Author Archives: cstratis

Final Weekly iPad Reflection

From the first day of CDT450, I have been pondering possible implementation of the theories and technologies that we’ve explored together.

The isolated iPad experience:

The iPad is the most stable tablet on the market. I have been able to increase efficiency in my workflow and decrease the mountain of things that I would normally bring with me. Check out some of my other reflections for the specifics on my favourite features.

The iPad as a baseline technology:

Wow. Here is where the magic happens. Once everyone has the iPad and a similar app vocabulary, the possibilities open up with collaboration enabling features and products. Evernote, which integrates with chrome and other applications, is our go to for collaborative searchable notebooks– better than a shared google doc. Drive is our go to place to dump files for instant sharing and collaboration. AirPlay allows us to move data across our devices efficiently and share our screens with a common display. Stre.am allows us to deliver live video streams. There are other notes on positive changes in collaborative workflow in my other reflections… I mostly discuss Slack. *surprise!* (I’m sure that none of my classmate surprised at all)

The reality:

iPads for every student may not be immediately feasible. In the meantime: I will work to implement cross platform apps that allow us to get by with devices other than those sold at the apple store. Slack, Evernote, Google Apps, Basic video/audio recording are here for us immediately. Things that I’d like to try with students, next semester: delivering a presentation via Stre.am, group presentation outlines and research organization via Evernote, eliminating the need to be in the same room while building presentations via Google Slides, and having group readings/text accessibility via the Kindle app. I am TA’ing a theater history course next semester, so I’m going to pitch these ideas to the professor running the course. He’s been telling everyone to get iPads for ages, so I’m sure that he would be very excited to try new things in class.

Weekly iPad Reflection – Chris Stratis

Here’s where the iPad and I have ended up:

The iPad has become necessary to my workflow. Its portability and functionality allow it to be the Swiss Army knife of productivity. It’s a browser, text editor, presentation maker, audio and video playback device, camera, microphone, and communicator.

Problems:

Although I have few apps installed on the iPad, it has become sluggish and unresponsive when I have one chrome tab open for the purposes of writing these blog posts. I will type on the keyboard; the keys don’t change color, to indicate that they have been touched, until a second later. It’s made typing blog posts more than annoying, but all other text input has been less frequently sluggish– I can manage with few instances, but nothing as laden with issues as using the blog and the iPad.

I actively dislike not being able to download files and look for them in a specific location on the device, with a file browser– as easily as you can with an android device. I needed to download a pdf from Google drive and upload it to a web application, and I couldn’t. I was only permitted to  upload photos, so I took a screenshot and uploaded that. I was left feeling less than satisfied.

Regarding operations on large bodies of text: I find it difficult to move the cursor to the correct location in the text. Text selection also becomes an issue. When copying text from Gmail to Evernote, it is difficult to avoid pasting unwanted content, like the gmail layout and the column of emails/folders. I accidentally destroyed a huge assignment by attempting to paste a large selection of an email into the Evernote. The pasted selection sat directly over the typed text; it took me hours to try and salvage what was no longer visible.

Aside from web content / text operations that don’t play well with the iPad, all other issues are too infrequent and minute to be worth mentioning here.

Swiss Army Knife:

Specific tasks that I use my iPad for include: reading and writing emails, reading plays, writing papers, writing blog posts, conducting research, filming rehearsals, taking rehearsal notes, taking rehearsal photos, editing documents, designing presentations, timing rehearsals to activities, waking up (using the alarm), playing music, playing music remotely with Spotify, controlling midi capable devices (this is possible and is on my list of things to do as soon as I can find the time), communicating with my organization using slack, sharing files, managing and auditing communications over slack, using social media applications, viewing light plots and other mechanical drawings, the list goes on…

 

Identity Video Project

I am an artist.
I create conversations that challenge normalcy and comfort, that shift focus to the unnoticed and misunderstood, that demand self evaluation and the scrutiny of implications. I respond to questions, just not the questions that are often asked, and not the ones that are coated in layers of sugar for ease of consumption. I disturb and unnerve to enlighten and share perspective.

I am a technician.
With technology, I forge, otherwise unattainable, aesthetics to shape worlds on stage and to build a platform for art’s consumption.

I am a producer.
Working with teams of designers and artists affords me the opportunity to grow as an artist and a theatre practitioner. Collaborating innovators push the limits of theatre as we know it. I am an interface between production teams and the world– I manipulate circumstance to facilitate the making.

Let’s make something.
Innovate with me.

Christopher Stratis

Weekly iPad Reflection — Drive Sync Issues

I’m still encountering issues with the google drive app for iPad. I’ve had to remove the account and re-add it to get new content to appear in the drive. This issue is killing my production team’s willingness to rely on technology. It seems that I am not the only one experiencing this:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/drive/wTb-ERraipQ

On the bright side, I’ve got a new project for the iPad– controlling stage lighting, remotely, with the iPad.
More soon!

Weekly Create – Tweet

Any textual representation of self will be taken out of context, read with different intentions, and potentially used against the person who posts. I’m slightly paranoid when posting– there is no erasing content on the internet. Every public, digital transaction gets associated with your being. Employers, friends, family, strangers, co-workers, and subordinates see this and project this onto their preexisting ideas of what that person is about. It’s a pretty powerful tool if used correctly, but the effects could be catastrophic.