Sunday, March 11, 2012

Mobile Me (Sorry it's a long one...skip at will)

As an online/distance student, access is everything. You simply CANNOT do this kind of study without the right tools. Since I started in September, I've been building up an arsenal of tools, hardware, and software to keep myself  online WHEN and WHERE I need to be! There is lots of research on students' online habits, online needs, online communities, etc.  Great! But I'm finding that it is often the OFFLINE needs that are hardest to meet! All of the materials, resources, podcasts, discussions, etc all happen online, but because 3 hours of my daily study time are spent on trains and buses with no wi-fi, it means that I need to find ways to get those ONLINE materials OFFLINE, and portable. That's the bigger struggle for me! Online is easy...Offline, not so much...
So here's where it's at:
Tool #1 was the Kobo Wi-Fi Reader:
I used it to read pdf's on the train. It was difficult, and slow, but it beat printing thousands of pages to carry with me. It had no capacity for highlighting or note-taking, so when I got home, I would rush to my computer and hook up to Mendeley (document management system), and try to make notes on there before I forgot the whole article. It was an awkward system, but the alternative was spending a fortune on paper and ink. Not an option. I burnt out the Kobo with overuse. It died in January. RIP.

Tool #2 is a new Sony PRS-T1:
It is smaller, and smarter. It reads pdf's a little more easily than the Kobo. In both machines, pdf's work best in landscape mode, so turned on its side, each page is divided into 2 sections to scroll through. You can crop the margins, which is nice, and there are different font sizes (which are unpredictable). There is a pinch/zoom feature so you can zoom in on diagrams, charts, etc. Now, let's talk about notes and highlights... It is possible. Sometimes. I haven't yet figured out how to know which pdf's will allow highlighting, and which ones won't. It's really hit and miss. Some do...some don't. You never know until you try. The really cool thing is that IF you are able to highlight a word or phrase, then you have options to "Highlight, Note, Google, Wikipedia, Search (dictionary)" so you can get a lot of extra info. Also in notes, you can either type them, or draw them onscreen! There are something like 12 translation dictionaries built in too! Apparently, you can also sync your notes with the Sony Reader software on your computer, but I haven't tried that yet. I'm not sure about importing notes (with texts) from other sources. I've been off work (layoff) since I bought the Sony, so it hasn't met the commute test yet. It's going with me tomorrow when I start my new session. I don't anticipate any big problems. (although the universe may have something different to say about that)..

Tool #3 is the iPod Classic: 
I could never afford an iPhone, but it's not necessary for my purposes anyway. My old iPod Classic is what I use to take podcasts with me. Two of my courses have made substantial use of podcasts, and since I can't stream them (no wi-fi...remember), it's really easy to take them with me for viewing on the train. Sometimes older technology does the job just fine. But it IS one more piece of equipment to carry....

Tool #4 is an Acer Iconia W500 Windows tablet computer: 
This baby broke the bank. When I bought it, I thought I would be able to carry it with me for reading on the train, but I quickly realized my folly. It's waaaaayyyy too expensive to flash around on the TTC! My students were held up at gunpoint for their iPhones, so this would be taken in no time flat, I'm sure. It's a beautiful machine, with full Windows capability. It does everything my "real" computer does, and has an optional attachable keyboard if you are going to be stationary. I decided not to use it for commuter reading, but it HAS been useful in other capacities. I use it at work when I am doing marking in class (exam time), and also for training webinars (Moodle training). I also use it at home  for portability inside my apartment! It's nice to not have to sit at the computer desk, and just curl up on the couch with this thing...or in bed. So, mobility in my house has been nice! But the best thing about this, is that it's PERFECT for carrying between cities when I travel home to visit the family. Inter-city trains have Wi-fi on board, so I can do everything I need, and when I get home, I have access to everything WITHOUT having to take my heavier laptop home with me.

Tool#5 is an LG P505 smartphone: 
My first smartphone. I bought it just before Kobo died, and then was kicking myself for spending the money. I have used it for making notes to myself (Evernote), but not much else related to studying. It can do Youtube, and Twitter, Facebook, and all of those social things, but the problem, as usual, is that there isn't usually any signal, unless I'm home. Mobile phones aren't all they're cracked up to be if you can't get a signal.

So last week, in my week off, I decided to go visit my parents for a few days, and knowing that I had tons of reading to do, and a couple of online meetings and Second Life meetings, I was trying to decide which tools to take with me. I packed up my iPod for a great music selection, my Sony for all those pdf files, my phone for ...well... you can't live without a phone...., and my Acer, with keyboard, for computer access when I reached home. Plus all the power cords, earphones, microphones, styluses, and carrying cases. I couldn't lift my bag! Before leaving the house, I stopped to remove the Sony (I could get the pdf's online once I got home), and the iPod (will just have to do without music....maybe I can find an online radio station instead), and got rid of the microphones, styluses, and one set of headphones. I took only the computer and the phone. I regretted it immensely. Note to self: NEVER TRAVEL ON VIA WITHOUT IPOD!!! NEVER NEVER NEVER!!! Screaming babies always sit beside me...if the train was completely empty, they would STILL park the screaming baby in the seat next to me. It's one of the laws of the universe.

Back to studying.... It seems incredible to me that I need all of these tools in addition to my computer....just to carry around all of the media that I need in this course. I feel like a walking electronics shop. If I could count on having an internet signal, then I wouldn't need all of these gadgets. One gadget could do it all! But since I spend the most part of every day without wi-fi, I need ways to take the books, the pdf's, the podcasts, the videos, the music with me. It's almost like the resources are too advanced, too smart, too digital, and what I really need is for them to just dumb-down a little. For the most part, I use a sort of combination of Sony + home computers (with Mendeley and Evernote) to do most of my reading and studying. It's not a perfect system, but I'm not sure there is one!
So how do YOU read? Vote in my poll! Top right!



Monday, March 5, 2012

My Second Life



My toes are sticking out of the ends of my boots and I can't get them back in! My jacket is cutting me off at the hips, and my hair is straight! I have great legs! I am sitting on a chair...without a chair, and I cannot stand up at all! But I can fly! When I do fly, I can see the rolling brains on the dance floor below me. The music plays when it shouldn't, and I can't stop walking through walls! I've also been stuck in a few pine trees with no escape! I picked up a bowl that I can't put down, and it has twisted my arm backwards behind my head. Sometimes I can't hear anything (which is what happens when I'm drunk....but I'm pretty sure I'm not)! Strange people surround me, and only one of them really has a clue where we are, or what we are doing. He taught me how to teleport! He has a great tan!
My name is funkyhighness and I have a Second Life!

Funky Mushrooms???
Nope!!!
                                                       
This week in my course I had to set up an account in Second Life, create an avatar, and find my way around before our virtual meeting Friday morning! For those of you who are younger, hipper, techier, and gamier, you may already know about the wonders of this virtual world. For the rest of us...let me explain.

Second Life is a 3D online world where you create an avatar for yourself, and set off to explore the innumerable worlds that people have created for various purposes. It's pretty cool. You can be anything you want, from vampires, to animals (think furries...if you're into that), cars, robots, or just people (which gave me options of 'goth girl', 'rocker chick', 'barbie doll', or 'soccer mom'). I chose 'rocker chick' because I am so NOT one!
So after some basic lessons in how to walk, sit, fly, and whirl your vision around, you set off to an island of your choosing, and that's where you discover the joys of getting stuck in trees, and walking through donkeys and cows!
Apparently, some ingenious teachers have found ways to use this world for teaching language! And other things! I am not one of them. Yet.
My instructor, a very patient man, has been helping losers like me to find their way around in this world, and trying to show us some of the great things you can do there....'affordances' we might say...
I must confess, it is a little hard for me to imagine. I'm not 'of this world'. It's a little bit like culture shock, I think. Anyone who has gone off to live in a completely foreign culture (think of me in Japan) will recognize the disorientation, the not knowing how to walk, sit, or gesture properly, the lack of language skills at times, the wonder, the awe, the curiosity...wondering what people DO here. It's a very strange feeling....and yet, you are in your own living room, in your pyjamas, with various wires coming out of your head.
I'm really looking forward to further meetings this week where I might see a little more Second Life in action. I can't imagine teaching with this yet......but maybe one day!
I'm very curious to see how it all works....     a funky trip.... no mushrooms necessary...

Here's me...My foot is missing. I flew too far and now I'm lost.




Thursday, March 1, 2012

BOGGED DOWN!

Ohhh... my little bloggy friend... I've been ignoring you for the past week. Why?  I. Am. Bogged. Down.    Bogged Down.   Bogged Down. I think my next Wordle will feature prominently the words "Bogged Down".

I am drowning in reading and more reading, and tasks and more tasks. And I had my mother here to visit for a week. I love my mother...and I love having her here...but it's hard to read yourself out of the bog when you have a houseguest.

Speaking of bogs....  bogs and blogs.... but here, just a bog....



I have to say, some of my readings this week make almost as much sense as this song. But not quite. (I'm talking to YOU, Conole!)

"Conole"...... Articles like this should be shot. If I ever become the type of raving academic who writes crap like this, I hope somebody beats me with my keyboard, shoves a stapler up my nose and throws me into a bog with a bird, a louse, a tick and a rash! Seriously!!!  ENGLISH, people! It doesn't have to be a foreign language!

Now, I'm a pretty smart girl (if I do say so myself!), and I can understand it after about the 3rd reading, but I'm a pretty busy girl, too, and I do not. have time. to decode. crap. like. this. I'm trying to read myself  OUT of the bog, and Conole et al are like those underwater weeds that pull you down into the "Sea of Academe", twist around your legs, and tie you down until you either drown, or Harry Potter comes along with the Gillyweed and saves your ass!

Waiting for you, Potter!



Refs:
The Irish Descendents (2007). The Rattlin Bog. Warner Music. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxgmAwoqr4E
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Warner Bros. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOrf92_Lma8&feature=related
Conole, G., Dyke, M., Oliver, M., and Seale, J. (2004) Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design. Computers and Education, 43, 17-33, 39(1), 170-174.