ipad, kindle

Top Ten Technologies of 2010

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This is the third time I have written a top ten list of technologies, I did the same in 2008 and 2009. It’s interesting to compare the three lists to see what I was using, what I am still using and what new stuff I am using. This list focuses on physical technologies and gadgets and I have also been working on a list of web tools that will be in another blog post.

So what didn’t make my list?

The MiFi which was number eight last year got used a lot less, partly as I used the Google Nexus one more for portable wifi and the issues I had with the MiFi when trying to use it on the train.

The Sony video cameras in previous top tens got slightly ursurped by both the Kodak and the iPhone 4G this year, they were used, but no where near the level I used them in 2009 and 2008.

The 3G USB Stick I had in my top ten in 2008, didn’t make the list in 2009 and I actually handed back to our IT department in 2010!

10. i7 iMac

The iMac was my number two last year and in many ways is still a really excellent computer. Very fast and more than capable of doing lots of things all at the same time. It’s still in my top ten, as I still use it every day for lots of different activities.

9. iPhone 3GS

The iPhone 3GS was my number one technology in 2009 and I have continued to use the 3GS throughout 2010 as my main home mobile phone. Why is it not higher up, well I upgraded my work mobile phone to the iPhone 4G. The 3GS though is the phone I use at weekends when I am out, it’s the phone I use on the sofa in the evenings and it’s also the phone I use when the battery runs out on the 4G. I use a Logic3 case with an extended battery. It’s also the device I use for sat nav, using the TomTom software. Alas the one key component of the 3GS lets it down and that is its ability to make phone calls. Too often it will drop calls for my liking.

8. Edirol R-09HR

I have been using the Edirol for a few years now, it was in my top ten in 2008, and the Edirol R-09HR now back in for 2010. Recording as either WAV or MP3 direct to an SD card, the audio quality is excellent. Very easy after recording to connect a USB cable and copy the recordings over to edit in Audacity or Garageband. It is very portable and the fact it uses AA batteries means if they run out, they are easy to replace. Main downside is cost, but in this case I do believe it is very much you get what you pay for.

7. Blue Snowball Microphone

I have been recording a lot this year, not just e-Learning Stuff podcasts, but also symposia and other discussions. The Blue Snowball Microphone is certainly a key tool for this. I also use it at home for Skype and making recordings.

The main downside is that the size of the microphone makes it less than ideal for taking to events and carrying in a bag. However the quality of recordings means that I am more keen to use this then any other microphone.

6. Kodak Zi8

This for the first part of the year was a great little camera that I used for both video and stills. Alas I “lost” mine after a mobile learning event I ran at the college in July. We have two class sets at college and I have used the Kodak Zi8 at various events, so that’s another reason for including it in my top ten.

5. Amazon Kindle

 

The UK version of the Kindle was available from September 2010, and despite owning an iPad I did buy a Kindle and have been impressed. With a battery life measured in weeks, a great book selection, what I like most about the Kindle is that I can continue to read Kindle books on other devices such as the iPad. This is not just about the Kindle device, but also the Kindle app for other devices.

4. Google Nexus One

My Nokia N95 which was number one in 2008 and in the top ten in 2009, I retired it this year after getting the Google Nexus One. This was an Android phone and the first time I managed to use the mobile OS on a regular basis.

I really do like this phone and I certainly over 2010 recommended it to people who didn’t want an iPhone. The main reasons I like it is the portable wireless hotspot (wifi tethering) that came with the Froyo 2.2 update, the screen which is gorgeous and the voice control. It’s not perfect, I do find that the OS is not as stable as I think it should be. However as a phone for making phone calls, it works very well, unlike other phones I could mention…

3. iPhone 4

The iPhone 4 is what the iPhone should have been from day one. Finally the iPhone came of age. It is one of the best phones I have ever used.

The camera was better than ever before and the phone also came with a front facing camera. This is something the Nokia N95 has had since 2007! However the improvements in performance and the wonderful “retina” screen certainly are welcome.

What I like about the iPhone is the ease of use, the browsing experience, the apps. There is so much I am doing on this phone and so much more I could be doing on this phone. I for example have not yet used Facetime, but I wonder if that’s more down to I know very few people with an iPhone 4 and the one time I tried to make a Facetime call, it didn’t work!

Though I could replicate the antenna problem this didn’t impact on me as much as it seemed to in the US. If anything I found the iPhone 4 was much better at making phone calls than the 3GS was. It has better reception, but will still drop calls.

Multi-tasking with iOS4 certainly made the phone easier to use and meant that switching between apps didn’t always result in a loss of data or information.

The key advantage of the iPhone for me is the sheer number of apps and the quality and quantity have changed how I use a phone.

I do think the iPhone 4 is one of the best phones I have ever used and I am really pleased with it.

2. BT Infinity FTTC

When ADSL came to my home town I was one of the first in the area to get it. It was great going from dial-up 44kbps to a broadband connection of 385kbps. Over the years this did rise to 1.3Mbps and for a lot of things was great. However as more and more people got broadband, the contention ratio kicked in and the speed dropped to under 1Mbps for most of the day.

For general browsing it was okay, however downloading large files was a real pain and I use to schedule these overnight. For example upgrading my iPhone would take anything up to 24 hours! Using BBC iPlayer was generally also a non-starter and most of the time I wouldn’t even bother trying.

So when fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) arrived in my area, I signed up as fast as my ISP would let me. With 40Mb down and 10Mb up this is significantly faster than the 1.3 down and 0.6 up I had before.

It has already changed how I use the internet, whereas before I would probably not consider downloading a film from iTunes during the day, as it would soak up my bandwidth and would take hours to download; now it takes under five minutes to download! No problems with downloading large files and updates now. The other key advantage is streaming video, which was almost pointless before due to buffering, and like downloading, previous streaming would soak up my bandwidth, having 40Mb down means I can stream and do other stuff at the same time. Skype works really well too and is a lot more stable than before.

Having really fast internet is making my work and home life easier and I am having less issues with using different internet services and uploading is a dream now.

1. iPad

iPads
Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay

 

Announced in January and released (in the UK) in May, I was even surprised by how much I now use the iPad. It has in many ways replaced how I use a laptop at home, at work, whilst travelling and at events. When I ordered mine, I didn’t think it would have that much of an impact, but it has and continues to have an impact.

In July I wrote about how I took just the iPad to an event in London and how I just used the iPad. I did the same at the RSC SW Conference too.

I do think the iPad is an ideal device for conferences and events and wrote quite a lengthy piece on how it could be used to amplify and enhance conferences.

Certainly compared to using a large laptop, an iPad is a much better device for using on the train.

At work I use the iPad for dealing with e-mail and my calendar and quickly checking things on the VLE. For some meetings I do need to take a laptop as some tools we use rely on Flash or Java and that is one of the main weaknesses of the iPad is that these kinds of tools can not be used on it.

At home, I use the iPad on the sofa, in the kitchen and around the house. I like how I can use it to quickly check the news, e-mail, the weather, social networks and general browsing the web. I like the casual games you can get for the iPad and its media capability easily surpasses any other mobile devices I have used. It’s not all perfect, I would like to stream (easily) video and audio from my iMac to my iPad and not all web functions work as I would like them to. Blogging on the iPad is still a bit hit and miss for me.

So my number one technology for 2010 is Apple’s iPad, I wonder if it will still be in my top ten next year?

Are any of your favourite technologies in this top ten? What have I missed?

app of the week, e-book, ipad

Why the Net Matters: How the Internet Will Save Civilization – iPad App of the Week

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Why the Net Matters: How the Internet Will Save Civilization – iPad App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Why the Net Matters: How the Internet Will Save Civilization.

This groundbreaking app from bestselling author David Eagleman is a new way to experience narrative non-fiction, only available on the iPad.

The app allows the user to access each chapter at random using a unique navigational interface. Once in a chapter you can pull out to see where you are in the course of the argument, and see how far you have progressed through the content.

Each chapter contains tailor-made chunks of text with dozens of images, videos, webpages and interactive 3D models. These can be enjoyed alongside the text, or on their own once the text is swiped away in landscape mode.

Fully readable and adaptable to portrait or landscape, the app uses all the functionality familiar from iBooks such as page swiping and a bottom navigational bar, but re-configures it into a new experience that brings the content alive.

David Eagleman has spent years researching this topic and plans to release regular updates so that the information is current, and the content evolves.

£4.99

I am not sure I can recommend this app, the main reason I bought it was to see how a book could work on the iPad away from the iBooks or Kindle style interface. In that this book does work, the interface is easy to use and you can move from one section to another with ease. The book makes good use of images, diagrams, animations and video.

The author has indicated that he will “update” the book as time goes on. In other words the book will evolve over time.

You can copy (therefore making it easy to cite) from the book.

On other book applications this is very difficult if not impossible. Though even I am not sure how to cite from a book such as this one. This is something that I need to look into further, but as more and more “virtual” books like this are published, the more we in the academic community will need a consistent way of citing such tomes.

So from a technical perspective I think the book works. As for the content? Well I thought it was interesting, but the topic is something you are interested in or not.

Update: this app is no longer available.

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Are you addicted to the Twitter?

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So are you addicted to Twitter?

Do you check and post to Twitter:

At events and conferences?

During meetings?

When you get into work you check the Twitter before checking your e-mail?

At home whilst cooking?

When sitting on the sofa when watching TV?

In bed before you go to sleep?

It’s the first thing you look at when you wake up?

Do you decide on where to have coffee based on the free wifi so you can check the Twitter?

When you bought a new phone, was the fact that it could run a Twitter app one of the main reasons for purchase?

When handing over contact information do you say @user rather give you your email address?

Maybe a more important question is could you give up the Twitter?

Or do you want to leave a comment saying it not’s called the Twitter it’s just Twitter?

So could you stop using Twitter? Not for ever perhaps. Maybe just over the holiday period? Or the weekend?

Or is it not about stopping, but thinking about the importance of Twitter in terms of everything else.

Personally for me the Twitter is about the coffee. It’s the conversation you have with colleagues over coffee in the morning, it’s the conversation you have at a coffee break during a meeting or an event, it’s the conversation you have over coffee at a conference during the breaks. It is a conversation without the constraints of geography and in some ways time.

For me though it does not replace all those conversations, it adds to them, it enhances them, but in the main I still have those other conversations. I don’t use Twitter to avoid those or instead of them.

Of course lots of things are said during those face to face conversations, mundane things such as the quality of the coffee, talking about articles and programmes, people we’ve met, people we’ve seen, the quality of the presentations, keynotes and sessions.

There are also people we avoid during those conversations, those that only talk about themselves, those that only promote what they do, those that have opinions about everything: in other words those that don’t listen and talk all the time.

With conversations over coffee, one of the key features is that you don’t hear all the conversations, and you don’t necessarily hear the beginning or the end. You dip into conversations, you join in, add, converse and leave. Of course if you don’t join in that conversation, rarely will you be missed, people may talk about you, or things you do, but generally you won’t be missed and you probably won’t even be thought about.

Which brings us back to using the Twitter.

If you are start using Twitter instead of real conversations then you may want to think about how you are using the Twitter. At the end of the day the Twitter stream is not important. It doesn’t matter if you miss any of it, you don’t need to check it all the time.

If you feel you need to take a break from the Twitter then you probably do.

For me Twitter is an important tool that I find very useful, there is a great community on there, however I can say the same about casual conversations over coffee. However like any casual conversation it’s not important to hear the whole and every conversation. You dip in and you can dip out. When you go away to events or on leave you will miss conversations at work, but generally you don’t need to hear them, important stuff will get to you if required.

I know that if I don’t engage with Twitter that most people won’t notice and for me that doesn’t matter.

Oh and I promise not to say the Twitter anymore!

app of the week, ipad

Project – iPad App of the Week

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Project – iPad App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone and iPad Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s App is Project Magazine.

A revolutionary multimedia magazine built specially for your iPad – packed with international culture, entertainment, design, business and travel. And nuclear weapons. Oh, and Jeff Bridges.

Free and then £1.79 per issue

I have reviewed magazines in this series before and consider that though a PDF virtual copy of a magazine on the iPad isn’t really taking advantage of the potential of the iPad, there are some publishers though who are seeing that a magazine on the iPad can be more than a digital version of the paper edition.

With Project, Virgin Digital Publishing are even avoiding a paper edition and only publishing on the iPad. The magazine has might be expected video, audio and interactive diagrams.

There are (like WIRED) quite a few adverts.

The interface is not simple and there is quite a detailed help screen explaining how to navigate through the magazine.

For me this is one of the weaknesses of the iPad, unlike a Windows PC or a Mac running OS X, there isn’t a coherent user interface guide for iPad apps. So magazines like WIRED or Project use different navigation and buttons for moving around the magazine to different articles. Though Apple provides quite detailed  iOS Human Interface Guidelines app developers and publishers aren’t really recognising the user need for a consistent interface, especially with magazines. Comics on the other hand, most comic publishers are now using the GuidedView Technology from Comixology. This allows different comic publishers to use the same user interface for reading comics on the iPad. Hopefully something similar will emerge not just for magazines but also for e-books.

So what of the content of Project?

Well it reminded me of WIRED with a bit of Empire thrown in and a broadsheet weekend newspaper. There aren’t a huge number of articles, but is only £1.79.

I did enjoy reading it, and found some articles of interest.

The key will be though, will I buy the next issue?

Hmmm, not so sure.

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The Google Netbook

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I have always been quite pleased with my Google Nexus One, so when I heard about the Google Netbook, the Cr-48 I was quite intrigued.

Unlike the Nexus One, the Cr-48 runs the Chrome OS and not Android. Google have been quite clear, as far as they are concerned, Android is for handheld devices and Chrome is for laptops or netbooks.

Of course the CR-48 is not a consumer device, but a test machine to demonstrate how Chrome will work. Which probably accounts for the “catchy” name.

This is not a powerful machine, it has a single USB port, video out, wifi, 3G. It has a (relatively) large 12.1” screen. It is also quite heavy!

According to WIRED:

While scrolling web pages, playing some web-based games and watching videos from YouTube and the Onion, I noticed some jerkiness and skipping. Flash Player is pre-installed (and presumably sandboxed) but watching Flash videos is a bit of a sucky experience, especially in full-screen mode.

This is certainly my experience with underpowered netbooks in the past, I have found the video experience very poor. One thing I do say about the iPad is that the video experience is very good.

WIRED do say though:

But everything at least works as advertised, and it’s still totally usable.

The key behind Chrome OS is that it is a browser based OS with all the apps you use and main storage in the cloud. Hence connectivity is a key issue. Can see this not been an issue in an institution with good wifi coverage, obviously more of an issue when using such a device outside, on a train or other area without good connectivity.

If the price is right then these devices will be something that institutions might want to consider for using with learners, possibly providing learners with their own device for use in lessons, in the library and at home.

At the moment more often than not, institutions will provide computers in suites, rooms and in the library. This requires a fair bit of infrastructure and support. By providing devices to learners, this negates the need for a large number of computer rooms (some specialist rooms will still to be needed) and also allow learners to use the device when and wherever the learner is. The institution then becomes more of a service provider, delivering an infrastucture that allows learners wireless internet access (and possibly printing). The institutional VLE, Web 2.0 services and communication tools will allow the learner to access learning when they want to, rather than when the institution says they can.

Providing devices to learners costs money, cheap netbooks have been a possibility in the past, but the linux underpowered 7” devices we have seen in the past haven’t really proved that popular with learners. As soon as you make the devices bigger and add Windows, you also add a large price tag too. Will a Chrome powered netbook be the next evolutionary stage of the netbook? Will this be a device that changes the IT culture of educational institutions? Or will it be merely something that geeks like, but no one else uses?

Unfortunately I will probably never see, let alone use the Cr-48 as the pilot programme for the US only. Ah well…

jiscel10, podcast

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #068: That’s my idea! No it’s mine!

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Ideas, sharing ideas are discussed along with Java and Screenr problems, discussion forums, Bloom’s taxonomy and the 1% rule.

With James Clay, David Sugden, Lilian Soon, and Dave Foord.

This is the sixty eighth e-Learning Stuff Podcast, That’s my idea! No it’s mine!

Download the podcast in mp3 format: That’s my idea! No it’s mine!

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes

Since this show was recorded a recent update 3.6.13 to Firefox for OS X has “fixed” the Screenr bug we discussed at the beginning of the show.

In the recording we refer to a podcast I made for the JISC Online Conference.

Shownotes

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Friendship Issues

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On the BBC News Magazine is a an interesting article on “friendship” between parents and their children.

When Facebook was entirely dominated by people under the age of 25, things were simple. But now an important social question has arisen – should you “friend” your child, or accept a parent as a “friend”?

The article discusses the nature of Facebook friendship and that most young people would prefer not to be Facebook “friends” with thier parents.

Lindsay Stewart, 15, completely understands why you’d refuse a parent’s friend request. Her household have agreed on not becoming Facebook friends. “Mum said that she was going to get on Facebook,” Lindsay says. “She said she wasn’t going to ask to be friends. Me and my brother were relieved.”

“It’s a community,” she explains. “Our parents aren’t there in our groups in school.”

“I primarily joined Facebook to have conversations with my friends. My mum is my mum. I like her, but she’s not necessarily what I’d call my friend.”

This attitude and reasoning is actually in my opinion quite sensible and also demonstrates why that teachers should never be friends with their learners. It’s not just about having separate accounts, one for home and one for work when working with learners, it’s about how the learner and his or her community use Facebook and the role a teacher plays in that community. If a learners doesn’t want to be “friends” with their parents, then do they really want to or even should they be “friends” with their teachers?

I usually recommend to practitioners in my college that they would be better off creating a page or group that their learners can subscribe to, so that the issue of friendship doesn’t come up. Some would say in a post 16 college environment that this is different to a school. However I would also argue that the issue of friendship on Facebook is something that should be avoided at an FE College and even at a University.

I see Facebook not as a learning network, but a social network that learners can use for learning or for communication and collaboration. As practitioners we should be streaming content and information into that network, but shouldn’t be a part of that network. Learners need to be able to choose how and where they access this content from practitioners and forcing “friendship” to achieve this is in my opinion wrong and open to future problems. This is also reflected in many of the learner surveys which indicate that learners do not want institutions “invading” their social space. This is not the same thing though as learners not wanting to learn in their social spaces. This they often do and have been doing for ever in physical social spaces, it is only logical that this will happen in online social spaces.

Services such as Facebook and for many blurred the lines between social and professional, if institutions provide clear guidelines to staff and learners on usage, it allows the advantages of such systems to be utilised., whilst minimising potential risks.

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100 ways to use a VLE – #73 Hosting audio

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Though there are audio sites out there on the web that will host audio. Sometimes you may not want the recording to be public out on the web. In that case hosting audio on the VLE may be an ideal solution.

If the audio is of a lecture on a tricky subject, or contains licensed content that you can place on the VLE, but are not allowed to freely distribute then placing the audio on the VLE may be a better option than uploading to a public site such as Audioboo. Sensitive recordings of research subjects, or patients, are more reasons why you may host the audio on the VLE.

The final key reason you may want to place the audio on the VLE is that the recordings are of or by learners and they may not wish to have their work or their views available publicly. Of course there are sites out there that can be password protected, but at least the VLE does most of that hard work for you.

Audio can be useful to enhance and enrich learning, one lecturer I know records short summaries of the lessons and the assignments. Some learners find this more engaging than reading them on paper or on the screen.

Recording debates and discussions, allows learners to reflect and review them at a time and place to suit the learner, rather than just relying on notes and memory.

By placing the audio on the VLE, you can place it in the context of learning, enabling learners to clarify how the recording works in respect of the rest of the course or topic.

For ease of access, by placing the audio on the VLE, the learners will be able to click and download the audio file to place it on say a mobile device.

Though the server may not be configured to deliver or stream video, it is often much easier (and places less technical demands on the server) for the server to stream audio. From a learner perspective, audio requires less bandwidth than video, so can often be easily accessed on poor internet connections such as mobile internet.

Teaching has had an oral tradition that goes back for thousands of years. With a virtual learning environment, using audio recordings can allow learners a choice on how they access content, instructions and advice.

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Stephen Fry: The Internet and Me

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Stephen Fry

I quite enjoyed reading this article by Stephen Fry on the BBC News website (even though it is 18 months old) when I found it for the first time.

Stephen Fry – wit, writer, raconteur, actor and quiz show host – is also a self-confessed dweeb and meistergeek. As he confesses “If I added up all the hours I’ve sat watching a progress bar fill up, I could live another life.”

One of the main reasons I like it is one particular quote that I have used time and time again in meetings.

This is an early thing I said about the internet at the time things like AOL were still huge. I said it’s Milton Keynes, that’s the problem with it. It’s got all these nice, safe cycle paths and child-friendly parks and all the rest of it.

But the internet is a city and, like any great city, it has monumental libraries and theatres and museums and places in which you can learn and pick up information and there are facilities for you that are astounding – specialised museums, not just general ones.

But there are also slums and there are red light districts and there are really sleazy areas where you wouldn’t want your children wandering alone.

And you say, “But how do I know which shops are selling good gear in the city and how do I know which are bad? How do I know which streets are safe and how do I know which aren’t?” Well you find out.

What you don’t need is a huge authority or a series of identity cards and police escorts to take you round the city because you can’t be trusted to do it yourself or for your children to do it.

And I think people must understand that about the internet – it is a new city, it’s a virtual city and there will be parts of it of course that they dislike, but you don’t pull down London because it’s got a red light district.

For me this is a nice analogy of how institutions should look at the internet when thinking about their learners. It’s not about closing off the city to our learners. It’s much more about informing and making learners aware not just of the benefits of the city and the wonderful places that can be seen, but also that there are places in the city they may want to avoid.

When I was teaching European Studies many years ago, we took a group of students to Amsterdam to look at European culture. There are some wonderful things to see in Amsterdam, however myself and my colleagues made sure we were just as aware of the “not so nice” places to ensure that we could provide the right information and advice to our learners.

There is of course those learners who will ignore you and go where they shouldn’t (and this also happened on our trip to Amsterdam) and the key here is to ensure that those learners know what to do and to whom they should seek help and support if they do decide to ignore the advice and venture into the sleazy areas.

The internet has many wonderful sites, tools and services. In my opinion an institution needs to provide the right guidance and advice (digital literacy and information literacy) to our learners to make sure that they can make the most of and find the best of what the internet has to offer. They also have a duty of care to inform learners about the less desirable areas of the internet and how to deal with those parts too.

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