Re-designed Task 1: What’s in your bag? in audio form:

Task 7 Reflection (separated into parts due to file size upload constraints):

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

References

ASMR University. (n.d.). What is ASMR? https://asmruniversity.com/about-asmr/what-is-asmr/

Dobson, T., & Willinsky, J. (2009). Digital literacy. In D. R. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of literacy (pp. 286-312). Cambridge University Press.

The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.

Emoji story:

First of all, I found this task very challenging and I will be amazed if anyone is able to guess what show and episode my emoji story depicts. My emoji story represents the most recent episode of a show I’m watching, and it was not chosen based on the ease of visualization. I am eager to hear your guesses!

This task was a lot harder than I expected and I ended up focusing on key ideas only, rather than trying to capture details, which I found couldn’t be ‘correctly conveyed’ with a limited set of emojis. The show I am watching has an immense amount of details – it involves live-action scenes, backgrounds, established characters, and I often couldn’t find the ‘right’ emoji to capture all of these details. We are limited by those who create emojis and while in my day-to-day usage I normally find the range of emojis to be quite broad, for this task there were certain details such as a light-skinned character with brown or red hair, that were not included in the emoji keyboard.

Another challenge was related to the fact that each emoji can have several meanings. I kept flip flopping between using emojis to convey their literal meaning versus their symbolic meaning. This is consistent with Bolter’s (2001) argument around each element in picture writing meaning too much than too little and having different meanings. This makes it challenging for any ‘reader’ or ‘viewer’ of my emoji story to understand what is being conveyed. An emoji’s meaning is also dependent on the creator and viewer’s context and culture – for example, the diamond ring emoji, which is meant to symbolize a wedding that took place in the show, may not convey the same meaning for a different viewer.

I used my iPhone’s Notes application to capture my emoji story and in doing so, it seems like text is still in control, despite not using any text in my story. Bolter (2001) discusses the tension between textual and visual forms of communication and while this entire task is made up of graphics (emojis in this case), they are used in a textual way. The emojis are organized as if in sentences and I used spaces between the lines of emojis, as if I was organizing paragraphs to separate ideas.

Prior to this task, I have never used emojis alone to tell a story; they have only been used as ‘decorative pieces’ to supplement text. It is interesting to think that emojis alone or text alone are both open to several interpretations – emojis alone can carry different meanings and text alone requires a reader to make several inferences or visualizations. However, when put and used together, they can help provide more contextualisation, resulting in less interpretation.

If visual forms of communications, including emojis, can help to enhance communication, it is surprising to me that emojis haven’t made their way into ‘professional’ or ‘business’ writing. When writing emails, it seems taboo to include emojis as they are deemed as ‘unprofessional’ but why is this, if they can enhance our communication?

Reference

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Compressed HTML file (zip file) of my Twine: ETEC 523 Task 5 Student Decisions.html

This was my first time using Twine and as I was playing the game, I thought this type of interactive text could be very useful for breaking down complex topics. In particular, for topics that involve decision trees or different ‘pathways’, a hypertext could help students understand the connections between ideas, better than if presented in a linear way. I also thought this type of non-linear text could be useful for students who are navigating decisions; a Twine could help them make their decisions through a series of choices.

I intended to create the latter concept when creating my Twine, but it evolved into something a little different…

I envisioned a student coming to office hours to discuss their career, which is a common topic of choice for my students. As a starting point however, it felt too linear and unnatural to stick with one ‘storyline’ so I added a choice on the first screen, which then opened up the different pathways and a non-linear web of storylines.

I found working in a web to be a more natural way to capture how our thoughts work, and how conversations flow. Similar to what Bolter (2001) stated, I found myself “being overwhelmed with ideas as I [wrote]” (p. 34), and my ideas didn’t always flow in a linear way. It was helpful to capture ideas within a web rather than having to form them linearly. My hypertext grew exponentially, as each time a choice was offered, a new pathway and web would form. This seems similar to how conversations flow, as conversations often branch off of what is said, with one idea leading to another, but not necessarily in a linear way. A conversation may eventually loop back to earlier topics, but it may not.

This experience was very different compared to writing a story using a word processor, which requires that I order things from start to finish (i.e. top to bottom, or left to right). As Bolter (2001) discusses, this innately creates a hierarchical organization. A hypertext allows for non-linear flow of thoughts.

I am eager to try using Twine for a topic that involves decision trees and seeing how my students navigate through the topic. I think it may be a very effective tool to break down complex tasks.

Reference

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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

I normally type, so I found this task more challenging than expected.

Firstly, it was difficult to find the appropriate writing technology for this task. I don’t normally keep any paper on my desk, so I had to go searching for this technology and eventually found an old notebook to write in.

After only a few lines of writing, my hand started to cramp up. My muscles are not used to writing by hand and I was shocked at how ‘out of shape’ these muscles were. My students still often write in-person, paper-based exams and I often see them shaking out their hands in discomfort. I can better understand that several of them may not be used to writing by hand, but then are asked to do so on an exam, forcing them to use muscles they are not used to.

The task was to write a reflection of approximately 500 words. I quickly realized how reliant I am on electronic word count tools, and I realized that I have no idea how much writing would constitute 500 words. I ended up counting the number of words in a row and multiplied that by the number of rows to get an approximation.

I am also left-handed and I quickly remembered how annoying coils in a notebook are as they impede my hand placement. Writing near the bottom of the notebook was also difficult as my hand had to hover above the notebook – you may notice that my writing gets a little messier at the bottom of each page.

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 made seven mistakes during my hand-written reflection and since I was using a pen, I simply crossed out the unwanted words. I opted not to use white out, mostly because I don’t know if I have any. Another option would have been to start over completely, but given that my hand written work is not being presented formally, it was not worth the effort to edit my work in this way.

My choice of media – pen and paper, limited my options to edit my work. Pen is more permanent than pencil and cannot simply be erased. I opted for pen as I find it clearer to read.

I often mark-up documents using my iPad and Apple Pencil, which merges hand-writing with digital affordances. With these two technologies, I can write ‘by hand’, but am given many more opportunities to edit my work, including erasing and re-arranging text.

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?

Writing by hand seems much more effortful, both physically and from a time perspective. It took me approximately 35 minutes to hand-write my reflection (keep in mind that this includes the time to think of what to write as I was writing), but it took me less than 10 minutes to type. The accelerated rate at which typing allows us to record thoughts and convey information seems parallel to the accelerated rates that the printing press enabled as examined by Innis (2007). As typing is more efficient than writing by hand, I wonder if this results in us writing more compared to if we were to hand-write everything.

From a physical perspective, it is more effortful to write by hand and the amount of effort can be influenced by the writing device (e.g. stylus vs. pencil vs. ballpoint pen vs. rollerball pen). The physical effort needed to write by hand can result in variations in the size, shape and overall legibility of our writing (Bolter, 2001). This is not the case with mechanized forms of writing, which has the ability to produce consistent text, in consistent sizes and fonts.

A significant advantage of mechanized (and digitized) forms of writing includes the ability to edit one’s work more easily. I wonder if this causes us to be more critical of our writing and whether we spend more time editing, simply because it’s easier to do.

For work and school-related tasks, I prefer typing as it is much more efficient compared to writing by hand. The formatting and editing abilities are also valuable. However, I find writing by hand more relaxing. I feel more grounded and at peace when writing by hand, perhaps because it is slower so it feels calmer, or perhaps because I associate typing with work and school.

Do any of my peer used mechanized forms of writing for personal hobbies (e.g. diarizing or story writing)? Between typing and writing by hand, which do you find more relaxing and why?

References

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Innis, H. (2007). Empire and communications. Dundurn Press.