Tag Archives: Spring 2015

Weekly iPad Reflection – Katherine

I think an iPad app that is missing from what students in higher education need is something like a clicker but an application for smartphones and tablets. The app would be able to be installed on a student’s cell phone or tablet and allow them to answer clicker questions in lecture halls, instead of having to purchase a separate clicker.

The app should also have a section for note taking, voice and video recording to record lectures. I think it would also be interesting if the application included a geolocation based chat where only people within that classroom or lecture room could share and exchange notes and lecture slides. It would allow for an open dialogue between students without having to actually disrupt the flow of the classroom. The application could work in the way that airdrop on Apple products does. Students near each other would be able to share their screens and/or airdrop files to one another, all while being able to answer clicker questions and interact with the professor in class.

The app would allow for students to schedule and meet with study groups with different people in their classes. Essentially, the app would be one main outlet for students to take and record notes, share them with others, and arrange study time outside of class.

 

Created with Tagul.comFor this weekly create I used tagul.com to make a word cloud with words that relate to design. I got to choose the individual fonts and colors of each of the words that I add it and even add small animations when you hover over the words. My personal definition of design would be an idea or plan that exists to create a final project. This design could consist of a blueprint or outline and include few to many specific details that attempt to explain the final idea. A design does not need to be a physical, written plan but can exist in the mind of a creator.

Created with Tagul.com

Listen Up, Can Anyone Hear Us?

To prepare for Thursday’s synthesis presentations, those of us that like to be Too Disruptive would like for you to do two things. First, take a look at Sam Richards’s Ted Talk,  “A Radical Experiment in Empathy.”

Then, we would like for you to take a brief, semi-anonymous quiz. Especially since this is such a small class, we hope that everyone gets a chance to take the quiz (even Cole). Also, please do so no later than Thursday at noon so we will have time to compile the results.

Click here to take the brief quiz, Making ‘My’ Way Downtown

Kate's ipad reflection

I am finding my modular method of working with the iPad to be quite successful. Some of the interesting features I have discovered in explain everything is the ability to record actions on each slide and publish it on YouTube. I am also able to drop videos directly into the presentation, write and draw over them and include all of the interactions that I have on the screen in the recording creating a completely customizable presentation. I also found the app cute cut to have some greate features including the ability to layer videos and change their transparency. The only downside to this app is that the free version leaves a watermark on the video and has a limit to the length of the video that can be made. An easy fix for this is to place these clips in iMovie for final arrangement and to add music.

Aside from these tools, I have been using my iPad for most of the lectures that I do and have been finding it to be an overall enjoyable and smooth experience. I still needed the ipad for photoshop instruction and to play DVDs.

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.

Kate's Weekly create

I tweeted a little experiment with making abstract animations today. It’s really important to me that when I work in different apps that it doesnt call attention to the app that was used so that it remains consistent with my artistic identity and adds positive qualities to my work. In choosing what aspects of my identity to put on Twitter, I would like it to be about my experimentations with different media (including apps) as well as ideas. Twitter is a powerful tool for shaping identity and I think it’s important to take that into consideration at all times. I find it interesting that when I google my name it is one of the top three sites that appear along with this blog despite how infrequently I tweet, which shows how important it is to make sure that these are the aspects of my identity that I want to be public.