Disruptive Technologies

Course site for Disruptive Technologies. Exploring identity, community, & design.

Date: May 7, 2015

Final Post – iPad, etc.

Throughout this course, the iPad was extremely helpful in exploring different aspects of the Disruptive Trinity of Community – Identity – Design. By using apps like Pop and plugging in to Gdrive our group communicated continually with a purpose. Since we had specific objectives to achieve, and we were required to address specific issues related to readings and topics introduced in class, our team acted as “Community of Practice,” as far as I understood Wenger’s description of this term. The iPad served us not only as a tool to connect and collaborate; I came to conceive of this mobile device as a “global broadcasting tool” which facilitates my interest in communicating to others about my interests, creations, research, and exploration of myself, my community, and my miniuniverse. Thanks to recent experiments with prototyping tool called POP, I can experiment with a number of different app ideas that I have, exploring workflow and practical aspects of how objects interact on a touch screen. This practical perspective on app development and has expanded my understanding of the options that are available through mobile technology to communicate and interact with people using digital mobile tools.

Week 15: What a Long Strange Trip

It is hard to believe that we’ve only been at this since late January … so much has happened in that time. I owe you all both a very real “thank you” and a longer reflection on what this experience has meant to me. Consider this the thank you, but I will take some time to reflect on this very rich and rewarding experience and share it with you.

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me, Other times I can barely see. Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been. —Truckin’, The Grateful Dead

Today we see how you have taken the time to bring all of this to closure — Linking community, identity, and design together to synthesize your own understanding of what the last 15 weeks has exposed us to. It only seems fitting that you all own our last 3 hours together. After 6 PM tonight there will be no more “out of class” assignments, no more strange readings from Weinberger or Wenger, and certainly no need to reflect on a piece of glass and aluminum. I sincerely hope you do take some of these things we’ve done and turn them into habits — creating on a regular basis, working to not dismiss new and emergent ideas but instead unpacking them and discovering their affordances, and certainly taking the time to reflect on yourself and the world around you.

My closing thought as we embark on our final week is that the work we created here in this space is like a time machine — you will be able to return to the course site and see what you were thinking about, working on, and making for as long as it stays here. You are co-creators of something that will extend well beyond this week 15 and into the future. If I teach this course again here (or somewhere else) you will be linked to the legacy that is the Grand Experiment of Disruptive Technologies. Welcome to the club!

iPad reflection – Final

I cannot express how glad I am I took this class. The last 13 weeks have tough me a great deal of technology, being able to interact with students have helped me understand their needs better, being back to school have renewed my understanding of how complicated student lives can be, but most importantly, having used an iPad as my only technical device for the class has shown me the potential of such little device.

After these 13 weeks, I find that iPads are a Jack of all trades and Masters of “most”. An iPad does a tremendous amount of things, GarageBand, iMovie, KeyNote, POP, and the endless array of productive applications are just some of the examples of the power of this tablet. It does a lot, and I mean a lot of things really really well.

When I compare it to my work device of choice, a Chromebook, there is only one reason why I would pick the Chromebook. The Chromebook only does one thing, but it does it exceptionally well. It provides a full feature web browser, and for work, in a Google environment, it is great news. However, putting work aside, and in a student environment, an iPad would, without a doubt, be my device of choice.

Skip to toolbar