Disruptive Technologies

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

Category: Weekly (page 1 of 2)

Final Weekly iPad Reflection

From the first day of CDT450, I have been pondering possible implementation of the theories and technologies that we’ve explored together.

The isolated iPad experience:

The iPad is the most stable tablet on the market. I have been able to increase efficiency in my workflow and decrease the mountain of things that I would normally bring with me. Check out some of my other reflections for the specifics on my favourite features.

The iPad as a baseline technology:

Wow. Here is where the magic happens. Once everyone has the iPad and a similar app vocabulary, the possibilities open up with collaboration enabling features and products. Evernote, which integrates with chrome and other applications, is our go to for collaborative searchable notebooks– better than a shared google doc. Drive is our go to place to dump files for instant sharing and collaboration. AirPlay allows us to move data across our devices efficiently and share our screens with a common display. Stre.am allows us to deliver live video streams. There are other notes on positive changes in collaborative workflow in my other reflections… I mostly discuss Slack. *surprise!* (I’m sure that none of my classmate surprised at all)

The reality:

iPads for every student may not be immediately feasible. In the meantime: I will work to implement cross platform apps that allow us to get by with devices other than those sold at the apple store. Slack, Evernote, Google Apps, Basic video/audio recording are here for us immediately. Things that I’d like to try with students, next semester: delivering a presentation via Stre.am, group presentation outlines and research organization via Evernote, eliminating the need to be in the same room while building presentations via Google Slides, and having group readings/text accessibility via the Kindle app. I am TA’ing a theater history course next semester, so I’m going to pitch these ideas to the professor running the course. He’s been telling everyone to get iPads for ages, so I’m sure that he would be very excited to try new things in class.

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!

Week 14: Working Session!

Well, this is it … our last class before we wrap up with the final Team Synthesis next week. It is hard to believe, but here we are. Today will be unlike any other day we’ve spent together. I will be giving the class to you — we will still be in the room together for most of it, but I want you to take the time to hang out, talk, laugh, and work in your teams on a couple of things. First and foremost, I want you to make progress on your paper prototypes. I am really excited to see how you have decided to design at least two of the interactions we brainstormed last week and I am very interested to see if you took advantage of the tools we looked at.

The second thing I want you to work on is your Final Synthesis. This one is different than the first two in that I want you to work together to draw our three themes together. You can do that in any creative way you see fit, but you must connect the dots from across the entire semester and use the lenses of Community, Identity, and Design to bring your synthesis to life. I am giving you one last reading this week and I do think you’ll enjoy it … please integrate it into your Final Synthesis. I expect you to share your app prototype, discuss the disruptive potential of the iPad, and describe how our themes and our semester long conversations about disruption impacted your final design statement. Most importantly I want your teams to bring forward a bold statement about how your collective minds may or may not have been expanded by our little grand experiment this semester.

Again, if you have readings or things for the rest of the class to do to prepare, please post them by 5 PM on Tuesday. As some inspiration, here is a Final Synthesis from ghosts of Disruptive Technology Past …

Out of Class

Week 13: Time to Decide on Design

This week I want to give you ample time to complete your research and start actually prototyping a couple key interactions within your proposed app. We will start with you sharing the results of last week’s Team Post assignment. Let’s discuss what you have learned so far from your research and what has been effective.

Start with a peek at something I’ve been working on.

Brainstorming

We need to start with learning how to appropriately brainstorm … let’s do something together to illustrate how to best construct opportunities to arrive at ideas together.

Now it is your turn, I want you to brainstorm a set of scenarios or case studies that you can use as the basis to develop set of prototype interactions within your app. Work together to imagine:

  • A set of scenarios (3-5) where your app would be the tool people would use to solve their problem
  • How the app would be used in those scenarios by creating a work flow, a diagram, a process map, or other visual ways of articulating how the app addresses your audiences’ challenges
  • Create a set of opportunity areas to focus on within the scenarios — the team should construct a series of “How Might We …” statements to address the challenges illustrated in the frameworks from the previous step
    Spend time brainstorming each opportunity area …
  • Decide if your app truly does overcome the problems that people are trying to solve with your app
  • Choose at least two scenarios to prototype

Begin to Design your Interactions

Paper prototyping is a great way to do this … let’s explore some options. Here is a fantastic PDF template of the iPad you are designing for available for free to print (I even printed some for you). Here is an app that automates your paper prototypes — and it works perfectly with the template I just linked to.

Out of Class

  • Watch the Paper Prototyping course on Lynda.com.
  • Come to class next week with your interactions ready to paper prototype … it is a good idea to play with some of the tools we looked at.
  • Bring your iPad paper templates to class with some ideas sketched out.
  • Start working on your final synthesis — due in two weeks!
  • Remember you can now start doing your class evaluation.

Design Challenge Update :: Too Disruptive

Here are our thoughts and notes on our design challenge:

Be sure to take our survey!

Week 12: Design Challenges and Research

We may have a visitor in class this week … Eric Kunz, developer of LiveBlend.

I’m impressed by your Design Challenges and how far you’ve come in a week. Let’s review:

Slides for today are here. Let’s start by writing your Design Challenges back on the board. Using your sticky notes expand a bit on the things you know and don’t know and update your team’s post from last week.

I will ask you to work through your research questions and methods to be ready to come to class next week to start thinking about creating your app experience.

  • Read pages 79-109 of the Design Kit
  • iPad Reflection: Due 5 PM on 4/2/2015
  • Team Post … see instructions below: Due 10 PM on 4/22/2015

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Week 11: Kicking off Design

We have arrived at the final third of the class. Over the next few weeks I will be asking you to do quite a bit of thinking from a design perspective. Today we will focus all of our time on arriving at our team Design Challenge. The Design Challenge will form the basis for our app creation. To this end, you will be actively engaged in this process for the majority of class. Slides for today are here.

We will start with you individually sharing your app ideas from last week’s work in front of the class and answer any questions. From there I will put you in your teams and turn you loose on Framing the Design Challenge. You will identify things you know and don’t know about the challenge and the audience and document them. You will create the types of questions you need to explore to learn more and outline your research methods. The outcome of this work will then be translated into a team post that I will provide guidance on.

Screen Shot 2015-04-09 at 1.20.20 PM

Out of Class

Week 10: Synthesis Number Two

This week I will once again hand the course over to our two teams. I am very much looking forward to seeing what you have in store for us all today. The vast majority of the class today will center on the two teams leading the conversation. We will see if there is time remaining to introduce the next (and final) block of he class focusing on design.

For the final block we will be focusing on Human Centered Design and will follow the process that the unbelievably good firm, Ideo articulates. I would like you all to get accounts at their Design Kit site, download it, and read the Introduction and the Hear portion for next week. That will allow us to hit the ground running.

Out of Class

  • Weekly Create — Show us what you think design means by being creative. Write your personal definition of design in your post.
  • Weekly iPad Reflection — what iPad app is missing for you students in higher education? I want you to be as creative in your thinking as possible and use what you feel you understand about the work flow of students on college campuses. If you could build anything, what would it be and what would it enable?
  • Read “An Introduction to Design Thinking
  • Read “Designing the New Twitter Profiles
  • Go to the Read Kit site and watch the “What is Human Centered Design” video
  • Create an account
  • Download and read the Design Kit Pages 1-18

Week 9: Wrapping Up Identity

Let’s play catch up and review where we are and where we are headed. I have graded all of your things … some items are missing and you can see what I missed for you in the Garde Center in Blackboard. Please let me know if I missed things! Also, I’d like to give everyone a chance to get caught up, so whatever you have missed, you can go back and add it to get caught up by Sunday at 5 PM.

Today we wrap up the block on Identity and while I can tell from reading your work that you’ve gotten stuff out of the experience, I am disappointed in the fact that we lost so much time together. With that said, it is time for you guys to take over again next week and produce your second Team Synthesis Post and Presentations. Same format as last time, but I want you all to me cognizant of the time you take to deliver your synthesis. Each team has an hour.

Conversation Starters

We define who we are by the ways we experience ourselves through participation as well as by the ways we and others reify ourselves. — Wenger

Identity as negotiated experience. — Katherine

Buckingham and Wenger coincided in their discussions on identity in several ways. Both authors emphasized that identity is neither static nor steady; instead, they describe how it is a “state of becoming,” and that the process of “identification” is going on all the time. — Jay

Thinking about how you can have “multiple” identities thanks to the power of anonymity on the Internet a more fluid definition of identity works. A definition where you are not only identify with your physical characteristics, but also your interest, your thoughts, and the content you create. — Shady

Identity Posts

Let’s talk about digital identity and how social identities can shape other people’s overall impression of us. Does the “web function as tools for people to create constantly changing projections of their identities through content production online?[1]” Take for example the stories of the Star Wars Kid and David after the Dentist.

Out of Class

David After the Dentist

From Wikipedia

Because this was David’s first surgery and his mother could not be there, his father decided to video tape the experience to share with her and their family.

After the surgery, David was feeling confused from the anaesthesia he was given. While in the car, he was asking his father questions like “Is this real life?” and “Is this going to be forever?” and also telling him that he had two fingers. At one point he even attempted to push himself up from his seat (while still buckled in) and began screaming before sinking back in exhaustion.

Seven months later, David’s father uploaded the video on Facebook. Being overwhelmed with people wanting to see the video, he decided to upload it to YouTube, but did not notice there was a private option. Just 3 days after the upload, it had been seen over 3 million times.

The DeVore family were soon made YouTube Partners. This gives YouTube the right to run ads over the videos they post, and in exchange, are given a share of the revenue. They also sell “David After Dentist” t-shirts and donate a portion of the revenue they earn to dental charities. However they have made very little money on it so far, and are currently in the process of filming a similar video to the original.

David DeVore Sr. has received criticism for exploiting his son. DeVore has stated that he appreciates the concern, but feels that it was innocent and has been a very positive experience for his family.

The Star Wars Kid

From Wikipedia

Star Wars Kid is a viral video made in 2002 by Ghyslain Raza[1] in which he wields a golf ball retriever in imitation of Darth Maul’s lightsaber moves from the Star Wars films. At the time, Raza was a 15-year-old high school student from Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He had not intended for the video to become public, but its subsequent release led to ridicule during which Raza chose to distance himself from the video. Raza since has affirmed his identity and has used the video to help speak on the effects of bullying.

On November 3, 2002, Raza made a video of himself swinging a golf ball retriever around as a weapon. The video was filmed at his high school studio, and he accidentally left the tape in a basement. It was taped over a portion of a basketball game (as seen extremely briefly at the end of the clip). The video was discovered by a schoolmate, whose friend created an electronic file from the video tape. The video was distributed amongst his school’s students. A student uploaded it to the Internet with the title Jackass_starwars_funny.wmv. The video eventually became a viral Internet meme through P2P services. According to court transcripts, the video first appeared on the Internet on the evening of April 14, 2003.

Raza states he was a victim of cyberbullying, as his video also attracted negative attention and comments. Online commenters responded with critical or bullying messages. In a 2013 interview, Raza states, “What I saw was mean. It was violent. People were telling me to commit suicide.” Among the comments online, “One commenter called him ‘a pox on humanity.’ Others suggested he commit suicide.” He was bullied in person at his school, and he left the campus to pursue private tutoring. He claimed to have lost friends because of the ordeal.

Weekly iPad Reflection Chris W.

About two weeks  ago Apple came to visit our humble class. Here is a short summary of what I learned.

 

Keynote

If you are anything like me you grew up using Microsoft Word and its cousins Excel and PowerPoint. While Keynote cannot replace word or Excel, it does a whole lot more for you than PowerPoint ever could. Adding links to your presentation and accessing links is both easy and smooth.  Creating a dynamic and professional presentation is all at your finger tips. You can even use Keynote to design a UI for apps or make a mock Web page. You can do what you want but if there is ever an option between Keynote and PowerPoint, I’m picking Keynote.

 

Quip

Quip is an app our visitors asked us to use. I did not fall in love with it, but other people seemed to like. Quip made it easier for us to follow along with the lesson plan Apple had for us. Perhaps I need more experience with it to truly appreciate what the app can do.

 

GarageBand

GarageBand  on the iPad is very easy to use. I can see myself spending countless hours making a song for a video using the drum pad interface. I also never realized how easy it was to include a song made on GarageBand in a movie or trailer made in iMovie. In my future YouTube videos I’ll be sure to check out GarageBand before searching the Web for royalty free music.

 

There were other great apps Apple showed us but these are the free that stood out to me. If you have an iOS device give Keynote a try, make a song in GarageBand, make use of Quip. There are so many tutorials online!

Weekly Create Chris W

I’ve learned a whole lot about Apple’s native apps. I suggest you check them out. For more on my reaction to Apple’s visit to CDT 450 two weeks ago, check out my weekly iPad Reflection here.

Week 8: Spring Break

I understand last week was a very positive experience … I’m thrilled about that and I look forward to hearing more next week when we get together. I am not going to assign anything new this week, but I will remind you to wrap up the assignments by the posted due dates.

Out of Class — All Due 3/24/2015 by 5 PM

  • Weekly iPad Reflection — what did you learn from the Apple visit and what did you create? Did what you learn alter your appreciation for the iPad?
  • Weekly Create — Time to Tweet! Everyone needs to Tweet something interesting about this class using the hashtag #CDT450. I’d then like you to post about what Twitter can mean to shaping your identity and embed your tweet in the post.

Week 7: Apple is Back!

I am on the road this week so I cannot be with you … I promise I lined up something good for you in my absence. Apple will be here to talk more about the iPad and take you through some really interesting activities. I can’t believe we don’t get to hang out for three weeks! Speaking of Break, since next week is Spring Break I am going to make the tasks to do a bit lighter than what we’ve become accustomed to. I’m hopeful that you will enjoy today’s time with Apple and have a safe a restful Spring Break! 

While on your iPad, please click this link to download the iTunes U materials for class today. 

Before you leave class today, I’d like you to write a team definition of Identity, just like we did for community a few weeks ago. Be ready to defend it and discuss it when we get back together after Spring Break. Please choose one person to post it to the blog.

Out of Class — All Due 3/24/2015 by 5 PM

  • Weekly iPad Reflection — what did you learn from the Apple visit and what did you create? Did what you learn alter your appreciation for the iPad?
  • Weekly Create — Time to Tweet! Everyone needs to Tweet something interesting about this class using the hashtag #CDT450. I’d then like you to post about what Twitter can mean to shaping your identity and embed your tweet in the post.
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