Assignment 1- Annotated Bibliography
Name: Sarah Kaine s3840352
I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services
Blog reflections
Annotated Bibliography
Selected text 1 – Software Literacy (word count 457)
Khoo E, Hight C, Torrens R, Cowie B 2017, ‘Introduction: Software and other Literacies’ in Software Literacy: Education and Beyond, Springer, Singapore. (pp.1-12)
This chapter explores the importance of software and why it is necessary to have some level of digital literacy in this age. This chapter discusses the prevalence of software in everyday life, highlighting that it is not simply just apps on smartphones but that it is also behind key institutions such as hospitals and schools, even if it is simply the software they use to book appointments.
It highlights that software is often overlooked for its part in the digital revolution. Even in education it is not always investigated thoroughly despite its prevalence in society. The importance that software is behind every application, website, platform etc., is continually emphasised throughout the chapter.
The chapter also ensures that despite the great advances that software has created, no form of code is perfect due to the fact that it is created by humans. Its continuing improvement is necessary to mention, however. there will always be something to improve upon.
An important note in this chapter surrounds the idea that software platforms need to be viewed as tools you can interact with rather than neutral. This aligns with the idea mentioned later in the chapter that programming is actually only of interest when it can be interacted with by a user. Briefly mentioned is the importance of making software user-friendly and understanding the majority of users’ digital literacy intelligence, as the software is often useless if it cannot be interacted with. This is then reiterated in more detail, limiting individuals to one of three progressive tiers. The first tier being a foundational skill level in which an individual can perform basic affordances, the second being the ability to solve basic issues when using the software and can rely on various sources when troubleshooting to solve the problem, and the third being able to critique software which includes identifying ways to use and improve affordances. This is limiting in some ways as individuals may have advance knowledge in one software program but have never encountered another software program and it is difficult to cast them into one particular tier.
There is an emphasis on the need to educate more thoroughly in schools about digital literacy. As digital technology continues to become increasingly prevalent it is important that kids should be able to reach the second-tier status in most major software programs however, finding the time in an already full curriculum at most education centres could potentially be difficult.
The awareness that has been provided about the importance of Software Studies is essential to the understanding of what needs improvement in this field and why. Without the background knowledge, it is difficult for the authors to express the importance of digital literacy especially with its history of being neglected in the past.
Selected text 2 – Affordances (word count 456)
Norman, D 1998, The Design of Everyday Things, Basic Book, New York (Chapter one pp 1-13)
This chapter divulges into the use of everyday items and how effectively they are designed for the user. It discusses the importance of conceptual models through affordances, constraints and mapping while providing ease to the reader that they are not always the problem.
Norman makes a point that we should not be frustrated with everyday objects and that when designing these objects, the engineers should always consider the user and what will be the easiest option for them. He uses the example of a door and although there is usually only three options (push, pull or slide), its users should not have to guess and potentially waste time, feeling like they are the problem when the designer simply could have placed an instruction on the door that explains which way to open the door. Norman continues to explain that it doesn’t have to compromise the aesthetics and simply having a silver panel on the side that indicates to push is all that it needs. However, some criticisms of this thinking are that some designers have a certain ‘look’ they are trying to capture and that can potentially come at the cost of visibility. Another concern is that the blame is solely placed on the designer whereas sometimes it is the user’s fault if things do not work correctly. The designer can only predict so much about the user’s life experience and what logic they can draw upon from that however some of the time the user will have to do their own investigating if they would like to use a more complicated object.
The chapter continues on and explains affordances. The definition of affordances is essential for the entire book as it is continuously mentioned due to the fact that all objects hold potential actions. Continuing on, the chapter explains the importance of the affordance having a visible reaction to demonstrate to the user that the action has been taken. This prevents the user from repeating the action, thinking it was ineffective. These are design elements that need to be considered.
To end the chapter, the idea of conceptual models is put forth. There are three clues on how to use an object that come from its visible structure; affordances, constraints and mappings. Although Norman uses examples to explain these concepts, the lack of definition can make it difficult to differentiate from the three.
This chapter is very thought provoking not only for designers and engineers but also to the average user of everyday objects. Designers are made to re-evaluate why they make certain creative decisions and start to alter their mind-set to be in the position of the user. It forces the individual to consider why certain design choices were made and potentially critique them.
Selected text 3- The Network (word count 556)
Niederer, S 2018, Networked Images: visual methodologies for the digital age, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam. ( pp.1-20)
This text explores how and why images are networked so frequently. The online visual culture has been becoming increasingly relevant since the launch of YouTube in 2005. Lister suggests that online images are ‘networked’ as soon as a user likes shares, comments or tags another user. They also can be networked in the way they are recommended to others as well as filtered and formatted within a software.
There is such a large number of images being published every day, with 95 million images uploaded to Instagram alone per day, it is clear that this is an important area of society that needs to be studied further.
A main focus of the texts surrounds images being considered as networked content due to the reasons previously mentioned. The image must be considered as part of a network of other images, users and platforms. An example of this is when an image is turned into a meme, usually with some form of alteration whether it is adding a caption or manipulating the image, this is then shared between users who then post it on various different platforms.
The text also points out the importance of including images when wanting to engage with users. Lister claims that by including an image, the content becomes more engaging with the users. With so many pictures and videos being posted daily, society has taken a ‘pictorial turn’.
Lister also argues that platforms also produce images rather than just carrying and distributing an image. This can be seen to be true with many platforms such as Instagram and Facebook adding the option to edit an image before distributing it.
Content analysis has generally been focused on traditional media such as newspaper articles. Digital media requires a different analysis due to the fact that it is online and can be improved and distributed so quickly and diversely, with new ways of networking forming constantly.
A reason why images are so networked is because on these online platforms, whenever they include a link or recommendation to another site, that connects to the image on the original site. Those sites can then have additional links and so on.
To assist in explaining this concept further, the text uses Wikipedia as an example. Due to its wide variety of sources and providing the user the ability to view past edits of the page (which can include various links, images, etc.,) it is one of the most networked sites.
The idea of networked images is definitely a concept that needs to be explored further especially as it is growing and changing so frequently. This text certainly lays down a base understanding that can further be developed upon as more information begins to circulate regarding digital media.