Month: January 2017

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



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

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.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

‘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



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

From Twitter: A collaboration on a Minecraft cinema?

We used minecraft in IDEL, it was a good common room. It’s a shame it doesn’t feature in Education and Digital Cultures.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

From Twitter: A cross-referenced Blog post

IFTTT sends “blog post” categories to twitter, which then goes back to the life stream.. I need to change that.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

Togethertube

Togethertube (https://togethertube.com/). What a great idea!  It was great fun today (Sunday) for the matinee showing attended by six people on the #MSCEDC course today. The opportunity for text-based discussion opened up a lot of communication, and a sense of community (at least in my mind it did) that’s missing from Twitter.

I’m converted to operating, chatting, forming communities online. I frequent (and indeed have founded and have run) a number of online communities, mostly surrounding the topic of online gaming. There’s been a huge shift toward a new platform called Discord (https://discordapp.com/). It’s very robust, userfriendly, non-obtrusive and generally more convenient than Facebook, Twitter and (for those that remember) Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
Continue reading “Togethertube”

From twitter: setting habits

I find it easier to keep everything in one place. We don’t have a single platform, but I can pull threads together so that everytime I open up my web browser, I’m confronted by the relevant pages to check over.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

From Twitter: Bad Computer/Compost Pun

This was Eli’s picture, which is kind of needed for context! Not that the pun improves any.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

Windows Activation is a bit of a joke in any case, but has improved in Windows 10 now that it’s attached to your Microsoft Account, rather than the hardware you are using.

#mscedc anyone willing to share how to improve formatting on ifttt tweets->wordpress? I see some lovely formatting… https://t.co/A3aE1MVlFN

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

edit: I’m leaving this one as-is. This is one of the templates IFTTT and I started off for setting my Tweets. I had to test multiple templates before getting one that presented the link as an embedded tweet. It really does not sit well with my years of exposure to graphic and web design. Not that I’m especially talented in either, but I’d rather have my site legible, which this format is not.

From Twitter: “first twitter account picked up by my IFTTT routine” to create a list of contributors

link to the list: https://twitter.com/c4miller/lists/mscedc/members

Togethertube: Hack the Planet.

Hollywood is very keen to simultaneously present technology as a “cool thing” and do everything it can to protect itself from political and business upheaval against the disruptive impact of the same technology. This film represents both sides, but in a comic-book style. Hacking is painstaking, time consuming, difficult, and not at all like the visual representation provided in this movie. “Real” hacking will always take place at the closest point to the machine code.

— C (@c4miller) January 22, 2017

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

An enjoyable catch-up on Togethertube

— C (@c4miller) January 22, 2017

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

From Twitter: A course that looks of interest



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 20, 2017 at 01:17PM
via IFTTT

“In this 90-minute introductory course discover how awareness based systems change and a method of learning from the emerging future allow individuals, organizations, and communities to turn ideas into real world change.”

Not everyone seeks to change the world around them, but for those that do, having an understanding of some the tools and systems available to us seems like time well spent.

From Twitter: “IRL” interrupts

You don’t need physical proximity to reach out to get support! Much appreciated.

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 20, 2017 at 10:55AM
via IFTTT

From Twitter: Togethertube catchup

Oh to be a full-time student! Togethertube is not an asynchronous activity so scheduling along with IRL is important.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 20, 2017 at 10:55AM
via IFTTT

From Twitter: still finding my feet

Support from my fellow students via Twitter is much appreciated. Distances involved are not important when you can draw “lifts” from the words on the screen.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 20, 2017 at 10:52AM
via IFTTT

From Twitter: Momentum building?

Time is spent on discussing words that define our situation, society, the balance of power doesn’t shift, and the meaning of words will never be codified.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 19, 2017 at 11:54PM
via IFTTT

From Twitter: Our community expands

My twitter comment is in reference to the course documentation that says
“Content is being fed into the lifestream:blog regularly – nearly every day – and this is demonstrated across the whole period of the course.” (p11)

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 19, 2017 at 11:49PM
via IFTTT

From Twitter: some questions on practical application of the technology used on the module



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 18, 2017 at 05:37PM
via IFTTT

From Twitter – I missed something, but I’m not sure what it was.

We have been looking at sci-fi films with Togethertube, I missed a session. A discussion on Twitter reminded me of Memento, a film where the protaganist uses “an intricate system of Polaroid photographs and tattoos to track information he cannot remember.” (wikipedia)

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 17, 2017 at 10:31PM
via IFTTT

A start on the Cyborg Manifesto

Haraway’s (2007) “A cyborg manifesto” is not the only reading which I have to take on with help of caffeine.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 17, 2017 at 10:21PM
via IFTTT

From Twitter – The digital divide requires people to cross it



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 17, 2017 at 11:54AM
via IFTTT

Technology itself is not the cause of the digital divide, though if we froze all progress and took stock of where we are, that might not be a bad thing. It’s not going happen with the current
economic and political will driving adoption forward. That said, peoples’ opinions often create, or perpetuate, blocks where adoption of new technology less welcome.

From Twitter – The Digital Divide

The digital divide, as discussed by Hand (2008, p34) is alive and well between education institutions also.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 17, 2017 at 11:06AM
via IFTTT

Hand, M (2008) Hardware to everywhere: narratives of promise and threat, chapter 1 of Making digital cultures: access, interactivity and authenticity. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp 15-42.

From Twitter – Yes, we do switch off.

We all switch off from our connection to the internet, at least by diverting our eyes to a printed page. We are not yet fully adopted citizens of the web, consuming content all our waking time. I can’t see a future where we are looking at screens with out pause or break. Perhaps though, screens are just a temporary measure until we can live up to cyborg ideals and have the images directly beamed in to our brains.

from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 16, 2017 at 09:26PM
via IFTTT

Ref: Hand, M (2008) Hardware to everywhere: narratives of promise and threat, chapter 1 of Making digital cultures: access, interactivity and authenticity. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp 15-42.

Do we ever switch off?

If we lived as cybercitizens, would we ever be able to leave our connection to the network behind?



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 16, 2017 at 09:12PM
via IFTTT

What a party! From slaying robots to a hottub, across the Scottish Borders to Canada

It was my birthday. I hired a house with enough room for friends and family. I am not the only avid consumer of hi-tech entertainment in my family. In sharing the experience of VR, it is clear there is a direction of travel that I suggest would be common place among many people: “immersion” is good. My brother-in-law, a long-time fan of computer games played the HTC Vive that I set up. He played a game called Raw Data in which you defend you and your team against rogue a rogue AI and its evil robot henchmen. He claimed it was “the best gaming experience of [his] life”. He was connected in VR, fighting robots alongside a woman from Canada who was helping him learn how to play the game. We are citizens of the web during such times. The hot tub… well that was just awesome, sitting in water heated to 40 degrees Celsius, under the stars with a glass of wine, chatting with those sharing that “real” experience with me.



from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 16, 2017 at 09:11PM
via IFTTT

Who is watching who?

The government of the UK simultaneously presses us to make use of the web and technology, whilst concerning themselves with how to monitor us doing so. Hand (2008 p41) argues that

“the dominant narratives of digital culture are somewhat polarized when seen in the most general terms: on the one hand, we have a potentially democratizing technology of circulation, networking, interactivity, and empowerment, while on the other, a potentially de-democratizing technology of surveillance, privatization, and commodification.”

The subject of this tweet sits uneasily in such a frame of reference. On the one hand, the captured image has been taken from an “open” surveillance camera and shared on Twitter. It was put there by a Twitter bot. On the flip side, the fact that the owner of the surveillance camera likely doesn’t even know the camera is “open” and probably has not chosen it to be made freely available. It still represents the ubiquity of “security” cameras, and also highlights a concern that if you have a camera connected to the web, there’s no way to guarantee that it will not be put to use by others: twitter bots; or even state-sponsored others.


from Twitter https://twitter.com/c4miller

January 13, 2017 at 12:46AM
via IFTTT

Hand, M (2008) Hardware to everywhere: narratives of promise and threat, chapter 1 of Making digital cultures: access, interactivity and authenticity. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp 15-42.