Monthly Archives: June 2024

Here the link to task 7

You can also use the QR code to view it.

When you are viewing the task in augmented reality, tap both the macbook and water bottle twice. The first tap will trigger the sound effect and the second tap will trigger the audio file.

Redesigned Task: “What’s in Your Bag” – Augmented Reality (AR) Experience

New Task Description
Instead of taking photos of items in your bag and using them to introduce yourself, you will create an augmented reality (AR) experience that allows others to explore the items in your bag interactively. This AR experience will be enhanced with audio narratives and sound effects that provide context and stories for each item. Users can use their smartphones or AR devices to scan a trigger image (such as a photo of your bag) to access the AR content.

Original Purpose of the Task
The original task aimed to use personal items to provide a window into your life, interests, and personality. By showing what you carry with you, the task intended to help others understand who you are through tangible representations of your everyday essentials and cherished items.

The objective of Task 1: What’s in your bag? aimed to use personal items to provide a window into your life, interests, and personality. By showing what you carry with you, the task intended to help others understand who you are through tangible representations of your everyday essentials and cherished items. The modes of meaning-making that are described by The New London Group that were used in this task were visual and text meaning.

Redesign Process

1. Understanding the Purpose: The goal remains to introduce yourself through the items you carry, but using AR to create an immersive and interactive experience.
2. Selecting Items: Choose the items in your bag that are most significant to you and have interesting stories or memories associated with them.
3. Creating 3D Models: Create or source 3D models of these items. If you’re unfamiliar with 3D modeling, you can use online libraries or work with someone who has these skills.
4. Scriptwriting: Write a script that describes each item vividly, focusing on why you carry it, what it means to you, and any interesting stories or memories. Plan out where sound effects can enhance the narrative.
5. Audio Recording: Record your audio narrative, ensuring your voice is clear and expressive. Use sound effects that represent each item (e.g., rustling pages for a notebook, the sound of a zipper for your bag).
6. AR Development: Use an AR platform (such as Reality Composer, Adobe Aero and Blenderl) to create the AR experience. This involves:
   – Uploading the 3D models.
   – Associating the audio narratives and sound effects with each model.
   – Setting up the trigger image (e.g., a photo of your bag) that will launch the AR experience.
7. Testing: Test the AR experience to ensure it works smoothly on various devices and that the audio and visual elements are well-integrated.
8. Deployment: Share the AR experience on your UBC blog.

Benefits of Mode-Changing

– Interactivity: AR allows users to interact with the items, creating a more engaging and memorable experience.
– Immersion: The combination of 3D visuals and audio narratives can make the experience feel more real and personal.
– Enhanced Understanding: AR can provide a deeper understanding of each item through detailed visuals and contextual sounds.

Challenges of Mode-Changing

– Technical Skills: Creating 3D models and developing an AR experience requires technical skills and knowledge of AR platforms.
– Device Compatibility: Ensuring the AR experience works across different devices can be challenging.
– Accessibility: Not all users may have access to AR-capable devices or may find AR experiences intuitive to use.

Reflection on Redesign Process

Redesigning the “What’s in Your Bag” task to an AR format required a significant shift in thinking from static images to interactive experiences. This involved learning about AR technology, 3D modeling, and audio integration. The process highlighted the potential of AR to create rich, immersive learning experiences that go beyond traditional methods. Engaging in mode-changing reinforced the importance of multimodal literacy and the value of exploring new technologies to enhance communication and learning. This redesign process also emphasized the need for careful planning and testing to ensure a smooth user experience.

References

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.

The process of translating the title and plot of the movie into emojis presented both challenges and opportunities for creativity. I found myself relying more on visual representations of key elements and themes from the movie rather than syllables or specific words. This allowed me to capture the essence of the story in a succinct and symbolic way. The app streamlined this process by enabling me to search for emojis corresponding directly to specific words.

Starting with the title was a strategic choice as it served as a gateway for the reader to grasp the overall theme. While some parts of the plot were easy to represent, others required a more creative approach. Nevertheless, this challenge prompted me to think deeply about the fundamental elements of the story and how they could be symbolically conveyed.

This exercise allowed me to delve into the concept of multimodal representation, as discussed in “Gains and Losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning” by Gunther Kress. Just as the article explores the transition from conventional to visually-oriented communication, emojis exemplify this shift by offering a unique way to express complex ideas and emotions through visual symbols. This highlights the evolving nature of language and communication in the digital age.

Here is my Twine. Splash Time Adventure.html

This was my first time creating a Twine story. Although I had heard of Twine before, I hadn’t had the time to explore it. Figuring out the story outline took some time. Wanting to avoid extensive planning, I drew inspiration from my own experiences with my oldest daughter, who recently started swimming lessons. I aimed to craft an engaging, interactive tale that mirrored the bond we share as we navigate our trips to her lessons. To achieve this, I structured the narrative around real moments we’ve experienced, such as the rush to avoid being late and the various choices that shape our day. By outlining these key plot points and designing branching paths, I intended to offer readers meaningful decisions that would influence the narrative’s direction.

Building on this foundation, I developed detailed scenarios that explored different outcomes based on Naomi’s mood upon waking—whether she was cranky and crying or eagerly awaiting her dad. These scenarios were designed to maintain cohesion and evoke emotional resonance, depicting moments of soothing Naomi’s crankiness or celebrating her excitement with a visit to the ice cream parlour. Throughout the process, I focused on character development and descriptive writing to vividly portray Warren and Naomi’s interactions, grounding the story in relatability.

This approach ultimately resulted in a cohesive and immersive narrative, giving readers a glimpse into the joys and challenges of parenthood while navigating the everyday twists and turns of life. Writing about my own experiences made the process easier, allowing me to choose and develop different scenarios for the Twine more naturally. Overall, I really enjoyed this experience and see potential in using it next year with my class by connecting it with creative writing for English.

I began this activity by first watching the YouTube video provided. The task looked simple, but it was much more challenging than expected. I quickly realized that since I was carving out letters and not images, my letters had to be mirrored, complicating the task. Because I don’t regularly write words in reverse, I decided to make a template on paper and then trace the letters by poking holes with a pin into the potato. However, this method didn’t work as the holes were too small to see.

Furthermore, the size of my potato was smaller than I had hoped, making it hard to fit a five-letter word. The letters couldn’t be too small, or carving them would be too difficult and delicate, as the letters could break off. After cutting my potato in half, I realized that cutting it lengthwise would have provided more surface area negating my problem of fitting my word onto the potato.

After completing my first carving, I learned that the type of font also made a significant difference. My second carving was much easier after I decided to fit each letter into a square, which allowed me to space out the letters more evenly. The entire process, including planning and carving, took about an hour.

Making an exact replica was challenging on my first try. If I had bought more potatoes, I believe my carvings would have become more accurate with practice, allowing me to refine my technique. I decided to carve out “NAOMI,” my daughter’s name. The letters without curves (N, A, M, I) were much easier to carve, while letters needing a hollow middle (A, O) were more challenging.

After completing the task, I have a greater appreciation for the mechanization of writing because of its quickness and efficiency. Let’s just say I’m glad I don’t have to chisel this reflection onto a stone tablet.

My unscripted story.

Testing testing this morning I woke up and instead of sleeping in I decided to work on this task speech to text before I start my day I currently have a couple minutes or maybe more than that before my daughter wakes up from her sleep and therefore I thought this would be a good time to work on this assignment I am using speech notes which was one of the applications that was given through the a through the course this is my first time using a speech to text program even though I know that this technology has been around for a while I have heard many educators using this to write comments or four marking assignments or for doing report cards I am finding it difficult thinking about what to say for this assignment so I think one of the easiest topics to talk about right now for myself is to talk about my oldest daughter Naomi she very much looks like me but her personality is extremely different as I watch her grow she is very different from what I think I was like as a child she is very outgoing she is not afraid of crowds or an audience for example last Mother’s Day at our church she had no problem going in front of the club the church along with other children who are older than her to perform a Mother’s Day song she cannot read nor does she know the words of the song but she joined the group and instead of singing she danced the whole time for myself as I remember my childhood I hated being in front of people and I also remember one time as a child when I was at church they would have an opportunity for children to sing a song in front of the congregation before they went off to Sunday school and they would do this routinely every Sunday and I remember crying and holding onto my parents whenever this occurred as I did not want to be in front of the congregation singing with the other children of the church my daughter loves to watch Bluey it is her favorite show it is only one of two shows that she currently watches whenever she has screen time as this is her favorite show a lot of what she says and does come from what she sees from that show for example they are dances that Bluey does on the show and she loves to copy the dances and a lot of the scenarios that happened she likes to reenact them throughout the day today she is super excited As all week she has been looking forward to being a flower girl for my brother-in-law because she saw an episode of Bluey where she what is a flower girl and because of that she cannot wait to be a flower girl later today and she loves weddings because weddings tend to have music and when there is music my daughter loves to dance and she I would always say I am a ballerina and dance and spin and twirl and I think it’s the cutest thing and as a father really brings joy into my life seeing her find happiness and dance oK I think that is roughly 5 minutes of talking so I will end this dictation

How does the text deviate from the conventions of written English?

The text contains numerous grammatical errors, including a lack of punctuation and capitalization, making it difficult to read and understand. Additionally, it suffers from run-on sentences and lacks proper paragraph structure. The inconsistent formatting contributes to a disorganized appearance. Moreover, the text lacks clarity and cohesion because I wasn’t prepared with what to say and spoke whatever came to mind due to the five-minute time constraint. If this had been a writing exercise, I would have been able to pause and think about what to write, thereby creating better cohesion and effectively communicating my thoughts.

What is “wrong” in the text? What is “right”?

As mentioned earlier, many conventions of writing are missing from the text. However, the spelling of words is accurate, and it mainly correctly transcribed everything I said. It recognized that “Mother’s Day” is supposed to be capitalized and it also capitalized names. It mistook me saying “for” and instead wrote “four”

What are the most common “mistakes” in the text and why do you consider them “mistakes”?

Most of the mistakes in the text are related to punctuation, such as not placing a period at the end of a sentence. This significantly impacts the readability and clarity of the text. I acknowledge that I might be at fault, as I may not know all the rules for using speech-to-text software effectively. For instance, I may have been expected to say specific commands like “period” or “end of sentence” to indicate to the software that it should insert a period at the appropriate places. This would ensure that the text is punctuated correctly, making it easier to read and understand.

What if you had “scripted” the story? What difference might that have made?

If I had scripted the story, I would have been able to organize my thoughts and create a more cohesive narrative. As I spoke, I often found myself repeating or correcting myself. Additionally, if there were rules I was missing when using the speech-to-text software, I could have included those commands in my script to help me remember to say them, thereby improving the punctuation and overall quality of the text.

Therefore understanding and utilizing the correct commands for speech-to-text software is crucial for producing well-structured and grammatically correct text. Without this knowledge, the software may not accurately reflect the natural pauses and sentence boundaries in spoken language, leading to long, run-on sentences that are difficult to follow. Therefore, it’s important to familiarize oneself with the specific functionalities and commands of the speech-to-text tool being used to maximize its effectiveness and produce high-quality written content.

In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling? 

Oral storytelling relies on the spoken word, utilizing voice inflection, tone, gestures, and facial expressions to convey meaning and emotion. It possesses the unique ability to adapt and evolve with each telling, depending on factors such as the audience, the context, or the storyteller’s mood. For instance, when a couple recounts the story of how they met, the details may vary slightly with each retelling, with certain elements emphasized or omitted altogether.

In contrast, written storytelling is fixed and permanent, lacking the fluidity of oral storytelling. Once written, the story remains unchanged, preserving its narrative structure and wording indefinitely. Written stories can be recorded in books or digital formats, making them easier to share and pass on to others.

Oral stories rely on memory and oral traditions for transmission from one generation to the next. They are often deeply rooted in cultural heritage, with stories passed down through generations by elders and community members. For example, the stories shared by First Nation educators in my classroom are oral traditions that have been preserved and passed on through oral storytelling practices.