We have used various tools in this class throughout the semester some of which were familiar and some of which were new. To begin with, zoom was a new tool which i had to use this semester for my online classes. Zoom was a pretty conventional tool which was used by people all over the world. The positives of this tool was that most times than not it had a good stable connection and did not cut off unlike skype which i had used in the past. Not only that it was very pleasing to use because it was not that much of a hassle and it was not to technical you only needed to login once and then just join the class via the link that was sent, also the accessibility of the tool made it easy to use and it did not have to be accessed from one device. The only thing i did not like about this tool is that midway of using this tool i read an article that stated that zoom was not a secure platform to use and that what was being written in the private chat between two people could be seen by the host of the conference call. Another tool which was new to me was the google sites tool that i used in another class. I did not like the tool that much but i have to say it felt a bit more organised than blackboard. But one of its downsides is that some documents could not be downloaded unless the creator of the site would allow us. For example in that class in order to access the syllabus i had to open the google sites each time and i could not zoom in unless the entire internet window was zoomed in. A third tool/application that was new to me was Slack. Before taking this course i had never heard about slack. i felt like slack was easy to use but i did not feel like it was a great communication tool because it would not notify me if any messages were sent even though the notifications for the application was turned on hence i missed a lot of important messages because of this minor mishap. Fourth platform/website that was is the hypothesis tool. this was the tool that i did not like the most because it was too much of a hassle and was not easy to use at first. For example every time i had to use the platform i had to sign in because it would not save my credentials for some reason and then i would have to login/access the unbound equity group in order to read the articles that were posted, and sometimes when i would annotate the article the highlight or annotation would not post. I feel like something like google docs which enables us to leave comments would have been more efficient to use. Lastly, i used a new tool for networking with other people from the world called thecn.com, its called course networking. At first the site was a bit unfamiliar and tedious to use because we had to set up a new profile for ourselves to be able to communicate with the other members. And also there was a little bit of new stuff which one had to understand about the site in order to use and get familiar with. This website was good because it had served its purpose of allowing us to communicate efficiently with people we have never met before. for example it did not ask us to create a profile using our facebook account which I would have felt uncomfortable to do because the people we were communicating with were complete strangers. Also the one thing i liked about the platform/tool is that every time a member of our classroom or group would comment or post something on the class “wall” it would send us an email notifying us. In the end, the tools that i would use again in the future are slack but i would have to fix this notification issue and zoom for online conferences and meetings.

1. to begin with one of the most beneficial assignments that i have done in this course is without a doubt the digital literacies pathway and especially when i chose the taught pathway because it taught me about things that i did not know where there. for example one of the tools that i will use in the future which i learned from this assignment is the office lens application, and also i learned about education learning and one of the best ways to learn is in 25-5 increments where you study for 25 mins straight with no distractions and then take a 5 min break. i will definitely be checking out the all aboard website again to reread these two stations and look at the other stations as well link . Also i truly learned the difference between digital literacies and digital skills and it was reinforced throughout the semester especially while doing the digital literacy pathway assignment. Another assignment i liked and would recommend is reflecting on movies or related videos such as the Great Hack movie reflection, because it was interesting to watch the movie and at the same time it was relatable because everyone is using facebook and could be affected in the same way. Moreover, i learned a lot about the creative common searches and websites and will for sure be using them later on in my life and career to avoid copyright issues and be able to obtain high quality content such as pictures and videos.
2. If i were to show someone what i learned in this course would be the digital literacy blog because it was one of the most enjoyable assignments. Second would be the game me and my teammate created where we would put others in real life situations. thirdly, this assignment was extremely easy and did not take long but for some reason i enjoyed it because i was able to portray myself in a way that others did not see and show them the different perspectives that i had, and that the altCV assignment.
3. First I would change the multitude of platforms that are being used in this class because it feels like we are using to many to communicate and do assignments and it would be much better for us to find a well rounded platform that could be used instead and perform all those functions or most of them to lessen the amount of applications being used. Another thing i would change or include is include more online video conferences with teachers and students from all over the world because it was interesting to talk to them and gain a perspective of how they were able to cope with these circumstances. Also i would add more hands on assignments or small tips like the ones in the digital literacies pathway assignment. For example you would make the students finish one station on the all aboard website weekly as an assignment, this is because it was beneficial and you were learning something new even though it was minor, meaning that it would give you an introduction about the topic and tips about it and it also broadens ones digital literacies and skills
4. there should not be a kind of person for someone to take this course, only as long as they show interest in technology and security and their wellbeing as well as others.

Step 1: Digital Confidence Profile

this is a screenshot that shows my digital confidence profile, throughout the semester i have worked with different tools but if i would take the digital confidence test again i feel it would be somewhat still similar, yet i feel like there is a lot more to learn with technology.

Step 2: Reflection of article

The main point of the article is to highlight the difference two highly related ideas and are often thought to be the same but are two different things. Digital skills refers to the ability for a person to use a platform or application, the “what and how”; while digital literacies relates more to awareness and the “why, when, who, and for whom.” In my opinion i do believe that one must learn digital literacies before digital skills because digital literacies will make you take the decision of whether or not to learn the necessary digital skills to use the platform. So it is like doing you homework beforehand and not throwing yourself into a whole that will be somewhat impossible to get out of. Which is somewhat true because of the privacy issues that some platforms and applications have as well as the use not having the skill and literacy to receive their information that they had put on that application. I do have some strengths in using technology which is the ability to use it with ease but I do believe that I still have a long way to go with technology since its a huge field and very hard to learn everything in it.

Step 3: Digital literacy goals

Some of my goals include becoming more proficient in using applications and gaining awareness of the terms and conditions that these platforms use. More importantly, i would like to be able to surf the internet better and more efficiently, use microsoft office applications proficiently, and learn a bit of coding and programming.

Step 4 :T-Pathway

So I chose to go with the taught pathway because it seemed more interesting and as a curious person i always like to learn. To begin with the way all aboard stations all seem interesting and is not just centred around one topic. I chose to do the online security learning module and I liked it very much because it was simple and interactive. But the most important factor that i liked about it is that it taught me about online security in an easy manner and in which i could easily understand and gave me tips which i will actually use and modify my current passwords. The second pathway that i chose was the tools for learning pathways. eventhough some of the tools that were covered in the lecture are being used already it gave me new one such as the office lens which i never knew about. It also gave me tips on how to be able to study more effectively and efficiently by working for 30 mins and take a short 5 min break or so.

All in all i feel like the pathway that i have chosen was extremely beneficial and i will be doing more than just those two. Also it would be much better to have done this in the beginning of the semester and then track our progress throughout the semester and later on in life for those who are interested. And it could be done again by the end of semester for the students to gain more knowledge. Also i feel like this knowledge should be shared with everyone and made mandatory by the university for everyone to know because some of the knowledge gained could have been extremely helpful when I had begun university.

My game that i finished with Randa Tawfik is about social distancing in the times of the pandemic where the player is faced with a multitude of situations/scenarios and he must choose whether to do the action or not in order to maintain social distancing protocols to lessen his chance of getting the virus. The game was modified to include real world scenarios where we had personally gone through and we included them in the game to see if the player had went through similar situations or not. The one thing i would have done differently if i had more time is that i would have searched more ways to make the game more appealing and looked for a platform which i can build the game on so it can make the game more interactive and feel more like a game. one of the things i learned from this game is that people have went through similar situations, and the other is how we were able to link the slides together.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GvO20bOcehjyJs1J0du5W7ouCkmvw9LafZTEAfWd32A/edit#slide=id.p

After watching the short video, most of the tips that they provided were either already being done or could not be applied. For example, some applications in order to work well would need my geographic location such as the fitness app, so i would be somewhat forced to turn on the location setting. And in my opinion if you turn on one setting for one app then you have already given them everything you need because they all “feed” of off each other and take the necessary information from each other, what i mean is that if you dont want to give the information to a certain app then it will opt you to sign in with facebook and if you do so then you have given it everything it needed, and if you dont do so the app wont work as efficiently. Something else i take notice of and will be more careful of in the future is tagging people in my posts. Lastly, every now and then i clean up my phone in order to delete apps that I no longer use so they dont keep collecting data on me and take up space on the phone.

This is the second time I watch this movie and I would like to say it is just as interesting the second time as it was the first time. It is truly remarkable how a company is able to “mine” data from millions of people and was able to alter and influence their behaviour during the elections. The eery part is that application users who do not read the terms and conditions of these applications are the most vulnerable because they are the ones in which their data is being collected and used against them. Not only so, it just shows how powerful technology companies can be if they are left unregulated and how the most valuable asset in the world is data and information about people. Moreover, it is truly outstanding how these applications are able to make its users subconsciously submit their own data at their own will and not know what is being done with it by the companies because they are completely oblivious of what is being done with the data. Furthermore, the documentary comes to show how the rich pursue only their self-interest with complete disregard of others people safety and wellbeing and how companies are trying to increase their profits by any means necessary. In addition, it is scary how a company such as Cambridge Analytica is able to use something so harmless and be able to change a nations pathway as they did in America and Trinidad and Tobago. Nonetheless, the documentary uncovers how important data privacy and security is in this day and age. It also raises questions about what are these companies such as Facebook and google are doing to protect our data? What are the ethical policies and procedures that are implemented to prevent something like this from happening? Also, what policies are being passed in order to regulate big technology companies and prevent them from selling users data? In the end, it is good that people had risked their lives in order to bring down a company that was on its way to becoming a tech goliath that would have been impossible to stand in front and confront them later on from how big and how powerful they would have been.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yFz0H1jgUfGQsNxqkWiC5mDe_hhLyt0bhBOGdkybmWc/edit?ts=5ea04a00

*we have finished 18 scenarios so far and we still have not put them in slides because we are still trying to figure it out because we have a bit of trouble doing it, but in the final draft it will be included in the google slides. My partner is Randa Tawfik

SPENT – http://playspent.org/

Playing SPENT was an eye opener, it shows how difficult life can be while being poor in america can be and how devastating ones life can be. SPENT puts you into a similar situation and it challenges you to survive a month while being poor. It sounded easy in the beginning because I am studying accounting and I somewhat know how to manage my expenses, but right away it challenges you to make tough decisions such as the insurance payment and rent payment. And then it hits you with real life situations like choosing a job and whether to buy your kid a gift or not. And based on the choices that you make, statistics pop up to show you that people are actually living like that and that there are people who are less unfortunate than you. It also gives you a holistic experience, where if you try and do something for your child it brings up how it will affect your work and life. Suggestions on improving the game would include giving players more options, for example why am i forced with one mode of transportation (car) even though i know its not economically feasible, also why did not let me search for another job after I was fired, and why wasn’t I able to take the bus after my car was towed. Its small stuff like that could have changed the game completely. I felt empathetic because it had put me in a poor persons choose and the decisions that they face, and how hard the world can be.

BBC Syrian Refugee – https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32057601

This game shows you the life of a Syrian refugee trying to make it to a safe haven. I feel like the game was short and did not give me many options that could be faced by a refugee when fleeing, but some of the choices made in this game made it short. But when i played it again i had the same fate of losing most of money and once i was stranded in Turkey, and once i was left in a refugee camp. I learned that being a refugee is hard because many countries will not allow you to enter their homeland even though international law gives you the right to enter a country. A suggestion on improving the game would be to make it longer and have more options, for example if i want to stay in turkey or europe what would happen then and the repercussions, cause the essence of a refugee is to flee is home and go to another country and stay there, so if i had already made it to turkey why not stay there and try and become a resident.

Depression Quest – http://www.depressionquest.com/

This game aims to put you in the shoes of a depressed person. the reason i did not like this game because it was not very interactive and it contained a lot of reading to do, which is very unusual in a game. I did not feel what a depressed person is like because it was not able to show me quiet well and it would’ve been better to include some pictures or statistics. I recommend that the game gets a major redesign and get a much better interactive interphase and a better flow rather than just ask you questions and you pick the choice. Also the game is longer than it should be for its intended purpose which is to raise awareness about depression.

Project Honduras –https://www.trocaire.org/education/project-honduras

The game was about helping locals in time of uncertain weather conditions and to raise awareness about climate change. The game was fun to play and somewhat high paced because you had to try and allocate your volunteers to the best jobs that would benefit the locals as a whole. A problem is that at first the time keeping was clear enough and I had to race against the time to read everyone situation to be able to allocate the volunteers to the best jobs possible. A change that I would make to this game is to have a clock to race against instead of the sun graphic. Also if it was more interactive it would have been better, for example instead of sending volunteers we could have sent supplies or aid of any sort.

Single Moms – https://oldinklewriter.inklestudios.com/stories/fzvq

I didn’t feel like this was a game because it was just a series of events unfolding and telling me what would happen if you choose an option from the two options given. Also not all events must unfold like that so it felt like the events where narrow and not full of options. Also the game was extremely short. In my opinion it was not much of a game like i said, rather is was picking one option of the two options given and seeing what happens.

Know Yourself – https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfifJhjetTC2YS3gJ-QHtbfYG_PNcpjy6d4WWT1KrgG9RHveg/viewform

Again similar to the “game” above. i dont feel like this is a game because it is just asking a series of questions and you end up choosing from the listed options, and the result you pick will is not going to be the correct one since they always made up an assumption about the scenario that was not even listed, so it does not tell anything about my personality.

overall i feel that the SPENT game was the most fun and somewhat challenging out of all of them because there was actually a challenge and the time span of the game was just right, meaning it was not to long or to short to play. And the options that it gave us was more than the other games at every level/choice. Even though most of the games were trying to raise awareness i believe SPENT is still best at raising awareness about poverty in america because it puts you in a poor persons shoes, and actually provides the player with real world statistics.

There has been a lot of memes, videos, news circulating the internet related to the corona virus. Some of which are funny and some of which are outright dehumanising and sad. One video that I saw which had influenced me was the video of the Chinese man that was harassed when he was riding his Uber and was let out of the car in the middle of the ring road and was left to run around like a lost dog searching for help, only to be made fun of and no one to help him. One comment that struck me the most in the comment section said “when you see Chinese people as viruses dont get mad when they see you (muslims/arabs) as terrorists.” Furthermore, i do believe that ones actions is not reflection of society as a whole, but it happened to show a biased side towards Chinese that was instilled by fear of the virus.

1. I am an Egyptian 22 year old, I grew up in a well educated family and went to an american school and will soon be graduating from the american university in Cairo. I feel that my upbringing in this sort of environment has had an impact on who I am today and what I will become in the future. Also the sports that I played throughout my life have had a huge impact on me both mentally and physically and have greatly shaped me and in the years to come as well. My upbringing in those environments has made me feel like I was brought up in two extremely contrasting cultures which are the Egyptian and American cultures. Both have had a strong impact on me as well, but the more influential culture is the Egyptian. Also, being in AUC has positively impacted me as well. For example it has made me realise how fortunate I am for receiving an education like this one as well as always pushing me to become better and want to always learn. Also my friends have influenced my taste and preference in almost everything because I was brought up with them from a very young age.
2. Throughout the course one thing has clearly struck me and has actually opened my eyes as to how true it is. This already known revelation is the “one sided story” video by Chimamanda. Ever since watching the video I have come to realise how many people including me already have a one sided opinion or perspective of almost everything, whether the opinion/perspective is formed by oneself or influenced by family, friends, or the media. For example, many americans are highly influenced by the media, especially how the news is portrayed.
3. I took the religion implicit association test, and the results that i got were as i expected. I also took the gender-career implicit association test and got the results that i was expecting. But i feel that the test is somewhat inaccurate because you can not test ones biases with a “computer game” because this is based on memory. For example I would get mistaken between the buttons because I had already memorised the buttons and associated them with the instructions in the first part so when i did the other parts it was not a matter of biases it was a matter of not mistakenly pressing the wrong button because i had associated them already. Also it does not test how you actually feel towards those topics. I do not feel it was the best experience in order to point out ones biases as there are better ways to know them, because as i said it does not know how we actually feel about those things and only tests us based on how we can associate images and words with a given identity.
4. some of the biases that i see around me in my daily life is that some Egyptians are biased against christians, i feel so because they are a minority in Egypt. Another bias is ones against people with disabilities. This is something i see occur very often when people with disabilities are around who tend to get stared at in an awkward manner and be treated differently either with disgust or with empathy. Furthermore, a case of systematic bias that i notice is against muslims abroad who are living in western countries where they are treated differently and have hate hurled towards them. Moreover, the potential harm that can come from this behaviour is extreme. Meaning that if an individual could go to extreme cases of radicalism and seek revenge towards those who are biased towards him and feel that he is not being treated well or it can lead to depression and suicide as it is evident in society.
5. I do hold some biases some of which i would prefer not to mention. But one bias but not a strong bias is one towards women. Where i do believe that women are equal to men but in some situations men would be superior to women. For example, men are more inclined to become successful in their careers than women due to the different ambitions and pressures faced by both.