UTOPIA

In the next 30 years, everything will be technology based. Cars that used to run by gas no longer exist and are used as decorative pieces in the city as there is no more oil left in the world. There is so much more greenery and society are more ecologically sound and everyone is seen as equal. Education is free. Health care is free. Living is free. Everyone works together and helps each other out. Death still occurs but humans have this enriched technological body that lasts so much longer. Once your body vessel expires, it will be put back into the earth, but you will then turn into a digital form of yourself where you are able to still live on this earth in a pixelated form like a hologram.

All beings are either human or robots. Humans will have chips inserted into their hands that will be used for everything. This chip will act as the key to your house, locks/unlocks everything that it is programmed to, your driver’s licence, all of your medical history, and it will be able to start up your self-driving car. With this chip, everything will be controlled. This chip will also be able to detect any diseases or onsets, like a heart attack, that may occur. You will be able to get help before anything bad happens.

With the educational program in this utopian world, students and robots are able to have access to everything technology based, such as iPad, computers, VR goggles, 3D printers and pens. Everything is available. Each student also has an Artificial Intelligent (AI) robot that is by their side to help with any questions possible. These AIs guide and tutor each student to make sure that they are up to their academic potential. Teachers are also paired with an AI who helps them out with all the tasks that need to be done.

DYSTOPIA

In the year 30 years, all humans still have chips in their hands that would monitor everything we do, however, robots would be in control and watching our every move. Buildings and structures are all around with no greenery in sight.

All humans and robots have digital numbers on them. In order to get ahead in life, the digital numbers will act as points. The higher your number, the better a person you are.  Every time you do a good deed, you will earn points. Others can see your point score and that will help them decide if they want to befriend you or not.

There would be no need for school systems. Everything that can be learned can be learned at home. There would be no holistic approach to education. Students would have to login to a program at home and receive their described school requirements self-paced.

During this simulation, I find myself giving weight to the risk of future violence when making my decision. I wanted to go in with an open mind but found myself just sticking to that main criterion. I felt confident with most of my decisions until a pop up arrived. When I was informed that a defendant did not show for court or that they committed another offense. I felt guilty for making the wrong decision. It made me second guess every decision from there on out.

This simulation was difficult because I didn’t really feel I had enough information to make an educated and informed decision. Upon finishing the exercise, I did some further reflection and realized that in each case the defendants face was blurred out, yet the color of their skin was plainly visible. Could this be a contributing factor to my decision making, even unconsciously? Why was this the case?

Overall this was great exercise. It really made me think about my inherent biases and how I make informed decisions.

Well that was annoying and frustrating. I was super excited to play this game and get a quick time however, I soon came to realize that just to complete it would be reward in itself.

There were many challenges that I encountered.

1)    Scrolling to the bottom of the Terms & Conditions took what felt like forever!

2)    Figuring out a password

• Well that was fun. I was able to do all of the requirements for the password but then I needed a Cyrillic character. I had no idea what that was so I just kept trying more letters.

3)    The box that comes up from the bottom of the screen.

• At first it was annoying because I could not get it to go away. Then I pressed, “send to bottom” and it worked however, super slow moving!

4)   Typing in information

• I am so used to quickly clicking a box and then typing but I had to highlight the text first. Also, not being able use tab to move from box to box was frustrating.

5)    “Hurry up, time is ticking!” box

• Lock?? Unlock?? It was just messing with me. Then I read down at the bottom left that it said ©lose 2021. Very sneaky! I missed this the first time for a while.

Citton (2017) states that paying attention is a “genuine activity” (p. 22) which involves “weaving together observations and gestures” (Citton, 2017, p. 22). This was demonstrated in full force in this game! I had to pay attention to everything very carefully! The double negatives were also another nice touch!

References

Citton, Y. (2017). Introduction and Conclusion: From Attention Economy to Attention Ecology. In The Ecology of Attention. John Wiley & Sons.

During this task, we had to observe our Golden Record network that was created in Palladio where it showed the musical choices from the quiz that students in ETEC 540 took. My results did not make the cut for this network. Therefore, I just chose Golden Record B for my analysis. There were 17 students recorded. The image below shows the network of connections between students and tracks. I found this very difficult to read so I moved around the network so that the tracks were on the outside and the students were in the middle.

In this network graph, there are nodes and edges. The nodes represent the students which have dark grey circles and the edges in this network graph represent the connection between a student and the 10 tracks they chose during the quiz. Not only are the lines connecting a student to the 10 tracks that they chose, but with each track, there are connections that link together with all those chose that track. Surprisingly there were no tracks that did not have a connection.

Track 19 (Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin) only has two degrees of connectivity that connect to the two individuals that chose that music. Whereas Track 7 (Johnny B. Goode) has the most connections and degree of connectivity with being linked to twelve students. I analyzed this by selecting the largest circle and then by counting the lines that I visually observed.

Next, I decided to explore and analyze Community 3 which included Yijun Ding, Junel Lapinskie and Helen Zhang. It is unclear how these communities are made, but I assume it is because they had the most similar choices among the 10 tracks that were picked. In this community, there were 8 tracks that had multiple common connectivity. There were 3 tracks that connected to all three participants (Track 8, 22, 24).

It would be interesting to investigate this data further by figuring out why each student chose the tracks that they did. The graph does visualize the connections between tracks but there is no data on why each person selected these tracks. As well, it would have been effective to also have data where the tracks could also be connected to the instruments that occur in each song. With this data, we could see if there were any correlations between the types of instruments and all the tracks that each student picked for their top ten tracks.

When I think about the political implications, I think back to why I consider a committee from Cornell University were the chosen ones to determine which tracks would be placed on the Golden Record. Did they have biases on the tracks they decided to choose?

Out of all the music in the world, how did they narrow it down to just 27 tracks? Also, how come not all musical genres were represented on this track? There are significant information gaps on the Golden Record and with the tracks that were selected for this voyage.

Reflecting on the political implications of the current data taken for this task, there are some missing gaps. With the visualizations of the data, viewers can identify which tracks were most liked and which were not. However, we can only see who the curators are and what tracks they chose instead of why they picked the tracks that they did. Were the tracks chosen only on the sound of the music? Or by the instruments played on the track? Or did individuals prefer instrumental music opposed to hearing someone sing? Without any reasoning or criteria behind why these tracks were chosen, the data really does not provide us with the whole picture.

While listening to the Voyager’s Golden Record, I chose 10 out of 27 pieces of music. This was a difficult task as there were many more songs I would have included. I decided on these pieces as if I were an alien or a foreigner listening to the music for the first time.

As Rumsey states in her online discussion, we as humans, need to reflect on the past in order to figure out what is needed for the future (Browns University, 2017). Therefore, hearing these pieces could allow an alien to recreate the music as there were not many complex instrumental sounds in these pieces of music.

Here are my top 10 picks in no significant order.

References:

Brown University. (2017). Abby Smith Rumsey: “Digital Memory: What Can We Afford to Lose?”

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/

For this week’s task, I decided to create a podcast in the style of a back to school infomercial for an all in one teacher’s bag. My goal here was to take the previous assignment and use the mode bending idea to create a new form of media. I decided to share the contents of my bag by using a podcast which also was also a different media form than previously used.

The New London Group idea of transformative practice is demonstrated here (1996). The New London Group (1996) states that “new communications media are reshaping the way we use language” and that “there cannot be one set of standards or skills that constitute the ends of literacy learning” (p. 64).

As educators we are mode bending all of the time. Constantly restructuring and redesigning our lessons. However, the goal behind our mode bending must be intentional and not just for the sake of changing things up. Mode bending for our students gives them the opportunity to create new and enriching experiences.

This was an extremely fun experience!

References:

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

Below is my emoji story for a popular Netflix movie. I had to screen shot it in chunks so it wouldn’t be blurry hence the different sized white boxes.

The idea of doing this task seemed super daunting at first however the process was extremely fun! I realized by the end that I had completed much more than the basic plot of the movie and really gave a complete play-by-play! I decided that it would be easiest to write up a plot summary using text and then work my way into emojis from there. I started with the title, this was actual one of the hardest parts. I struggled to find on singular emoji to represent the one word title. I ended up using two and deciding that the combo best portrayed the title in unison.

Throughout telling the emoji story, I focused more on key events. I found myself going off on tangents when I found an emoji that fit perfectly however found myself straying from the main events of the story. For example, one of the characters in the movie is Rex. When I realized there was this ???? I started trying to add him in more than necessary. In the end my story was long enough and that was the first thing to go during the editing process.

I wanted to make sure that I captured the story as best I could so that the reader could read a somewhat complete story on the other end.  The representations of colour, race, gender were helpful when storytelling as well as the family portrayals of having a dad with his daughter.

What I really enjoyed about creating an emoji story like this is that I did not have to worry about punctuation or spelling or even making it flow nicely. It was all focused on the visual aspect of a story.

Bolter (2001) states that, “the relationship between popular films and novels is further proof that the visual is now regarded as primary” (p. 56). This is also the case for when students are just starting to learn how to read. In order to read, we must understand what the picture is describing before we are able to understand the meaning of the word. Therefore, I do believe that images come before the text. Bolter (2001) also points out that students who are young are able to “follow the story and become accustomed to the linearity of reading before [they] can actually decipher the letters that constitute alphabetic writing” (p. 54). With this task, the emojis allow us to make meaning of a story without using words by focussing on the visual aspect of storytelling. However, I found it difficult to ensure that my reader would read my image correctly. Is there a way that I can direct them to read my image the way I wanted them to? This was a cause for extra time being spent on selecting each emoji.

References:

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Chapter 4. Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print(2nd ed.). Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. doi:10.4324/9781410600110

Click the image for a short video of my potato printing process!

Was there something particularly challenging in the process?

One of the most challenging parts of this process what picking what word to create. I pondered over this all week! The perfectionist in me wanted to pick the right word or at least a good one. Then I continued the over think it and started to worry about which letters would be more difficult to create than others. I ended up going with the very first word that came to mind at the beginning of the week “TEACH”. Another challenging part was making sure my letters were the correct way! Luckily it came to me before cutting the potatoes, so I was able to stop and think that process through. And lastly, once I created my first attempt with my “E” I realized that my cutting was really uneven therefore my print did not create a full “E”. So, I ended up shaving off the top layer with my knife to remove any imperfections. After doing this I proceed to do this to all of them to try and make sure that they all had flat surfaces. In doing this, I then had to repaint each potato again, hence the painting pattern was not the same as the first attempt.

How much time did it take for you to create the stamps? 

This process of cutting the stamps took about 30 minutes to complete. Each letter took about four minutes to create. I found myself cutting off all the round edges of the letters first before tackling smaller nooks. Creating the stamps took the longest, as for the actual printing part, that went super quick.

Have you noticed anything particular about the letters that you have chosen to reproduce?

I clearly decided to do the letters in uppercase as I wanted to use the majority of the potato. I also decided to use block lettering and avoided any curves.

Considering the time and effort that took you to create a 5-letter word, how do you feel about the mechanization of writing? 

The process and effort it took me to create a 5-letter word was time consuming and tedious. I had to make sure that each letter looked as perfect as possible. I had to stop myself from wanted to make it perfect also. I wanted to go back and redo certain letters after I had made the print because it looked better on the potato than it did on the paper. This entire process was challenging yet exciting as there was some technicality behind creating these letters. According to Bolter (2001), mechanization is involved in all writing as it is a technical skill. I made the letters quite large which worked great for my five-letter word. However, if I had to write even just a sentence, the font would have been way to large. As Clement (1997),  states when Gutenberg and Schoeffer designed their first print, it “turned out to be too large” as they realized that they would only be able to fit so many lines of words on one piece of paper (p. 13). Bolter (2001) noted that the mechanics of writing and its popularity were linked to efficient, clean, clear texts. In order to create clear and clean writing using prints such as potato printing, time would be a huge issue.

References

Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2^nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Clement, Richard W. (1997). “Medieval and Renaissance book production”. Library Faculty & Staff Publications. Paper 10. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/lib_pubs/10

 This was a very difficult task! First of all, I have never used voice to text technology and secondly I am a terrible unscripted storyteller. I am an over thinker and also a person of very few words. So the thought of telling a story for 5 minutes was very daunting. Below is my attempt at telling you about my new found love for Pickleball. I used Office Dictation in Microsoft Word.

This past August I picked up new sport called pickleball pickleball is a sport similar to tennis and badminton it contains a paddle and a pickle ball and is played on a court similar to a tennis court I first I thought pickleball was a sport just reset for seniors and then I played it boy was I ever wrong pickleball is actually an extremely funsport for every age here’s a little bit about how to play pickle so pickleball can be played in singles or in doubles the ball is served diagonally starting with the person on the right hand side points can only be awarded to those who are serving game of pickleball is scored up to 11 player will serve diagonally the receiving team must let it bounce before returning it once that first bounce and then return is made the ball is live to be played in the air as a volley or you can let it balance only one bounce is allowed in pickleball the area right on either side of the net is called the kitchen any player can enter the kitchen however the pickle ball cannot be volleyed in the air while standing inside the kitchen this is one of the most difficult rules after the game that i struggle with on a regular basis My first introduction with pickleball was when I was in Cornell with my uncle invited me out to play he had all the equipment I needed to play and we ended up playing for over 3 hours one evening I immediately became addicted when I returned back to terrace I purchased my own paddle and pickleballs eager to get started I would drive by the pickleball courts hoping to see someone around that I could play with but to my surprise nobody was ever there playing when it hit me that this retirement sport meant that the avid players were playing during the day while I was at work I soon reached out to someone I knew that played pickleball and they got me connected with the WhatsApp group chat Anna Facebook group now I was connected to the pickleball world well terrorist world once I get out to play on our local courts the group was extremely open and willing to share their knowledge appicable with me there are so many rules and tactical plays but it was hard to not get frustrated my very first time I realized that when I was playing with my uncle back in quinel we weren’t really playing to all the rules so the learning curve was huge I think I was so overwhelmed that it put me off from plank for a bit I managed to make it back to the courts a couple times in the fall and then put my paddle away for the winter however as soon as spring arrived I decided to give it another shot it pulled out my paddle and my pickle balls and headed back to the courts my love for the game was immediately restored there was a great group of people out there that took me under their wing and walk me through the basics again determined to get better I continued to go out as much as I can the more and more I played the more I wanted to play I soon realized that my day job was getting in the way and I really just need to be retired however I managed to find a group to play with on the weekends so now I’m here and it’s June and I’ve just signed up for my first pickleball tournament scary I know but I’m also excited this is a completely new experience for me and I look forward to challenging myself and seeing what I can accomplish all while having a little fun in the sun

How does the text deviate from conventions of written English?

The text is very difficult to read as it included no punctuation. I have never used voice to text before and assumed that punctuation would be added. While speaking, I did not say which punctuation to use as I wanted to talk naturally as if I was speaking to a friend. The text deviated from conventions of written English as there is no punctuation. There are no sentences, and it is just words spewed onto the paper causing one very long run-on sentence. There are also grammatical errors such as capitalization, possessions, spelling, paragraphing, and some words were incorrect. While speaking I refrained myself from reading along because my urge was to go back and revise what was written or even start over. This urge was strong therefore I turned away from my laptop while recording to ensure this was a genuine experiment.

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

For the most part, most of the words were correct however I found it very difficult to read. The first thing that stood out to me what that “ummm” was not written anywhere. I know for a fact that I said “umm” on multiple occasions as I was worried this would seriously affect the flow of writing but it was non-existent. I found that there were a few extra words thrown into the mix such as “reset, after”. I have no idea where they came from and I can not make sense of it within the text context.  Some connecting words were also omitted in the text such as “and, but, the, so”.

There were a few words that were replaced with other like-sounding words adding to the difficulty in reading the text after the dictation. Below are a few examples:

– balance instead of “bounce”

– Cornell and quinel instead of “Quesnel”

– terrorist instead of “Terrace”, however it understood Terrace in another spot in the story

– Anna instead of “and”

– applicable instead of “of pickleball”

– plank instead of “playing”

– it instead of “I”

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

The most common mistakes were punctuation and grammatical errors. They are mistakes only because when the speech is put into written text, it is then read differently and may be hard to read. The lack of punctuation is because the dictation does not pick up on any pauses or stops that are used in the oral language which would indicate a comma or a period in the written output. Ultimately, without punctuation, it makes the story hard to read and understand overall.

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

If I had scripted the story, it would have been completely different. It would have allowed me to add in everything I would have liked to have said and it would have made sense. I also found myself getting nervous as I would pause for a moment to think about what else I wanted to add. Then the dictation would turn off because there was no voice detected. Then I was concerned about time and making sure I would have enough text that would show that I talked to 5 minutes.  If the story was scripted, I would have been able to do exactly five minutes, edited my story, make sure that it had flow and added in all of the essentials to make it a meaningful story.

In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling? 

Oral storytelling is storytelling that is done in a flexible, causal way where it can be much more spontaneous. The oral storyteller can focus purely on the story and does not have to worry about grammar or spelling words correctly. There is also room for expression and personal emotion which can add to the overall story. Gnanadesikan (2011) states that in cases of dictation “…intonation and emotional content” is lost (p. 9). Written storytelling on the other hand is more focused on the structure and mechanics of writing to convey its meaning. Gnanadesikan (2011) mentions that “writing takes words and turns them into objects, visible or tangible” where they can be “examined, analyzed, and dissected” (p. 4). Whereas oral storytelling “unfolds in time, one word replacing the previous one as it is uttered” (Gnanadesikan, 2011, p.3).

References

Gnanadesikan, A. E. (2011). The First IT Revolution. In The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the interne. (Vol. 25). John Wiley & Sons (pp. 1-10).

Hi, my name is Amanda and her is a glimpse into my bag! This picture shows the contents from my everyday purse.

• wallet
• glasses cleaner
• hair tie
• lip gloss
• pen
• apple tag
• guitar pick
• usb
• lip balm
• sunglasses
• kleenex
• blue tokens
• keys
• phone (used to take picture)

Many of these items are used on a regular basis to help me function throughout my daily routines. My wallet and keys assist in getting me to and from work ensuring I have proper id and access into my school and classroom. My phone is on me at all times and a piece of technology and text that I use all the time. It supports my role as an educator and student as well. I stay connected to parents, coworkers, and my admin throughout the day via my phone. It is my main form of communication whether it be through texting, emailing, FreshGrade, or even social media. I also use it to keep my sanity during crazy days at school by being sent the odd, adorable photo of my niece or nephew every once and a while also.

Other items in my bag can tell a bit more about who I am. First off, the Apple AirTag, apparently, I lose things from time to time, so this is my attempt at never losing my purse ever again! I wear glasses and you never know when you will be in need of a good clean. As far as lip care goes…I live up in Northern BC…need I say more? Spending time with my niece and nephew, a package of Kleenex is always a must. A mess is always just around the corner when having fun with auntie. I play guitar quite a bit and seem to have picks laying around all over and somehow one managed to find it’s way into my purse. Sunglasses are always in my purse ready for when the sun breaks through the sky. I often keep myself so busy so by having sunglasses and a hair tie in my bag I have no excuse to not jump on an adventure if the weather is right and the opportunity presents itself.

The pen and usb offer up two very different forms of texts in my life. The pen is always ready and available for me to write something down…most often on my hand. Whereas the usb stores important files that I transport back and forth to school. Both offer me the power of writing yet in two very different forms.

Lastly, three blue tokens. These tokens can be found all over my house, classroom, and in every pocket of my clothing. I use they tokens as incentives for one of my students. Looking at it through this assignment’s lens, these tokens are very powerful form of text for my student. Each token offers positive affirmation to my student that they are on the right track and making good choices. Without any voice or sound, these blue tokens have a powerful message.

The items in my bag all tell a story. They also have text on them which tell their own story. My bag today looks very different than what it would have looked like 15 years ago. The items that are linked to technology would be non-existent like the AirTag, usb, or phone. My key change would look very different. I would be a student still in university so I would not have school keys and I would be living on campus with no need for car keys.