I had an interesting experience tackling this activity. It was because I had several objectives that required some abstract thought, I learned to view objects and my surroundings from a different perspective than I normally would have. I used the creative tapestry and pallet of my home as a place to take photos because it was convenient, raining outside and ultimately felt that I had enough subjects surrounding me to complete the task. I found it difficult to find some items, so I skipped over them to others which unfortunately did not save me any time in the long run, but it did help me consider new angles, lighting methods to accentuate each muse.
I love patterns; therefore, the photos that worked best for me were those with contrast and pattern. The photo which I felt communicated the most inventiveness was the dog paw. I moved my dog several times at different angles to experiment with background, but decided upon a nice shag rug that faded off some of colours on his fur. This was an interesting lesson in better preparation and intentionality as it relates to photography and how that can be bridged alongside written work to better communicate a vision or story.
These days, taking photographs is akin to breathing – not much effort involved and is practically automated. Most certainly when considering the ease of use alongside the mass proliferation of smart phone technology. In contrast to the standard rapid fire photography, those around me would probably say that I am quite rigid when it comes to photo spontaneity. I enjoy sunsets, seascapes and the art of adapting ones position to best align with background colour and landscape; and finally, perish the thought of ever taking a photograph cutting off feet, hands or heaven forbid, a head. In summary, I always take my time to get it as right as possible.
Thanks to David duChemin’s tips from his book titled, “Ten Ways to Improve Your Craft”, I included a picture of “lunch a la photog”.
By choosing a black and white plate with only green and yellow ingredients, alongside white feta to offset white on plate, I was attempting to use duChemin’s tip on using colour to contrast. I made some attempts to shoot overhead, but this reduced the sense of depth; therefore, I shot the photograph from an angle of the diner to fill the frame and accentuate depth and range. Additionally, I chose to use window light as a natural accent to make the meal more appealing and healthy. I tried some of the other tips such as shooting overhead (boring/no depth) adding a different background and extreme close-ups, but those attempts reduced the appeal of the photograph. Ultimately, the photograph was good, but the meal was better.
The “Sound Effect Story” activity was a valuable on several fronts. One, I have always wanted to learn how to create and edit sounds, visuals, and/or sound tracks. Two, I was able to visualize a sequence that would accent the pictures on my WordPress home page, and then frame it to flow in an intentional pattern complementing those images. And third. I finally learned how to embed a SoundCloud track properly. Enjoy the track below.
I grafted 6 sounds together including a car’s arrival, hiking through a trail, arriving at the ocean mixing in some waves, then returning through a rainforest towards the car again, closing the door and speeding off. I found all the audio files at SoundBible because the other sites either had bad links or did not contain the sounds I desired. I definitely had challenges working through Audacity, but after multiple attempts to mix/fade sounds through trial and error, I eventually felt some comfort using the buttons and tabs on the menu. I also needed to consult YouTube several times to help unravel the tension.
Next time I approach a project using Audacity, I will ensure that I “script” out my sequences well in advance. By using this approach I can plan to lay down the longest tracks or background sounds first, then crop in the “storyline”. Sit back, close your eyes and enjoy the story.
My audio recording experience to date includes a background with using Voice Memo on iPhone, some music dubbing on GoPro and video interview/essays via YouTube; and by far, my experience with this exercise was the worst.
I can appreciate the intention of this exercise to familiarize ourselves with various mediums and tools to communicate or disseminate information; however, my overall dissent with this exercise is rooted in the fact that I abhor setting up multiple accounts in order to compare and contrast one with the other. My only constructive criticism of this exercise is that TWU promotes one audio application for students to use, rather than “experimenting” with multiple ones. We live in an age of trying to remember, access and manage multiple user names and passwords for endless “accounts”, let alone spending precious time to “unsubscribe” from constant emails from these application organizations.
Apart from my rant (thank you for obliging me), I felt that Anchor was much easier to use than SoundCloud. My main issue with Soundcloud is that you can no longer record from the application directly on your smart phone (see below).
Google
After establishing an account on the web, it took some time to figure out how to even record with Soundcloud and after 15 minutes navigating through how to build my music library, I eventually just used QuickTime as a means to record, then uploaded the file to my Soundcloud account on their website. This took far too long and was an overly cumbersome process, so maybe it will take more practice on my part in order to enjoy all the options available. Conversely, even though the prompt states that Anchor is limited in terms of having flexible options to edit/cut/paste audio records, I found it very easy to use since I merely recorded through my iPhone Voice Memo application, then uploaded it directly to my Anchor account, just as I would normally do to text or e-mail,
I read my audio file from a book which I am currently challenged with and found that both applications sufficed as it relates to audio quality. Without further practice, I cannot say at this time what I would do differently, but when I am tasked to include these mediums within a project, blog, post or essay, I will endeavour to begin work with these tools as early as possible to overcome the curve. The files (below), were easy to share within the blog, but until I actually publish this draft post, I won’t know if I embedded the Soundcloud file correctly or not.
Ultimately, we need to use all tools available to focus, clarify and express ourselves and our ideas for maximum impact; therefore apart from my criticism as it relates to increasing the demands upon managing our growing digital storehouse, I am excited to learn.
This course prompt was timely since only yesterday my daughter asked me if I knew about the 15 people who died from a Legionnaires outbreak at the London Drugs at Guildford Mall. She said, “Look Dad (pointing to her phone), it’s an actual, real story”. Even before I wanted to see her phone, I said “Let’s check other news organizations first, to see if its legitimate”. I checked CBC News and indeed, there was an outbreak, but at a Wal-Mart and no one died. Thankful for the learning moment we shared together; however, I still remain overly-sensitized as it relates to growing fallacies within digital news and its exposure upon kids and young adults who have yet to develop a critical-thinking mindset.
The email regarding the banana crisis was glaringly flawed from the start. Only affects monkeys? Nationwide panic, over bananas? An agency founded upon protecting citizens, yet unwilling to share the truth? If it was so secret, how did it get out? Manheim Research Institute? Any other agencies corroborating the information? The lesson serves its purpose as a reminder to verify the information against other sources and question anything that has to “boast” of its own legitimacy.
I enjoyed Michael Caufield’s guide and blog and found some good value utilizing his “Four Moves” as a means to verify and validate information and its sources. Although I applied his four moves towards two articles, it did not take very long to see through the claims. The “Lottery Winner and Manure” story was flawed from the start. Being a “numbers” guy, I instantly noticed the claim describing the 10,000 tons of manure dumped onto his now ex-bosses front lawn. 10,000 tons? Right. I quickly fact-checked how many tons a dump truck can hold and 10,000 tons of manure would take 370 full dump truck loads. Not exactly a realistic situation. To its credit, I found that the second story involving statistics and un-documented immigrants based its findings on an actual research report from a real think tank based in Washington D.C. The only glaring flaw with the headline above the graph was, that unlike the actual research report, it was claiming to be a fact, and not an estimate. “Un-documented immigrants”? How can the article sell something as a fact, if one of the most important “facts” remain un-documented?
Ultimately, Caufield’s four moves and guide gives us some needed ammo to fight against the unbridled crimes of fallacy and dis/mis-information upon our digital world; and I for one, will continue to take the time required to verify and validate all information worthy of belief.
For a few years now, I have been consciously trying to use “ixquick”, which is now called “startpage” for browsing the web. In brief, this browser (like a few others) uses the search results cache from Google without giving personal user information or their IP addresses to Google servers, because whether we like it or not, we are the product for sale when engaging open browsers like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others.
The results from Activity #1 were as predicted – biased, safely aligning with my local cultural geography with the all too standard perceived societal norms for each category. The ethnicity most heavily represented in each category was without question, caucasian. Secondly, I observed genders portrayed in most professional realms such as doctors and professors leaned towards men, but surprisingly held a respectful share within the nursing category. However, all that changed when I adopted a “site specific” parameter within the search bar. I followed Alan November’s article from Activity #2 suggesting I try inserting site terms from other regions such as Africa, the Middle East and South America. Only then did Google’s search algorithm results shift towards the most prevalent images from that individual region.
Activity #2 asked us to search out three different results while considering the recommendations of Roger Warner as means to improve the intentionality and precision of our searches. In order to find an article on Leadership published from a Canadian university, past experience led me to Google Scholar. When combining “like” terms such as Leadership+University+Canada+PDF, I found the below fairly quickly.
Google Scholar
Secondly, in Google’s main search bar, I used “pdf:” in addition to key words prompting a result of a PDF even with my name as an added bonus.
Google
Lastly, I again used some of Warner’s suggestions and tools to find a podcast representing local interests in my city. Essentially, I used “podcast:” as the beginning search term followed by “+Surrey” etc to achieve a result called “The Surrey Experience”.
Google (using podcast:)
Ultimately, this exercise was a great reminder of how we can better utilize our time when traversing the digital environment and further our understanding in terms of practicality and efficiency when using these tools.
As found through multiple search engines, Matt Squirell is a Director of Sales for the Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Company of New York and is a father of two children and husband to Kimberlee Squirell who all live at 14756 16A Avenue in Surrey, British Columbia Canada. Matt is active on social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram often utilizing the pseudonym “sultanofsurrey”. Pictures of himself and family are below:
Through my search, I discovered more about myself than I had expected. Although I did not find any connected pictures with friends or family that would make me blush, or find embarrassing, I did find pictures and links to social media sites on Google, Bing and Yahoo alongside a thorough synopsis of my career stats, both past and present with my current employer found on the those browsers’ first pages . I suppose since my last name resonates closely in both spelling and pronunciation to that of a furry rodent, many pictures of that species fortunately drowns out any other pictures of myself.
I believe that what I found was indeed a fair representation of who I am, at least from a professional perspective. Personally, as a matter of normal practice, I have always refrained from many tweets or posts reflecting my thoughts or desires publicly on anything that could be maligned or mis-interpreted. I still do not trust where all this is going; therefore, with the exception of maintaining a professional profile, I intend to continue the tradition of self-censorship when actively or passively working on the web.
As it relates to Bonnie Stewart’s (2015), Digital Identities, I would say that I often “test” the waters from a version of participatory self identity. I prefer to consume my social media feeds for business and professional gain, but am also interested in giving back fresh and unique, albeit measured, perspectives usually after some long introspection. The prompt also queries whether I would have, or already have removed content because of concerns with my digital identity and I would have to say after this exercise, most certainly I would. In fact, during this post I navigated to Twitter’s privacy settings to pursue removal of certain aspects in my home page (family pictures), only to realize that I would have to deactivate the account, then petition Google to remove the URL associated with the user (me).
I really enjoyed Kris Shaffer’s recommendations to the point where I returned to my Twitter page and removed the picture of my family and updated my profile picture. Again, I can see the pitfalls and perils as it relates to consistent management of your digital identity and presence on the web; therefore, I suppose for now, excluding what I share with my MA cohort, I’ll be happy being the poster boy for self-censorship.
As it relates to my browsing activities on the web, the assigned Track the Tracker exercise left me with a greater sense of empowerment; yet, at the same time, unease in terms of just how deep the rabbit hole of surveillance really goes.
I tried a few common sites such as LuluLemon, Patagonia, Drudge Report, Nordstrom and Reliable (my employer), and by far, the site connected to the most trackers was overwhelmingly Drudge Report. Drudge is a website that collects current news and information which like most private organizations, aligns with, and to a certain degree is biased with the worldview of Matt Drudge (owner). I suppose that any news or information hosting organization feeds off the advertisement time/space that they can sell; therefore, the personal interests which these trackers capture are extremely valuable to not only commercial enterprises, but also those eager to measure my political inclinations
In all trials to verify what sites are tracking my movements, almost all trackers were from websites that I did not visit. Again, with the illumination of new knowledge measuring what is happening behind the scenes as it relates to who is interested in my activity, I have a new perspective in terms of monitoring my own movements on the web. We know that cookies exist as mechanisms to store data in order to assist both the user and websites to speed up/pre-fill data transfer of information. In my Chrome browser, I learned that cookies are stored for 90 days; however, upon further investigation, I learned from the link below that “the average cookie is set to survive for 7000 years” (Derek, 2015); therefore, I intend to increase the regular practice of clearing those cookies.
In the context of the available standard digital tools within the “brick and mortar” business world, I would consider myself to be a respectful, conscientious and digitally literate participant when communicating my ideas and thoughts with others. However, in light of the rapid proliferation of social media engines, I sense that the basic digital platforms such as e-mail, Scopia, webinar and GoToMeetings which I have become so familiar with, have limited ranges within the broader scope of “Digital Literacy”.
I participate digitally through Twitter and LinkedIn as a means to stay connected to my peer and industry groups, albeit on an inconsistent and passive basis. Primarily I use Twitter for business feeds showcasing industry information and LinkedIn in order to maintain relevancy and a professional profile exposure alongside everyone else; therefore, my only experience witnessing consequences and negative fallout upon others has been through public posts from popular and not-so popular national leaders. As an extension to this question, I have only witnessed public shaming through press or media agencies and have never experienced public shaming in life, or in business as a result of irresponsible or inappropriate comments said online.
In life, I have learned that “winging-it”, or any such approach with an air of impulsiveness can often lead to disaster: therefore, I have three good rules to avoid inadvertently revealing any latent character flaws:
1) Urges to pen “Manifesto” type statements should be slept-on first.
2) If you forward others’ posts – you might as be the original author.
3) What would your mother say about your statement?
Fairly basic. Those that share my faith would also agree that we are held to a higher standard and one of perfection; therefore, let us remember our fallen nature, our less than attractive desires and forgiveness of those in which we could easily be occupying the same shoes.
My experience narrating/modifying my personal WordPress site was analogous to piloting a boat with the throttle engaged at full speed, yet struggling to achieve the desirable efficiency up on a plane. Once I achieved a better level of navigational understanding, the bow trimmed up and the boat began planing nicely. As it relates to comprehension, I suppose my only main challenge surrounded bridging the instruction terminology with the intent of the task. As a matter of working through the understanding, I had some difficultly really grasping what I was trying to accomplish. In reflection, once I determined that I was simply building my own electronic presence, such as a website, the sequencing began to naturally fall into place.
I worked through my challenges via trial and error. Essentially I pivoted between the online learning instructions, my own site dashboard, and the menu video instructions. Once I connected one process with another, it became much easier to understand the functionality of the menu and category tools. Once I was up and running, it became enjoyable spending more time tweaking the site to align with my own personal needs and wants.
The next time I encounter similar tasks building, processing and sequencing, I will spend more time drafting out an architecture on paper of what I am expected to accomplish. It was by this means in which I used to assemble my menu, sub-menus and categories. Additionally, depending on the personal network developed over the course of the MA program, I would not hesitate in contacting others in the cohort to help field issues that I may be having.
