Technology is defined as the application of science to solve problems or create useful tools. Today “technology” generally means “digital.” I decided create an infographic about a technology that is not digital – the pencil. I used a pencil to learn how to print before I even started school, and I still use a pencil everyday.
Click the image to see a larger view of the infographic.
Click on the link below for the PDF version.
When I checked out Nick’s Speculative Futures task, I was drawn to the illustrations in his post. I think using a storybook format was a great ideas. I have never created a storybook like this before. When I completed this task, I did not consider the possibility of adding illustrations to my stories. When I was thinking about our futures, I was looking at education and tried to imagine what it would be like if I were to return to my current school in 30 years. Nick took a more holistic view of the future.
I found it interesting that the same character in each story lived a very similar, video game type life, with access to the same technologies and yet how he interacted with those technologies was so different. When I read the stories of the future, I found the control exerted by Surli over the main character to be rather disturbing. But, when I really think about it, many aspects of our lives are controlled by technology today. We have alarms and timers reminding us when to wake up in the morning, when we have to be in class, when to take our medications, when to watch a particular TV show. We have smart watches and Fitbits that count calories and tell us when we need to exercise more. We have apps and cards to pay for things, without ever seeing real money. Maybe Nick’s future is right now.
Task 11: Algorithms of Predictive Text
This was one of the tasks I chose not to complete, so I wanted to read a post from someone who chose to complete it. I found it interesting to read about Braden’s experience with algorithms for predictive text. I personally have never had very good luck with predictive text on my phone or tablet. Rarely does it predict what I am actually trying to say and it seems as if Braden had the same experience on his iPad.
Braden made an important observation about the difference between the predictive text on his phone or iPad compared with that on his laptop, even while using the same program. It does make sense, given the different uses for each of the devices. The only real predictive text that I have on my laptop is when I am using Google Docs or Slides to do work for school. There, the predictive text is fairly accurate. The subject matter is quite specific and mostly limited to math and science. The wider variety of activities my phone and tablet are used for would make it much harder for an algorithm to come up with the correct words.
It was interesting that Braden had experience with students completing assignments using predictive text, to the point where the assignments did not make sense. This is something I have never experienced. I question how we, as teachers, can monitor this kind of use of technology.
I was interested in this post because, in her mode-bending assignment, Marlis took a similar approach to me. We both chose to record a slide presentation about the objects in our bags. I described how I would use many of the items in a day, while Marlis had a different spin on her presentation. Rather than the story being about how she found the objects useful, she made the objects in her bag characters with a voice. They spoke of their perceived usefulness to their owner. To add to the effect, she also used background music and sound effects. All of these decisions made her presentation interesting and effective and a much different experience than my own presentation.
In her reflection, Marlis commented about the ability to include more information in written form than in a video, and I totally agree with this. She found that she had to leave out some information which she had included in the original task of “What’s in My Bag?” Watching her video, I didn’t get the feeling that there was anything missing, though. I found that I also left out some of the information that I had in the initial task. I did not include all of the objects that were originally displayed. My video would have been much longer, and honestly, some of the objects were not that significant in my everyday life (maybe they should come out of my bag). With a concise, well-written piece, it is easier to convey more of what one wants to say.
When I started reading DeeDee’s post, I was drawn in by the question about vomit and dirt flavored jelly beans. I just had to check out her game. Then she explained that she was teaching about dichotomous keys. I have been trying to come up with other ideas of how I could use Twine in my Biology classes. I had used Twine in one of my other courses to create a game based on the circulatory system. Using it for dichotomous keys seems like such an obvious idea based on the structure of the game, and yet I hadn’t come up with the idea before. I am definitely stealing this for the next time I teach the topic.
I thought that it was a good idea to use the jelly beans from Harry Potter as the basis of the game and learning about dichotomous keys. Students know about and can connect with Harry Potter. Using a variety of effects and media in the game: coloured font, font effects, photos, sounds, and video clips, as DeeDee did, is effective at engaging learners.
When I approached this task, I considered trying to make another educational game, but then I decided to have a bit of fun and do something entirely different than what I would normally do. I appreciate the effort that DeeDee put into her game to make something that was both useful for her as teacher, but also a fun, educational experience for her students.
I chose this particular post because for Task 4, I chose to complete the potato print option as it seemed more appealing to me than doing some more writing by hand; however, I was interesting in learning about someone’s experience with the other option in this task. Even though I did not complete this portion of the task, I have done enough handwriting that I could relate to some of Victoria’s experience. Even with access to technology, I still complete some tasks on paper in handwriting: notes on assigned readings, lists, notes at meetings, and even planning and notes for assignments. I find that there is a connection between my brain and the pen that allows me to plan better while handwriting. Sometimes, I pay careful attention to my writing, other times, not so much. Sometimes it is well-formed cursive writing and other times it is a strange hybrid of writing and printing. It usually depends on the speed at which I am trying to record ideas and also the intended audience of the writing.
Victoria made a valid comment about the difficulty in editing hand-written work. I usually don’t spend much time editing writing done by hand. I don’t have the kind of time it takes to edit an entire written document. For writing that will require editing, I definitely also prefer using a word processing program, which is usually Google Docs.
I was interested in Graeme’s post because he took a different approach to the task than I did. Rather than just giving everyone a written copy of his narration like I did, he shared audio files. We got to listen to his narration of his story and the Microsoft Read Aloud version of the transcript. I found that his choice to present the narrations this way was very effective, more so than just having the written transcript. With my written transcript, there was nothing for others to compare it to. There is neither a written record of what I said nor an audio recording. It is interesting that he even compared two different voice to text programs using the same audio recording for each and obtained very similar results.
With the Microsoft Read Aloud, the lack of punctuation in the written record was emphasized. A speech-to-text program cannot record the emphasis and enthusiasm of the story-teller. It didn’t capture any of the humor or urgency present in the story or the tone of or inflections in Graeme’s voice.
Graeme describes the issues with the written text and I had similar issues: missing punctuation, inconsistent verb tenses, and even incorrect words altogether. The tool took the oral language and translated it into what it determined was the most “correct” version of what was being said. In any case, it was definitely not perfect.
Since I am a teacher, I tried to focus on what my school might look like 30 years from now.
Utopia 2050
How strange it feels to be back in the halls of Big Rock Secondary School. Has it really been almost 30 years since I quit teaching here? It must be since it was during the Covid-19 pandemic that I quit teaching. If what I see is the state of education today, I think I should have continued teaching until retirement.
This is definitely not the school of thirty years ago. The building looks new and modern. I guess they finally did get the funding that was promised almost forty years ago to build a new school. What is happening inside the building is unrecognizable.
I was greeted at the front door by the security bot. As with any public space, a background check was done to make sure it was safe for me to enter. It was a quick and painless process – facial recognition and a simple DNA test to confirm my identity. I almost got swept away by the Custodian 3000. No more humans to keep the school clean.
There are so many students, of all ages. Last time I was here, the halls and the classrooms were almost empty. So many students did not see a purpose for being at school. I can hardly blame them. What good would an education in a system developed during the Industrial Revolution do them?
I smell food, so this must be the cafeteria. There are robots in the back of the kitchen, preparing food, cooking, and cleaning. Not a human in sight. There is a lineup of drones ready for delivery. Students must have placed their orders already.
There is this new device that has replaced phones, laptops, Chromebooks, and tablets and is small enough to fit in your pocket. Communication, social media spaces, word processing, video production, virtual reality experiences, and more – all in one place. All students have access to one and they are upgraded each year. There are no concerns about whether all students have access to the tools necessary to be successful at school. All people have access to a high speed network connection, allowing universal access to the internet. Content and social media is monitored on the network so that students do not have access to inappropriate posts. Cyberbullying is non-existent.
I didn’t hear a bell, and yet students are moving about in the halls. There doesn’t appear to be much order, but everyone seems to be moving with purpose. This is because each student has an individual educational plan. Artificial intelligence is used to create a plan and modify it based on activities and accomplishments of students. Each student has their own path to graduation and a career. Schedules can even change from day to day, depending on the learning needs of the student.
Each classroom I pass by has a teacher, at least that’s one thing that has not changed. Teachers are acting as facilitators. They are guiding students along their individual paths, helping students who have common goals work together, and making sure students have the supports they need. Those students with learning difficulties or disabilities have both teachers and AI providing support. AI is able to automatically adjust things like reading level of texts or provide speech to text or text to speech services.
Dystopia 2050
How strange it feels to be back in the halls of Big Rock Secondary School. Has it really been almost 30 years since I quit teaching here? It must be since it was during the Covid-19 pandemic that I quit teaching. If what I see is the state of education today, I think I made the right decision to leave before retirement.
I expected things to be much different than they were 30 years ago. The building is the same. I guess they never did get the funding that was promised almost forty years ago to build a new school. It appears as if not much has changed.
Upon pressing the buzzer at the front door, I was let into the building. I am not greeted at the entrance, so I’m not sure who, or what is keeping track of visitors. It seems kind of dangerous to me, it is a school after all.
Class must be in session as I don’t see anyone in the halls except for one custodian, mopping the floor. There really should be a better way of taking care of those kinds of jobs. You would think someone would have come up with a robot that could clean the floors.
As I make my way down the hall, the bell rings. I can’t believe it is the same teeth-rattling noise from thirty years ago. Apparently students still have strict schedules to follow. That’s not even how the world of work operates anymore. Very few students exit from the rooms. It seems as if school is not engaging for young people and attendance is still an issue. Teachers that I see in rooms look tired and stressed.
Two kids start yelling and pushing each other. One says something about what the other posted online yesterday. Still no way to control social media? I dealt with these same problems many years ago.
They are carrying a variety of devices and backpacks full of what I assume are textbooks. I figured that by this time, everything would be digital. Some of the laptops and tablets look like they are a decade old. It is not really surprising, given that parents are expected to provide devices for their children and not every family can afford the newest and best. Those children are destined to be left behind. I can only imagine the challenge for teachers. How can they implement any program when there is such diversity in technology? What about those with special learning needs, do they have the technology and support they need? It seems as if they will most likely be left behind as well. Success and graduation looks like it is only possible for those that can afford it.
Success
Working through this game was a frustrating experience, but I suppose that is the point. Even though I did reach the end, it took much longer than it should have to answer so few questions. So many aspects were contrary to what is considered normal. There were some distractors, right from the introductory screen. The size, colour, and placement of the word “NO” led me to try clicking there first. I knew there would be a twist to the game. I thought that perhaps it would be using words with opposite meanings. The actual link to the next page was not at all obvious. Even in that bottom line, the font in all capitals and the font in a different colour were distractions. One normally does not expect a major link to appear in small font at the bottom of a page with no indication that it is even a link.
Once I actually got the form, there were more distractions. The first were the numbers at the top of the page that flashed green. It makes you think there is something important happening there. Normally, I would expect the number 1 to remain green if I am on the first page of the form. The other major distractor was the time window that continued to open each minute. How to get the window to disappear was not entirely obvious at first. My brain is trained to look in the top right corner for an “x” or a large button to close the window. The fact that the window kept popping up gave a sense of urgency to the activity that really wasn’t there.
Throughout all pages of the form there were unexpected elements. Password requirements were strange and normally a password is not shown on the screen. Having three separate fields for an email address is unusual. The pre-filled check boxes made me pay more attention to selections. On a real form, I may end up signing up for something unintentionally. For the house and box numbers, only having the option of using the up and down arrows for inputting the numbers was painful. I did not accurately fill out those fields. With a house number of 2331, there was no way I was clicking the up arrow that many times. If this was a real form, I would either not fill it out or submit false information. The slider for age not having numbers shown as you slide it makes it difficult to set it for the correct age, and the range is not realistic. I don’t know any person who has lived to 200. You can’t even ignore this because you are unable to continue until it is set to match your birth date. Choosing some of the items on the form, like gender, was opposite of what is normally expected. Normally, we click on a choice and it is highlighted but in this case the highlighted item was not the chosen one.
The format of the last page was misleading. The check boxes associated with the pictures were not below or close to the images where one would normally expect to see them. The words used for identifying items could have multiple meanings which increased the challenge of completing the activity.
This game highlighted many elements used to direct our attention. Green colour is usually positive, red is negative. Font characteristics such as capitals, different colours, underlining, and size are used to draw our attention. We are more likely to pay attention to objects that are larger and more central on the screen or in a pop-up window. We become accustomed to certain conventions and when we experience situations that don’t follow those conventions, it is much more difficult to complete tasks such as this game.
Curation of the Golden Record took place last week, with each of the members in the class choosing 10 of the 27 tracks. The graph below was the initial graph of the class’ data created by Palladio.
Initial Graph
At first look, this initial graph was somewhat difficult to decipher. There were nodes representing curators and nodes representing tracks connected with a number of edges. The size of the node represented the number of links it had to other nodes.
As I had never seen this program before, I found it necessary to investigate its functions. It took a bit of trial-and-error to find the connections I wanted to see.
Communities and Tracks
Here I found the connections between communities and tracks. I was expecting there to be more distinct divisions between the communities, but obviously that isn’t so. In this particular graph, there are still numerous connections between all of the communities and most of the tracks.
My Community
My particular community was the smallest of them all with only three members. With myself having only three links to Victoria and five to Michael, it doesn’t seem like this is a very strong community. On the other hand, looking at Michael’s connections, five to myself and six to Victoria, this seems like a stronger community.
This led me to question what criteria were used in forming the communities. Was there a preset number of communities, or did the program use its algorithms to figure it out? Were the communities formed on the basis of the number of songs in common or the types of songs in common, or some other basis?
This type of graphic visualization is useful for seeing connections and patterns between groups of data, but it does nothing to explain them. I see who chose each track, but I know nothing about why the choices were made or the criteria that were used. I also see nothing about the tracks that were not chosen and the reasons for leaving those tracks out of the list. One also needs to be cautious and not make assumptions regarding the inclusion or exclusion of tracks by individuals.