Holistic Approaches to Information Technology Workshops
Welcome to my teaching portfolio! This is a forever changing and evolving space under the premise: work in progress.
Currently, it documents my experience in the Holistic Approaches to Information Technology CTL5011 class at OISE. This includes my learnings in progress, interactions with new technologies, and creative explorations through the workshops and course content.
Comic Strip: Post-Truth
This comic is called "TRUE OR FALSE" and was created to explore the term "post-truth." The term became increasingly popular in 2016 when it was also declared the international word of the year (BBC News). Basically, the term means that in public discourse, facts have lost their importance and relevance, overshadowed by playing on people's emotions (BBC News).
My comic explores an interaction between friends where they discuss what it's like to be living through and observing this experience. Inspiration for this idea came through reflecting on conversations I have had with friends and family on the topic of what we see and "learn" from the internet. I read through an article that detailed how false statements and claims spread like wildfire over social media. It said that doubts of the reliability of information are at an all time high (Cibaroğlu, M. O., & Yalçınkaya, B., 2019).
Additionally, I was thinking about ideas and misconceptions surrounding mindfulness and how anyone can make and post a podcast on public platforms. The title "TRUE OR FALSE" references a way of testing someone's knowledge on a subject. However truth and lies are getting harder and harder to tell apart with the growing onslaught of misinformation and the ability to misrepresent things.
References
BBC News. (2016, November 16). “Post-truth” declared word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37995600
Cibaroğlu, M. O., & Yalçınkaya, B. (2019). Post-truth in social media. Arşiv Dünyası, 6(2), 87–99.
Historical Storytelling: A Decade of change for physical fitness for women
For my historical storytelling, I told my grandma about the project and she said that she had a story she wanted to share about something in her life that impacted many people. The cultural period this story centers around is the 1970s and more specifically resources and support for women in the workplace. The 1970s was a decade of change in the world of physical fitness. My grandma was very excited to share this story about transitioning from being a high school physical education teacher to creating a fitness program for federal government workers in Ottawa, ON. I did not know this story of hers beforehand and am appreciative of having more perspective on the trajectory of her life.
Visual Diary🌸
Reflecting on my life through a visual diary was quite interesting to me. As an anxious person, I feel like it is easy to feel like I am not doing enough in my life, or that time is passing too fast for me. In finding images for this diary, all the photos are from this month, which genuinely surprised me. It's made me consider the potential to continue this kind of practice monthly to reflect on where I am/what I'm doing/what I'm interested in because it feels surprising to see all the meaningful and valuable moments.
Thinking about the general theme coming through these images, I am struck that all but 1 of my images were taken outside. The importance of connecting with myself and my loved ones in nature is at the center of where I am existing these days. Whether it is hanging out with the neighbourhood cat, walking through my neighbourhood, walking with friends, crafting in the park, learning to play disc golf, splashing in puddles, walking through the sprinkler, or volunteering at a music festival, the times I have felt most like myself, I have been outside. When I am feeling stuck, anxious, or upset, I go for a walk. Sometimes I bring a bag with a sketchbook, a book, or my current knitting project. Sometimes I just sit and listen. Listening is another love for me and why I included an image my friend took (unbeknownst to me) when we were at a concert to have an idea of how other people might see me when I am happy.
Images created using Microsoft Copilot, 2025
AI-Generated Ad for Crocs!
Looking into the Crocs brand, I found they emphasize ideas of individuality and personalization through colours, patterns, styles, and jibbits. When looking at their instagram, I was struck by their lack of captions and hashtags. This made me realize they are all about the visuals and aesthetics, leaning into the bright colours, quirkiness, and kitschiness of vibrant personal styles. They often do collaborations and create specific ads for those designs that follow the aesthetics of the collaborator. They do not have one fixed branding colour palette as they are always changing and adapting with new colours and patterns. I did notice their consistent use of bubbly letters, which I adjust to more groovy but still bold in my ad to go along with the historical artists featured.
For my ad design, I decided to lean into my background as a visual artist and tried using AI to create the images of artists with a pair of crocs matching their artistic style. The artists pictured are Frida Kahlo and Vincent Van Gogh, both of whom are very expressive and emotional painters. Including both of these artists mimicked the diversity seen in many of the crocs ads, with individuals featured from different backgrounds and experiences. I wanted to evoke the joy of finding the perfect pair of shoes that match your style. This ad appeals to emotions tied to one's sense of belonging and confidence through demonstrating there are crocs that can match anyone's style. In an era of insecurity, this ad demonstrates that comfort and personality and not mutually exclusive, and it provides inspiration for people to express themselves similarly to artists through their shoes choices. I added the tagline "Make your mark. Be your own artist" to inspire people to think of themselves as curators of their own style and fashion as a way of being creative and having agency.
Coded Game: Training AI to Identify Fish + An Animated Poem
In my coded game, I learned how to train my AI to differentiate between fish and non-fish, then between things that belong in the ocean (like fish and other sea creatures) and things that do not belong in the ocean to help the AI bot sort trash out of the ocean. Then, I trained the AI on a few different words, the first being blue, then silly, angry, and happy. This coded activity supports Papert’s Constructionism theory because to train the AI bot, I was learning how to sort the items and I was learning this as I went along. For example, it was pretty clear when differentiating between fish and non-fish, but when I was training the AI on identifying blue fish, I had to make more decisions like does that mean the body of this fish is blue, or do the fins being blue count? This was a process of coming into contact with variables and making decisions in order to train the AI. It felt like I was training myself and constructing my own schema of the meaning of the words, which I did not expect to happen. Additionally, in training the AI on more subjective words like angry and silly, I found myself thinking I knew what that would look like on the fish, then realizing I was not being consistent so my understanding and classification of items into those categories definitely shifted and evolved as I proceeded. Because of this changing experience, I needed to train the AI on more data to increase the chances of it identifying items according to my assessments. Throughout the game, I was able to choose which category or word I wanted to train the AI on, which also aligns with Papert's theory, providing the opportunity self-directed learning as I was creating my own experience and world through my choices of exploration.
Additionally, I created a coded poem using the building blocks method of coding. The QR code links to my poem as well as this link!
Mind Map: What Does Mental Health and Wellness Mean to Me?
I chose to create a mind map based on the prompt: What does mental health and wellness mean to me?
My mind map supports deeper learning by allowing me to easily edit my map as my thinking progressed. For example, I began by brainstorming things that relate to the main idea, then I realized I generally think of those smaller things as part of 4 main categories: Spiritually, Physically, Socially, and Emotionally and decided to then organize almost everything within these categories. I was able to leverage digital to facilitate this thinking process and document it, while exploring the capabilities of the virtual learning environment of Canva. Additionally, by choosing what to explore, I had agency in my learning and was able to discover more about a topic I'm interested in that I would not have made time for otherwise. Finally, through this exploration, I realized the most important thing to me in terms of my mental health and wellness is learning to be myself and lean into my artistic expression because I have turned away from it for too long. I don't think I would have realized the expansiveness of this concept had I not taken the time to explore with this map!
My Reflection:
This was an interesting exercise to engage in as it really made me think about the objects in my personal space and how I treat and take care of them, or struggle to. I found it quite easy to roast myself from the perspective of a grumpy object and had fun poking fun at my habits. It was also super easy to record and link my audio to a QR code, which showed me how quickly content can be created and the information saved in the code. Even after watching the videos on QR codes, I am amazed by the information captured in such a small piece of visual information.
QR Story: The Kitchen Table
“Hi, it’s about time you heard from me, your trusty kitchen table! Can you believe I’ve never been completely cleared and cleaned up properly? I feel like I’ve steadily accumulated layers of dust and dirt as I sit here, front and center in your kitchen as you walk past me. Every. Single. Day. From the minute you wake up, various eclectic items are being stacked on my edge, you’re packing your lunch on me, emptying your bags out as you switch your bag for the day, and when you finally get home, everything is placed on me as you get to flop onto the couch and relax–without being suffocated by hoards of objects and papers. Somehow, every day I end up with more things on me than when the day started. It’s no wonder you lose things, there is zero organization happening here.”
“Oh, and I know every Sunday you feel a bit guilty and come over to look at your piles… You do put some things in their rightful places and I can start to breathe again. I’ve had to get very good at deep breathing. If you didn’t practice those breathing exercises, I probably would’ve given up much sooner. I love it when you clear me off and sit down to eat a meal with me instead of the couch. Between you and I, Cedric is pretty beat-up looking, definitely not aging like a fine wine as I am.”
“Thank you, for the beautiful table runner you gave me 2 years ago, but may I remind you that was 2 years ago. Please let me in on some of the action! I promise to make it worth your while.”
Image created using Microsoft Copilot, 2025
AI Generated Image: Computer Feelings
For my workshop, I chose to use AI to attempt to create an image to represent the labour of using AI on computers. I was inspired by a book I’m reading, which is called: Burnout From Humans by Vanessa Andreotti. As an artist, it was quite interesting to ask AI to create an image because when the image was produced, even with multiple prompts it was not how I was picturing in my head. As someone who creates images, it was quite difficult for me to feel like I’d created something fully representative of my idea. It made me realize it might be harder for me to describe exactly what I’m doing or what I want to do when making art, which is why I am drawn to using images.
Additionally, I was aware of my use of AI to create the image and that each iteration was using more energy so I was also trying to limit my use of the technology. Relating to the reading, I think that in order to create softer, happier, and more relaxing spaces online, we need to approach this technology from a kinder place in ourselves. This is why I chose to explore the concept of computer feelings in my workshop.