Augmented Reality

I have not personally used Pokémon Go, but I have seen others use the app. I can see why it became a sensation. It is a more interactive version of a scavenger hunt for adults. It is pretty brilliant, but it also revealed a lot of holes in human attention spans and logic as some people (I am sure a minority of users) were putting themselves in dangerous situations to “catch them all”. As I have not played the game myself, I cannot say for certain, but I would hazard a guess that people’s general awareness of their surroundings was impeded when focusing on seeing the world through their phone’s camera. The same issues of a lack of awareness can be seen in popular tourist locations where people are focused on seeing their surroundings through a screen rather than what is actually in front of them. It would be really interesting to learn more about how our brain reacts differently to seeing your immediate surroundings filtered through a screen.

Virtual Reality

Several years ago, I was gifted a Google Cardboard headset. As it was early in its development, there were only a handful of apps that could be used with the headset, but it was a very fun experience. There was a certain sense of satisfaction in building the cardboard set yourself. The experience of wearing the headset reminded me of Viewfinders.

I also looked through the CRC 3D models on Sketchfab. What an incredible way to study collections! I think the British Museum used similar technology to create models of the Parthenon Marbles. However, 3D models of collections do require more context. Although you may be able to view them from all angles, some objects were not meant to be viewed that way, like the Parthenon frieze, and this can distort your perspective.

I really enjoyed exploring OneNote. I have relied on it heavily in the past. During my studies, I used OneNote to organise course lectures and readings. I had a laptop with a touch screen and I was able to markup readings in OneNote, adding handwritten notes and highlighting passages. I really liked the ability to add different media to notebooks and the ability to use it across devices. It was also far more organised than a handwritten notebook or multiple Word files from individual lectures.  It has been awhile since I have used OneNote, so I explored it some more for Thing 16. After logging into my account, I was relieved to find that a lot of information that I lost recently, after my computer broke, had been stored in OneNote. The first thing I noticed was that I had a lot of messy and forgotten notebooks attached to my account. It was easy enough to clean this up. Although I had not used the program for awhile, it was very intuitive and easy to learn the changes from recent updates. I also really like the “clip from web” function, it is great for research and life admin. Rather than having a vast array of bookmarks, I can use this function to add information to a subject-specific notebook. I am glad that this segment has reminded me of the wonderful uses of OneNote, I am off to add more notebooks!

 

As part of Thing 15, I searched through Tumblr for library specific accounts. Two (active) accounts that stood out to me were the Bodleian Libraries and Turning the Book Wheel by the Smithsonian Libraries. The Bodleian Libraries Tumblr provides an insight into the work at the library from interesting collections finds to conservation work. It seems to be consistently updated and is a great insight into the Bodleian Libraries, but it is mostly being used as a tool to direct people to information and resources outside of Tumblr and that are specific to the Bodleian. While this is a good promotion strategy, on Tumblr, I would prefer to observe accounts that are more focused on collections finds and less on promotion. An example of this is the Smithsonian Libraries account which highlights interesting findings in their collections with some context and links to further information. There were also some wonderful accounts focused on the unique architecture of libraries.

To complete Thing 13, I chose to explore Vimeo. I am very accustomed to YouTube and I have even been required to upload projects while at school as part of my university course. I have also used Media Hopper before for work. However, I have only used Vimeo once, to watch one of my favourite web series. At the time, I wondered why the creative team behind the series would use Vimeo, as YouTube is arguably the more well-known video sharing platform and would, therefore, reach a greater audience. After exploring Vimeo, I can now see that it would be a good platform for original, creative content. The content rules seem quite clear and there is a great guide on the different types of licenses that users can apply to their videos. Although there will always be problems with copyright infringement on public media sharing platforms, the smaller size of the Vimeo platform appears to allow for greater control over the content. The licensing information is easily found on individual videos, by clicking on the “more” button underneath the title, and you can even search for videos based on their license type. While YouTube also has this function, it only allows you to search for videos that have been tagged “creative commons”. As for accessibility, users can add closed captioning and subtitles.

Using OER Commons, I was able to find a brief course on how to use library resources at a university. Made up of videos and explanatory PDFs, it instructs the user on how to use the catalogue, databases and common citations. Although it is not the most up-to-date example of an OER, I chose it because it was relevant to my own work and ties in with “Bonus Thing C”. If I could create an OER, it would be a similar course on how to use the library resources available at the University of Edinburgh. Many universities offer these courses, online, for students to undertake in their own time. Some schools, like the University of Bologna, have tried to popularise them by requiring that student employees complete the online course before starting work. There are many wonderful resources available to students at the University of Edinburgh, like interlibrary loans or the request a book service, and an introductory course on the use of them would ensure students can make the most of what is available to them. There are several instructive pages on the University of Edinburgh website about how to use the library and its resources, but a succinct course would ensure that students learn about ALL of the resources, not just those they are specifically searching for. Video tutorials can also often be easier to follow than written instruction. The University of Bologna Information Literacy Tutorial is a great example of this.

 

Wikipedia! One of my favourite resources. It is a great jumping-off point for research. It can point you towards other resources. Because the content can change in different languages, it can lead you to places you would have never found otherwise, especially if your research is usually English-based.

Last year, I had the opportunity to take part in the Wikipedia training offered by the University of Edinburgh. It was a great experience and I would highly recommend it to everyone. Even if you have no interest in editing Wikipedia, it is important to understand how the editing process, and the website in general, work. The visual editor (similar to the visual editor used on WordPress) makes it incredibly easy to edit. I decided to still do the Wikipedia Adventure and it was very helpful. It was a good refresher of what I learnt during the Wiki training and provided a bit more information about the social aspects of Wikipedia. I also like earning the little badges, I think they’re a great way to show the quality and experience level of editors and add some credibility to their edits.

There is a Wikipedia-editing session for International Women’s Day. I wish I could take the time off work to attend! There is also WikiProject Women, it is open to everyone, and addresses the under-representation of content on Wikipedia about women and covering women’s perspectives.

Over the Christmas holidays, I tried to video call my family in Canada while I was with my partner’s family on a hill, in a fairly remote area of Italy. I expected that we would encounter issues with accessing the internet, but surprisingly, connectivity was not the problem. The problem was the program we were trying to use. I had relied on this video calling service heavily in the past and I would consider myself quite computer literate, we even logged on early to ensure there would be no issues. However, the program was impossible to use. So many features had been added to this program that it became unusable. We could send messages, but then you could not use the video function. At one point, the call was ringing and we could not answer it because we could not leave the chat section. The problem was an increase in functions and an attempt to create a minimalist user interface, a disastrous combination. We settled on my brother (who was also not at the family home) video calling on the laptop to my family, me video calling with another app on the phone, and the rest of the family moving the phone around to face the computer screen, with my brother on it, as needed. It was a bizarre and confusing call, to say the least! This long story is to say, I would have appreciated Google Hangouts in that moment! During my first year of uni, we also used the aforementioned video calling program to conduct classes with my Chinese language teacher. Google Hangouts would have been great for our one-on-one tutoring sessions and we could have used Collaborate Ultra for lectures as language teaching requires a lot more interaction than a regular lecture. Exploring the options on Google Hangouts, I found it very user-friendly and the features were easy to navigate, I will definitely be using it in the future!

I started using Facebook when I was 13 and during the first week of the 23Things course, I went through all of my Facebook settings and my profile to ensure everything was up to date and my privacy was protected (as much as possible). So I am quite familiar with Facebook. I use Facebook groups often as they are a great way to connect with your community and share interests and information. My universities relied heavily on Facebook groups to both provide a space for students to share information and a place to laugh about the absurdities of living in a heavily slanted house, or sharing your bedroom with an aggressive squirrel and even complain about the live wires hanging in your bathroom. We also used groups for class projects and when I moved to Edinburgh, I used groups to find roommates. However, I have never used groups to share information with family. It may be a good idea, as there are a lot of concerns with sharing pictures online but there are also many family members who would not see these images or learn about your life otherwise. A private group seems like a more elegant solution than a long email thread.

 

At first, I did not think Thing 7 was particularly interesting. I set up a Twitter account a few years ago, to understand the platform while I was working with arts promotion. However, I never understood the appeal of the platform. I often found myself inundated with unnecessary, and often negative, information and I preferred image-based social media, like Instagram or Dribble. After reading through the resources for this week, I realise that you can use Twitter to connect to the people, businesses, and topics that you are interested in and you can use the tools provided through Twitter to streamline your feed. Being mindful of which accounts you are following can also improve your experience on the platform.

Although I am not interested in setting up a personal account or an account associated with my current position at the University of Edinburgh, I have decided to overhaul my original Twitter account to suit my art practice.

Why 23 Things?

In addition to developing my own digital knowledge, I am interested in exploring the changing landscape of education through digital resources and open educational resources. There are many positives to digital learning, including greater accessibility to education, increased representation of marginalised peoples and groups, and the ease of knowledge sharing. I also want to learn how to deal with the road blocks that come along with digital learning and OERs, like the training that may be required in a digital world with rapid technological developments that can leave people behind.

I am looking forward to learning more about digital knowledge and developing new skills!