Author Archives: Cole Camplese

Week 10: Synthesis Number Two

This week I will once again hand the course over to our two teams. I am very much looking forward to seeing what you have in store for us all today. The vast majority of the class today will center on the two teams leading the conversation. We will see if there is time remaining to introduce the next (and final) block of he class focusing on design.

For the final block we will be focusing on Human Centered Design and will follow the process that the unbelievably good firm, Ideo articulates. I would like you all to get accounts at their Design Kit site, download it, and read the Introduction and the Hear portion for next week. That will allow us to hit the ground running.

Out of Class

  • Weekly Create — Show us what you think design means by being creative. Write your personal definition of design in your post.
  • Weekly iPad Reflection — what iPad app is missing for you students in higher education? I want you to be as creative in your thinking as possible and use what you feel you understand about the work flow of students on college campuses. If you could build anything, what would it be and what would it enable?
  • Read “An Introduction to Design Thinking“
  • Read “Designing the New Twitter Profiles“
  • Go to the Read Kit site and watch the “What is Human Centered Design” video
  • Create an account
  • Download and read the Design Kit Pages 1-18

Do Tablets in the Classroom Really Help Children Learn?

Take a look … any reactions?

Abilene Christian University conducted research around the same time that found math students who used the iOS app “Statistics 1” saw improvement in their final grades. They were also more motivated to finish lessons on mobile devices than through traditional textbooks and workbooks.

via Do Tablets in the Classroom Really Help Children Learn?.

Week 9: Wrapping Up Identity

Let’s play catch up and review where we are and where we are headed. I have graded all of your things … some items are missing and you can see what I missed for you in the Garde Center in Blackboard. Please let me know if I missed things! Also, I’d like to give everyone a chance to get caught up, so whatever you have missed, you can go back and add it to get caught up by Sunday at 5 PM.

Today we wrap up the block on Identity and while I can tell from reading your work that you’ve gotten stuff out of the experience, I am disappointed in the fact that we lost so much time together. With that said, it is time for you guys to take over again next week and produce your second Team Synthesis Post and Presentations. Same format as last time, but I want you all to me cognizant of the time you take to deliver your synthesis. Each team has an hour.

Conversation Starters

We define who we are by the ways we experience ourselves through participation as well as by the ways we and others reify ourselves. — Wenger

Identity as negotiated experience. — Katherine

Buckingham and Wenger coincided in their discussions on identity in several ways. Both authors emphasized that identity is neither static nor steady; instead, they describe how it is a “state of becoming,” and that the process of “identification” is going on all the time. — Jay

Thinking about how you can have “multiple” identities thanks to the power of anonymity on the Internet a more fluid definition of identity works. A definition where you are not only identify with your physical characteristics, but also your interest, your thoughts, and the content you create. — Shady

Identity Posts

Let’s talk about digital identity and how social identities can shape other people’s overall impression of us. Does the “web function as tools for people to create constantly changing projections of their identities through content production online?[1]” Take for example the stories of the Star Wars Kid and David after the Dentist.

Out of Class

David After the Dentist

From Wikipedia

Because this was David’s first surgery and his mother could not be there, his father decided to video tape the experience to share with her and their family.

After the surgery, David was feeling confused from the anaesthesia he was given. While in the car, he was asking his father questions like “Is this real life?” and “Is this going to be forever?” and also telling him that he had two fingers. At one point he even attempted to push himself up from his seat (while still buckled in) and began screaming before sinking back in exhaustion.

Seven months later, David’s father uploaded the video on Facebook. Being overwhelmed with people wanting to see the video, he decided to upload it to YouTube, but did not notice there was a private option. Just 3 days after the upload, it had been seen over 3 million times.

The DeVore family were soon made YouTube Partners. This gives YouTube the right to run ads over the videos they post, and in exchange, are given a share of the revenue. They also sell “David After Dentist” t-shirts and donate a portion of the revenue they earn to dental charities. However they have made very little money on it so far, and are currently in the process of filming a similar video to the original.

David DeVore Sr. has received criticism for exploiting his son. DeVore has stated that he appreciates the concern, but feels that it was innocent and has been a very positive experience for his family.

The Star Wars Kid

From Wikipedia

Star Wars Kid is a viral video made in 2002 by Ghyslain Raza[1] in which he wields a golf ball retriever in imitation of Darth Maul’s lightsaber moves from the Star Wars films. At the time, Raza was a 15-year-old high school student from Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He had not intended for the video to become public, but its subsequent release led to ridicule during which Raza chose to distance himself from the video. Raza since has affirmed his identity and has used the video to help speak on the effects of bullying.

On November 3, 2002, Raza made a video of himself swinging a golf ball retriever around as a weapon. The video was filmed at his high school studio, and he accidentally left the tape in a basement. It was taped over a portion of a basketball game (as seen extremely briefly at the end of the clip). The video was discovered by a schoolmate, whose friend created an electronic file from the video tape. The video was distributed amongst his school’s students. A student uploaded it to the Internet with the title Jackass_starwars_funny.wmv. The video eventually became a viral Internet meme through P2P services. According to court transcripts, the video first appeared on the Internet on the evening of April 14, 2003.

Raza states he was a victim of cyberbullying, as his video also attracted negative attention and comments. Online commenters responded with critical or bullying messages. In a 2013 interview, Raza states, “What I saw was mean. It was violent. People were telling me to commit suicide.” Among the comments online, “One commenter called him ‘a pox on humanity.’ Others suggested he commit suicide.” He was bullied in person at his school, and he left the campus to pursue private tutoring. He claimed to have lost friends because of the ordeal.

Two New Social Apps

While I was at SXSW two weeks ago there was all sorts of talk about Meerkat — essentially a live streaming app/network let’s you instantly share a view into what you are doing. There were all sorts of chatter about (a) how cool it was and (b) the public dust up with Twitter over features and functionality. Everyone knew Twitter had purchased a similar service about a year ago and were speculating on if that was the root cause.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, Twitter released Periscope as an integrated live streaming and social interaction app today for the iPhone. Even though it is an iPhone app I have installed on my iPad and it works well. I may use it today in class.

The other one is a new app from Instagram that let’s you create multi frame images to share … nothing earth shattering, but it is fun to use. It is called, Layout by Instagram. Again it is designed for the iPhone but works on the iPad.

What We Want From Faculty

A pop up WordPress site from students at UVA in the wake of the Martese Johnson incident. That’s a terrible word, incident, to describe what happened to this young man. Even in the absence of an appropriate word I felt it was an important site to share for lots of reasons. Through the lens of both community and identity I feel there is much to discuss. What in these words can you relate with?

 In class on 3/19/2015, our class discussion touched on the lack of support students feel from faculty in the aftermath of the brutalization of Martese Johnson and at other times of crisis here at UVA, especially when those crises center around race. We took the last ten minutes of class and wrote out what we wanted to tell our faculty. These comments are excerpted from those 27 students’ in-class responses. Who are we? We are women and men. We are Asian, black, Latino, white and multiracial. We are from a variety of cultural, national, ethnic, socioeconomic, gender and sexual identities and backgrounds.

Week 8: Spring Break

I understand last week was a very positive experience … I’m thrilled about that and I look forward to hearing more next week when we get together. I am not going to assign anything new this week, but I will remind you to wrap up the assignments by the posted due dates.

Out of Class — All Due 3/24/2015 by 5 PM

  • Weekly iPad Reflection — what did you learn from the Apple visit and what did you create? Did what you learn alter your appreciation for the iPad?
  • Weekly Create — Time to Tweet! Everyone needs to Tweet something interesting about this class using the hashtag #CDT450. I’d then like you to post about what Twitter can mean to shaping your identity and embed your tweet in the post.

Week 7: Apple is Back!

I am on the road this week so I cannot be with you … I promise I lined up something good for you in my absence. Apple will be here to talk more about the iPad and take you through some really interesting activities. I can’t believe we don’t get to hang out for three weeks! Speaking of Break, since next week is Spring Break I am going to make the tasks to do a bit lighter than what we’ve become accustomed to. I’m hopeful that you will enjoy today’s time with Apple and have a safe a restful Spring Break! 

While on your iPad, please click this link to download the iTunes U materials for class today. 

Before you leave class today, I’d like you to write a team definition of Identity, just like we did for community a few weeks ago. Be ready to defend it and discuss it when we get back together after Spring Break. Please choose one person to post it to the blog.

Out of Class — All Due 3/24/2015 by 5 PM

  • Weekly iPad Reflection — what did you learn from the Apple visit and what did you create? Did what you learn alter your appreciation for the iPad?
  • Weekly Create — Time to Tweet! Everyone needs to Tweet something interesting about this class using the hashtag #CDT450. I’d then like you to post about what Twitter can mean to shaping your identity and embed your tweet in the post.