I decided to check out Ian’s Task 7: Mode-Bending

Ian’s Task 7 was a very interactive explorative take on the What’s in My Bag using just the sounds to identify each item. Similar to my task 7, Ian looked for audio files online to represent his different items. He made his an interactive game whereas I ended up making an audio example of a general day teaching during the pandemic. I found the epic music played before and after the audio clips to be quite amusing – giving the task a more light hearted feel to it.

Ian discussed how cultural context and experience of the listeners is important for his activity. He found that the sounds he curated to represent his items weren’t as easily identifiable to his wife even though they’ve known each other for a long time. I personally was able to identify 5 out of 8 of the sounds. The ones I weren’t able to identify was the calculator, assessments, and medicine. The calculator didn’t sound like my personal calculator, the assessments sounded like just writing, and the medicine sounded like beads in a container. Not all sounds are universal in that sense.

Ian mentioned how he’s curious to know how people from different countries would identify certain sounds. This immediately got me thinking about the medicine I received when I was sick in South Korea. Figure 1 is an example of how prescription medicine is often given to patients in South Korea. You  rip one baggy open per day or meal time. The sound I would have as a recognizing factor would be the sound of ripping open plastic.

Figure 1: Image of how medicine in South Korea is often given to patients.

Ian also mentioned how this particular task “crosses more lines of diversity, globality, and modes than our schools typically accommodate,” and I agree that giving students a choice in their mode allows them to be more engaged in their own learning and be more explorative. This was also visible in our own classmates interpretation of this task as well! It was interesting to see how certain classmates used different modes for the same task.