Category: Daily Creates

Overview

This week, I focused on creating data visualizations. Since data visualization Daily Creates are not available on the Today’s Daily Create (TDC) website, I had to think of ideas for creating data visualizations myself. First, I created a pie chart on Canva showing the percentages of family’s favourite colours (the % of 7 people who have a certain favourite colour). Later on, I created a bar chart on the temperature in Kelowna compared to the temperature in Victoria, British Columbia.

Daily Creates

Canva Pie Chart on My Family’s Favourite Colours

For this Daily Create, I decided to create a pie chart using Canva on my family’s favourite colours. There are seven people in my family, including my parents, my three siblings, and my partner (who I included so there would be more people involved for more data). As can be seen from the pie chart, 3 out of 7 (42.9%) people in my family favour the colour blue, 1 out of 7 (14.3%) favours the colour purple, 1 out of 7 (14.3%) favours the colour red, and another 1 out of 7 (14.3%) has the favourite colour red.

Canva Bar Chart on Temperature in Kelowna vs. Victoria

In this next Daily Create, I decided to create a bar chart on Canva to show the temperature in degrees Celsius (℃) in Kelowna and Victoria, British Columbia from June 29th to July 1st. Sometimes I like to compare the weather between where I live in Kelowna and where my family lives in Victoria. I wanted to know what the weather might be like anyways as I plan to go out between those dates. It’s interesting to see how as it gets cooler here between the 29th and the 1st, it gets warmer in Victoria. I used the Apple Weather app on my phone to get this data.

Instagram Poll on Preference for Tea or Coffee

For the final Daily Create this week, I posted an Instagram poll on my Instagram story and set it for only friends to see. I asked a few of my friends to fill out the poll. The Instagram poll idea is something I saw another classmate do, so I thought I would try it out myself. The poll asks a simple question of whether my friends prefer tea or coffee. Three of my friends answered the poll. Two out of three (67%) prefer coffee, while one person prefers tea (33%).

Reflection

This week, I used two different platforms and three different ways to represent/visualize data. This reflected several course concepts, including the data visualization principles. Overall, I think my Daily creates help to show patterns and ideas that may be harder to grasp without the use of data visualization.

Across each of my Daily Creates, I used the data visualization principle of keeping it simple. This principle states that I should avoid making highly elaborate and complicated charts and that I should use common charts that people are familiar with (Madland, 2026). Additionally, it states that I should avoid using 3D charts as they can distort the image and how the user perceives the data (Madland, 2026). For the first two Daily Creates, I used common charts like pie charts and bar charts. Across all of my Daily Creates I used simple colours and smaller datasets to make it easier to visualize and understand.

I made sure to use appropriate data visualizations for each of my Daily Creates. This aligns with the data visualization principle outlined by Madland (2026), which explains that one should use visualizations that are appropriate for the type of data that is being shown. I used a pie chart to show the percentage of people in my family who favour a certain colour out of multiple colours. And I chose to use a bar chart with proper colour coding to show a comparison between temperatures in Victoria and temperatures in Kelowna. The bar chart can also show a pattern on whether the temperature is increasing or decreasing in each location. Finally, the Instagram poll was used both for the collection of data from peers and for visualization as it shows a simple question asking for my friends’ preference for tea or coffee. It also shows the percentage of those who answered “tea” and those who answered “coffee”. Using two comparison bars (one for “tea” and one for “coffee”, the bars fill up to visually show which option was chosen more.

For each of my Daily Creates, I labeled axes and data visualizations clearly so that viewers could easily understand what is being presented. This aligns with the principle to label clearly (Madland, 2026). For example, in the bar chart, I labelled the y-axis as “Temperature in Degrees Celsius (℃)”, making sure to show the units, and I labelled the x-axis as “Date in the Year 2026” to specify the year. I also labelled the data bars with numbers to specify the exact temperature represented by each bar. Finally, I used colour coding labels to specify which colour belongs to which city (Kelowna or Victoria).

For the pie chart, I made sure to use colour intentionally. I made sure to use different colours that are easy to distinguish between each other, without making use of too many colours. This aligns with the principle that states colour should be used to highlight important data and make data visualization appealing, while also not being overwhelming with too many colours or inconsistencies (Madland, 2026). I matched the colour on the pie chart to the colour mentioned in the data labels to make it clearer and more consistent for those viewing it.

Finally, across all of my Daily Creates, I provided context and told a story through text associated with the data visualizations. In my bar chart and Instagram poll, I clearly stated where I got the data source from (Apple Weather and Instagram apps). I also provided context for the data in each of my charts with information like units of measurement, including percentages and degrees Celsius. This aligns with the principle to “provide context for the data by including relevant information such as units of measurement and a description of the data source” (Madland, 2026). Moreover, I told a story to communicate a message in my bar chart Daily Create, sharing how I like to compare the weather between my city and my family’s city and how I wanted to check the weather in Kelowna so I may go out between those dates. For each of my Daily Creates, I use titles for my data to provide the key takeaways. This shows that I used the data visualization principle to tell a story, which means to communicate a message and use titles to explain key takeaways regarding the data (Madland, 2026).

References

Madland, C. (2026, June 15). Week 6a – June 15. EDCI337 Mirror Site. https://cmadland.github.io/edci337/posts/jun-15/

Overview

For this week’s Daily Creates, I focused on creating three different forms of multimedia, text, image, and audio. These Daily Creates can be found on the Today’s Daily Create (TDC) website. I first wrote a poem on sunshine, then I took a photo of an object that is meaningful to me, and finally I made an audio recording of me saying a phrase in a language I do not speak.

Daily Creates

When Life Gives You Sunshine

This Daily Create asked me to create a poem beginning with the line “When life gives you sunshine”. I gave it a shot, speaking about how beautiful the sun is when it shines upon the earth, and how something so simple is worth enjoying in the moment before the sunshine disappears.

Meaningful Object

This next Daily Create asked me to show or describe an object in my house that is meaningful to me. I decided to share a photo of my childhood favourite stuffed bear. I grew up with this bear for many years of my childhood, and he has followed me during many lifetime adventures. I used to bring him to and from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (my childhood town) to Victoria, British Columbia, and places in-between when my family and I would visit relatives during holidays. I’d take him on the bus, in the car, to restaurants, and stores. I’m quite glad I never lost this stuffed bear and have kept him until this day.

Introduce Yourself in a Language You Do Not Speak

This Daily Create instructed me to choose a language I do not speak and say “Hello, my name is [my name]. I am okay.” It said I can use Google Translate to translate it, then I can listen to the pronunciation, practice saying it, then record myself saying it. I chose to say the phrase in Gujarati, as I cannot speak it but my partner speaks it. I used both Google Translate and his help to say it. It translates to “Namaste, maaru naam Janae chhe. Hu thik chhu.”

Reflection

The Daily Creates this week reflect multiple course concepts. I used different forms of media (text, image, and audio), and each of these formats contribute to learning and allowing for expression in different ways.

The first Daily Create with the poem on sunshine made me think of active processing. According to Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, learners think of logical meaning through “an active process of filtering, selecting, organizing, and integrating information” (Granchelli, 2025b). Writing the poem required me to select and filter words that relate to warmth, memorable experiences, and the beauty of sunshine then organize this into a poem, integrating the meaning of the poem into words.

The “meaningful object” Daily Create relates to dual coding theory. The photo of my childhood stuffed bear allows for visualization of the object, while the text provides meaning to the object in the photo. Dual coding theory is where two separate channels of information (language and images) can be processed by the brain at the same time as one system of the brain processes language and the other processes images (Granchelli, 2025b). Schnotz (2022, as cited in Granchelli, 2025a), states that learners learn better through words and pictures together than words by themself. The photo on its own just looks like a old teddy bear in a chair, but with the text, the photo suddenly has a deeper meaning associated with it.

Finally, the Daily Create on recording myself speaking in Gujarati made me think of accessibility and Universal Design of Learning (UDL). I do not speak the language, but I was able to use Google Translate as a support tool as I did not just rely on text, but I listened to the audio of it to understand how to pronounce it. This aligns with the UDL guideline of providing multiple means of representation, as having multiple learning formats such as both text and audio helped meet my learning needs and contributed to my learning better. As stated by Granchelli (2026), in regards to providing multiple means of representation, things like providing visual and auditory channels for processing information such as alt tags, captions, transcripts, and user controls allow for customizable learning.

References

Granchelli, A. (2025a, September 11). Text and image: The sum is greater than its parts. EDCI 337: Interactive & Multimedia Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/11/text-and-image-the-sum-is-greater-than-its-parts/

Granchelli, A. (2025b, September 5). Theories of multimedia learning. EDCI 337: Interactive & Multimedia Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/05/theories-of-multimedia-learning/

Granchelli, A. (2026, May 6). Accessible multimedia. EDCI 337: Interactive & Multimedia Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2026/05/06/accessible-multimedia/

Overview

This week, I completed three Daily Creates on the Today’s Daily Create (TDC) website. I started by taking a video of something unusual during a nature walk. Then I shared a video of something that I think is fast. Finally, I attempted to make the “most boring video ever” by reading a instruction pamphlet aloud. After completing the Daily Creates, I wrote a reflection on how I believe this could align with multimedia learning.

Daily Creates

Something Unusual During Your Walk

For this Daily Create, I was instructed to go on a nature walk and look for something unusual in an obscure place. This weekend, I went on a hike up Spion Kop trail. Along the way, I came across this moth that was sitting in the middle of the trail on a rock. An interesting and unexpected place to sit in the way of the path, but a nice warm sunny spot to rest indeed. It did not move an inch until I got way too close for comfort, then it flew away, revealing its blue wings.

It’s Fast

This Daily Create asked me to share a video of something speedy. I thought of everything from cars to cheetahs, but eventually my mind came to the idea of this video (see below). The video follows an iguana as it races across the sand on the Galapagos Islands, as it is chased by dozens of racer snakes, snakes that are well known to be fast. The iguana was so fast it was able to escape the racer snakes.

Make the Dullest Video Evah

Finally, I attempted to make the dullest video ever. Surprisingly, it was harder to think of how to make this video than I thought. It took a bit of brainstorming to find something boring enough! I eventually came to the decision to read something like terms and conditions, as I think most people can agree that they are boring to read. I found a pamphlet for a cardmember agreement with other important information and saw the first page was a table of contents. I thought to myself, “This is perfect! Not only do people not want to read something like this, but they would not want to hear the table of contents written out loud in full.” I made sure to read it in a monotonous voice for better effect. It made for the perfect boring video − so boring that I started feeling drowsy while reading it out loud.

Reflection

The Daily Creates from this week indicate how information, emotions, and stories can be shared and communicated. Not only do these videos share these contexts, but they also can support information communicated through text. For example, the first Daily Create about the moth shares a story through text about how I came across a moth on the Spion Kop trail, while the video supports this text with visualization of the moth. This allows viewers and readers to better understand and visualize the context. It also relates to the course concept of storytelling. Looking at the video alone does not make the context clear. It simply just looks like a moth on a rock. But this video can turn into a story when accompanied by text. This aligns with the idea that “[s]tories can engage us on a deeper level than simple facts” (Granchelli, 2025b).

The “It’s Fast” Daily Create relates to storytelling in another way. It would be pretty difficult and lengthy to explain the story of how the iguana escaped the snakes, what direction it ran, and every event that happened leading up to it. It would also be less engaging if it were not recorded, unless written very dramatically, nor would it be as believable. This aligns with storytelling in which storytelling helps learners to “imagine situations that they haven’t yet encountered, put information in context and hold on to key messages longer” (Granchelli, 2025b).

Finally, the dullest video ever Daily Create aligned with other concepts. I had to consider several ideas before I finally made a decision on what to record in my video. In this case, I used divergent thinking as it involves exploring and considering multiple options or possibilities in order to think of ideas (Granchelli, 2025a). Also reading through the pamphlet reminded me of extraneous cognitive load. The video of the pamphlet goes against the extraneous cognitive load principle of redundancy, as it is involves word-for-word narration of text. As Granchelli (2025c) states, repeating information in more than one multimedia form should be avoided in order to avoid extraneous load. For example, presenting slides with paragraphs of text and reading that text aloud causes extraneous load and therefore, slides should be simplified while narration provides details (Granchelli, 2025c). I think this is the main reason that the video is considered boring, as it requires high cognitive load to stay focused on what is being presented, with the text-heavy page and the narration which provides no added information that may be more interesting or engaging for the listener.

References

Granchelli, A. (2025a, October 6). Design process. EDCI 337: Interactive & Multimedia Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/10/06/design-process/

Granchelli, A. (2025b, September 14). Storytelling. EDCI 337: Interactive & Multimedia Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/14/storytelling/

Granchelli, A. (2025c, September 5). Theories of multimedia learning. EDCI 337: Interactive & Multimedia Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/05/theories-of-multimedia-learning/

Overview

This week, I created three images following instructions in the activities on the Today’s Daily Create (TDC) website. First, I turned a photo of my TV stand into an image of a monster using my phone. Then, I created an imitation photogram using my phone camera and a glass table. Finally, I took a photo of an everyday object that appears to be spying or surveilling me, my vacuum.

Daily Creates

Monster Art

For this Daily Create, the instructions asked me to turn a photo into monster art. Long before knowing about this daily create, I noticed my TV stand looked like its cabinet knobs were eyes and the shelf were a mouth. I decided I would take a photo of it and bring to life what I had imagined. It looks like the monster is hungry for DVDs and video game cartridges.

Photogram It

This Daily Create asked me to make a digital photogram without special paper or chemicals, so I placed objects in my house on a glass table and took a photo from underneath it. Then I edited the photo to make it black and white. Usually photograms have a black background with white objects, but some can be made to have a white background with black objects much like this photo I made.

Add a Subtle Bit of Surveillance to an Every Day Object

This Daily Create had instructions stating to create a photo of an everyday object that looks like it has the capacity for surveillance (e.g., with cameras, wires, microphones, or sensors in it). I saw my vacuum cleaner in the corner in the living room and took a photo of it. It sure looks like it’s surveilling my every move.

Reflection

In multimedia, images are often used to communicate ideas, stories, knowledge, and emotions. It also helps viewers grasp a better understanding on what is being communicated by visualizing things that support text. Creating these images for the Daily Creates opened my eyes towards how everyday objects and photos can be transformed to bring meaning, especially if these images are photographed or edited to create or support that meaning. For example, the TV stand monster art helped me to understand how meaning can be assigned to an image. This idea connects to the course concept that “students usually learn better from words and pictures than from words alone” (Schnotz, 2022, p.92, as cited in Granchelli, 2025b). While my Daily Creates are mostly image-based, the explanations and text associated with each image help to provide context that can make it easier for others to understand.

My TV stand monster was edited to give it meaning and text supported it within this blog. Same goes for the vacuum, as the text suggests a story behind the image, where the vacuum is spying on or surveilling me. These Daily Creates can be tied to dual coding theory where two separate parts of the brain process text and visual information (Granchelli, 2025b). The image I made provided meaning while the text explained the creativity and meaning behind it.

Finally, the photogram activity required active processing from my end, as I had to think about the correct angle to use, what objects would look nice in the photo, and how to make the photo look like a photogram. Granchelli (2025a) states that active processing involves “filtering, selecting, organizing, and integrating information”. I researched information online about what photograms are and how they are created, then I selected the objects to include in the photo, and organized them on the table. This contributed to my learning on how to create images, combined with my new understanding on how images can create meaning.

References

Granchelli, A. (2025a, September 5). Theories of multimedia learning. EDCI 337. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/05/theories-of-multimedia-learning/

Granchelli, A. (2025b, September 11). Text and image: The sum is greater than its parts. EDCI 337. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/11/text-and-image-the-sum-is-greater-than-its-parts/

Overview

This week, I worked on creating three audio-related media based on the activities on the Today’s Daily Create (TDC) website. I first created an image using Google’s Seeing Music experiment, where I sung into the microphone as the platform transformed my singing into art. I then made an audio recording of me pronouncing the word Floccinaucinihilification. Finally, I recorded an audio of machines and attempted to write about what kind of conversations they would be having with one another if they could speak.

My Daily Creates

Visualize the Music

Pronounce This

Machine Conversations

I imagine these cars passing by like businesspeople who know each other in a neighbourhood or in an urban setting on their way to work − the same way I believe I’ve seen businessmen do in old movies.

Two cars stop at a stoplight and begin to converse.

“Why hello Ms. Mercedes, how do you do?” said the black Volvo.

“Oh I am exceptionally well, Mr. Volvo! How are you on this fine morning?” said the blue Mercedes.

“Never better, ma’am! Just heading down to the office to drop off my human at work. Beautiful asphalt we’re having!”

“Marvelous pavement indeed! Brand new blacktop, not a single pothole. Say hi to the Missus for me! You both should stop by for a quart of oil one of these evenings.”

Reflection

The first Daily Create I did this week was creating an image of art using Google’s Seeing Music experiment, where I sung into the microphone as the platform transformed my singing into art. I first used Merrill’s First Principle of Demonstration to read/watch a tutorial on the platform so I knew how to use the tool. I then used Merrill’s First Principle of Application as I applied my new knowledge to using the tools and creating art from my voice. I noticed that the lines of art drawn on the page followed the pitch of my voice as I sang. It took a few tries to be able to screenshot the art being created, as the created art did not stop when I stopped recording − instead, the page simply kept rolling until the canvas turned onto a blank piece of paper and the art went off the page. However, practicing and trying again allowed me to use active learning, both in my singing and using the tool.

The second Daily Create I did was pronouncing the word Floccinaucinihilification. I had to practice this a few times before pressing record because I was utterly confused as to how to pronounce the word. I did not watch or listen to a demonstration of the pronunciation as I wanted to guess how to pronounce it based on reading it alone. I recorded it and attached it to this blog post. Unfortunately, I was not that close to pronouncing it right as I later found out that the word was spelled incorrectly on the Today’s Daily Create (TDC) website. The actual word is Floccinaucinihilipilification. Perhaps I pronounced it correctly if Floccinaucinihilification were the correct word in another world? Either way, after multiple attempts I think I put active learning into practice until I believed I was pronouncing the word to the best of my ability.

Finally, I recorded an audio of machines − that is, cars − and attempted to write about what kind of conversations they would be having with one another if they could speak. These cars were passing by outside my partner’s house on a busy street. It was hard to think of a conversation that they would be having, but my previous experiences with creative writing during last week’s Daily Creates helped. This allowed me to apply Merrill’s First Principles of Application and maybe even Integration as I applied my learnings and continue to integrate it into my work at university.

One thing I had trouble with during these Daily Creates was turning my M4A audio files on my Macbook into MP3 files to upload onto this blog. I did some research which required passive reading online, and then put it into practice only to find out certain things did not align with what I found online. For example, I could not find an option to download the M4A file from the Voice Memos app to the files on my computer, although it stated to do so online. However, I did eventually figure out that I could drag and drop it into my desktop, and then go online to an M4A to MP3 converter and download the converted file. This ultimately required quite a bit of active learning.

Overview

Hello everyone and welcome to the first post of my blog! This week, I explored creating texts based on challenges found on the Today’s Daily Create (TDC) website for my course, Interactive and Multimedia Learning (EDCI 337).

I spent time going through three of the Writing Daily Creates, which led me to create a poem on a lost sock, a story where words and phrases are built in alphabetical order, and a thought-provoking description of what silence is, as can be found below.

Creating these texts allowed me to explore my creative side, gain insights on the challenges, and learn how to create engaging texts, and I would like to share them with you!

My Daily Creates

National Lost Sock Memorial Day

Write an Alphabet Story

At night,
Beatrix the witch went into the yard where her
Cauldron could be found. Her witch friends shortly joined her, bringing
Dreadful objects for their midnight spell, including bats, frogs, jars of flies, and snakes.
Each witch gathered in a circle around the cauldron.
Finally, they chanted their spell:
“Goblins and trolls,
Harrowing souls,
Illness and pain, don’t come again.
Joy shall be brought,
Kindness shall reign, and
Love and life will be brought once again”. Then the witches threw in the ingredients, and
Mashed up a soup
Night turned to day,
Owls fell asleep,
Packing up the soup into a covered bowl, the witches went to the
Queen, who lay ill in bed. As they fed her the soup her cheeks turned
Rose once again, and life returned to her eyes.
She delightedly drank the soup, and
Thanked her friends.
Upon her wake and healing, she
Vowed to protect the witches from inquisitors and return their favour
With gratitude everlasting.

Describe in Writing for Someone Who Cannot Hear, the Feeling of Silence

Silence is the absence of a particular sound of importance.
You may hear noises in the background, the whirring of the lights above you, the sounds of cars outside a window, the sound of your own breath.
But these sounds are unnoticeable as your mind focuses on finding a sound of importance, perhaps a voice of a friend or family member, or the sound of the telephone ringing as you wait for an important call.
Not noticing the unimportant background sounds is as easy as not noticing that you are blinking every few seconds. But once you become aware, it is no longer silent.

Reflection on My Daily Creates

General Observations

This week in the Interactive and Multimedia Learning course (EDCI 337), I started with the poem of a lost sock for “National Lost Sock Memorial Day”. Upon first glance of the instructions on the website, I felt a little overconfident, thinking this would be super easy to finish. Five minutes in, and I barely had three lines on the page! I found myself contemplating too much on what to write about, and eventually decided to just wing it and make it up as I go. I found the less I stressed about what to write, the more fun I had and the easier and better the poem came out to be. To me, this is interesting because the more I actually started to enjoy the work and not perceive it as a chore, the “easier” the task felt.

The next thing I started working on was writing an Alphabet story, as specified under “Write an Alphabet Story” on the TDC website. Here, I wrote a story where words and phrases were formulated in alphabetical order at the start of each line. Surprisingly, I found this activity to be slightly less challenging, as I think I started to get into the flow of writing things. I happened to be writing each of the texts on the same day which allowed me to have a continuous learning experience. However, one thing to note about this task is that I did spend a bit more time on it overall as I started to enjoy the activity and got a bit carried away. Nonetheless, I think as I started to get more into the flow of writing, my mind shifted from extraneous cognitive load and intrinsic cognitive load to more germane cognitive load.

Alignment with Theories of Multimedia Learning

During the first task (the lost sock poem), I found difficulty in deciding how to structure my poem. Since I had little to no experience in writing poems, it required more intrinsic cognitive load for me to figure out what to write in the poem. I also had to think about answers to the questions, which were very open-ended, such as “Who lost the sock? Where did it go? Who found it? Is there a happy ending?” (The DS106 Daily Create, 2026). Additionally, there were no instructions in the activity as to how to structure the poem. The design of these questions and lack of instructions in this Daily Create required more extraneous cognitive load from my end.

As I transitioned to working on the Alphabet story, not only did I already have prior practice in writing after the first task, but I had a laid out template to follow the alphabetical order. This reduced extraneous cognitive load for me along with a bit of intrinsic cognitive load. While it was a bit tricky to piece together words starting with letters and connect them, I could make the lines as long as I wanted until I thought of a word that worked with the next letter. This suggests that intrinsic load was not fully eliminated, as the task was still fairly challenging, but it was definitely easier than the previous task. For this task, I used more germane cognitive load as my learnings from both writings became more integrated into my long term memory. I say they became a part of my long term memory because this was one of my first experiences with creative writing in a long time and I really enjoyed it, ultimately leading this to be a more memorable experience for me.

The final writing activity I did was writing a description of what silence is. In this activity, I had to describe silence as if I’m describing it to someone who cannot hear. I found this activity to be the easiest because the instructions were quite straightforward and at this point I had a lot more practice with creative writing. I made it up as I went along and ended up going from a simple description of silence to a thought-provoking message of how “silence” is not always exactly silent as it is easy to tune out background noise. I think by the time I got to this final writing task, I used the least amount of extraneous cognitive load as I was more familiar with the activity style.

References

The DS106 Daily Create. (2026, May 9). tdc5230 #ds106 #dailycreate National Lost Sock Memorial Day. https://daily.ds106.us/tdc5230/