What if….?

Here are two scenarios for speculative future for education in 2050 based on my imagination. I found this task to be by FAR the most difficult of ETEC 540! The longer I worked on it, the more I realized that it has aspects that could be instituted much sooner than the thirty-year guideline set out in the task. However, this would require visionary leadership and a progressive-thinking community, not to mention infrastructure, resource and financial increases.

I fully agree with Shannon Vallor (2018) that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will be a long time off, and I personally believe that students will continue to need human characteristics in others that cannot be replaced by AI, as Vallor states, AI “don’t love and don’t care”.  For example, Harari (2017) uses the comparison of doctors and nurses to say that doctors could be replaced by AI sooner than nurses because their skills are mostly information processing and diagnosing, whereas nurses need more motor skills for first aid-type, hands-on care and soft skills, involving emotion and compassion. Although I think this is unfair stereotyping in the medical profession, it does reflect the need for and irreplaceability of non-quantifiable skills where unpredictability of human mind and emotions would be difficult to replicate (Vallor, 2018). Constructivist principles are possible online, but there are certain things that just can’t replace a human interactions.

Our relationships with media, education, text and technology will always be dynamic.  In 30 years, I believe three things will still be a constant; 1) need for socialization and emotional support, 2) accountability for both teachers and learners, and 3) physical health. My narratives reflect this view.

NARRATIVE ONE 

My first narrative revolves around the theme of transportation for a more wholistic approach for student learning and support. It is widely predicted that a considerable amount of education will be happening online in the coming years away from the brick-and-mortar buildings and 8:30-3:00 timetables.  I feel that this is solitary existence will still be viewed as unhealthy in 30 years and that virtual connection will still be considered subpar to real physical contact for some learners. My idea is for self-driving vehicles to transport online learners to activities that are not possible (or way more lame/different) in a virtual world, such as playing a soccer game or painting a picture with real paint.

The FLEETmobile

The FLEETmobile is a fleet of vehicles (some with and some without support teachers) that can take students to selected experiential activities.  There will be on-line sign up for flexible, personalized experiential learning, but still giving student choice and opportunities to socialize in a learning environment. Vehicles come equipped with a support robot to go through the activities with the students and collect data. This data can then be used in the FLEETmobile to help students reflect on the task and complete assignments or projects while.  For example, the robot can initiate conversation with students on the drive to and from the activity as ways to prepare or solidify learning, or be used as a help source when the student returns home to complete work. If we are going to continue with constructivism as a principle practice in education, then having real experiences (as well as virtual) where students can interact with others, use sensory capabilities and construct meaning through experiences on an individual and social level.  The FLEETmobile is a self-driving touring vehicle which provides students with self-selected experiential opportunities

The FITmobile

Each kid has a FitPod at their house or location of learning (second narrative – see below) to meet health and physical education curriculum.  However, if your FitPod is not quite enough interaction with peers, call the FITmobile to deliver you to arranged sporting and physical health activities where you can swim in a real pool or play a game of 3vs3 basketball with a real ball, court and peers or hike a local trail.

The CONNECTmobile

Tired of connecting online? Need some space and time to talk to humans in real life? Call up the CONNECTmobile to interact with a human(s) of your own choosing. Each registered student is entitled to 1 one-hour drive per week with up to 4 classmates in the climate-controlled comfort of our touring vans.

The WARDENmobile

The Warden is a 24-7 monitoring system.  One thing that COVID has brought to the forefront is the realization that, although important, brick-and-mortar schools are a necessary child-minding service so that parents can get out of the house to work and keep the economy going.  The ‘Warden’ is a system placed on every registered user where work spaces and devices are monitored and controlled for security and accountability.  This will be a much more advanced nanny-cam including features such as: remote disable of household features when parents are out of the house for safety or to limit distractions, ensuring kids are in their work space doing work when they are supposed to, blaring alarms for children that fall asleep working, device shut-down for non-approved uses and providing ease of mind for parents that are working in and out of the house to know their kids are safely supervised.  All this would be tracked remotely, but the self-driving WARDENmobile (stationed in each neighbourhood) makes visits to houses where a human education representative can intervene for higher priority safer concerns. Having the Warden show up at your house is the 2020 equivalent of the principal’s office.

The HELPmobile

Some things are just not fixable virtually.  Call the HELPmobile.  This self-driving vehicle carries IT experts, educational technologists and teachers to help students solve any problems in-person when online options have been exhausted.

NARRATIVE TWO

FITPOD

For Physical Education class, students learning online will have classes in their FitPod.  This provides the ultimate personalized health learning experience which is programmed to fitness, physical literacy competencies as well as health content and mental well-being.  The FitPod uses AI and VR to deliver physical lessons and access to a database of options for workouts.  I envision the pod to look like a very large portable shower stall that can be easily set-up.  It will include 360° screens for walls so that students can practice skills, such as virtual tag and throwing/catching skills, as well as have the option to participate in sync or async fitness activities. The pod will be programmed with curriculum so students can work at their own pace and preference for activities. Pods will track of physiology (weight, height, heart rate, etc.), but will also keep track of physical progress (strength, flexibility, endurance, etc.) with activities done within the pod, like a plank challenge.  FitPod is programmed to remind students help students make and track goals and congratulate students when new goals are accomplished. Each pod comes with FitGoggles for VR sport-skills and game play.  As well, each student is fit with a wireless full-body suit of synthetic material that responds to movement, such as throwing or kicking motion.  For example, the suit and google combination can simulate a game of dodgeball where the motion of the student can recreate throwing a ball at an opponent they see in the game and the suit can mimic the feeling of getting hit by a ball in the same fashion. In addition to PE, students can use the FitPod for Health curriculum for lessons on social/emotional well-being with virtual classmates so that sensitive issues, such as addictions, puberty, and issues of mental health can be discussed openly with personalized content and full privacy. The FitPod will hold students accountable for completing required tasks and benchmarks for attempting to improve health.  Retina scan and the ‘Warden’ (in narrative one) will ensure students don’t cheat. Students can play on their own or with virtual or real opponents/teammates/classmates.

Hariri, Y. N. (2017). Reboot for the AI revolution. Nature International Weekly Journal of Science, 550(7676), 324-327.

Monahan, C. (2019, October 25). The problem with AI: When hard skills are automated and soft skills are needed, the next generation is in big trouble. Retrieved from https://nationalpost.com/news/world/artificial-intelligence-will-demand-soft-skills-from-future-generations-they-wont-have-them-though

Vallor, S. (2018, November 06). Lessons from an AI mirror: ethical responsibility for a humane  future [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watchv=40UbpSoYN4k&feature=emb_title

‘Collection of Fortune Cookies Verses from my Omnipotent iPhone’

I’m sure Cathy O’Neill wouldn’t be surprised if I told her I thought my iPhone is part psychic and part Magic 8 Ball. My key takeaway from this module is that predictive text and associated algorithms are far from arbitrary and generic.  They are tailored for a personalized experience given information the user has fed them previously.  This is quite Vygotskian programming; using social information and experiences to create meaning and further extension of knowledge. My naive world was cracked wide-open in this module exposing my dreams of rainbows and fluffy bunnies to a nightmare of big brother and Google stalkers.

The textual products where I have seen statements like I generated are in my  ‘mom’ texting with friends and parents of my children’s friends.  I think it is fairly common vernacular for my demographic/social circle and the language is casual and informal, not academic at all.  I think that the textual products it would most relate to would be conversational dialogue and comments on social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, and digital interpersonal communication such as texting.

Being a mom of two boys, most of my texting involves arranging drop-offs and pick-ups from hockey practices (non-contact dryland training even during COVID), planning outings with friends (small groups with social distancing), and all things related to feeding and entertaining my growing boys.   Aspects of being an educator were also frequent in the statements generated.

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It was actually scary how much the predictive statements sound like me and the way I text with my friends.  Also finishing my thoughts and using lingo that are frequently found in my communication with others. There was a human aspect to choices and directions, such as given in the example O’Neill used of making dinner for her kids, I had choice of three choices of responses of text/emojis that could form a branching hierarchy into more choices.  Mostly, I was struck by how accurately predictive text was in microblogs:

• Finishing lines like ’pick up my…’ answer choices were boys, kids, mom and ‘meet up…’ answer choices were dinner, lunch, later (most of my conversations revolve around meals and my kids).
• Using slang like wanna and gonna.
• Use of the word ‘exactly’ (which I now realize I use too much!)
• Frequently used nouns such as cache, school, app, and house.
• I complain about my family way too much and the need for space and.quiet.  This may/may not include both hot and cold beverages.

The use of predictive text (and even auto-correct) can have implications on accidental miscommunication in any area, but in a more sinister way it could affect public writing spaces to unfairly categorize or misrepresent truth.  The one predictive text of mine that surprised me was about the ‘hiring process’ words that echoed a conversation with a colleague recently.

This example is two-fold.  First, I was taken aback that predictive text generated this based off one conversation, however, I frequently talk to colleagues and friends about education. Being in a smaller town, a few of my closest friends and confidantes are also co-workers.  Second, I was reminded of comments I’ve heard from a few temporary teachers where in order to apply for jobs, it depends on two things: the department assigned priority category (based on experience within the department and First Nation identification) and using the right key words in cover letters.  When applying for jobs, these temporary teachers who are striving for permanency are learning to craft letters to include specific jargon from the posting in order to score higher to get screened in by the system to the next level of interviews.  If, for example, some of the key words the system are looking for are ‘project-based learning’ and ‘extracurricular’ then would it pass to say something irrelevant like, “I once knew a guy who completed a project-based learning pizza eating contest that his three-legged dog said was extracurricular to his job as a lion tamer”?  O’Neill (2017) reminded us that different jobs require people with different personality types and that algorithms often disqualify categories of people that would be ideal candidates.  Could this also be used to qualify those that aren’t suitable because they were able to identify and seamlessly jump through hoops?  I once had a smart, young student teacher that would have easily qualify for jobs with local criteria, yet, she had a small problem.  Every time she tried to talk to a group of children (otherwise known as teaching!) she was terrified and break down in tears.  The rumoured algorithm of hiring in our system would probably identify her as a good candidate, but I’m not sure a teacher with a fear of public speaking would pan out.  Thank goodness I had an amazing group of empathetic students that year because other groups of students would have eaten her alive.  If algorithms don’t consider any variables beyond ‘if, then, and or,’ statements (boolean-type categorization) to find a objective value (number data) for an subjective value (humans) then I agree with what we heard in the podcasts this module that it questions humanity and morals by placing value of customers, employees or students on data without considering common sense.  Examples given in podcast where injustice and inhumanity bred racism, violence and plain-old stupidity from following data and algorithms include the story of NYPD and the experience of Dr. David Dao.

O’Neill, C. in The Age of the Algorithm. (n.d.). In 99 Percent Invisible. Retrieved from https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-age-of-the-algorithm/

This game could be renamed ‘Bedtime with Toddlers’ or ‘Telephone Fun with Air Canada’

Today I came across a very timely Twitter post by John Spencer with my morning coffee.

The link he mentions is created by @TheeNerdWriter and about dark patterns and the psychology of ‘guiding’ (tricking) users into certain pathways and cleverly hiding others that could be detrimental to motives of the business or platform.  After my morning Twitter updates, I decided to start Module 10, Attention Economies and task ten.  Only then did I realize how fitting it was.

Here are a few notes from my experience with User Inyerface:

• Immediately notice the timed aspect that creates a sense of urgency and FOMO.
• Text boxes did not immediately delete when clicked on resulting in more time being taken; quickly realized that everything in this ‘game’ is designed tongue-in-cheek to take more time than necessary.
• Help box: send it to bottom works super slow and if you try to ask for help there is a line up of 458 people; typing in the box results in absurd autofill (Hello is…. became hypothesis atromathematics).
• The ‘time is ticking’ pop-up is probably one of the most annoying features and it took me a while to see where the ‘close’ was hiding; this reminds me of the Dark Pattern video and hiding ‘unsubscribe’ buttons.
• Also similar to the Dark Pattern video mentioned above is the use of colours.  Green tends to be thought of as the button to click for ‘go/proceed’, but this game would use a blue button and have green as a cancel requiring the user to start again.
• My vote for the most annoying feature was clicking on the ‘Terms & Conditions’ section.  Big mistake!  The ‘accept’ button only becomes activated when you read the bottom of the page and the slide bar is not easy or quick to manipulate, especially using a track pad.
• Password conditions.  I admit, I had to look up what a ‘Cyrillic character’ is, which takes more time and adds to frustration.
• I live in a place with really crappy internet, so I am used to the ‘wheel of wait’ for uploading the profile pic!
• Having a background as a social studies teacher, I was thrilled to see that choosing your country was by flag and that it only gave a coloured option when hovered over.

By the time I reached the fourth task, I was ready for the game to be over. The misaligned Captcha boxes of the fourth task to prove that I was indeed human were over the top. By this point I just kept clicking ‘validate’ until it was done. Message had been received about design for UX!   However, this exaggerated exercise provided a practical exploration of attention economy and the psychology and analytics of new media. I can see how knowing this information could be valuable as both consumer (avoiding pitfalls and being sucked in) and producer (tricking and controlling users). As a teacher, I can see how I could use this information and game to further educate students about digital citizenship through the lens of design.

I found Module 9 on the ‘Network of Text’ to be quite interesting.  The supplementary videos in 9.1 gave vocabulary and identity to what was presented in Palladio.  I had the interesting fortune to tinker with the networks in Palladio before viewing 9.1 and my experience was limited to thinking about the way the dot dance around and sensing commonalities.  However, after 9.1, the dots became nodes within a multiplex network and the edges of the undirected graphs told stories of degrees of connectivity.

I could relate this to the research I have been doing for my final assignment which explores who has the control to selects criteria for organization of books in the library under the context of Melvil Dewey and the Dewey Decimal System.  To quickly summarize part of my investigation, I am looking at how Dewey’s opinion, authority and bias got to be the standard for organizing texts. Similarly in our task, each participant was the authority on curating their list and, just like Dewey or any other figure tasked with making decisions using subjective guidelines, the curation is in the eye of the beholder (or ear of the listener!).

In task 8, I chose to curate The Golden Record based on beat, rhythm and patterns that would be conducive to locomotor movement in my early childhood PE classes.  ETEC 540 peers had other creative justifications.  For example, Sasha classified types of instruments and Alanna noted that her choices were founded on length of the tracks, others chose based on if the tracks had words or just music  It is fair to say that while Palladio presented the data visually, it did not account for reasoning. In module 9.1 it mentions that search algorithms are able to be aligned to certain demographics, something that is missing in this Palladio network.  To use an example from the side conversation in the group three chat, would there be a difference if network was organized under the facet dimensions of decade of birth? (i.e.: Group One born in 1960’s, Group Two born in 1970’s, etc.) Perhaps growing up listening to music on a record versus a CD or digital form could have an impact on choices? Other possible characteristics could include:

• travel history (have you visited countries outside your continent?)
• location of birth or formative years
• do you use music for certain purposes (i.e. working out, driving, relaxing)
• personal preferences (i.e: I DO NOT like electronica or anything that resembles it)
• linguistic diversity (what languages do you speak or how many are you fluent in?)

I was in group 7 with Helen.  I found our multigraph visually appealing as It suited my preference for clean, linear organization (and I could manipulate it to be even more so!)

Helen & Valerie – Network

The fact that I got to know Helen a bit last semester in our ETEC 590 working group was a bonus that I could have some background context about her and try to draw conclusions about other things we had in commons though previous conversations and work. According to her task 8 post, Helen curated her list with two factors in mind: emotional response and equity of regional coverage.  We had a high degree of connectivity with 7/10 selections where my degree of connectivity.

Laura & Valerie – Network

My degree of connectivity with Laura was lowest at 2 and she attributed her choices to ‘focus on global and temporal diversity and the human voice’. This is not to say that because we only agreed on two songs, that my choices were void of these characteristics.  However, I think it is more likely to say that Helen and I had a compilation of 7 songs that tugged at emotions, were vastly global and could be used in an action-packed Kindergarten PE class.

I created a community of individuals based on having 4 common songs with each person Kristen, Sasha, Daniella and Jamie:

Degree of Commonality = 4 Jamie, Daniella, Kristen, Sasha, Valerie

I found it interesting to map out to see that while I had 4 in common with each person, there was not one single song that all of us had in common.  However, I could see by the list on the bottom that there were three songs that none of us curated to our list (Panpipes of Soloman Islands, String Quartet 13, and Gavotte en Rondeaux) It was fascinating for me to see the network and inter-relation between each of our sub-group, especially the out-laying songs that no one chose.  I was puzzled at how a network could be weighted to show the pieces included, but found that the information not chosen could be just as thought-provoking, yet it was missing in the visual.

My curation began with a quick scan to see if I knew any of the songs.  Immediately, I saw the Chuck Berry song and thought of my Dad dancing. He loved to party!  Back in the 70’s, he had these wicked shoes (which I later wore for a ‘nerd’ costume in junior high school).  Trying to find them online, a search of disco loafers did the trick:

I started to think of how I would curate a list for movement, but for what purpose?  Unlike my groovy Dad, I have ZERO dance ability, motivation and aptitude.  No amount of growth mindset can fix my moves! Which is sad because I am fairly musical and love listening to music and my inner body/brain can bust a move that my body can’t match.

Brainstorming a way to curate the Golden Record for movement, my mind shifted to professional life.  I teach 0.2 ADST/Teacher Librarian and 0.8 PE.  Of my PE position, half my time is spent teaching primary grades.  One thing that I focus on is locomotor movement skills and use music often.  I went through the list and narrowed it done based on my instinct if it was a song that I would use in class for movement activities. For the most part, Kindergarten children are open to new things, move in wacky and wonderful ways, are fun-loving, imaginative and uninhibited. They can also be brutally honest and will tell you if a song sucks (or comment on your new zit or ugly pants).  Using past Kindergarten classes and children (the especially zany, memorable movers!) as inspiration and a mental reference, I used these I created these guiding questions:

• Can I visualize Kindergarten children moving to this music in various forms? Walking, running, stomping, skipping, galloping, sliding, hopping?
• Could the music be extended to involve creative movements (i.e. walk like Frankenstein, dive like a dolphin, or move like a sloth?)
• Does the beat and pattern personify the movement goals and provide variety?
• Can I predict the reaction of students to this music? Would it be positive? Would it motivate them to move?

I went through each piece and made a ‘NAY’ or ‘YAY’ list on instinct of the above questions as I listened.  Could I see those little monsters stomping, skipping and giggling to the beat, effects and emotion presented in the music?  Here are the ten that made the cut:

Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40

Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08

Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14

“Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38

Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52

“Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05

Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35

Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20

Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57

Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17

My New Year’s Eve family tradition is to bang pots and pans on the street at midnight and dance around and make obnoxious noise.  Growing up, I thought it was a common ritual that everybody did.  After meeting my husband and becoming an adult, I’ve been made aware that my family is just a bunch of weirdos and we probably scared our neighbours.

Just to prove my point about how weird and wonderful youngsters can be, here is a pic of my own two monsters on New Year’s Eve (Jan 31, 2014) – ages 3 and 6. They have horn blowers, 2015-shaped glasses, large pot lids as make-shift cymbals and are braced for running out onto our street at ‘midnight’ (it was really 7:00) to make some noise.  This pic is motivation for my curation: would these two bouncy, excitable, budding musicians be motivated to move and groove to the music I picked?

Click on the pictures to view the original Task One and redesigned Task Seven:

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                  From Task One            ———————>         To Task Seven

Task seven provided an opportunity to re-visit the work of the New London Group, which I have read in other ETEC courses, but acknowledge that I did not fully understand. To be honest, I don’t think I am quite there yet; it certainly is a lot to unpack! However, I am in my last term of MET and with 8 courses completed, the concept of multiliteracies and purpose of the group of ten academics is much clearer. This task was a chance to dig deeper and connect my experiences and MET knowledge into the pedagogy. I was able to transform task one of a written document, still image and Venn diagram into a 4 min movie using various modes (sound effects, pictures, music, movement, gestures, writing, speech, drama, etc.) in a mix of design elements including gestural, oral, audio, visual, emotional and spatial. My intention is that multimodality gives a different perspective and pathway to meaning-making than in task one by shifting away from the dominance of printed word. Twisting the third-person point of view of the mosquito is a way to describe the same old items from a unique perspective.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway in this task was further examination and reflection on culture in multiliteracies. Last semester, I took ETEC 565G: Culture and Communication in VLE (now ETEC 542) with Dr. Macfadyen. This course had a profound impact on my teaching, learning and being as it helped to realign my pedagogy to include current state of globalization, diversity and socialization. The New London Group (1996) confirms this as they claim that global shifts have led to demands that cultural and linguistic diversity are critical issues. When examining my product for task seven, I reflected using frameworks and lens from ETEC 565G, such as cultural dimensions, intercultural sensitivity and cultural competence to look critically at what I present to others and for others.  For example, there are ‘Northern’ context references that would not be situated or understandable to, say my close friend in Louisiana who grew up in Trinidad (DEET, unbearable mosquitos, cold climate). My use of my ‘colourful’ language would have an effect on Hofstede’s cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance; something my kid laughed off and my formal, strict Grandmother would have severely scolded me for.  Culture plays a significant role in meaning-making and construction of knowledge, just as multiliteracies does. I am grateful that task seven afforded an opportunity to take another look at the work of the New London Group.

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

Parrish, P. & Linder-VanBerschot, J. A. (2010). Cultural dimensions of learning: Addressing the challenges of multicultural instruction. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11(2), 1-19.

Admittedly, I’ve got a crush on the 398 section of the library.

When it came to picking a story, I knew it would be from this genre.  As a K-7 teacher, I have taught lessons and units with stories from this genre and find it fantastic for integrated lessons with all subjects: science, social studies, health, math, ADST, and of course, language arts. Books and stories from the 398 section of our school library are practical and effective for analyzing story elements, so that is how I organized my emoji story:

Click here to see my EMOJI STORY

My first pick for a story is one of my all-time favourite story books, Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson, but I thought it might be too obscure for peers to guess.  Moving to another Julia Donaldson favourite, I thought of The Gruffalo, but it is almost sacrilege to think that an emoji could ever substitute the beloved Gruffalo. Nor could any emoji story capture the lyrical creativity of Donaldson’s rhythmic writing.

I began by sorting through my ‘brain-folio’ of favourite 398 stories (Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, Strega Nona, How Raven Stole the Light, Three Billy Goats Gruff), but couldn’t easily connect my mental images of the characters and settings with available emojis.  For example, I could not have three different size goats, recreate the candy house of a witch, or make an ugly dwarf creature that displays such evilness using only an emoji.  In my mind, these can only be done through ekphrasis. The best example of this, for me, is The Little Prince.  This is a story so beautifully powerful and filled with language and literary devices that no emoji could do justice.  The story I decided on was, true to what Kress (2005) affirmed, following a fixed, specific order rather than having an open order or path like a website.  In this, it was easy to recall and retell, especially when there were cumulative or repetitive parts.  I also knew I could come up with creative ways to represent nouns and key verbs, such as parts that were sung.  I taught Kindergarten for ten years and one of my favourite pre-Christmas units was a study of this character and all the different book versions and integrated lessons that went along with it.

The audience for my emoji story is ETEC 540 peers, so I was able to take liberty to use foul language emojis (middle finger); something I would not do with an audience of children, but it does help capture emotion and help with meaning making!  Taking consideration of the audience is as important with images as it is with writing or oral storytelling.  For example, reading or watching Disney versions of Little Mermaid or Cinderella would use very different modes and content than the original versions from Grimm or Anderson. Can you imagine reading the original Grimm version of Cinderella or Anderson’s version of Little Mermaid to five-year olds and destroying their little prince/princess dreams!?! Not to mention giving them nightmares.

I thoroughly enjoyed this process and found that even the challenges I encountered were fun puzzles to solve.  The title of my story is broken down into word segments from compound words. For the rest of the story, I used one emoji to represent an object, action or concept. Verbs and adverbs were most difficult for me to find with the limited stock of emojis (such as ‘want’, ‘quick’, ‘jump’ or ‘ride’).  Kress (2005) states that if there is no word then the possibility of representation and communication are ruled out.  In my story, I needed the nouns ‘tail’, ‘back’ and ‘snout’; since they are not available, I just quickly killed off the character without details. I think this just reinforces the importance of picking the medium or mode; one that will be optimally accessible and understood for the audience, context and content at hand.

I considered trying to use Charades lingo (such as the ear emoji for ‘sounds like’ to represent rhyming words), but that would be confusing for those not familiar with the drama game.  As well, the first word of the title (displayed by a red-haired fellow) is a slang word that might not be common to all readers. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory reminds us that language and learning are cultural and everyone brings their own sets of knowledge and background of environmental influence to situations for meaning-making. One of the reasons I enjoy the 398 section of our library is the global diversity of stories, of which fosters ethnorelativism.

I am looking forward to exploring these emoji puzzles in the blogs of ETEC 540 peers.  Looking through some already, it is apparent that meaning-making needs to have context and experience connection.  For example, looking at Rebecca’s post, I just finished reading that book last week.  I deciphered the emojis then practically jumped up and yelled BINGO!

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

My theme this week has been contemplating networks and paths taken to get to where I am today. In this post I attempt to make an analogy of hypertext to my ’40-something’ pandemic brain bringing a heightened sense of awareness of my current state and circumstance. The idea came to me after conversations amongst friends since COVID-19 started where we have shared experiences of reminiscing and wondering all the ‘what ifs…’ and ‘I wonder what happened to…?’ questions; examining poor life decisions, lucky breaks and everything in between. For example, friends and I have told stories of reconnecting with old teammates, partners, friends, and telling tales of people we haven’t thought about in years. There has been more time for self-reflection and analyzing ‘how did I get here?’ and what would have happened if I would have chosen a different route in 1989 or 1993 or 2001. My post has a ‘butterfly effect’ feeling to looking back on how choices have shaped my existence.  And how life, like hypertext, life is fluid and multilinear.

Hypertext is a way that readers move though text and space, as Bolter (2001) says, ‘a path through virtual space’.  In his description of interconnected paths where topics can have several routes, it got me thinking of the Twine task and hypertext as a ‘What if?’ story.  I am where I am today because of the choices and paths I took; jobs, partners, degrees, places visited and friends made. Or on the other side, the fiancée that was not to be, the trip not taken, the fight with a family member unresolved.  As with linear printed word, my life has taken one path through physical space, but that is not to ignore the other paths that could have existed based with altered decisions.  What if you could see your life as a multilinear Twine game to see all the other paths that were not taken and have the ability to examine the entire process?  Like Bolter (2001) suggests, the hypertext allows the reader to access the whole text in the way a printed book cannot; the hypertext makes content less rigid and not fixed.

I have ZERO experience with Twine, but creating on it reminded me of fortune telling in elementary school….the kind that even pre-dates the coolness of cootie catchers.  We used to play a game called MASH to predict our future. Here is a MASH game that my nine-year-old son made for my Twine story, complete with choices (his ideas based on his perception of what I would have been like as a 12 year old!).

Here is my attempt at a Twine.  Honestly, I was not interested in learning Twine at this point, so my story is very basic.  However, I found that this exercise was useful to connect ideas of hypertext to fiction writing and understanding how technology has opened up text to become less fixed and more networked.

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References

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

For this task I recruited Wyatt, my nine-year old son, who jumps at the chance to do something artsy. I started by asking him to read the task aloud (homeschool reading…check!). Then we had a little back and forth brainstorm about some things he loves (hockey, WWE, baseball, basketball, drawing).  He narrowed it down to two five-letter words: donut and ghost, but because the five-letter version is not the Canadian version ‘doughnut’, he chose ghost. Wyatt loves all things Halloween and has been questioning us lately about what will happen if there is no COVID vaccine by October.

Then he told me that he wanted his print on a t-shirt.  Say what? I was taken aback because I just assumed we would print it on paper where he saw it as an open task where the medium was up to choice.  This resonated with a quote I read this week for ETEC 580, “Imagination is a talent that atrophies when it is not used enough.  A recent study shows that 98% of four-year olds could be classified as divergent thinkers. By age 12, however, this percentage dwindles to 10%.  Daily opportunities to use ‘creative muscles’ result in exciting learning experiences, individualized expression and self-directed learning.” (Ontario Library Association, 2010). So, off to Walmart we went to buy a shirt and paint.  And to exercise my old creative muscles!

Continuing on the design process, I sketched a draft of what I wanted it to look like and created a prototype.

Next, I cut the potatoes (which was surprisingly easier than I imagined and took about ten minutes) and tested the stamps on construction paper.  I made knife marks on the top of the potatoes to align the stamps to try to be consistent in making the curved shape of the word.

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Challenges/insights in this process were:

• Consistency of amount of paint (seeped through the back of the shirt, some letters and letter outlines were bolder than others)
• Consistent replication of spacing and alignment
• Letter heights: when I taught K we talked about ‘worm’ letters like g, j, y and letters that touch the ‘skyline’ like k, h, b, d and ones that stay between the ‘plane’ line and ‘grass’ line like o, e, a.  Aligning all the letters so they are in the correct position was hard with 5 letters, so I could imagine a bigger passage would be quite challenging.
• Rogue paint splatters (annoying!)

Connections to week four readings/videos:

• I can see how creators might have preferred straight-edged letters since curves were hard to make, but taking a close look at the Gutenberg Bible, the letters are far from square and primitive. Makes it even more impressive.
• Use of vises and locks to make sure letter spacing and position stay consistent.
• Content vs. Aesthetics especially in early days of handwritten books; time-consuming production makes the value of aesthetics increase.

Overall, Wyatt is happy with his new shirt and I am pleased with the hands-on experience that provided meaning-making to the videos and information about letterpress and printing presses.  I knew little about the mechanization of writing, so Module 4 was enlightening. I am much more aware of the process that goes into writing production and appreciate the centuries of advancement for the spread of knowledge and education.

Ontario School Library Association. (2010). Together for learning: school libraries and the emergence of the learning commons. Retrieved from:    http://www.accessola.org/web/Documents/OLA/Divisions/OSLA/TogetherforLearning.pdf

For this task, I told a story about making frame drums with fellow teachers last Thursday. The drums will be given to our graduating grade seven students.  I used the dictation format that our Learning Assistance teachers suggest to our classroom teachers; open a Word document and ‘fn-fn’. I’m a believer that if we ask our students to use a program or complete a task, such as creating a portfolio or self-evaluation, then we should be prepared to use the same methods to experience the process.  I have also used this dictation method when I taught grade four and have first-hand knowledge about the frustrations from the teacher perspective.  My unedited story below confirms the limitations:

There are many places that my oral creation is not representative of what I would have created using planned writing, and much of it deviates from proper written English.  Punctuation is absent, spelling is horrific, and grammar is choppy.  Although this ‘writing is made material by technology’ (Haas, 2013, p.3), I tried to create a beautiful Barbie and ended up with Frankenstein.  With so many errors, it is hard to develop a groove to reading and meaning-making becomes more difficult.

The most pronounced spelling mistakes are proper nouns, followed by context or culture-specific common nouns, and what could be interpreted as my mumbling and scattered cadence.

Context-specific vocabulary was also assigned incorrect word choice, such as ‘outdoor learning traditional space’  turned into ‘ outdoor learning space station’ and to ‘attach the hide’ became to ‘live stream’.  It is ironic that two traditional ideas were turned into two technological-age vocabulary words.  Last time I checked, being out on the land in traditional ways is pretty far from being on the space station.

Most importantly, I was disappointed that my speech-to-text is glaring in the lack of respect that is deserved with sensitive topics.  I give land acknowledgement and am talking about traditional First Nation people and objects that hold sacred and culture value. For the dictation to have mashed up words, especially in crude ways (i.e. calling ‘babiche’ – bitch), I feel that it not only distracts from the message, but offends a culture and ritual.  In addition, the oral dictation lacks emotion to draw-in the reader and/or engage the audience through conversation.  In planned writing, the author can proactively describe and assume questions or comments that the audience might hold and address them in their work.  For example, one part left out of the story was that when kids make their drum, they are asked (as per tradition) to give it away to someone special.  If this monologue story was told in writing or been given the opportunity to be presented as a back-and-forth conversation with an attentive audience, then important pieces of the story would most certainly been included.  I found that without brainstorming and scripting, it was harder to formulate and make connections between beginning, middle and end, as well as remembering to include important details in order.  Writing is planned, so it can be analyzed and stored forever; therefore, it is more likely to be carefully crafted.

My last point, in thinking about the drum as material.  For example, watching dance or hand games, it is easy to hear the drum beat as a medium for storytelling, art and communication (just as we saw in Module Two with the tap dancing of Alexander MacDonald).  In this way, the drum could also be seen as a technology.

        Drum making BY grade seven students, June 2019

        Staff drum making FOR grade sevens during COVID-19 closure, June 2020

Haas, C. (2013). The Technology Question. In Writing technology: Studies on the materiality of literacy. (pp. 3-23). New York, NY: Routledge.