Thing 12: Tablets and mobile apps

Having read and watched the YouTube clip about the NMC Horizon report: 2012 higher education, it was interesting to see what emerging technologies are likely to have an impact with higher education over the next few years. Two such technologies listed were all to do with tablets and mobile apps.

When I was at school and studying I never had the option of being able to work, learn, and study

whenever and wherever I wanted to, there were no such things as tablets or smart phones. (I am sounding so old) All I had at school was the standard pen and paper alongside the big bulky computers of the time. There wasn’t many people with mobile phone technology either. If they did have it was the large mobile phone the size of a brick lol.

Now in 2013 and beyond we have so much choice when it comes to technology and what is available for higher education. I have been working in libraries since 1999 and I have seen a whole evolution before my eyes when it comes to assistive technologies and education. At present where I work we have laptops and ipads for hire as well as flip cameras with USB drive. I feel that both academics and students are embracing such change and are adapting such technologies in their studies as well as teachings. I too am learning every day. There is always some new gadget or mobile app to read or explore. There always seems to be an app for everything, from finding the nearest public toilet to being able to learn another language.

I think with younger children and their ability to use a tablet at such an early age (I was at breakfast once and a 2 year old was playing games on an Ipad) it will only help them when they do start school. The same can be said for higher education as well. Students have adopted and incorporated the use of tablets and mobile apps into their daily lives.

Most people today have a number of “personal” technological gadgets. I have to put my hand up and say I am amongst them…. I have the iPod and smart phone and Ipad.

Most Australians today will own a mobile phone (roughly 94% of the population), as well as an iPod and now we are seeing large volumes of people purchasing some kind of tablet or Ipad.

 

While I embrace the changes in future educational technologies, I still feel that we may be relying on them a little too much. I really found the following article to be interesting. It talks about our reliance on mobile phones. Will this mean the same for tablets?

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s1977571.htm

 What I have noticed over the years is how reliant we have become with mobiles and tablets. You just have to sit down on a bus or train or even a café to see the high volume of people engrossed in their phones/tablets.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the advantages of tablets and mobile apps are terrific, there is so much choice when it comes to apps. There are pages and pages of educational apps from prep to university. But will all this technology lead to future generations losing the ability to engage with others in person rather than through a device?

and Thing 13: Facebook

I see Facebook as being a social networking site that enables users to keep in touch and share thoughts and opinions with their friends and family wherever they may be in the world.

I went ahead and took the opportunity to read up more about Facebook. I have been an on/ off user of Facebook for a few years now. I must admit I don’t use it much anymore. I personally prefer to email or call my friends or family, but when I did use it I found it a great way of keeping in touch with my friends whom lived overseas.

I can still recall when I was 12 and I had a few pen pals, where the only way to stay in touch was to write letters and post them and the anticipation I sometimes got when waiting for a return letter in the post. (They were the good old day’s lol)

What I personally found with the invention of Facebook and even emails was there was a sharp decline in choosing to write letters. It was much easier to post on Facebook a message rather than to do the long way of “snail mail” (Whether this makes us lazy today I don’t really know)

I sometimes feel that the art of letter writing is being lost to advanced technologies.

I think we are in a society where we want instant gratification. We want the answer “now” we no longer want to wait. Facebook allows us to do so. Facebook I think has evolved and is now a professional networking device alongside the standard social networking. As generation Y have grown up and are in the workforce I feel so too has Facebook. Gen Y users want to not only socialise with their friends but with work they are using Facebook as a tool to network on a professional level.

My question is will Facebook take over LinkedIn as the go to site for professional networking?

Whereas LinkedIn is all about career, Facebook gives users over avenues to express themselves. With Facebook you can poke, you can send birthday greetings; you can list your likes and dislikes.

The only concern I have is privacy. People need to be aware and use the privacy functions given to them by Facebook.

From my further investigations I have come to the conclusion that if we want to use Facebook as a professional networking tool a few essentials need to be considered …..

·         If you decide to use Facebook for professional networking, take a close look at your Profile and decide what you want business contacts or prospective employers to see - and what you don't.

·         Create a simple profile

·         Limit the photos you post.

·         Post content relevant to your job search or career.

·         Use Facebook email to build relationships with your Friends, but remember that all information can be seen by other “social networking friends”

What I have also found is a lot of businesses (including libraries) are now using Facebook. I even went and looked for my own library where I work at –ACU and went onto their Facebook page. It seems to be a great way of interacting with clients. Reading their posts as well as putting out “questions” for them to answer only enhances the interaction between institution and student.

Thing 11 Productivity Tools

Another week and another blog.

This week I have been diving deep into productivity tools. What is that may you ask?

How I see it productivity tools can be things such as software (web apps) that can help us the individual with our day to day tasks. A good example of this was a productivity tool that I looked at –

“Remember the Milk”

From the list of tools given, I just had to go here and investigate further. What a catchy name. J
From my comprehensive investigations (LOL) I have since discovered that “Remember the Milk” was formed in 2004 in Sydney, but has since gone on to bigger and better things and it is now based in San Francisco…….

Gotta love Bob the Monkey the official mascot

http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2012/09/goodbye-sydney-gday-san-francisco/

Remember The Milk is trying to be the to-do list that's everywhere you are.

Signing up with this web app is completely free. I love that they have a comprehensive blog and a Tips and Tricks Tuesday posting every week which I found to be quite helpful.  The vibe that I get from the team is a bunch of people who seem to be passionate about the product and are very interactive with their clientele who use this app, which for me on a personal note is something that would seriously make me want to start using.

Remember The Milk is also available for...

Twitter

Gmail

Smart Phones

Outlook

and Google Calender

 

I love the fact that this app can be added to my Google calendar account giving me easy access to tasks, alongside the main calendar. Options to review upcoming tasks for the week, add new tasks and to edit existing ones are added features. It’s also good that you can also customise the display through Google calendars.  (Please Note: I do try and use Google Calendars) I love the fact that I can be anywhere in the world and when I log onto my Google account I can access my email and calendar.

I also found the videos for this web app to be quite simple and straightforward to use.

I see Productivity Tools as being a group of tools (hardware or software) that the individual person or companies can use to enhance themselves in areas of increased productivity, enhancing collaboration methods as well as promoting creativity and improving communication amongst staff and/or friends.

I do feel that there is a place for organisations to use one or more productivity tools to meet their working needs.

Microsoft office to me is one such “productivity tool” We use programs such as MS Word for documents, Outlook for email, Excel for graphs and tables and PowerPoint for presentations.

Now with the added additions of web apps such as –

Remember the Milk

Google calendars

Dropbox

Evernote

And many more

We can only go on to bigger and better things in regards to productivity. I think with the addition of web based apps we can be anywhere and still keep up to date with work.

Does this mean the days of sitting in the one office at the one desk from 9-5 are changing????

Thing 10

Social Bookmarking

After the Christmas and New Year break we are back to looking at our 23 things.

 Happy 2013 everyone……..

This week we are looking at everything to do with Social Bookmarking. For me this was new territory as I have never done any social bookmarking before. What I did find helpful was the Wikipedia entry. It was easy to understand and gave me more of an idea of the principles and practices involved with social bookmarking.

I am ashamed to admit that I was old school when it came to saving links and websites. I would just save these to my desktop. Now that you can access these on any computer anywhere/anytime by using such sites as delicious and diigo is in a way a revelation ;)

I managed to have a thorough read through of the Delicious FAQS.

I found it a good way to get my head around all the terminology and what you can and can’t do with the site.

It is great to see that there is a delicious app available J

Thanks Delicious, I have signed up for an account and I can now say that you are added to my toolbar…….

Now I can go ahead and social bookmark…..