Final Reflection

As we reach the end of a wonderful semester, it is time to give my reflection on the Digital Literacies course. Throughout my time at AUC, I have never encountered such a wonderful course. The professor played a huge role in my likeness of the course as she created a peaceful democratic atmosphere inside the classroom. Every class we interacted with each other and shared our thoughts about several topics. The professor allowed us to share our thoughts in an organized manner, by allowing every one to speak their minds in turns, and that made the conversations interesting, as there wasn’t any interruption. What made the organized conversations interesting are the topics themselves. The topics were always new and contribute to recent events that happened around us. What I valued most about the course are as follow:

1: What I learned in this course:

I learned that I have a future as a podcaster, as my professor heavily acknowledged my ability to record when I did My Podcast in the Data Detox Kit assignment. I learned about several tools that I had no information about, such as Slack. As I have stated while reflecting on those tools, I am definitely going to use Slack as a chatting tool in my social life, because it allows you to create several rooms to chat with groups within and individually. Given the fact that I am asked to reflect on articles in several courses, Hypothes.is will be helpful in annotation, as it allowed me to annotate readings online, which is more convenient. The first assignment of the course, the ALTCV, is a great tool to use in your career. While applying for a job, it would be a nice gesture to include an ALTCV, information about yourself, that you value, but would not normally be placed on a CV, in order for the employer to know exactly who you are. I learned from my professor, not the course itself, to always maintain order while in group discussions.

2: If I were to show someone my learning in this course:

At this phase of my life, I would show my work to my friends and colleagues. Over the last month, I have encouraged my friends to take this course; therefore, showing them what I learned would be helpful. I will start by showing them my Digital Pathway, the Tinkering pathway, in order to show them how easy the assignments are and require creativity. I will also show them my Game, and my colleagues games, in order to show them the fun we had throughout the semester. I will also show them the Social Justice blog, because most of my friends know that I don’t like to reflect. This blog will show them how this course helped me in my reflection skills.

3: If I could change 2-3 things about the course to improve it:

I would start with Soliya. Don’t get me wrong, the program is great, but due to the fact that I am only allowed to access the portal only once a week, at a specific time, is irritating. As I said on my Soliya Reflection, it would be great if the portal allowed us to access it anytime of the week, as long as I access it once a week. On that note, I wouldn’t have missed any sessions. I would neglect Twitter, because I really hate that platform, and think it would have been better if we only used WordPress, as I stated in my Tools Reflection. I would reduce the amount of reflections and annotations and add more assignments that require creativity. Personally, I don’t like reading. Imagine being required, not to only read, but to also reflect or annotate on a reading. I prefer the assignments that reveal my creativity and digital skills.

What kind of person should take this course?

The best character to take this course is a creative extrovert, as the course requires a lot of creativity and conversations.

Opportunities:

Several assignments allowed me to choose my own way of presenting my learning, but the Data Detox Kit, ALTCV, and Contribution to Digital Literacies in Egypt assignments were my favorites. I chose to podcast in the Data Detox Kit, create a PowerPoint in the ALTCV, and present someone I like in the Contribute to Digital Literacies in Egypt assignment.

In conclusion, this course is what cheered me throughout the semester. Engineering is a very tough program, and being able to have a break from it and be creative was great. I wish that I could be able to encounter more courses like this course in the future.

Digital Pathway

As the semester came to an end, I had to choose between one of four T paths: Tinkering, Taught, Theory, and Twisting paths. I chose the Tinkering path because of the creativity it offers. I had to do six, of which all were very amusing and reflect on them.

1: Create your Superhero.

Meet The Red Knight, my fictional superhero. He doesn’t posses any superpowers, but he is the combination of both Zorro and Batman, neglecting the black costumes. Zorro was the best sword fighter in his time and Batman is a billionaire genius who decided to do what he does to protect his city. Combining both powers together would yield a great superhero.

2: Create a GIF:

Now comes Batman’s greatest rival, and the best supporting role I have seen in my life, Heath Ledger’s Joker. This part in The Dark Knight movie was unscripted, which makes it awesome. Right after being caught, he applauds his arrestor when he gets promoted. It reveals how mentally ill the joker was, and how great Heath Ledger was.

3: Create a Poster

This assignment required creating a poster of an athlete that I would buy. This image is a dunk performed by Lebron James, my favorite basketball player, number 23 on the Los Angeles Lakers, my favorite basketball team, and is nicknamed King James. If this poster is available, I would definitely buy it.

4: Combo-photo Assignment

The task required putting two photos in one, so here it is. The cover of the assignment was funny, so I had to be creative. Here is Superman flying using balloons.

5: Create a silly Movie Poster:

Nothing is more silly than this. The most famous partners in the world, the Bad Boys, are chasing a rooster. This is the first thing that came to my mind while reading the instructions.

6: Photo Frame Message

This message is loud and clear, don’t speed, or you will regret it for the rest of your life. Some people don’t care about themselves, yet they have to care for the others, speeding was never good.

Overall, this pathway was very interesting to me. I used several tools such as PowerPoint, PhotoShop, and Giphy. It also allowed me to think a lot before choosing what I would do. In conclusion, the Tinkering path is a great path of Digital Literacies.

Soliya Reflection

The Connect Express was a great experience that allowed to me to interact with people from various cultures and learn about our differences. I attended 2 of the 4 sessions because of some personal issues, and this is a problem that I would like to discuss. If the session times were flexible, hence joining the session anytime of the week, that would have been a great option. On that note, I could have interacted with more people, attended all sessions, and fill time between my gaps.

Since I have never experienced something similar to the connect express program, this experience was great. I was able to discuss several topics with my program colleagues and get exposed to various cultural differences. The difference between this program and others is the cultural diversity. Any program that I ever heard of was limited to the middle east, and we are all almost the same. Therefore, this experience was amazing.

I learned that I am the same whether in the real or digital world. I don’t like to talk much and just listen to other people stating their thoughts. I only talked when the facilitator told me to do so, but never on my own. It is not because I find myself anxious while communicating in English, it’s just because of who I am.

In my opinion, fostering a constructive communication is very easy. For instance, in a relationship, whenever there is an issue that the couple face, it is better to speak at instant rather than pressing the problem down and neglecting it. Speaking about the issue will allow the relationship to prosper, since the problem will not escalate in the future, and will not make any one to hold grudges against the other. Therefore, whenever I am faced with an issue, I will speak about it at instance rather than oppress it.

In conclusion, the connect express program was a great experience that allowed me to interact with people from several cultures. If the time problem can be solved, I would not have any problem to participate in the program again.  Understanding different cultures make the person better in communication.

Tools Reflection

Throughout the semester, I have been using several tools in order to finish mu digital literacies course. Some of these include Slack, Blackboard, WordPress, and Soliya. 3 of those tools are totally new to me, while Blackboard isn’t.

Slack is very similar to a tool called discord, a platform that gamers use in order to communicate while playing. We used Slack as students in order to communicate while learning. Just like discord, there are several channels, or groups, that focus on a certain topic. I really enjoyed learning about such a new communication platform and use it. My only problem, however, was that the app, most of the time, did not send any notifications about the conversations. Therefore, I had to check every now and then in order to stay on track with my colleagues. WordPress is a platform that allows its users to publish articles, which are available for the public. Just like twitter, I was able to express my thoughts, but without any word count. I found out that many people around the world use WordPress, therefore, I would like to use that certain tool in the future, in order to express myself without restrictions. Soliya was a great experience. It allowed me to share my thoughts with random people, of different cultures, and have a long cross cultural conversations about several subjects. It was really great being able to learn about how different cultures approach different topics. The problem was that, most of the time, something really important made me miss my sessions. Perhaps if it was accessible anytime of the week, rather than a specific time, it would have been great. The last tool, of the tools that brought my attention, is Blackboard. This tool isn’t new to me, as I have been using since joining AUC, but the way we used it in this class was great. Everything about the course was available on Blackboard, all the assignments, external links, and grades. My problem with Blackboard is that the grades are posted on it, and since I am in AUC, this tool will be with me until I graduate.

Overall, my experience with these tools was great. I have been introduce to new platforms that I did not know anything about and gained more experience. If the minor issues that I have faced are fixed, I am certain that I will use all of them in the future.

Social Justice and Equity in Practice

While reading “Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy,” by Chris Gilliard and Hugh Culik, I  realized the privilege I own being a “higher level” university. Even though most professors insist that we use scholarly based articles while researching about a certain subject, we have a huge variety of scholarly based storages to search within. On the other hand, most Egyptian universities don’t have such privilege to access those storages. Moreover, AUC allows to access whatever we want while we are connected to the WiFi, while other universities have some websites restricted, and some do not have internet access at all. Back at my school, we had WiFi in all classrooms. However, the WiFi did not work unless it is connected to a certain IP address, which is the smart board, and only allows access to educational websites. For me, it was so irritating to have a WiFi that does not allow you to access what you want. A couple semesters ago, I did not have access to google while connected on AUC’s WiFi. Google only worked on computers that had a ethernet connection, cable connected. Therefore, if I wished to search about a certain topic on my phone or laptop, I could not. Digital redlining is a huge wall that blocks one’s freedom of choice. It sets a certain access, based on what the IT developer is told to set. While at AUC we have unlimited access, other universities do not, and the access keeps getting more restriction as the tuition fees gets cheaper. Therefore, AUC, highest tuition fees, has unlimited access, while public universities have no WiFi at all, because the tuition fees are nothing. This creates a huge social diversity, if you have money, you get unlimited access and learn more about what you desire. If you don’t, then you don’t have the right to learn about what you desire. Information Equity was similar to Digital Redlining because it discusses how information should be available for anyone who seeks it. However it talks in a larger scale that includes government and democracy. It states that the government controls our so called “personal agency,” the ability to live the life you desire. Most people in Egypt are scared to raise awareness about a certain issue that involves the government because they are afraid they might be imprisoned. This clearly removes democracy and freedom of speech from the Egyptian society.

Final Draft

Game.

While at first I thought it would be easy, this game has proven to be such a hard challenge. The amount of time, stress, and work it took was unbelievable, yet I needed more time. If I had more time, I would have changed the topic of my game. The feedbacks I had made me realize that most people tend to choose the correct answer on paper, yet we see what we see everyday on the street. I understood the effort of games creators and the challenge they face in order to produce something good to the public. I would not change my topic if the game had future updates, just like any game or software, that would make it more interesting and fun. Overall, I think this experience helped me understand that pleasing people is not as easy as it sounds, rather it is very hard, and work under stress, due to the short amount of time I had, in such a huge assignment.

Prototype.

Startup

Algorithms of Oppression

These are my tweets:

1. https://twitter.com/ahmedabouel3ela/status/1191109541674569728
2. https://twitter.com/ahmedabouel3ela/status/1191112045128769543
3. https://twitter.com/ahmedabouel3ela/status/1191114605411614720

Game

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdhF5pX7ZIouwQRu_cxmsV7cdV_9FV91fy9i-DjQMflcBdwcg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Prototype Game

Being a teenaged driver in Egypt allows me to experience weird stuff everyday. Therefore I aim to ask my audience what will they do if they experience such situation while they are driving. I hope that I will be able to change some people’s driving experience and make it more safe to drive here. I have included 5 scenarios below with the choices of A,B, and C, which each choice having its consequence. Yet at the end of each consequence, the is an advice that leads to the best answer the audience did not choose. In order for this game to work, the player needs to select the option that they will really do, rather than the one they know it is right.

 

1. You are late for a meeting and you miss your U-Turn, what will you do?

A)  Stop and drive on reverse. (Someone crashed in your car from behind and you never made it. Next time try to leave on time, in case this situation happens again, in order to be able to drive till the next U-Turn)

B)  Drive till the next U-Turn. (You made it to the meeting safely, yet you were late, maybe next time try to leave on time to avoid being late.)

C)  Take the opposite U-Turn. (A policeman saw you and suspended your license. Therefore, you will go to the police station and pay a huge amount of money in order to get your license back. Next time try to leave on time in order to avoid any circumstances.)

2. You entered a parking and there are 3 empty spaces, all separated by parallel lines, however, they are far away from the entrance. How will you park your car?

A) I will park between the parallel lines. (Great choice, you left place for 2 other cars to park and avoided getting a dent on your car.)

B) I will look for a closer parking space, because I don’t want to park far away. (You did not find a parking space close to the entrance and the three spaces were all taken, hence, you had to park even farther away.)

C) I will park without looking because I am professional driver and will park between the lines. (Guess What! you are not a professional driver, you did not park between the lines, and you made an Oldman, who can’t walk for a distance, park far away.)

3. You look in your rear view mirror, during traffic, to see an ambulance approaching you from behind, with the siren on, what will you do?

A) Move to the next lane in order for the ambulance to pass. (Congratulations!! you were responsible in saving a life, even if you did not do much.)

B) Stay in your lane, the driver can pass from any other lane. (Well, the roads are crowded. The ambulance might not make it on time and the person inside might die. If so, keep in mind that you are involved in his death!

C)  Let the ambulance pass and stick behind it, in order to avoid traffic. (The driver stopped surprisingly, and you crashed your car in the ambulance. They will carry on, but your car broke.)

4. You are driving in the left and Oldman is driving slowly, how will you react?

A) Lose your temper and start cursing him. (You gained nothing other than making an Oldman, who is afraid of speeding, feel bad. Always respect the elders.)

B) Switch to the middle lane and pass him. (That’s the right thing to do, you never know how he feels while driving.)

C) Keep on pressing your car horn for him to move from your way. (The Oldman got scared and almost got in an accident. Imagine if something happened to him, how will you feel?)

5. You are driving safely to see someone coming in front of you driving in the opposite direction, what is your reaction?

A) Avoid him and drive peacefully. (Well you just helped him break the law and could have caused an accident. Next time don’t hesitate to interfere, because you are right.)

B) Stop him and force him to drive correctly. (Awesome! You did your part as a good citizen, you even might have stopped an accident or something.)

C) Drive by, but take his plates number to the station. (He could have been a driver, now the actual owner has to pay for something he did not do or even know about. Try stopping the driver next time.

These are some scenarios that my audience will have to experience. Full trueness in answering is required, in order for the game to achieve what it is meant for.

Game

I am a car enthusiast who loves everything that is related to them. Therefore, it is only fitting that my game’s topic be about driving. Being a teenager that drives in Egypt allows me to be exposed to several law breaking events that occurs, either with me or others, while driving. My game will be in a form of questionnaire with each answer giving a specific consequence. For instance, a question that I think of is “If you are extremely late for a meeting, while driving in the right lane, and you miss a U-Turn, what will your reaction be?” the answers would be: 1. Stop and drive on reverse. 2. Drive till the next U-Turn. 3. Spin around and drive in the opposite direction. Answer 1: “A car coming from behind hit you and the got wrecked. Hence, you missed the meeting.” Answer 2: “You made it to the meeting safely and without a ticket, yet left a bad impression. However safety comes first!” Answer 3: “The cops pulled you over, which made you arrive late, and your license got suspended. Hence, you have to go to the station and pay a huge amount of money in order to take it back.” At the end of each result, I will put the sentence “Next time try to leave early in order to avoid all of that” in order to raise awareness about the cause and how to avoid its consequences.