My Digital Domain

Sananth Badhran

Category: Digital Literacy (Page 1 of 2)

This is a parent category for the Digital Literacy course. Please add this category in addition to the relevant assignment category.

Assignment 1 – Deeper Dive Inquiry (3 of 4), Documentation of the Learning Process

April 2, 2025 / / 0 Comments

This week, I took a deeper dive into some of Python’s most powerful building blocks: methods, classes, arrays, and lists. It was both exciting and a bit brain-bending, but I’m finally starting to see how these tools come together to make Python such a flexible and efficient language.

🧱 Classes & Objects: Building Your Own Structures

At first, classes felt abstract. I wasn’t sure why I’d use them when functions seemed to get the job done. But once I actually created my own class and instantiated objects from it, I realized: classes are like templates for real-world things.

Here’s a simple example I practiced with:

✅ I now understand how to:

• Use __init__ to set object properties

• Define methods to perform actions inside the class

• Create multiple instances of the same class with different data

 OOP makes code more reusable and organized. I used to write separate functions for every variation of a problem—now I just create objects!

🧰 Methods: Actions That Belong to Objects

Understanding methods (especially how they differ from regular functions) helped me think more like a software developer. A method is basically a function that “belongs” to a class.

I practiced creating methods to:

• Calculate values (calculate_tax())

• Update attributes (like adjusting the bill)

• Print or return data in a formatted way

 Methods help keep data and logic encapsulated. It’s clean, efficient, and avoids unnecessary repetition.

📚 Lists: The Swiss Army Knife of Python

Python lists are incredibly versatile. I used them to store groups of numbers, strings, and even objects I created from classes.

Example:

I also practiced:

• Looping through lists with for loops

• Adding/removing items with .append() and .remove()

• Using list comprehensions to simplify code

Lists are essential for managing collections of data. Learning list comprehension was a game-changer—it made my code cleaner and faster.

🔢 Arrays: A More Specialized Tool

While lists are flexible, I learned that arrays (from the array module or libraries like NumPy) are more efficient for large amounts of numerical data.

I now understand the difference:

• Lists = general-purpose, can store anything

• Arrays = faster and more memory-efficient, but only for numbers of a single type

🔄 Bringing It All Together: Small Project Idea

The Student Grade Management System

🧠 Here’s what the system will be able to do:

1. ✅ Add a new student

2. 📋 Add grades to a student

3. 📊 Calculate a student’s average

4. 🌟 Show top student(s)

5. 🔍 Search for a student by name or ID

6. 💾 Save and load data from a file

7. 🗑️ Optional: Delete a student

Weekly Reflection 5 : Surveillance, Accessibility & Indigenous Digital Sovereignty

March 30, 2025 / / 0 Comments

This week in EDCI 136, conversations went richly human and justice-focused. We delved into digital surveillance, accessibility rights, and Indigenous perspectives on digital literacies. These weren’t dry technical topics—these challenged me to think through the values, systems, and assumptions baked into the digital places we live everyday.

👁️ Academic Surveillance: Who’s Watching, and Why?

Whereas the presentations of Ian Linkletter and Chris Gilliard were not for public consumption, they left a lasting impression. Their keytakeaway: surveillance in learning is not just about preventing cheating—it’s about power, control, and equity.

⚠️ Core Issues Raised:

• Proctoring software treats students as susppects, not learners

• AI systems often misinterpret neurodivergent and disabled behavior

• Surveillance negatively impacts marginalized students, especially Black, Indigenous, and disabled learners

• “Luxury surveillance” normalizes invasiveness in everyday life

💡Reflection

As a student, I’ve experienced how intrusive surveillance technologiesfeel. Being tracked by my eye movements or surroundings makes it hard to focus, let alone learn. I now see how these technologiesfuel institutional distrust and compound existing inequities.

♿ Understanding Accessibility Beyond Accommodations

Our second guest session—featuring Charlie, Sydney, and Szymon from UVic’s CAL team—was one of the most informative to date. It openedmy eyes to what academic accessibility entails.

🔍What I Learned:

• 1 in 5 UVic students has a registered disability

• Most disabilities are invisible (anxiety, chronic pain, learning disabilities)

• Accommodations such as extra time, flexible attendance, or alternate formats are human rights, not academic favors

• Instructors have more flexibility than most realize

• Academic concessions are available to all students, even without formal documentation

📌 Key Insight:

Accessibility is not “leveling the playing field”—it’s about eliminatingobstacles so that each person has a chance to show what they know. And flexibility isn’t a weakness; it’s a pillar of sound teaching.

🧠 Indigenous Digital Literacies with Nodin Cutfeet

Listening to Nodin Cutfeet, Waniskaw Foundation founder, was a highlight. He spoke about how youth in Indigenous northern communities get left behind by digital learning—a deficiency not due toan aspiration for riches but due to tools designed without them.

🌱Key Themes:

• Community-led learning is worthwhile over “career-oriented” technicalprograms

• Motivation is based on expression, creativity, and sense of belonging among their peers, not in the possession of money

• Data self-determination is important—Indigenous peoples must havecontrol over the use of their knowledge

• Mainstream AI has the tendency to bend Indigenous cultures, blending distinct traditions into a homogenized “pan-Indigenous”narrative

• Digital tools must be low-bandwidth, hardware-light, and locally adaptable

💡 Reflection:

This presentation made me question the default narratives of digital literacy. “One-size-fits-all” solutions prescribe cultural sameness and flatten diverse learning identities. It reminded me that accessibility and inclusion must be relational, not just technical.

🔗Connecting the Dots: Surveillance, Equity & Inclusion

Throughout these discussions, one message was threaded throughout: technology is never neutral.

• Surveillance software claims to offer equality but often strips it away

• Accessibility in education isn’t just about compliance—it’s about dignity and belonging

• Indigenous communities are creating alternative models of tech education that center on culture, respect, and agency


📝Final Thoughts

This week left me thinking hard about the type of digital world that I would like to help bring into being. It’s not enough to be “digitally literate”—I want to be digitally just. That means opposing systems that exclude, surveil, or erase—and building up alternatives that center care, culture, and connection.

Weekly Reflection 4: Curation, Annotation & the Power of Collective Knowledge

March 30, 2025 / / 0 Comments

This week in EDCI 136, I learned the skill of curation and annotation. Through practical work with Zotero and Hypothes.is, and two excellent guest lectures by Dr. Remi Kalir and Jessica Mussell, I’ve come to understand that curation isn’t just amassing stuff, it’s about responding meaningfully to ideas, voices, and knowledge.

Here’s what resonated most, and how I began to shift my conception of digital literacy and scholarly collaboration.

✍️ Social Annotation with Hypothes.is: Notes That Talk Back

Before this week, “annotation” meant highlighting a textbook or writing notes in the margin something private, rough, and just for me. But after listening to Dr. Remi Kalir, I learned that annotation can also be:

• 💬 Dialogic: sparking real conversations around ideas

• 🔄 Intertextual: connecting and layering meanings across sources

• 🧩 Collaborative: a form of social learning, not just solo studying

One powerful quote from his talk really stuck with me:

“Annotation is not neutral. It can interrupt, question, challenge, and transform the meaning of a text.”

Dr. Kalir’s examples—like graffiti on the Berlin Wall or projections on protest monuments—blew my mind. I’d never considered those forms of public writing as annotation, but they truly are. They’re social, layered, and rooted in the real world.

📚 Zotero: Your Personal Research DJ 🎧

Our second guest, Jessica Mussell, introduced us to Zotero, a fantastic tool for researching, citing, and organizing. I used to despise creating bibliographies (especially when switching citation styles)—but Zotero is a game-changer.

🎯 Key Features I Explored:

• Automatically capture article metadata and PDFs

• Create folders to curate resources by topic

• Generate citations and bibliographies in seconds

• Use plugins to cite inside Word and Google Docs

• Add highlights and annotations inside PDFs

Zotero isn’t just a citation tool—it’s like Spotify for sources. You create research playlists, organize ideas, and collaborate when needed. I especially liked Jessica’s metaphor about research curation being like making music playlists for your brain!

Why Curation & Annotation Matter

This week helped me connect some dots:

• Annotation helps me engage with ideas more deeply—especially when it’s social

• Curation helps me organize my digital brain and build research habits I can take beyond university

• These tools teach me to read, write, and think more critically, not just collect information

I used to treat research like a one-way street: find a source → quote it → cite it. But now I realize it’s more like a conversation. With Hypothes.is and Zotero, I’m learning how to take part in that dialogue more meaningfully.

Assignment 1 – Deeper Dive Inquiry (2 of 4), Documentation of the Learning Process

March 29, 2025 / / 0 Comments

🐍 Weekly Reflection: Phase 2 – Leveling Up with Intermediate Python

This week brought a big change on my route to learning Python: progress from the beginner levels to intermediate. Phase 2 emphasized using my understanding of functions, loops, and conditionals in more formal, efficient, and relevant programming knowledge.

Here’s how my week unfolded and what I discovered while diving deeper into Python.

🧱 Object-Oriented Programming (OOP): Making Code Modular

One of the most powerful concepts I learned this week was Object-Oriented Programming. Creating classes and objects felt like a huge step up in organizing code more efficiently. Instead of writing standalone functions, I started thinking in terms of objects with properties and behaviors.

🔍 What I Practiced:

  • Creating a BillCalculator class to encapsulate bill-related logic
  • Using __init__() to initialize object data
  • Adding methods to perform tasks like calculating tax and splitting bills

💡 Reflection:
Thinking in OOP has made my code cleaner, more readable, and easier to expand. I now see how large-scale applications are built using this structure.

📂 File Handling: Storing and Retrieving Data

Next up, I explored reading and writing to files. This was my first step into making programs that actually store information, and it was pretty exciting to save data from my calculator into a .txt file.

🔍 What I Tried:

  • Writing total bills and tax details to a file
  • Reading from files to display saved logs

💡 Reflection:
Now I can log user data, which is huge for building apps that track history or require persistence. I’m also more confident working with file paths and basic I/O errors.

❗ Error Handling: Writing Safer Code

This week, I also explored how to use try-except blocks to make sure my programs don’t crash when things go wrong—like when a user inputs text instead of a number.

🔍 What I Practiced:

  • Catching ValueError for invalid numeric input
  • Displaying helpful messages instead of stack traces

💡 Reflection:
This has made me less afraid of errors. Now, I can handle problems gracefully and provide users with clear feedback, which is key in real applications.

🧪 Challenges I Solved This Week

I pushed myself to solve more complex problems by combining what I learned. A few examples:

  • Refactored my restaurant bill calculator into an OOP structure
  • Logged bill data into a file with automatic tax calculation
  • Handled exceptions gracefully to prevent user crashes

🎯 Next Steps for Phase 3

Heading into Phase 3, I plan to:

  • Start building a larger project that uses everything I’ve learned
  • Explore automation and web scraping
  • Try basic data analysis using pandas
  • Push my skills further with interactive applications (like using Tkinter or Flask)

Assignment 1 – Deeper Dive Inquiry (1 of 4), Documentation of the Learning Process

March 18, 2025 / / 0 Comments

My Python Learning Journey: From Basics to Building Projects 🐍💻

🚀 Introduction: Why I Chose Python?

In my learning plan, I set a goal to learn Python to enhance my career opportunities in technology, automation, and engineering applications. As part of my inquiry-based learning, I have explored Python fundamentals, worked on small projects, and documented my learning along the way.

💡 Why Python?

✔ Easy to learn – Simple syntax, beginner-friendly.

✔ Industry relevance – Used in data analysis, automation, AI, and cloud computing.

✔ Practical applications – Can be used for structural analysis, traffic simulations, and automation tasks.

🔗 Resources I Used:

• Python for Beginners

• W3Schools Python Tutorial

📚 My Learning Process & Key Takeaways

Phase 1: Python Fundamentals

I started with the basics of Python, including

✔ Variables & Data Types

✔ Loops & Conditional Statements

✔ Functions & Error Handling

🛠 Problems I Solved in Phase 1

1️⃣ Problem: Finding the Longer of Two Strings

Task:

• Write a function get_longer(str1, str2) that returns the longer of two strings.

• If both strings are the same length, return the first argument.

💡Key Concept Learned:

✔ Using Python’s built-in len() function to compare string lengths.

✔ Writing conditional logic using if-else statements.

2️⃣ Problem: Calculating Tax on Food & Alcohol

Task:

• Write a function get_tax(food_cost, alcohol_cost) that calculates the total tax on restaurant bills.

• Tax rules:

• Food: 5% GST, 0% PST.

• Alcohol: 5% GST, 10% PST.

• Don’t round the final value.

💡Key Concept Learned:

✔ Handling floating-point arithmetic in Python.

✔ Structuring functions to handle real-world tax calculations.

🚀 Next Steps After Phase 1: Building on the Basics

Phase 2: Expanding into Intermediate Python Concepts

Now that i have understand functions, loops, and conditionals, it’s time to level up by learning:

🔹 Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) – Learn about classes and objects to structure your code better.

🔹 File Handling – Work with reading/writing text files, CSVs, and JSON.

🔹 Error Handling – Learn how to use try-except blocks to make your programs more robust.

🔹 List Comprehensions & Lambda Functions – Write more concise and efficient code.

🔹 Solve More Complex problems

Weekly Reflection 3 : Data Ownership, Datafication, & Cybersecurity, Intro to Accessibility

March 18, 2025 / / 0 Comments

This week in EDCI 136, we explored some big topics—data ownership, cybersecurity, datafication, and an introduction to accessibility. The one most memorable discussion with Dr. Bonnie Stewart was enlightening in terms of the dangers accompanying datafication and the hidden price of living in a digital world.

Technology may easily be seen as a convenience but is also a control system. Every click, every touch, every “I agree” we press becomes part of a multi-layered data economy, one that will at times not work in our favour.

🔍 What is Datafication, and what does it mean to us?

Dr. Stewart characterized datafication as the transformation of human actions into data-everything from Google searches to eye movements on a webpage that can be captured and translated into a profitable business.

Here are the key facts about datafication:

💻 Every digital interaction produces a traceable data footprint

💻 AI algorithms use these patterns to predict and mold our decision-making process

💻 Through data, the governments and the corporations allow the ad use to be controlled.

💡 Personal Insight: I used to think, “I have nothing to hide, so why should I care?” The deeper issue, however, is not privacy-but power. The data we produce belongs to companies, and they use it against us-targeting ads, biased hiring decisions, or even determining who gets financial aid.

Take-home point: Our data is a resource-every bit as precious as oil-and we’re giving it up for nothing.

🔓 Cybersecurity: The Deception of Security

Also this week, we heard from Wency Lum, Associate VP of UVic, regarding cybersecurity. The biggest highlight was that the biggest threat to security is not technology but people.

🛡️ Very Common Cybersecurity Mistakes:
❌ Use identical passwords for a number of accounts
❌ Open phishing mails
❌ Assume that public Wi-Fi is safe
❌ Use social media login (e.g., “Log in with Facebook”)

I have done that before and I suddenly realized after attending this talk that it is really dangerous. If one site’s hacked, all my accounts are vulnerable, which is really bad.

📌What I’m Doing Now:

✅Using a password manager

✅Enabling 2FA on all accounts

✅Being more careful with what I share online


♿ Accessibility & Data: Who’s Being Left Behind?

Another crucial discussion this week was about digital accessibility. The talk with Charlie Watson from the UVic Centre for Accessible Learning highlighted how many digital tools exclude people with disabilities.

🔹 Key Challenges in Digital Accessibility:

🔸 Websites that don’t work with screen readers

🔸 PDFs that are not accessible for visually impaired users

🔸 AI tools that reinforce biases against disabled people

🔹 Personal Insight: I never thought about how frustrating it must be for someone with a disability to navigate the web. Something as simple as poor color contrast or missing alt-text on images can make content completely unusable for someone who is visually impaired.

📌 What I Plan to Do:

✅ Use WAVE Web Accessibility Checker to test websites

✅ Make sure my documents are screen-reader friendly

✅ Be mindful of colour contrast & font choices in my work

Weekly Reflection 2 : AI, Academic Integrity & the Future of Learning

March 16, 2025 / / 0 Comments

EDCI 136’s theme for this week revolved around Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity. And I admit that it got me thinking about how rapidly AI transforms the way we learn, work, and even talk to one another. Interesting ideas were thrown around in the lectures between Lucas Wright & Valerie Irvine, such as how this technology could be harnessed toward productivity but also cautioned about the risk of cognitive offloading as well as distant ethical concerns when using AI in education.

🚀 AI as a Productivity Booster (But at What Cost?)

One of the major highlights of the lecture included Lucas Wright’s demonstration on the AI techniques he uses in his personal daily workflow. Some key examples:

✅ AI-Powered Email Responder – Saves time with summarizing and drafting email responses

✅Initiative AI for Research – Uses Google LM to organize articles into a knowledge repository

✅Custom AI Bots – Allows the creation of GPTs for writing workshop descriptions, Slack messages, and research notes.

At the outset, I was like, “Wow, I need this in my life!” 😲 Then, it struck me-if we are automating everything, are we left with noble thinking skills?

🔹 Personal Insight- I am someone who struggles a lot with managing emails and research, so I can see easily the draw of AI tools. But then, I worry that if I think too much is outsourced to AI, I will not be as engaged with learning and thinking critically. I do not want to just consume AI-generated content; I want to think up ideas actively and create them myself.Also what i personally felt is if you get too used to AI then you start depending on that only rather than doing critical thinking by yourself.

🧐 Food for Thought: Is AI making us smarter-or just making things easier?

🎭 The Ethical Dilemma of AI in Education

Another hot-button issue was AI and integrity in academics: with AI being able to write essays, summarize texts, and cite sources, where does one draw the line?

Key ethical concerns raised include:

⚠️ Originality vs. AI Assistance. If AI helped me draw up a paper outline, is that cheating or just smart use of technology?

⚠️ AI-Generated Generic Content. Valerie Irvine pointed out that AI writing can feel and sometimes lack personal voice.

⚠️ Who Controls AI? Most AIs are developed by the big tech companies; does this lead to biased outputs and, as a consequence, other viewpoints not being represented?

Personal insight: I once used AI to rewrite some part of an essay, and the result was as follows: it was grammatically perfect but lacked personality in its content. This made me realize AI should only be considered a supportive helper, not a full replacement for one’s own thoughts.

✅My AI Rule: Use AI for brainstorming, structuring ideas, and refining drafts—but ensure my own voice remains deeply entrenched in my writing.

Weekly Reflection 1– Digital Citizenship & Literacy Frameworks

February 25, 2025 /

Introduction

This week in EDCI 136, we explored the ideas of digital citizenship and digital literacy frameworks—two topics that are becoming more relevant as we rely more on technology in our daily lives. The discussions, along with the videos we watched, made me think more deeply about my own digital identity and how much trust I place in the online world.

Before this, I hadn’t given much thought to what it really means to be a responsible digital citizen beyond just avoiding bad behavior online. But as I learned more, I realized that digital citizenship is about more than just how we act it’s about the way we interact with information, protect our personal data, and think critically about the digital world around us.

Key Takeaways

The Value of Digital Identity

One of the videos we watched, “The Value of Digital Identity”, highlighted how digital identities are becoming a big part of how we interact with businesses, governments, and even each other. A few things stood out to me:

• Access & Inclusion: Digital identities can help people—especially those in underserved communities—gain access to essential services like banking and healthcare. This made me realize how much I take my digital access for granted.

• Privacy & Security Risks: The more our identities exist online, the more we need to think about protecting them. I don’t always read privacy policies or think about how my data is being used, but this made me want to be more aware.

• Collaboration is Key: Digital identity isn’t just a personal thing—it’s a global issue. Governments, businesses, and users all play a role in shaping how digital identity works, and it’s important that it’s done ethically.

Personal Reflection

I never really thought about digital identity beyond logging into websites or using my social media accounts. But this week made me realize that it’s a much bigger deal. My digital footprint affects everything from how I’m perceived online to how much control I have over my personal information.

One thing that really made me think was how much I trust online platforms without question. I usually just accept cookies on websites without reading what they do, and I’ve signed up for services without really knowing where my data is going. After this week, I want to be more intentional about my online presence.

Another thing that stood out was how important digital literacy is in today’s world. It’s not just about knowing how to use technology—it’s about knowing how to navigate it safely, responsibly, and critically.

How I Plan to Apply This Knowledge

After this week’s discussions and videos, I want to make a few changes:

✅ Be more mindful of privacy settings – I’ll take time to actually review privacy options on the platforms I use and limit how much data I share.

✅ Think critically about the sources I trust – Just because something looks professional doesn’t mean it’s credible. I’ll be more cautious about misinformation.

✅ Learn more about digital ethics – Technology is growing fast, and I want to stay informed about the ethical discussions around AI, digital rights, and data privacy.

Final Thoughts

This week’s topic made me think more deeply about my digital footprint and the responsibility that comes with being online. Being a good digital citizen isn’t just about avoiding cyberbullying or being polite—it’s also about protecting your data, thinking critically, and making informed choices about the technology we use every day.

image showing person walking in pre-painted footprints
Photo by Flickr user jfchenier under CC license: BY-NC 2.0

Welcome and Introduction

January 17, 2025 /

Before proceeding with your first blog post, we expect you to consider your privacy preferences carefully and that you have considered the following options:

  1. Do you want to be online vs. offline?
  2. Do you want to use your name (or part thereof) vs. a pseudonym (e.g., West Coast Student)?
  3. Do you want to have your blog public vs. private? (Note, you can set individual blog posts private or password protected or have an entire blog set to private, but everything but your posts would be public, such as your URL, title, etc.)
  4. Have you considered whether you are posting within or outside of Canada? This blog on opened.ca is hosted within Canada. That said, any public blog posts can have its content aggregated/curated onto social networks outside of Canada.

First tasks you might explore with your new blog:

  • Go into its admin panel found by adding /wp-admin at the end of your blog’s URL
  • Add new category or tags to organize your blog posts – found under “Posts” (but do not remove the pre-existing “Digital Literacy” category or assignment categories, “Inquiry” and “Reflections”). We have also pre-loaded some competencies as categories should you wish to use them to document your learning. If you would like to add more categories, please do so (e.g., add categories to curate materials and learning from your other courses, your hobbies, etc.). You can then build more menus for them. This blog does not have to be all about just this course.
  • If you have consented to have your posts show up on the course blog feed, see if your blog posts are appearing on the feed on the course website (you must have your blog set to public and the course categories assigned to a post first and have provided your instructor with your blog URL). It may take a few hours for your posts to show up once public, so please be patient.
  • Add pages
  • Embed images or set featured images and embed video in blog posts and pages (can be your own media or that found on the internet, but consider free or creative commons licensed works). You cannot use copyrighted photos. If any media does not state its copyright status, then it is considered copyrighted by default. See the course blog about how to find media you can use and how to attribute them. Your lab instructor can help you.
  • Under Appearance,
    • Select your preferred website theme and customize to your preferences (New title, etc.)
    • Customize menus & navigation
    • Use widgets to customize blog content and features
  • Delete this starter post (or switch it to draft status if you want to keep for reference)

Do consider, if creating categories for other courses that  you wish to curate your learning for, that you may wish to use the course topic as the category as opposed to the course number as those outside of your program would not be familiar with the number (e.g., we use “Digital Literacy” instead of “edci136).

Lastly, as always, be aware of the FIPPA as it relates to privacy and share only those names/images that you have consent to use or are otherwise public figures. When in doubt, ask us. Even if you have permission to comment about a person or public figure, consider how what you write impacts their digital footprint as well as yours. Your lab instructors can review any posts you are unsure about.

Please also review the resources from our course website for getting started with blogging:

« Older posts

Attributions

Image Attributions

© 2025 My Digital Domain

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑