https://blogs.ubc.ca/zhu540/2025/01/21/task-2-does-language-shape-the-way-we-think/ 

Jamie’s reflections on her use of Chinese deeply resonate with me, as they closely mirror my own experiences with Ukrainian. She describes struggling to convey emotion in Chinese, finding her conversations limited to mundane topics like chores, cooking, and food. I can relate to this sense of linguistic sidelining.

Even though I moved to Canada in my early twenties, having already lived a significant portion of my life in Ukrainian, English has gradually taken over. My thoughts are in English. My dreams are in English. And when I speak Ukrainian, I find myself struggling to fully inhabit the identity that comes with it—one that feels less expressive, less agreeable, and more serious.

This past Christmas, we hosted a couple of Ukrainian friends. Since neither my husband nor my daughter speak Ukrainian, I took on the role of translator. It was exhausting. How do you translate a long-winded, repetitive, and poetic story about searching for the perfect jar of horseradish in Canada? How do you communicate the nostalgia, the longing for something lost, encapsulated in a small condiment jar? The story stretched on for an hour, weaving through discussions of Easter traditions, the importance of a strong horseradish blessed by a priest, the many brands and stores compared, and the repeated praise of the horseradish we had served. So much nuance was lost in translation, and trying to recreate that richness felt like an impossible task.

Jamie references Boroditsky’s work, noting that language shapes our perception of reality. She points out how Chinese unfolds within a low-context culture, relying on tone and non-verbal cues to convey meaning. Her reflections on spatial relationships struck a particular chord with me, as I have encountered a similar phenomenon in my own life. To this day, I am amazed by my husband's ability to orient himself with unwavering precision. I often joke that if I were to wake my husband at midnight, he would still be able to identify north, south, east, and west with perfect accuracy. This is how directions are given in Canada, and adjusting to this system was difficult for me. In Ukraine, directions are simple—left or right, up or down. The necessity of thinking in cardinal directions made me long for a compass.

Boroditsky (2011) provides an illuminating example: a five-year-old girl from the Aboriginal community of Pormpuraaw in northern Australia can effortlessly point north, while distinguished scholars from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton struggle with the same task. Boroditsky suggests that language plays a fundamental role in shaping this cognitive ability, as certain linguistic structures encode spatial awareness in ways that alter perception.

Language is not just a tool for communication; it is a lens through which we perceive the world, like a pair of glasses subtly altering our vision. Each language carries its own worldview, shaping how we navigate our surroundings, interact with others, and even construct our sense of self. In my case, the shift from Ukrainian to English has not just changed the words I use—it has transformed the way I experience reality.

Boroditsky, L. (2011). How language shapes thought. Scientific American, 304(2), 62-65. 

https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540dj/2025/03/01/golden-record-curation/

I appreciate the thought and effort David put into this task. While my goal was to represent the diversity of human experience through a breadth of musical selections spanning five continents, David took a different approach—elaborating on specific human experiences like violence (Georgian choir), the "hormonal frenzy of youth" (Chuck Berry), and isolation (Blind Willie Johnson).

David's response is more narrative and philosophical, with elaborate justifications that explore deeper meanings and metaphorical significance for each track. Where my curation privileges geographical and cultural diversity, focusing on representational breadth across continents and musical forms, David's curation privileges emotional complexity and philosophical depth, examining fundamental human experiences like suffering, violence, sexuality, and our connection to the cosmos. I emphasize cultural literacy while David emphasizes existential and philosophical literacy.

Our choice of presentation formats further highlights our different approaches. My YouTube playlist leverages a media platform that offers direct, accessible engagement with the musical tracks, providing immediate auditory experiences. In contrast, David opted for a text-based list format that prioritizes descriptive content and philosophical framing over direct musical access, creating a reading experience rather than a listening one. These tool choices reflect fundamentally different approaches to audience engagement: my playlist privileges auditory/musical literacy, while David's text-based approach privileges traditional reading comprehension.

https://sites.google.com/view/etec540-tomskinner/assignments-and-activities?authuser=0

Task 9: Networking Assignment Using Palladio & Golden Record Quiz Data 

I appreciate the thoughtful analysis of the Palladio visualization tool and its educational applications. I had a similar idea that data visualizations may accurately show connections without revealing underlying motivations: The "why" behind patterns often remains hidden.

The classroom applications identified are very thought-provoking. Data visualization can indeed transform teaching practice by revealing patterns in student feedback, an approach that empowers educators to transform their teaching practice through the lens of evidence. The suggestion about mapping historical event connections is intriguing, and I'm curious: Would such visualizations take the form of cascades? How might we establish meaningful data points for connections to reveal what was previously unseen?

Digital literacy through tools like Palladio helps students develop critical thinking about data representation. However, I am concerned about Palladio's accessibility. Its "cryptic functionalities" present a significant learning curve that might create unnecessary cognitive load for students. Perhaps a more user-friendly alternative would better serve classroom purposes, particularly for initial exposure to data visualization concepts. Students also need space to experiment with visualization tools while having support systems that reduce initial cognitive barriers, allowing them to focus on the analytical aspects rather than struggling with technical navigation.

Scroll to Twine task: https://sites.google.com/view/etec540blois/10-tasks?authuser=0

My voice note response: https://padlet.com/patrickstblois/sharing-links-and-learning-rzw8um6dtnc6rfix/wish/v3w8ZwRRzDy1QN52 

https://blogs.ubc.ca/zhu540/2025/03/17/task-12-speculative-futures/

Hi Jamie,

I really enjoyed reading your post! This was honestly one of my favorite tasks — getting to co-create and explore a hybrid AI-human writing experienc efelt so exciting.

I'm curious about the original prompt you used. I’m guessing you included something about gender equality, based on how the narrative emphasized equality. I loved the point AI made about equally distributed rest — that really resonated with me. Having just returned to work after a maternity leave, juggling everything feels like a full-time job, and "rest" almost seems like another unattainable goal.

What stood out to me as well was how, even in this seemingly utopian vision, the AI’s portrayal of gender equality still leaned heavily into a rigid gender binary — men and women. It made me wonder whether this was a limitation of the dataset or perhaps a reflection of how AI still mirrors dominant cultural frameworks, even when imagining progressive futures. Definitely something worth pondering.

Your mention of Harari's (2017) warning about the emergence of a "useless class" really hit home. Harari (2017) does place a strong emphasis on lifelong learning and upskilling to stay "relevant" — but the AI-generated narrative seemed to skip over that tension, presenting a much more seamless, utopian transition. Great catch on that.

Another thing that really struck me was how the entire piece presented an advertisement of Neo-Terra. It reminded me of a point from Dunne and Raby’s Speculative Everything about how advertisements are essentially speculative futures that corporations want consumers to aspire to. Their example of the 1960s housewife arranging Jell-O molds to create an idealized vision of domestic life came to mind — those ads weren't just selling products; they were selling futures.

Who exists outside the shiny "Harmony Living" dream? And tying it back to your point about "useless class" — if menial tasks are automated away, who's still taking out the garbage, maintaining the systems, doing the invisible work that sustains this utopia?

Thanks for such a thought-provoking post. It left me with a lot to think about!

Dunne, A., & Raby, F. (2013). Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. Cambridge: The MIT Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/28148.  

Harari, Y. N. (2017). Reboot for the AI revolution. Nature, 550(7676), 324–327. https://doi.org/10.1038/550324a 

https://blogs.ubc.ca/writingacrossthecenter/task-12-speculative-futures/

Reading your scenario, I was struck by your point of how technological advances can deepen societal divides, particularly for bodies and minds that fall outside the assumed "default" user. This design bias reinforces ableism, the structural belief that certain bodies and minds are more valuable and "normal".

This idea of some people behind left behind because they are not able to access or master technology echoes Yuval Noah Harari’s (2017) warning about the emergence of a “useless class” in the wake of automation and AI reshaping labor markets. The AI narrative captures that vividly: a man reduced to invisible labor in a world that no longer has a place for him.

Another point your scenario made me think of is the disappearance — or maybe the blending — of traditional modes of communication. In this future, language itself seems to erode, replaced by a hybrid of visual, spatial, and gestural signs that are "readable" to those who have access to AR technology. I recently came across an AI-powered app called Willow, the founders of which claim that "typing was never the endgame" — that voice and thought should be directly transcribed into text, eliminating keyboards. Their manifesto suggests that we should move past "obsolete" tools like typing because we "think in our voice", and the tool does comes with automatic editing (The Future Speaks, n. d.). 

Dr. Sarah Eaton predicted something similar, arguing that hybrid Human-AI writing will soon become normal, and that "trying to determine where the human ends and where the AI begins is pointless and futile" (Eaton, 2021). In your imagined world, that fusion has fully arrived, and if the tools to communicate, to think, and even to be seen require AR technology, then what happens to those outside of that system of hybrid communication?

Eaton, S. E. (2021). 6 Tenets of Postplagiarism: Writing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved from https://drsaraheaton.com/2023/02/25/6-tenets-of-postplagiarism-writing-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence/

Harari, Y. N. (2017). Reboot for the AI revolution. Nature, 550(7676), 324–327. https://doi.org/10.1038/550324a 

The Future Speaks. (n. d.). Retrieved from https://willowvoice.com/manifesto