Filmed today on my iPhone. I decided to try out the YouTube video editor. Some features I wish were included are volume control of the sleeted track. I would love to have the music fade as the video ended.
Disruptive Technologies
Course site for Disruptive Technologies. Exploring identity, community, & design.
Date: February 17, 2015 (page 1 of 2)
My post this week actually comes from a creative post from a music classroom management course at my previous institution. It is the first three chapters of a book that I may write one day. There will definitely need to be editing before that day happens, but the story focuses on a young boy named Margeth. He envisions a nightmarish future land from which he must eventually save his entire kingdom. The catch is, this land is a reality based on the mundane world of an insurance company employee. After reading this week’s two selections, along with the Wenger material, I thought it funny that I had the prescient sense to write something three years ago that seems to almost perfectly line up with it all.
Hope you enjoy!
Dreams of a Future [it’s a working title]
1.
My name is Tom.
2.
My name is Tom. It is 5:47 a.m. on Tuesday, March 18th–breakfast time: two eggs, one biscuit with grape jelly, and 3 pieces of bacon. Crispy. 6:19 a.m.–time for work. I work for Parker and James Financial located at 4389 London Boulevard. I handle all incoming calls: complaints, grievances, and thanks. None ever call for that reason.
7:38 a.m., I arrive at 4389 London Boulevard and argue with the gear shift in my ’82 Ford Fiesta–Yellow. I must convince it that “P” means “Park.” After approximately 57 seconds I become the victor. 7:45 a.m., I arrive at my pale blue 3/4 cubicle. The phone rings. “Parker and Ja–”
“Don’t give me that! Parker and James this, Parker and James that. You should have been Parker and James Financial like you promised me. Talk about assets, what happened to protecting me and mine!? My stupid ex–”
“Sir or Madam, let me assure you that we here at Parker and James Financial are here for you. It is our vow to you that whatever money you have is ours for the protecting. Now, how may I help you?”
Click. Well that makes number one for the day. I add another scratch to my board.
3.
“Margeth? Margeth! Wake up!”
The blinding light hits me as I roll over and open my eyes. I’m pouring in sweat; it happened again. I have been having horrific dreams for the past few months. This time it was worse. A crippling pain is all that my conscious body is left with. Usually they are only full of dark labyrinths that carry deadly secrets or fierce enemies that the knights fight. Well, at least what the villagers say the knights fight. How should I know? I’m the son of a farmer. “Maarrgeeeth!?”
“I’m up, I’m up, Mother, calm down!”
“Hurry up or you will not make it in time!” Today is my 16th birthday. I finally get to appear before all the court. Once a boy is of age, he is allowed to appear before the entire people and court of the inner kingdom. There, he competes for a position in the community. From weaving to hunting and marksmanship, every position must be approved by the inner kingdom officials.
Dust shoots through the air as mother slams my door open with a flourish. Why is she wearing her dress laces? “Let me introduce to you the newest royal attendant in all of Calaindra. Margeth son of Nishmer!” exclaimed Lorebel as she loudly whispered ‘aahs’ to feign an exstatic crowd. “Up now my dear Margeth; no son of mine will be a dirty fishmonger. You are destined for greatness and should be housed in the royal palace.”
“Mother, there are hundreds of other of-age men that are all vying for a chance into the palace.” The searing pain hits me again. The dream has only been hiding in the recesses of my waking mind. The fear buckles me over quickly. Luckily, Mother only thought I was trying to go back to bed. I fear what it would do to her if she found out it was happening again.
“You must get up I tell you! Move it!” Lorebel yelled, as she began to search through Margeth’s clothes. “Here, put this on.” Margeth slowly obeyed her orders, all the while he managed to grunt and glower showing as much disdain as a sixteen-year-old can when woken up at dawn.
Technically Yours,
R.
I know you are all busy dropping your weekly posts on the blog, but I thought I would pass along a resource I recently discovered that focuses on being productive on a tablet … TabletProductive.
For the last week or so I have completely stopped bringing a notepad to class. I only use the iPad for notes (Google Docs and occasionally Microsoft Word). One thing to point out, however, is that most of my classes this semester are technology-based courses, so most of the work is done virtually. I had the opportunity to attend the SBU Graduate Music Symposium over the weekend and I had my iPad there, but still took notes by hand vs. making sound pounding out on the on-screen keyboard.
Below is an updated list of what apps I have installed. To view the original list, please visit my post “Flying Life via iPad Air.”
I must say, that my favorite thing about the iPad so far is the multi-finger swipe function. I can quickly go in between apps or open up the task manager without double pressing the main button. I still want a “back” button, but I am making do for now!
Technically Yours,
R.
I’ve been using the iPad for all of my courses for several semesters and it keeps me organized and paper free. One thing I like about taking notes in GoodNotes is that I have about 100 different colors to choose from with different styles of writing utensils. I use a lot of different colors when I take notes which helps me to stay organized and aware of different topics that come up during a lecture or discussion. I also like to be able to look back at notes that I took, and articles that I read last semester in a class that is related to my Urban Soundscapes class this semester – it’s all on my iPad.
I did find something the iPad will not do – I’m a TA in a class and I have to input the attendance for each class into Blackboard. I tried to do it using my iPad, but there is something about the mobile app for Bb that does not allow me to scroll through the spreadsheet where I need to input the attendance information.
I intensely “feel community” when I play music at a pub in Greenport, NY – it’s called The Whiskey Wind. Every Thursday around 8 pm locals gather to jam out and play traditional music including American Songbook folk tunes, blues standards, sea shanties, original songs, and traditional Irish music. We sit in a circle and play, and each person gets a chance to lead a tune or sing a song. It’s a positive atmosphere full of laughter, music, and the sound of friends and acquaintances shootin’ the breeze. As a community, our joy for that evening is to share with each other and hopefully entertain the patrons at the pub.
This week I was especially disturbed by the constant news of violence and killings in NY, USA, and all over the World – I’m not sure why THIS week… maybe because our recent focus on community has made me more attuned to how violence destroys communities in so many ways.
So I put together the sonic expression, “Pub Glass,” which tries to capture the joy of participating in community, along with some of the other feelings that I just described. (Make sure to listen all the way through to get the full effect.)
For this week’s weekly create I used a timelapse I took with the iPad of me getting ready and edited and added music using an app called “Video Editor for vine, Instagram – free edition.” I love all the different photo and video editing apps that the App Store offers. I was surprised by how many different effects and filters could be added without even using a laptop.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been bringing my iPad almost everywhere with me. I use it in my English class to open up the novel we’re reading in iBooks, in my digital art classes to listen to soundcloud while I work in Photoshop, and in our class to view the blog and work in Google docs with my group, Too Disruptive. I love not having to carry a heavy laptop and charger around anymore. I even tried to test myself this weekend by going home for Thursday and Friday night without bringing my MacBook pro with me. There isn’t much to do when I go home for a weekend so I usually spend the entire time watching documentaries or browsing the internet on my laptop. I thought not having access to my laptop and only being able to use my iPad for 2 days/nights would be difficult but I didn’t even miss having my laptop. The only time I found myself wanting/needing a laptop or desktop computer was when I had to work on a project for class using photoshop but was unable to do so with only my iPad.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so on top of my schoolwork than I am now that I have this iPad to increase my productivity. If I have a free 20 minutes on a class break, I’ll pull out my iPad and start sending out emails, posting to the blog, or completing my readings for class. I’ve also been using Google docs and Google drive a lot more. It’s awesome to be able to access my files from anywhere and not have to rely on the limited space of our student memory drives and having access to a sinc site.
I find myself going days without opening or even touching my laptop. Just a few weeks ago I was constantly charging my laptop or bringing it with me everywhere. It’s becoming seemingly more useless and irrelevant every day I have the iPad. I know I probably sound overly dramatic or like an advertisement for the iPad but I honestly feel like it has changed the way I learn and get work done.
This week I discovered that the iPad gives me opportunities to procrastinate. I usually have several projects happening that require hourly communications during the stressful phases of the projects. When I am working on the iPad, it is difficult to be productive and neutralize twenty to forty notifications spread across several communication/social media apps. I get distracted.
The onscreen keyboard makes it a chore to type up papers, and using the content management system for this blog, in safari or chrome, can become somewhat nightmarish, once images/videos are introduced. The interface becomes unresponsive; it’s tough to predict how much time will be used to reattempt an operation like inserting a photo, when the technology doesn’t want to cooperate.
I need this device to be a utility and not a distraction. This is not the fault of the device; I’ll try making some modifications to the way I receive notifications. Hopefully I will be more productive next week.
For the weekly create, I’d like to post a video I recently created with the help of native software in my Macbook Air. I was able to edit the video, add music, effects, etc. It’s incredible how, with the help of these free tools, you can create professional grade documentaries.
The video is of my daughter and I going shark diving for her 12th birthday:
I’ve been substituting the iPad where ever I can for all my classes. At first it was a bit difficult because there are some things that pen and paper do better than the iPad.
The majority of my classes this semester focus a lot on group work so using the iPad in conjunction with Google Docs has been extremely helpful. Editing documents on Google Drive is as easy as 1-2-3 but when it comes to entering data for my psychology lab class, tasks can be a bit difficult. For this data entry assignment my group members had to input responses from surveys into a Google Sheet using the app Sheets. Sheets is a great app but I do not understand why Google split up its applications. The group members in our group with laptops finished input all their data 4 minutes before the rest of us using tablets. Something. That might fix this minor annoyance would be arrow keys when using Sheets or any excel- esque app.
Overall the iPad has been a great addition to my backpack.
Strengths
An iPad in the classroom will help students tremendously. The device is intuitive enough where students will not need to be taught how to use it. It will provide students with access to the internet, social networking, and an infinity of learning apps and tools that will enhance the classroom experience. Students will no longer need to carry a bundle of books, notebooks, pens, laptops, cameras, etc. They will be substituted by ebooks, e-pens, e-notes, etc.
Using an iPad in the classroom makes it more interactive, engaging, and embodies a culture of creativity.
Weaknesses
iPads are unable to perform some functions that desktop or laptop computers can perform. For students in certain majors this means much of their coursework couldn’t be completed using the iPad, somewhat making it a redundant device.
Studio Art and Digital Art students frequently make use of the Adobe suite.
Music and Music Technology students use DAWs like Ableton Live and Logic
Computer Science and Information Systems students especially would need a computer for the following tasks:
Running an IDE like Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, or Netbeans
The Java JDK and JRE
Access to the filesystem for reading, writing, and executing files
Being able to install platforms or languages like ruby, python, node.js
Counterargument
Digital art and music software is available in Staller Center SINC sites, and after hours access is provided for students enrolled in these courses (although many students do still choose to use their own computers for working at home).
If comp sci students are then the exception, it makes sense that they would be the ones that require additional computing hardware.
Opportunities
The opportunities that would be made possible with a student body that functions primarily on iPads have the ability to affect the University on a physical level. Space currently occupied by the bookstore could be repurposed and the amount of space devoted to books could be reduced. Instead, the library could focus on ebooks and resource sharing that could reach beyond the campus. More space could be designated to meetings spaces that foster an interactive learning environment. It could also have a recharging center.
Threats
With every major decision made there are bound to be some threats. Some threats that we as a team foresee associated with providing iPad Airs to all students stem from current partnerships with companies who heavily rely on paper. If these paper reliant companies do not make the choice to go more digital we could see their monetary support decreasing substantially. Assuming we can cope with the loss of our dead tree partnerships, the next hurdle we as a university must overcome would be the redesigning of existing spaces that are not equipped to handle the influx of this quantity of tech. Pushing this new tech on our current infrastructure will be detrimental since many problems arise now with less devices connected. This will cost quite a bit. Assuming redesigning goes well, we now have to worry about push back from faculty, staff, and students. The reasons for their resistance can be as numerous as the amount of students but a bit of good public relations should change most minds. With the entire student body equipped with iPad Airs the university must look at redefining academic dishonesty at include the new tech. After all is said and done if Apple ever tanks as a company we as a university are in grave danger.
These threats, although numerous and very real, do NOT outweigh the benefits of providing iPad Airs to all the students to enhance their college experience. The potential for creativity and innovation will put this university in a light to which no other learning environment has ever seen.
Pocket Theatre is in the middle of rehearsals for Next to Normal! This semester, we wish to document the process, with photos, videos, and text notes. All of the data/media should be pushed up to drive, but unfortunately, our rehearsal space in the union basement does not have quality wifi. My iPad can’t even find our network; it just refreshes and searches. Every network has some dead spots, but it just so happens that our other two rehearsal spaces in Staller are also dead zones. The cabaret, Staller 0003, like the union, doesn’t have a signal strong enough for the iPad to detect it. The connection in theater three, Staller 1020, is better, but not reliable. All of the projects currently have ten or more files stored in Google drive for ease of access and collaboration. How can we consider using iPads in the academic environment if the wireless network coverage is spotty in high usage areas? Such circumstances prevent students from trying to implement the widely used technology.
Pocket Theatre – Next to Normal Rehearsal
Strength: Provide a Baseline Technology
When collaborating on projects, Google Drive and apps allow for easy communication and data sharing. Too often, we encounter students who are not comfortable using drive and other productivity/content creation-geared applications. Sometimes, collaborators seem resistant because they are not yet comfortable.
Although these applications are available for desktop platforms, the mobility of the iPad apps allows the user to bring the technology, and the ability to create content into any collaborative or meeting space. The iPads are slim, portable, and a pleasure to use. With workflow adapting to such a portable, multitask oriented utility, we will change what it means to do group work.
If every student possessed an iPad, everyone would be exposed to the applications and have a baseline vocabulary associated with the technology. Time will no longer be spent on getting everyone acquainted with the technology.
When every student can operate with utilities that improve workflow and collaboration, communities will be quicker to innovate and produce work.
Let the information flow.
Weakness: Can’t Do Everything a Laptop Can
- No USB port – The lack of a USB port on the iPad Air means it is not possible to use external hard drives and other external devices like keyboards or microphones that use USB.
- Limited amount of storage space – A laptop or desktop computer is able to use external hard drives or add RAM for memory storage but an iPad is not due to the lack of a USB port.
- No external keyboard – Although it is possible to purchase a bluetooth keyboard for the iPad air, it only comes equipped with a touchscreen keyboard which can slow down productivity.
- No disk drive for CDs and DVDs
- Desktop Apps – There are many desktop apps that are too powerful to run on an iPad. Applications like Microsoft Office and Final Cut Pro won’t run on iPads and tablets. There are scaled down versions of apps like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft OneNote.
- File formats – Laptops are able to display or play almost any file type if you have the right software/program. iPads are not able to play every file type, video files must be in .mp4 format before they are able to play. A solution to this problem would be converting the file format on the iPad. Also, all transferring of files to the iPad has to be done via iTunes.
- Screen Resolution – The iPad Air Retina display renders at 2048 by 1536 resolution. The screen is 9.7 inches, measured diagonally. In comparison, Apple’s 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display has a higher resoltuion of 2560 x 1600 pixels. The 15.4-inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display has an even higher resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels.
Opportunity: Reduce in Paper (SBU’s Eco-Footprint)
iPads for everybody offers an excellent opportunity for the Stony Brook community to reduce it’s eco-print by using less paper. By using free .pdf reader apps that are available, students can upload reading assignments, class notes, and e-books to their iPads which means they don’t need to print out long readings or buy expensive books – which all use paper. Not only would SBU reduce its eco-print, they would also reduce costs; perhaps part of the cost of getting the iPad could be offset by reducing expenditures on paper. Even though there might be a learning curve for students as they get used to accessing, reading, and taking notes on .pdfs using their iPads, the benefits of using less paper is well worth the effort. In addition to the immediate ecological benefits, and possible reductions in cost, Stony Brook University has the opportunity to stand out as a leader in higher education by using new technology to improve both the quality of education and the quality of life on campus for students, teachers, staff, and the environment.
Threat: Potential for New Forms of Academic Dishonesty
When looking at potential threats concerning the introduction of iPads to a university setting, qualms that professors may have immediately comes to mind: the potential for new forms of academic dishonesty (in the classroom). With the internet at a student’s fingertips, they could possibly look up their answers on Google, or be chatting with their friends for help while in class. Yes, most students now have smartphones, but if a university provides iPads, it would be the understood authorization that the iPads are allowed in class. However, a simple re-focusing of the coursework model could fix that. Grading could come in part from class discussion through Google Docs (which generally works better than discussion portals within classroom management sites such as Blackboard or Moodle) in which each comment is digitally signed (by color-coding or other symbol). By everyone claiming their own work, and allowing others to comment and help edit, final products are usually better. Tests would still be “technology free,” meaning that students would not have easy access to communicate with others.
It comes down to what the purpose of the classroom and higher education construct is. Do we lead students to be smarter than everyone else and perpetuate a model of “I have better grades [read: am better, smarter] than you?” Or do we instill a CoP framework that encourages community learning toward an end-goal of contributing to something that is larger than all of us? Collaborative learning is a far cry from academic dishonesty—everyone still gets credit for what they do.
This post itself represents four unique styles of writing that came together in a collaboration on Google Docs. In that file, you can see exactly what each person wrote, and the comments that were left to help come up with a final project.
Since my first iPad Reflection, I’ve been using the iPad for doing the assigned readings. I like how Safari can open a PDF file in the browser (I don’t believe Chrome for Android does this) and also that it gives you to the choice to open it in iBook. It’s been a nice change to read on the iPad. Certainly it’s easier on the eyes than using my desktop monitor. I’m not sure how a Retina display monitor would compare though.
I’ve also started looking for other alternatives to Lekh Diagram, the diagramming app I’ve been using. One thing I like about iOS is that I feel safer just downloading a half dozen apps that look interesting and trying them out. I previously did the same thing while looking for an image editing app for my Weekly Create. On Android I’d do a bit more research like reading the app reviews to make sure I’m not downloading something malicious.
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