I think we can tell when a person enjoys the way that they communicate.  The person who loves to tell a joke to a group of people, we enjoy it that much more when we can tell that they’re enjoying telling it and that they’re comfortable in that joke.  And so with Anne’s post.  It is evident that she dove headfirst into this assignment and enjoyed it and that helped with conveying a clear message.

It’s interesting how the different modes of communication helped to further explore who she is as a person and to express her identity in similar and very different ways.

Infographics – hilarious.  And then some!  Emotional connection to her various things- love it.  But it does also help to shape and tell the story.  The humour also comes out quite clearly and which further shapes her character or at least what we begin to think her character is by this exploration.  

The curation of songs and videos was an inspired method for self expression.  It worked in a two fold way where it showed some of her preferences and helped to continue to tell the story.  I particularly enjoyed the history of the tampon and thought it a good thing to not shy away from but instead be bold about.

I’ve continued to deepen my thoughts on identity in this course.  Particularly in how we marry our physical/mental self to the digital self.  Who am I and how do I self actualize but then two how do I self actualize in a digital me.  I think Anne has done a cool job of demonstrating her digital self in this exercise.  If she’s half as interesting as her digital self then I hope I get a chance to meet her sometime!  Well done Anne!

Lori J

Golden Record

https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540jonesy/2021/03/14/task-9-network-assignment-using-golden-record-curation-quiz-data/

It is so amazing to see how different people approach these different exercises.  Lori weaved in so many great videos into her writing.  It never dawned on me to do something like this.  The curation of web content is another skill in communication.  How do we search for content that is appropriate and what is needed?  How do we weave that into our own content?  The ‘Secret Rules of Modern Algorithms’ illuminated some ideas that had been brewing inside of me.  I guess with this assignment I wasn’t entirely sure how algorithms are a mode of communication.  But after watching these videos, reading Lori’s post and ruminating on my own ideas it became clearer and clearer what they are and how they communicate things.  Algorithms are simply a way to mine, synthesize and explain data.  Patterns emerge.  Now the patterns that emerged don’t tell the entire story.  However the patterns start to tell the story and then we can begin to surmise what follows.  The questions that Lori was asking were similar to mine.  So there are a few outliers.  We don’t know why the songs are outliers but we can at least see that they are outliers and then we can consider why that is the case.  It’s interesting in that one of the songs that I chose was one of the outliers.  I know that I took the bold or foolish approach to simply select randomly.  Now that one of my  random selections was an outlier.  Painfully for others if they were trying to logically figure out that outlier it might never come to them that someone had simply chosen randomly.  The question remains though, why did no one else or so few choose that particular song?  Who is the group of people choosing?  What are their variables?  There are so many variables but we at least have the information from the algorithm to begin to sort out the whys to the selections.  Again the thing that stood out for me in Lori’s post was the mix of writing and curation of other videos to shape her ideas.  I look forward to trying this concept myself at some point. 

Selina C

Attention Economy

https://blogs.ubc.ca/sellina14etec540/2021/03/20/task-10-attention-economy/

Annoying.  Annoying.  Annoying.  This was a recurring theme for Selina and I for attempting to complete this ‘game’ online.  I put game in quotes because generally games are supposed to be fun.  I tried to find it fun but I never managed to achieve any degree of fun.  More pain than fun.  I think Selina was in the same camp that I was.  It was nice to read her post because it made me realize that I wasn’t alone in the struggles that I faced with this exercise.  She brings up some great points and similar ones to the ones that I discovered.  This idea of ‘dark patterns’ on the web is concerning.  How to monitor those things for ourselves?  How do we understand that they are taking place?  Even as I write the part of my blog I’m using Google Docs.  Is this a good decision?   Is Google capturing data about me at the present time?  Maybe it’s fairly innocuous data like – Peter Jordan spends 1 hour 12 minutes on Google Docs as he slowly writes.  But what can Google do with that information?  Maybe there isn’t much.  But maybe the isn’t much is just at the present time.  When we think of 10 years ago gmail became a thing…oh isn’t that nice Google is giving away free email addresses.  Without a catch?  There’s always a catch.  So what’s the catch?  Perhaps that is the question that we need to return to over and over again.  If I click on this, then what is the catch?  If I linger on this website, then what is the catch.  If I accept the cookies (as Selina stated she never does), then what is the catch?  The digital catch.  Nice catchphrase.  Selina also mentioned the concept of digital literacy.  This course has opened my mind to the meaning of digital literacy.  There is so much that we interact with and do online where we don’t know the mechanisms behind those things.  The curtain needs to pulled back to realize that perhaps it’s not as complicated as we all think.  I know that I hear the words computer science and I just assume it’s out my depth and I won’t be able to understand it.  We must know what lurks behind the surface in the digital realm otherwise we’ll be pulled into things and will remain in a place of ignorance.  I also feel it important to comment on the title of this exercise as ‘Attention Economy’.  Aptly titled and we must consider where we place our attention.  Our collective attention seems to lend itself to a digital adhd…so I guess that makes it a DADHD – digital attention hyperactivity disorder.

At first glance and at first thought the idea of predictors and algorithms seem banal enough.  However after reading O’Neil’s article it became abundantly clear that humans can find ways of deceiving and using things in evil ways.

Similarly on first glance at my predictive text and on the doing of the task I didn’t think there was anything malicious in it per se.  And in fact the predictive text, in the past, has often been a good help to prompt and guide some of my writing.  An email response where I had planned to write ‘thanks’ or something along those lines…that same predictive option comes up.  I do however think there is something profoundly wrong about predictive text.  The times that I’ve used it I’ve wondered if the person receiving the email might think…hmm that was disingenuous because they could smell a rat – they knew that I just clicked on that nice sounding sentence from Microsoft.  I think there is also a human connection that is lost when we don’t write out something ourselves.  On the flip side I probably would have written the same thing.  So if it’s the same, then is it the same?  How do we measure the level of human connection that is lost by using predictive text?  We think that we’re more connected together than ever because of our ability to connect via digital technology.  But the question that I wonder is, are we actually connected in a profound human capacity or do we just believe it to be true in our minds.  IE is it fantasy or is it reality?  Now I suppose the same could be true of when we connect with people in ‘real’ life.  Sometimes we connect emotionally with those people in those real moments whereas at other times we don’t for a variety of reasons.  But an in person human connection can be messier and not as controlled as our digital connections.

I couldn’t help but click on ‘thanksgiving’ at the very end of my text.  I think that highlighting the absurdity of it through humour identifies that we need to guide our choices more than let the algorithm dictate it.

For me the question that lingers at the end is, do these predictors over time take away a layer of our humanity in our interactions and what does that do to us?

References

O’Neil, C. (2017, July 16). How can we stop algorithms telling lies? The Observer. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/16/how-can-we-stop-algorithms-telling-lies

The ‘game’ that we played was extraordinarily frustrating.  I could not get to the end.  I was dumbfounded and confused.  I eventually started to find my way and realized that I needed to be counter intuitive in order to get through.

Intuitive….

Now there’s a concept to think about.  What makes something intuitive?  Why are things online intuitive?  Does it begin with a learned behaviour and then change from there?  Is it actually intuitive within our soul?  Would something online be ‘intuitive’ to my 1994 self or to my 2004 self or do things online something become intuitive from the previous year or month or day?

Tristan Harris states that ‘we are persuadable!’  This is a profound statement.  I so often think that it is other people who are persuadable.  I can navigate my way around that.  In reflection over the readings and videos this week and thinking more deeply about how advertising online affects me, it is clear that I am very persuadable.  The addiction to phones is not just a teenage thing…it transcends from the oldest people I know in my life to the youngest kids.  My teenager is deeply affected because as he says, ‘if I don’t communicate on my phone at the moment, then I won’t communicate with friends.’  I also see his behaviour on YouTube that the loop that YouTube creates provides simple addiction to the medium.  And yes when I watch a tennis video on YouTube it addicts me to it as well.  Why not watch another Federer great shot video?  And then from there Google takes that information and targets tennis gear in my direction.  And then why not purchase a new racket…it’ll fix my game and make me a better player.

So how do we engage in positive things online meanwhile navigating through the pitfalls of the advertising and click baits that are minefields as we spend time online?  I think it is this…we need to know how we are being advertised to and how we are being manipulated

This is a fantastic podcast that I’d suggest you give a listen…

https://www.nytimes.com/column/rabbit-hole

I won’t make the above link a link so that you can decide if you’d like to copy and paste my click bait!

References

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

The questions that came of this assignment for me were – how do we collect data?  How do those who collect the data interpret the data?  Is data literacy a thing?  How do you teach data literacy and how can we practice this skill?

We continue to hear about how Google/facebook/amazon track us and track our data in order to advertise to us and to…well who knows why else they collect the data.  But I’ve not really contemplated the reality that there is a human somewhere on the other end of that who interprets the data.  

The beauty of this type of visual representation in Palladio seems to be a quick way to visualize and interpret the data once you’ve grown accustomed to doing this.

It made me start to realize and think that there are so many different type of data that is mined and then deciphered on a platform like this.

I think the tricky thing in this particular assignment is that there are no wrong choices out of the 27 musical choices.  No matter which people chose there could be viable justification.  Whereas another type of list to choose from might be more easily interpreted which could then help to understand a group.  IE questions like – do you value education?  Our cohort would most likely have 100% of our group going with the affirmative on that question.  Unless there was a cheeky student like myself where he/she chose to randomly select and decide.  For the record (pun intended) I wouldn’t have played with a randomization if the task was more in line with my example above.  My point is that if there was a group of questions where we could then start to identify a group from the data collected.

From the data collected for this exercise I was struck by the number of us who selected the ‘Flowing Stream’ and how few chose ‘String Quartet No 13 in B flat’.  I almost feel like there are so many different variables that I’m not sure attempting to figure it out serves a purpose.  Did we all think we should include some representation from Asia whereas a String Quartet is too western a choice?  I’m not sure.  It could simply be that the piece resonated with many people but for what exact reason I think we’d need to communicate directly to those people.

• 4 – “The Sounds of Earth” (by Various Artists)
• 7 – “Cengunmé” (by Mahi musicians of Benin)
• 9 – “Barnumbirr (Morning Star) and Moikoi Song” (by Tom Djawa, Mudpo, and Waliparu)
• 12 – “Mariuamangɨ” (by Pranis Pandang and Kumbui of the Nyaura Clan)
• 14 – “Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006: III. Gavotte en Rondeau (Johann Sebastian Bach)” (by Arthur Grumiaux)
• 17 – “Roncadoras and Drums” (by Musicians from Ancash)
• 18 –“Melancholy Blues (Marty Bloom/Walter Melrose)” (by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven)
• 22 – “Naranaratana Kookokoo (The Cry of the Megapode Bird)” (by Maniasinimae and Taumaetarau Chieftain Tribe of Oloha and Palasu’u Village Community)
• 26 – “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” (by Blind Willie Johnson)
• 27 – “String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Opus 130: V. Cavatina (Ludwig van Beethoven)” (by Budapest String Quartet)

In some ways I felt that this was an almost impossible task.  NASA had deliberated, explored and scrutinized which pieces of music to include and I now had to cut 17 of those choices out.  Or glass half full – I needed to choose 10.  I listened and listened and deliberated.  I realized that no choice would be a bad choice.  So the choice I made was to not choose.  It seems like bots are making lots of decisions for us these days.  So I decided to be a bot of a kind. I randomly selected 10 different numbers (without remembering what was what) and made those my choices.  Now it would be easy to say well that isn’t really a choice.  But I think allowing chance to be a choice is choice in and of itself.  Turns out I think it is a great list.

The other was visual.  This one is just audio.

I liked experimenting with one alternative to the same project. Oftentimes when I think of Universal Design, I try to figure out how something can work for everyone.  But in this case I took the approach that one version of the project would be very visual focused and another very focused on the sounds.  The visual project ends up coming off as something quite literal whereas the auditory version is more of a poem of sorts.  Which is better?  The obvious answer is neither.  In fact it’s the wrong question.  The question that the readings were driving us to ask is more along the lines of…why are we not teaching multiliteracies in all things that we do in the classroom?   Why have do we emphasize one type of literacy over the other?  I think a simplistic answer to this is that the written word is a construct for many of the other types of literacy.  It is foundational for many of the other literacies.  IE when I go to create a podcast or a video I still need to rely on the written word in the planning stages and therefore I need that foundational piece.  However the teaching of the various literacies needs to go beyond – please complete a project in a different form.  There needs to be teaching of that form in order to master that form.

Emoji Story

I found this exercise very challenging indeed.  I use emojis fairly often when texting with family and friends.  I’ve found that they are particularly useful when trying to emphasize emotion.  The emotion becomes a little bit tongue in cheek.  Although at times a tear emoji really does genuinely tell how I might be feeling at that moment.  I also find that the use of emojis is maybe easier when I know the people that I’m communicating with.  So many friends would ‘know’ what I mean and could understand quite readily.

In my emoji post above I found that I couldn’t help but racializing it a fair amount.  I found the moment of trying to articulate the story and layering in race to be weird.  It was strange trying to decide on the exact tone of person from the event I was trying to describe.  The event wasn’t particularly race based but I feel that my emoji story made it more about race.  It might be more about race for me because I had to keep choosing which race to select.  If we compare this to a podcast where it’s not visual at all and then the conversation can simply be colour blind.  Particularly if the topic isn’t race based.  Whereas here in the emoji story I had to rely on visuals and then I had to make some decisions based on the ‘race’ of the emojis.  Now I suppose that the ‘yellow’ emoji could be construed as ‘race neutral’ but then we do still have to choose that character as opposed to any of the other ones.

The question that came up for me is – what actually is an emoji?  And what are the drawbacks and limitations.  Description was certainly a limitation.  I know that emotion is what they can mostly communicate but there are a lot of things and flags that can represent.  I found that I got stuck trying to fill in my description.  I was longing to use words as opposed to just the pictures.

I think I might have faired better with a combination of words and emojis to tell the story.  Although I’m sure I would have relied too heavily on the words if I’d had them as an option.

The question that I continue to circle back to as we look at different modes of communication is, ‘How is this mode of communication better than others and when is it best to use?’  Kress reflects on the shift from writing to other mediums of communication in his article Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning.  “In particular, it seems evident to many commentators that writing is giving way, is being displaced by image in many instances of communication where previously it had held sway.  This realization calls forth a variety of responses, mostly negative, ranging from outright despair, anger and nostalgia to some still utopian voices on the other end of the spectrum.”  (Kress 2005)

But I don’t think there needs to be despair but instead so long as we continually reflect and critically examine the question that I ask, then we can choose the correct form of communication.  It’s interesting to note that Kress’ article was in fact communicated as a lecture before it was a piece of writing…  “In this context, the purpose of my talk is to provide…”(Kress 2005). So was his article an article or was it a talk?  Should it be published as an audio file instead or should it have been video recorded and published in that form or should it be available for all in all forms? (Emoji Wink)

References

Kress, G. (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 22(1), 5-22. doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2004.12.004

As you can see in my pictures below I decided that it would be worthwhile to further consider the types of instruments that we use to write with.  That created a few problems particularly with the sharpie that I used on the flip side of the paper.  I didn’t want to waste paper but then that didn’t work out so well.  (Since the penmanship is terrible I’ve also added in an audio file of the story for those who are interested to follow along and try to decipher my hieroglyphs !)

I find that when I pick up certain pens or pencils I just don’t want to write with them for some reason.  Oftentimes it’s the way the pen feels in my hands or the way the tool actually writes on the paper.  As well, the type of paper can influence if I like the writing process or find it satisfactory.  Obviously, as you can see, my penmanship is not the best.  When I go slowly I can print so that it is quite legible but I find that when I write or print on the page, then I just can’t keep up with my thoughts.  So for me I almost exclusively write out thoughts etc on a computer.  I’m reasonably quick for typing and it is legible almost all of the time!  Now that being said there are times when I do prefer handwriting.  I like to make notes and to do lists with pen and paper.  I find that at those times I slow down my thinking and try to take care in determining what is important and prioritize various items.  I also find that pen to paper ideas can stick more in my mind then if I write out a list in a digital format.  Also who knows where I’ve put that list…google drive, email, onedrive, laptop, phone who knows.  Digital organization…don’t get me started on that wormhole!  

When I was writing with pen and pencil to paper I tried as best I could to avoid ‘mistakes’.  IE I was doing a little creative writing and decided that it’s best to try to let it flow.   However I know that, for me, with creative writing it is easier on the computer because I do find it easier to let go and write and make corrections easily and quickly.  I think I did the classic scratch out and bracket for one of my mistakes.  Cumbersome.

Below is my voice to text story.  As well as the story in audio and my response in audio.

yesterday around 12:30 I was heading out to UBC to play some indoor tennis and I was biking out there and I’ve got a full bike here about my rain jacket my rain pants my boots I’m set I’m good my light was turned on I also had my rear light on and I was biking on 10th Avenue which is a bike path and then I crossed Granville Street and I was heading towards further so some of you can probably picture that and I there was a car Mercedes parked on the other side of the street that I didn’t really notice but then it started moving quickly and it has her to do a U-turn and then the U-turn was coming right towards me and I started yelling like crazy a lot of expletives that I won’t share with you at this time and I’m still in shock right now it’s just less than 24 hours ago and he even know with me yelling I knew I couldn’t get out of the way and and so then he ran into my back wheel and then you know that we talked about that slow motion how things have been slow motion run accident take place and I don’t like what it described it as slow motion it’s sort of like time-lapse image pictures as I reflect back on the moment so I have a picture of very clear or almost like a group of photographs that are one by one by one as I now reflect back on the moment to the one picture is is looking to my left and and its paws where he the car is about to hit my back wheel and it’s again this is where the shock the brain is just like what on Earth how is someone on a bike path in you know anywhere in reflection you kind of think all these words how is someone on a bike path how are they just how they decided to make a U-turn and a car and I wear this white rain jacket I’m very visible at least I thought I was very visible not so if Isabel to this guy parently so there’s this so there’s that one feeling show then he’s returning and he’s coming to hit me and I and I see the the right side of his car and runs clear frame right like it’s this is medium shot of this car and then the next frame is me turning to my right and Earl it literally flying down towards the ground and all I see is the curb and Savannah and Reflections this Freeze Frame Freeze Frame moment of going what the f is going to happen to me and it’s a total it’s just it’s a shock and in that Freeze Frame woman is just hatched in my rain and and so then then it all news that then there’s kind of this fast motion and slow motion where it’s like boom I’m down in the ground the car the bike has Smashes in it and it’s it’s painful and then I I jump up and I’m mostly worried right at the beginning it am I going to be able to play tennis this afternoon it’s like yeah I know I don’t think so and then I’m worried about my wrists and I’m yelling obscenities is ripping off my my the Glass isn’t helmet that I’ve got on and then he’s getting out of the car and he’s like are you okay and and then all these different images of that then this to these two people are like you okay and people saying are you okay all over the place and I’m like I don’t know like I I think I’m in shock so what do you do with shock and then and then I’m walking back and forth and and and their this other guy I wanted Witnesses like should I I’m on the phone and I don’t have one do you think you need an ambulance and it’s like I mean like physically I I think I’m okay I feel like I bruised my hands and my wrist actually seems fine but I think I landed on my my knee and then I landed on my side my ribs and I and so I landed in all so many different places and so then I’m thinking okay so I’m I’m good but am I good I don’t know and so then then the guy the witness is like what I don’t want to suggesting that the police should at least, and I’m like I guess like he’s not my decision to make I mean I sort of in a weird quick moment at the end there too I was like I I kind of feel badly for this guy you hit me cuz he he looks really can’t write me hasn’t fled I can’t imagine how awfully he feels too the way you know I wasn’t super concerned about him that moment so I’m good I’m okay I feel like I just got a bunch of bruises and it’s now that’s like I said less than 24 hours ago but sort of living that shock and trying to figure out if I am okay but I was able to do this assignment I think I was looking at the writing it looks like a mess but I guess that’s just the speech-to-text all right over and out 

My curling bag includes my curling rock, my curling shoes, my scorecard….ok ok. There is this temptation in this exercise to list all of the contents in my bag and explain each and every item.  But this is the thing with digital literacy and in this case in particular with photography – The picture should tell the story.  So lots of the content is obvious.  I’ll try to point out a few of the subtle things that I’ve inserted into my “curling” bag.  I really want to write out the sport that this sport bag is associated with…but I already have by taking the picture.   Ahhh…ok.  I’m going to ask a few questions and see if anyone comments or gets the conversation going.  Who is my favourite ‘curling’ player?  Why does this guy (ie me) have 11 wristbands?  I included a picture of my son because I love my son and I really like the Picture in Picture look.  He’s 3 in this pic but 17 today.  In the past I’ve taught drama and media AND I’ve always been beating the drum on the idea of ‘film grammar’ and the construction of moving pictures being similar to construction of writing.  So I’m interested in the exploration of this idea of how we’ve previously communicated and how we’ll evolve and shift the way that we communicate.  It really is a bit of a mind blowing thing as far as this shift in writing and the sharing of ideas is evolving and changing before us.  In light of that I really should make sure to make a number of my posts as video or audio posts instead of relying on the written word.  In fact I’ll do one of the posts in the upcoming months as written, audio and video….then it’d be cool to hear how the medium shifted the message.

It’s interesting with sports and the equipment that one uses that the player can range in ability from beginner to pro even with the same gear.  I’ve walked onto the golf course a number of times and end up in a foursome with a guy who’s got the most incredible set of clubs.  Thinking that he’s going to crack it off the first tee and instead he hits 3 balls into the water before we even get started.  Meanwhile my clubs from the late 90’s help me to well hit somewhere in the late 90’s but slightly better than his 125!  I’ll let you use your imagination as far as how well I ‘curl’.

So if we were to look back 30 years on sporting equipment then there are so many changes to today.  But then if we look forward 30 years then the question I have is at what point do we stop the technology from improving?  Take hockey for example.  The cost of getting suited up has never been cheap but today compared to 30 years ago it’s astounding.  So is there ever a time to consider slowing technology because perhaps –  is it really necessary for it to ‘get better’ and to what end?