From Twitter: More IFTTT tinkering…

It takes up time to set up, but I hope this works. Perhaps a “manual” cut and paste is as quick in any case?

From Twitter – Feedback loops

I’m not sure how to resolve the feedback loop here thanks to IFTTT’s apparent lack of conditional logic (am I missing something?) But I will try to go in and delete these types of posts. Feedback loops, now where did I read something about those in the course readings…. Time to leave the screen for a bit.

No available means to edit CSS, or add plugins?

It’s a shame we don’t have more access to our WordPress installation. Part of the “fun” is the plugins!

Also, the CSS. No means to edit the CSS.

The sludgy green colour is not of my choosing.  I stick to this statement no matter how many pairs of trousers I have in my wardrobe that are more-or-less the same hue.

 

From Twitter: still ironing out the kinks of IFTTT

I’m sticking some of these together now.

From Twitter: Virtual Reality Classrooms?

If you can get your preferred platform, system, device in the classrooms around the world then you stand to gain financially. So why not talk up your investment’s future.

But it also works both ways. Will education demand the technology?

From Twitter, with love… not.

I like when technology works. I like it a lot. But at the moment, this is not working reliably. Subsequently to the tweet below, I now have to enter into each post and setup the IFTTT twitter URL as a link via the WYSIWYG and then update the post. But it only works if you click the WYSIWYG link button and then press submit. Any other click between the two, and the tweet will not embed as this one here:

From Twitter: Twitter Meta

Last week, I created an IFTTT applet to draw together people who were using the #mscedc hashtag on twitter. It worked! It’s useful, because I can follow the people and keep up with their tweets.

IFTTT WordPress -> Twitter (and back again….)

Can’t say I’m enjoying using IFTTT at the moment. I’m sure I grasp it. It just lacks enough hooks to make it really versatile. Or perhaps I don’t grasp it, and it requires problem solving on your own. I have made a living largely reliant on not being slow on the uptake when it comes to “new” technology, so I don’t like to be beaten. Turns out that the reason I couldn’t get my tweets to display in a reasonable acceptable aesthetic manner was because of the WordPress template.

Now I’ve sorted that, the IFTTT feed from twitter isn’t updating my blog.

Meanwhile, I’ve added an IFTTT applet which posts “blogpost” category WordPress entries in to Twitter. Which will create a single feedback loop, unless I can find the “If this then NOT that” equivalent…..

 

Virtual Cinema

A comment on Eli’s blog around this image which I hastily crafted in Photoshop to illustrate my point regarding a sense of nausea induced by movement on-screen that’s either jerky or not within the viewer’s own control:

I ended up watching this piece of youtube content:


What I took note of was the three camera points, which is not uncommon in VR youtube content, but worth pointing out

  1. The “experience” shot, i.e. what is being viewed (in 2D) by the person who is viewing it in 3D within the headset
  2. The headmounted display’s external view, from a camera in or on the device (e.g. the HTC Vive’s built in front-mounted camera)
  3. and a  fixed shot of the play-area

When using VR, we are augmenting our own ability. To see what our normal vision would let us see. But we’re also cutting our own body off from stimulus that we can physically touch. Nevertheless, watching someone using VR, certainly brings to mind thoughts around the organic merged with the physical. It will become normalised. I was recently asked “Do I feel silly wearing it”. The same person tried VR and realised how “feeling silly” just doesn’t come in to it. Assuming VR is not a passing tech fad, and Gartner (http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3412017) would have VR placed on the “slope of enlightenment” having passed through the “trough of disillusionment” already, that’s got to suggest that it will become more mainstream than it is perceived currently. I wonder if anyone looking at the video and thinking the person looks silly perhaps has not yet tried this form of VR and can’t project themselves in to that person’s position.

 

Base Image sources:

Occulus Cinema : http://tinyurl.com/zgbfutw

Screenshot taken from “Eli’s EDC Blog” : http://www.eliapplebydonald.co.uk/course_work/week%202/week%202_player.html

Comments on Mathew’s Blog and From Twitter

Open means open, and you can take advantage of opportunity to discuss, or not…

“cmiller
JANUARY 29, 2017 AT 4:11 PM
I read your post twice and skimmed it several times, went out for some fresh air, then came back to it with a cup of tea, before committing to this comment. I don’t have an existing field of studies to draw upon to make more sense of it than I do. I’m not a scholar by trade, but I embarked on this MSc to learn, and I am interested in what you write because I can feel it scratching away at my brain, even if it’s beyond my initial attempts to unlock its meaning or access the background it comes from.

Continue reading “Comments on Mathew’s Blog and From Twitter”

from Twitter: another togethertube session

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From Twitter: More togethertube.

IFTTT – If “MSCE” + “Important” THEN “put in work calendar”.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

Ninefox Gambit [spoilers] and Embodied Virtuality

I not long ago finished a book I was gifted at Christmas time. “Ninefox Gambit” by Yoon Ha Lee (2016) . I really enjoyed it, nice and short, fast paced and an interesting, alien culture. I tend to read a lot more books at this time of year. When it’s dark, cold and wet outside, and you’ve just got back in from a surprise snow storm during your dog’s evening walk, the fire is burning and the comfy sofa awaits…. There are spoilers in this post so please do look away now if you plan to read this book and do not like to know the ending before you start.

Continue reading “Ninefox Gambit [spoilers] and Embodied Virtuality”

From Twitter: interesting from games perspective

Computer gaming is a hobby of mine. I’m interested when the worlds of digital education and gaming overlap.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

“Where is Internet Studies?”

I was strangely disappointed to find out that this title by Silver (2006) wasn’t a plaintiff cry for something that didn’t exist, but rather a call to map the progress of the discipline at that time. I wonder if, ten years on, much has changed?

Continue reading ““Where is Internet Studies?””

From Twitter: Continual process of improvement?

Institutions often give an appearance of leaving adoption of certain technologies to the last minute, resulting in significant changes in a relatively short period in response to external influences such as the National Student Survey (NSS).



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Anyone on #mscde #mscedc any experience of Online Ethical Review Systems? I’m looking to upgrade something I built at work many years ago .

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From Twitter: Still dreaming of Minecraft

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From Twitter: getting to grips with ITFF, part #124



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Can you decide what a normal day is, never mind a normal life ….. ?

My colleague, Thusha Rajendran, presenting at a TEDx event recently. He’s very tech-orientated, like myself. One of his arguments is that we should not be so quick to decide on a level of what is “normal” as humanity needs us all to understand what we are if we are to ever reach our full potential.

Continue reading “Can you decide what a normal day is, never mind a normal life ….. ?”

Post-humanism and IRL

Post-humanism suggests to me that we were human to start with, and that we’re going to be something different (soon?).  In Prof. Bayne’s paper in this block, we are examining the use of words and our acceptance of them through ideological and cultural norms. Post-humanism is equally loaded. If we’ve always been using tools, then we’ve always been human, and continuing to use them doesn’t change that.

It’s like gamers talking about “IRL”. In real life. Most gamers I know, and have grown up with through the communities of 18 years or more, have dropped that term for the most part. Our use of games has not changed, and it is very much part of our life. The fact that old folks homes now recognise some benefits in gaming is of note. It is RL now. I think that there is probably a lot more to understand about post-humanism, so I’ll see how many understanding develops over the next few weeks.

 

Bayne, S. (2014) What’s the matter with ‘Technology Enhanced Learning’? Learning, Media and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2014.915851

Miller, V. (2011) Chapter 9: The Body and Information Technology, in Understanding Digital Culture. London: Sage. 

image from http://tapnewswire.com/

Week 1 – round up

I love “new” technology. I love talking and reading about technology. Working with technology excites me because it’s always changing. I gave up on twitter some time ago for all but complaining visibly about poor customer service.  The physical act of posting in twitter represent a return for me to “old” technology, which I need to get over.

I am drawn to comment or highlight technical items from a pragmatic point of view. I see technology as a tool to achieve what I need to achieve, and when it does not do so reliably, I lose patience. Persistent errors are worth commenting on, least of all that others may avoid the same pitfall. Using If This Then That offers a means to have the machines take on some work, but I appreciate there’s a fine art to making it work well to a real human standard. But then I created the feedback loop with WordPress. I stopped that one already.

I was able to sense community with the cohort using twitter. When I reached out to my peers on the course, I was met with warmth and offers of help and assistance. That at least suggests that for those using the platform frequently, a sense of community can be built that transcends the coldness of the pixels on-screen.

Catching up with peers on TogetherTube was a good social experience, though the platform itself lacked any means to capture the discussion to aid my memory.

It’s been a slow start for me, but I’m getting there. Roll on Week 2!

From twitter: the politics and barriers of tech adoption

Not everyone enjoys new technology. My experience with one new platform that would have dramatically altered how I did my job, and how some academics might have engaged with their students, was stopped before it even took off.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

From Twitter: tweetception

IFTTT is not intelligent, but then again, the person programming it cannot escape blame for this kind of mishap either. Creating an infinite loop of reposting appears to be possible.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

From Twitter: A story of a twitter addict?

Visibility on Twitter is a numbers game, but I personally do not enjoy continual dominance of my twitter feed by a single poster.



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‘Address is Approximate’ is Appropriate

Watching this video in the togethertube Sunday Matinee reminded me of one of the issues associated with VR, and the clever attempts to try to overcome it. VR sickness!  Similar to motion sickness. Before VR can achieve high-levels of adoption, one thing it will have to address is the variety of responses to rapidly moving fields of view, when the actual user is stationary.

The animation of the screen, together with the items moving in the periphery of the screen user’s vision in the video, reminded me that Microsoft are actively using a similar technique using lights surrounding the lenses of the VR headset (http://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2016/05/vr-nausea-side-mounted-leds-microsoft-research/). Very clever indeed

From Twitter: the struggle with IFTTT is real



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