Guiding Questions

• How has your colleague's experience differed from yours? And how do you know?
• What web authoring tool have they chosen to manifest their work?
• How does their tool differ from yours in the ways in which it allows content-authouring and end-user interface?
• What literacies does their site privilege or deny in comparison and contrast to yours?
• What theoretical underpinnings are evident in your/your colleague's textual architecture and how does this affect one's experience of the work?
• How do the constraints of the course design manifest in your architectural choices? How have you responded to the pedagogical underpinnings of this course design in your own web space?

So obviously this Facebook post is a tongue in cheek teasing of stereotypical gender differences and traditional relationship roles, and as stated I know nothing about Allan's life. No assumption on marital status, nor do I really think it's chaotic or reckless. But I do wonder if those who carry less items, perhaps have a more care-free lifestyle, compared to those that do carry around a lot. I think that at school, if you need a Tylenol, or a Tums, or a band-aid or floss, you ask a mum. Almost without question, you can find a few who are loaded up like a trip to the market requires packing like going into battle. Noted, that I make that generalization, and I'm not a mum, but I still have all those things if you never need any, and more. But I wonder if the contents relate to the personality characteristics of those of us who feel its a responsibility to be prepared, a care-giver for ourselves and others versus those who are a "take it as it comes" personality. Or are the packers perhaps more cautious? Are our items a bit of a security blanket? I think mine are. Just something that sparked my curiosity, and triggered my memory of this facebook post.

As for the tool, Allan used Weebly, which I see is a popular choice. I haven't used Weebly myself, so I had to Google it. I thought it was just a blog tool similar to Blogger, but I see one can do a variety of webpages including shops, so perhaps it more similar to Google Sites which I have used for my tool. Both are free. I imagine Weebly has templates to choose from like Sites, so I would think they are likely to offer mostly the same literacies and end-user experience. I am guessing that those who chose Weebly did so for the same reasons as I chose Sites - free, easy to use, quick to add content for the purpose of this course. I didn't see a comment function to leave a note, but I'll add that to the bottom here. Sites (surprisingly to me) doesn't have a built in comment feature one can add, so I had to create a work around. I'm not sure if that is the case with Weebly or not, but perhaps in viewing some more classmate sites for other posts I'll uncover more about the tool.

With the tasks so far being some personal challenges and reflection, the ability to generate a simple text post, with images embedded for visual support, but not heavy text editing has been main consideration. Were these tasks of a more academic research paper style, these tools would not be the best suited choices. A tool designed for that style such as Word or Google Docs for better text editing, formatting, citations etc. would be needed for creating a piece, then something else for hosting, posting or sharing would need to be considered.

Overall, I enjoyed Allan's post. In a way, I am a bit envious of your light stash, especially when my shoulder gets sore from my bag. I think differences can be as interesting as commenting on someone's whose post was similar to mine. I'd also be happy to hear of your opinion on Weebly as an authoring tool.

Cheers,

Katherine

Link 2 - http://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540personalwebspace/sample-page/

My second link is to Katie's blog for Task 3. I enjoyed her story about New York City. I also had originally thought of doing a travel memory, and a NYC trip was one I considered. I hadn't wanted to get stuck not knowing what to say, so I thought an actual memory you can recall might reduce the chance of that because you know what happened since a vacation generally leaves a lasting impression, probably has a variety of items to describe, and it might be of interest to others who travel. I'm guessing perhaps we had similar thoughts in that direction, though that wasn't expressly stated, so I could be wrong. I ended up not going with a vacation story, though I considered a few, but I still ended up with a real-life memory. This assignment would have been really hard, for me, I think if I had had to make up a completely fictitious story. Katie noted difficulties I'm sure we all struggled with if unused to dictating or oral recording - the pausing to think while speaking, and the issues with punctuation. We also both noted difficulties with descriptive language. If this had been written and edited, time would have been spent to enhance the quality of the language of the story, with, as Katie noted, descriptive language - the kinds teachers tells students to add when working on story writing. I think many teachers have personality where we like to submit our best, so posting something we couldn't edit our mistakes from seemed a bit unnatural, and Katie noted if she had editing time, like me, would have fixed those errors.

Katie's blog is hosted on a UBC space via Wordpress. I would imagine the considerations of being free and easy to add content were factors in choosing it as this one has been specifically created for the course it seems. Wordpress I think is aimed specifically at blogs as websites and has specific features for a site that would have frequent posts in a blog, such as the archive, tagging and ability to subscribe to an RSS feed, different from a website where a certain amount of content is posted and not frequently added to or updated. In a blog, one wants to keep the old posts, not up-date over them. Post much usually be searchable to for relevant content for the reader. There was comment feature on the front page, but not on the tasks pages. I left a comment, but I wonder if there were to be lots of comments if it might make it hard to know which comments go with which posts. It's likely something that could be added and just overlooked, as many of us, myself included, as probably not regular bloggers. I would think that those who are, might add to their existing blog, instead of a new one specific for the course, but that's just supposition.

I wonder if website creation, content posting if deceasing for teachers with the advent of tools like Google Classroom, Moodle or Blackboard, where we no longer create our own sites. Speaking for myself, I used to created very elaborate, content filled websites for my school classes, and spent quite a lot of time updated and editing and adding. Once I switched to Google Classroom, now I just add posts there, I no longer use my own personal class website. My blog for this ETEC course is hosted on here because its a left over skeleton of what I used to use. I have taken down most of the content, no longer tell the students about it, but just haven't deleted altogether in case of need - which I have found with a few ETEC courses. I even used to pay for my own domain name, but have let that expire, as with Google Classroom, there is no need for the students to go elsewhere. Our school webpage used to feature links to each teacher's page, and it was requirement to have one for your classes, but now they have moved from requiring to being optional, to removing the links altogether and encouraging teachers not to have personally managed pages. Perhaps that is a move in accountability too, as items posted in Google Classroom are not open to the public, and can be monitored from our Google App administrator account. No rogue teachers sites anymore. Our communication is more closely monitored now, and so skills in website design maybe decreasing. At least that's my hypothesis based on what I have seen in my area and from teachers I know.

Cheers,

Katherine

Link 3 - https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540collinge/task-4/

I viewed Charmaine's Task 4 post for the next lining entry. Reading her handwritten text, I noticed first off that she had lovely handwriting! I feel I might have a conscious/unconscious bias for neat handwriting. I'm not sure if its from being taught "old school" when teachers places a high value on neat handwriting. Somewhere in the back of my mind, even though I know its completely untrue, I still associate neat handwriting with intelligent writing, and messy handwriting with unintelligent writing. it's one reasons I am very glad my students type all their longer responses for me, as when I have handwritten work, I really have to actively work to not let the handwriting style influence my judgement of the writing quality. I think I can do it, but it takes a lot of mental effort, which can be better spent on critiquing other parts of the written work fairly when it's all typed. I did wonder, if the majority of us took care to write a bit neater for this task then we would normally do when say writing a grocery list. Or if even more so would have do so to a higher degree of our acutal writing samples were being marked and without the additional commentary. I wrote neater, but not as neat as I would have if my actual writing piece was being submitted as the sole assignment. I also wonder about differences in gender for placing value of neat handwriting. I feel that in school, if my memory is accurate and not skewed from later events, that girls had much more emphasis placed on their handwriting style than boys. I'm sure there must be research on this if I were to look for it. It might make an interesting angle to the final project in some cases that deal with handwriting.

I noticed some similarities I think Charmaine and I shared for this task. I also had to brainstorm by hand first. We both noted that typing was much faster and of course easier to edit. It’s interesting, I think, that brainstorming is easier and faster to do on paper. Even though there are digital brainstorming tools out there, they don’t make it more efficient to use than a sheet of paper. Perhaps in brainstorming we aren’t worried about a final draft or aesthetic. It’s faster, for me, to group, draw connections etc. manually on paper, than using a program. I think the only time a digital brainstorming tool would be a choice for me if group collaborating through technology, or needing to revise numerous time or publish the brainstorm. Otherwise, pencil and paper would be my choice.

Great post Charmaine,

Cheers,

Katherine

Link 4 - https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540dl/2019/10/03/task-5-twine-task/

For my next link, I viewed David's Twine story. His title, long and unique, was what drew me in to read his and comment. I enjoyed the story and the decision -> future consequences angle. it got me thinking about using Twine with students in class as an assignment. I thought the format could be a great way for students to express and explore those kind of “what if” questions on so many topics. In the Alberta Social Studies curriculum, we have a large section of “Values and Attitudes” outcomes that can be hard to authentically assess, while not “judging” a student’s values. It can be quite difficult to come with assessments for those, and I think often it leads to teachers ignoring those outcomes, or going in a more state your knowledge about the topic direction, but not addressing the values attached to it.

I think the twine format would be a great way for students to show they can understand and appreciate connections between decisions and consequences, without revealing their actual preferences or opinions on topics. Students can be understandably reluctant to share honest opinion on topics we cover in Social, such as indigenous rights, LGTBQ rights, faith (I teach in a Catholic school, but not all students are actually Catholic). They know when their values are in opposition to the currently more accepted views. They might be hesitant to share in marked work especially that their family or they personally don't support gay marriage, or are against immigration, or feel strongly about indigenous rights. But in the multiple path style of Twine, they could write out scenarios that demonstrate a number of different values or attitudes about hot topic subjects, and it wouldn't matter what their own personal belief is, if they are showing they can show and appreciate for a variety - which really is the goal. It is possible to do in other formats, but it c an be hard to explain to the students. Twine would make it very easy with the multiple paths.

The downside to Twine though was time and difficulty in learning the tool itself. It took me a LONG time to figure out. The tags and adding images was not easy for me. I can’t imagine trying to get my students (grade 10) to do it unless it was a major course focus with a lot of time dedicated to it. I'm always hesitant about new technology if more time is need to be spent on learning the mechanics of the tool, rather than a demonstration of the actual goal topic. I like to stick to tools where the control panel is user intuitive and doesn't require much pre-learning to use, or constant referencing, which I did do with the tags in Twine.

I used a Mac version, so not sure how it works on other operating systems. I would totally use it if the formatting was word processor style, highlight and hit a button for stylizing the text, and an easy insert image dialogue. But I suppose it’s a very niche market for this sort of writing and tool, so perhaps not enough capital to invest in more coding of the interface. On the other hand, I have seen Choose Your Own Adventure type stories done in Slides, and Twine does a much nicer job or creating the paths and connections.

I wonder if this was a similar experience for David and others. I noticed David did not have images in his story. Was this a decision made because stylistically he didn't want images, or because getting images embedded was more difficult than one had time for in this task? I added images, but I didn't really do it properly, using my own images, or finding open license ones, downloading them and uploading to my own storage and linking through there. I just kind of stole the links to them, and if the owners take them down, my story will have broken image boxes. I did look for open license ones, to be a bit more ethical, but I just linked to their existing files. In looking at the Twine stories from the really talented users and authors out there, its really incredible the quality some can generate. I could see this as being a really cool form of artistic expression as well, for students who want to create more interactive fiction, perhaps working with students taking graphic design to create custom images for stories, or students in the media lab, to create custom original music and sounds, but I think it would need to be an optional course open to those it appeals to, not as a mandatory project in a core classroom.

Commenting on David's actual blog space was the easiest one to date I think. His was set up in a user friendly way, and easy to see other comments from other viewers. The blog itself, while very minimalist in style, (a choice made purposefully to achieve that aesthetics or functionally as a heavily stylized appearance was not a requirement?) was easy to navigate and to read with the large font size, which I appreciated. One of the drawbacks of my own site is not being able to easily change the main body text size, unless making it into "heading" or subheading" style, which I think is a major oversight on Google's part of their new "Sites" app. Davi's posts were much easier on the eyes than my own.

Great story David!

Cheers!

Link 5 - https://www.gnookgnome.com/post/emoji

For my fifth link, I viewed Helen-Marie's emoji post. Honestly, I had no idea what movie it could be. Something to do with an accident and hiding it from police? It's really hard! Well, I think it was set in New York. I guess this task shows us the difficulty in interpreting images without text, or a logographic writing system. I think their purpose is to add emotional emphasis to texting. With text messaging and email, tone can be hard to convey, so the first emojis were happy face and sad face, etc. You can note sarcasm with the facepalm or eyeroll emoji. They really do add to text communication, as something like sarcasm is not so easy to pull off successfully with text only. But not to fully replace text. Emoji's I think can replace nouns and some adjectives easily, but not so much on verbs or prepositions. Trying to make a sentence from them was not possible for me to create both in my own post, or to "read" or perhaps more accurately try to interpret in Helen's and other's posts.

I hope there is time when we all reveal what movies we actually did. I'm curious! There was a comment left for Helen, that had a pretty good guess - good as in they made a narrative, though we don't know how accurate it might be. I wasn't able to leave a comment directly on the post without logging in. I didn't want to create and account or log in. I wasn't familiar with the tool, Wix, used to create the site, and I am very hesitant about where I leave my email address on the Internet and where I create accounts. I am really untrusting of what sites do with your information once they have it. One's digital footprint of trail is something I try to minimize. Also, since new accounts mean new passwords, its a) really hard to remember them all if you are using distinct ones for security and b) too tempting to use the same one over again which leaves your other accounts vulnerable if one of those sites is hacked. So not enough reason for me to create an account with an unknown service. However, the front page of the Helen's site did have a login-free commenting spot, so I did leave one there. I liked the tile layout of front page as well. Reminded me a bit of how Google Classroom uses tiles for different classes.

I also noticed Helen uses an Internet nickname. I wondered if she blogs either on this site or other's with that name. its interesting that the concept / practice of nom de plumes have continued with the Internet age. I specifically use a non-gender specific Internet nickname on Twitter. When I originally signed up, I used my own name. I found many of the replies I got used misogynistic insults when someone disagreed with me. I eventually closed that account altogether, and started a new one. I have found with a non-gendered name, I get far less of that type of comment. Sometimes people agree or disagree, occasionally with some generic profanity, but not the female targeted threats and insults that I used to get.

One thing I noticed with a few of the emoji stories was they are very tiny! I had to zoom in my screen to see, and I found it gave me a pause, which if wasn't for this being an assignment, I would have just skimmed past. I think perhaps we are used to seeing emojis more within lines of text to give them context, so we don't have to spend a lot of time deciphering, so a small size is not an issue. However, with a bunch together and no context or text wrapping around, I tried to study them a bit more closely, thinking about different possibilities. Did the multiple symbols go together like syllables to make one word? One phrase? Certainly a challenge and thought provoking exercise.

Cheers,

Katherine

Link 6 - http://blogs.ubc.ca/pbarrington/

For my last link, I visited Phillips site and viewed his "What's In My Bag?" video. With the task to re-imagine the task with audio, Phillips produced an animated and narrated video. The video did not have watermarks, but it looked like it could have been made with Video Scribe. I became familiar (a bit) with this tool in one of my previous courses. I found it somewhat difficult to use. I was used to a more liner video editing tool like iMovie. The large moving canvas was difficult for me to wrap my head around orienting and the moving of the camera spotlight all around the canvas. Its something I'd like to work on improving my skills as I think the ability to make custom media content, such as a bag video, or anything for one's classes would allow a better focus on your desired content and outcomes. When using other's media work - documentaries, feature films, news clips, Youtube content, etc. sometimes a lot of time is wasted searching for the content that best matches your lesson or your assessment. The ability to make one's own content would then allow you to focus completely on y9our objectives, and not peripheral material.

I liked how Phillip reoriented the task to be more about identity than contents. My first unit of Social is about how globalization affects one's identity. I think I could make something like this an assignment choice for my Grade 10's with just either straight phone video of a real backpack, or image narrated on something simple like a Google Slides presentation. What items do you carry that are linked to social and economic globalization? It would be a good project option I think.

I did have a question about how the video ended with a little personal question, though only a comment was given on answer D. Was the on purpose or did you intend to have a response for each answer choice? That part i was a bit unsure of. I also focused a bit on the background sounds during the narration. Not a criticism, as we are all likely undertaking these tasks, before or after classes in school, or home working around life's demands, not producing finished professional quality media. It was more a note to myself, that in making video content for students to make sure I do find a way to remove background sounds, because if I was distracted by them, and listening to hear what was being said on the PA, then so would kids, and it could take away from the real message and purpose of the video.

I liked the layout of Phillip's site. Everything was easy to find scrolling through earlier tasks, a simple commenting area. I was appreciate that the Youtube video did not play ads before. One thing that drove me a bit nutty about the Golden Record Youtube playlist was an ad before every track. I'm not a fan of hosting my clips on Youtube because of ads, and not being able to control (at least as far as I know) the watch next suggestions at the end. But I did watch Phillip's video a second time with the automatic closed captioning on. That is one feature of Youtube I like. With Phillip's slow and clear narration style, Youtube did a pretty good job a creating the closed captions fairly accurately. That's certainly an advantage of just posting a video stored in Google Drive to Classroom. You don't get closed captions then, and I think, especially for ESL students or hearing impaired students, closed captions are a benefit, and one that might outweigh the negatives of ads or unsolicited viewing suggestions. Really, I would prefer Google just add their captioning code to offer that feature in their Google Drive video player. Win win.

Cheers!