Project Update 7/31

I've moved on to Chicago Style today. I'm focusing on content and will get back to working with buidling the mobi pages later tonight.

Starting to get pretty psyched about this!

I was feeling a bit intimidated by the other projects in the class, but I came to the realization this morning as I clicked through my site (what's there so far), that I'm pretty darn proud of myself. I don't know how to code or do snazzy GPS things, but my familiarity with the terminology and my comfort level in general have improved greatly already. The fact that I'll actually have a site to show at the end of next week is an accomplishment for me, and I'm cool with that for now. I'm building something that the students in my office say is pretty cool and that they'd use, and since that was my goal, I think I can consider it a success.

I can learn coding for the NEXT project.

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Project Update 7/30

I spent about 6 hours today uploading content to the pages on my mobile site. Most of MLA is finished, although I do need to do some major editing.

I also realized none of my links were working, so I had to go back and reset them all. That was a pita.

The MobiSiteGalore mobile website maker is fairly easy to use, once you get used to it. It can be tricky doing text formatting, because it tends to grab too many things at once - very touchy. The paste function is also a bit stroke heavy. The biggest irritation is editing on such a small screen. Even though I'm using my PC to edit and load content, on the screen it shows up within the screen of small flip phone. Still, I'm plugging along.

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www.styletutor.mobi

Giant steps for mobileshy Danielle today! Two days ago, I discovered a mobile site builder similar to winksite, but with way more features. I can do what I want with text, add media, gadgets and more. I spent the day playing with it to make sure it'll suit my purposes, then I bit the bullet and started building it.

One reason I decided to go with this service is that there is a feature to edit from your phone. I haven't tried it yet, but now that I'm settled as to what content I want to go where, that's my next step! Fun toys!

I don't want the tutors (or anyone who uses it) to have to type a long address into their phones, free though it would have been, so I registered styletutor.mobi as well. Mobisitegalore, which is the site I found, will host it free for 60 days, during which time I can work out getting it hosted through the college if the students like it well enough to use it.

With this site, it's easy to slap a visit counter on there so I can see if it's actually getting used or not.

There are placeholders on there for APA and Chicago style as well as MLA and if time allows I'll populate those too, but for now the focus is on MLA. I do only have ONE WEEK! It feels good to have a solution I'm okay with though.

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Web on Your Cell

I was doing some research online from my hospital bed/sofa, and came across this: WebonYourCell looks like a great place to bookmark. It's a site index of mobile sites that work well on your phone.

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Project Update

I spent the day - home sick with strep - watching Dreamweaver tutorials online. Still feeling rather ehh about this project. At this point, I'd hoped to be well along into production, not still wishy washy about what I'm even doing.

At the start of the term, I'd mentioned a blood sugar tracker, and while I'd like that, it already exists. The idea for text prompts of on campus activities was excellent, I thought, but the timing is off. The launch of a new website has IT too busy to bother much with little me and my project, and student feedback about text messaging costs made me reconsider how used it really would be. I thought I'd settled on a tutor resource site, starting with style guides and building up to include other things as the site got used more and more. And for right now, that's still where I think I sit. It's just a matter now of learning how to do it.

I've been out of commission since Thursday, and I'm still not coherent enough to get much out of these tutorials. Sticking with the iTutor (yes, I've named it- thought that probably exists too) idea at least does not require much searching for content, just building it. The problem is that I'm completely bored with the idea. There's nothing exciting about it at all for me, and that is probably why I'm dragging my feet so much.

I have in my head that whatever I create for this project has to be something useful, something people will actually use. I'm not sure I could get the tutors that psyched about this.

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Production Has Begun

I've bitten the bullet and have begun building a mobile website for citation styles using winksite. Building the site is fairly straightforward, and not that I've gone through some testing of colors and backgrounds and such, I'm ready to plow ahead and get the content in there.

Actually, what I like about this service so far is how simple it is. The mobile site I create will be text only, which will be easy to access on a variety of mobile phones of varying screen sizes. One thing I'm dealing with is how to show what an actual citation looks like with the proper indentations. I'm still figuring out if there is a way to format text with winksite.

So far, no big snafus...but we shall see.

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Girl Tweets, People Leave Mean Nasty Comments

What is most interesting to me about this is the comments people left under the argument. Feelings about Twitter are definitely divided. I'm intrigued by the way people judge it based on vague references to "society," but don't really delve into just what it really says about real time connectivity and how it is changing the way we communicate so rapidly. I want to think about this more, when I'm not so tired.

During robbery of HSBC Bank, customer chronicles events via TwitterRead more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/07/15/2009-07-15_tweets_from_a_heist.html#ixzz0LOMQRae9

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Project Anonymity. TechReal vs. RealReal

I watched this video yesterday afternoon while preparing for last night's 5376 class. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

The idea that we seek connection with strangers through blogs, forums, twitter is at once obvious and profound. We are alone, yet not. We reach out, but only from behind a computer screen. At times, we are more connected to the person we communicate with via our mobile phone's SMS than the people who live in our house, share space in our classroom, and walk beside us shoulder to shoulder.

Connecting this way allows us to share our true selves without percieved risk. Our devices divulge and protect us. We can be accepted for who we are without showing who we are in real time, face to face.

The connections we make anonymously become more real to us than the connections we make otherwise. This video gives me chills; it's scary and thrilling and confounding. What is it about Being online, faceless and true, that is so much easier than Being with the people we can see and touch? I'm certain there is a level of emotional safety in the distance of wires. And yet, when techreal becomes more real than realreal, can we not be wounded just the same by the faceless people we connect with through those wires?

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Interview Transcript

My colleagues in the Student Success suite have been listening to me think aloud about this mobile device app for weeks now. Last week, I held an impromtu focus group with some student workers, a graduate assistant, and two of the other directors. What started out as a "holy smokes I need to make some real decisions on this" session, turned into a very useful idea generation (and iteration) experience.

The curious questions asked by the Career Services director who was just trying to understand what my purpose was actually made me realize the scope of my intended project was too large for my skillset and time limits. She was asking if the app would be just for one department or the whole school and who I'd have to involve to make it happen on a daily basis. She also brought up some great points about how full our online calendar actually gets -- too much info to send in one text per day.

More than one text per day could be annoying and use up valuable text alottments, according to the students that were there. Not everyone has unlimited plans, and even if they would subscribe to a service, they wouldn't want it to be overwhelming. One of the students wasn't interested at all: Why can't you just email it?

A discussion of what would be involved in an activity prompter ensued, and one of the tutors who works for me asked why I didn't just keep it "in house" with the tutors only for starters. She suggested building something just for the tutors to subscribe to or use - something useful for us that we could control. The general consensus seemed to be that that was the most sane thing to do, in this iteration anyhow.

One thing that came up was avoiding the idea of texting anything at all. The students were not consistent in their buy-in. A few thought it was fabulous and would love it; others either didn't want to use the text messages they were alotted or thought it would be one more thing to keep after.

The tutors that were there suggested creating a site for them to use as a resource, something handy for when they are tutoring or that they might recommend to tutees. Not surprisingly, we do a lot of writing tutoring, and they glommed onto the idea of mobile style guides. That made me shudder a bit, since I'm already creating an online tutorial for the changes in MLA, but if that's what they want and will use it, I can do that for them.

I did also have a chat this morning with one of my former students who is also a tutor - an accounting tutor. She knew about my project before we started chatting, and I asked her if I could run some ideas by her to clarify some points of contention I was having. The transcript is as follows:

sweetpeaflwr3: hello! its Justine
daniellesaad: Hooray!
daniellesaad: Ok, so...
daniellesaad: As we were talking about before, I have to develop an application that can be accessed on a mobile device - like a phone, or through text
daniellesaad: Do you think students would be receptive to something that would notify them about events on campus?
sweetpeaflwr3: that would probably be a good target market, and it would maybe get more people to come to the events
daniellesaad: if you got a text that said: Comedian in 10 minutes BH 107 - do you think you'd be more likely to go?
sweetpeaflwr3: yeah I think so
sweetpeaflwr3: since students are very attached to their phones, this is better than having them reading it off a calendar
daniellesaad: Does anyone that you know of even use that calendar online?
sweetpeaflwr3: I do, but I haven't talked with any other students about using it or about them using it.
sweetpeaflwr3: but since student activities started printing out the big calendar to put in our dorm rooms, I know a bunch of people that use that
daniellesaad: do you guys each get one of those?
sweetpeaflwr3: yes, they pass one out to every room and there are extras to pick up in the lobbys
daniellesaad: oh cool
daniellesaad: do you think most students have unlimited text plans?
sweetpeaflwr3: yeah most of most people do
sweetpeaflwr3: but there are the random few like me, that only have a limited amount per month
daniellesaad: yeah but maybe you are not so random
daniellesaad: I only just switched to unlimited after being billed for all the texts ppl send me!
sweetpeaflwr3: true
sweetpeaflwr3: maybe about 1/2 of students have unlimited...just a rough estimate
daniellesaad: earler we were chatting about limiting this to tutors -
daniellesaad: what would be useful specifically for them do you t hink?
sweetpeaflwr3: maybe if you need to get in contact with them quickly, instead of sending them an email, you can send them a text
sweetpeaflwr3: or just like you have the email alerts for when they have appointments, you can have texts with those messages
daniellesaad: ahhh right
sweetpeaflwr3: I guess it depends on how often they check their emails and if they would prefer texts instead
daniellesaad: right...and if they check alvernia emails
sweetpeaflwr3: yeah because alot of students dont
daniellesaad: If I would decide to abandon the whole text idea, and just do a mobile website, what do you think they could use it for?
sweetpeaflwr3: what is a mobile website?
daniellesaad: one that is specifically formatted to be viewed easily on a phone
daniellesaad: could you imagine that being a resource for anything?
sweetpeaflwr3: oh, i think thats a good idea and i'm sure students would use that. As long as they had internet access on their phone
sweetpeaflwr3: It could maybe be used to check the tutor schedule
sweetpeaflwr3: Or to get in contact with you
daniellesaad: yeah...right...
sweetpeaflwr3: or maybe if one writing tutor needs to change his hours, they can ask if another writing tutor would mind covering their hours
daniellesaad: or to cheat on tests
daniellesaad: lol
sweetpeaflwr3: haha i'd hope not
sweetpeaflwr3: would you use the mobile website for the whole campus or just tutors?
daniellesaad: it coudl go either way
daniellesaad: I could do one specific for tutors
daniellesaad: or I could do one with resources for the campus
daniellesaad: maybe style guides, math tips, stuff liek that?
sweetpeaflwr3: oh yeah, thats a good idea!
daniellesaad: the second one?
sweetpeaflwr3: the style guides
daniellesaad: you think students, if they have net on their phones, might go to that before opening the book?
sweetpeaflwr3: most likely
sweetpeaflwr3: it would be alot more quicker and their phone is already with them
daniellesaad: thats true
daniellesaad: maybe that's the best idea
daniellesaad: you guys (tutors) already complain when I make you do webCT stuff and all...I can imagine groaning if I said "add this site to the mix"
daniellesaad: like one more thing to check (groan)
sweetpeaflwr3: haha
sweetpeaflwr3: I do think its a good idea though
daniellesaad: yes, if it could be painless for tutors...automatic and not something they'd have to keep up with
sweetpeaflwr3: well it would be a resource for them, they wouldn't be required to check it right?
sweetpeaflwr3: yeah..then they might not complain
daniellesaad: my one concern would be interfacing with tutortrac for appointment reminders. that could be hell
sweetpeaflwr3: yeah..
daniellesaad: the style guide/resource idea is going to be the most useful to most ppl I think
sweetpeaflwr3: you could also make the style guides, etc available to the whole campus
sweetpeaflwr3: I'm sure people would use it
daniellesaad: fabulous. I'm going with that then.
daniellesaad: Thanks! You rock!
sweetpeaflwr3: awesome!

After the coversation I had with my suitmates last week, and the one I had with Justine online today, I think I'm going to change my focus entirely!

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Digital Natives and Immigrants Visit NYC

I spent the past three days in NYC with my two children and 17-yr-old niece. We couldn't have survived it without the Samsung Instinct and its lifesaving internet capability.

What time is the last ferry? Check the web on the corner of 45th.
What is the wait time for the Empire State Observatory before we walk the ten blocks to get there? Touch screen, web icon, Google.
Best pizza in Times Square? NYC mobile app. (It's John's Pizzeria on 44th, btw.)

We texted our way across the city. When we couldn't find the Build-a-Bear workshop, the 5 yr-old aptly reminded me I could use the navigation app for a walking route.

When we got separated 57,000 times in Chinatown's shady fake purse back rooms and alleys, we used the mobile devices to meet up again.

And then, on the subway back to the hotel, we actually had a conversation about what we'd been doing with these phones. When I came to NYC when I was 17, I didn't have a cell phone. Cell phones were not pocket sized back then, and I certainly wasn't wealthy enough to afford one, giant size or not. The niece, however, has had a cell phone since she was 13. She has always had a computer. And she cannot fathom the Commodore 64 I got for Christmas when I was a teenager.

She relies on her phone for celebrity updates and feels naked without it. She has never had a walkman. She has never had to call the movie theater to hear the movie listings by recording (and then listen all over again when she missed what the voice said.) For her, navigating NYC by phone was second nature, whereas I had to be reminded at every turn: look it up on your phone. And she is very, very impatient with slow loading and poorly designed sites.

She is, to a great extent, the audience for the mobile app I want to create. One academic year behind the students who will be using the activity reminder service I'm envisioning, she has the same digital profile. Ultra-comfortable with texting, and with texting services that send updates, she expects her phone to be a portal to knowing what's going on in the world. (Periodically, she would update me on Robert Pattinson's personal live as her text updates flooded in.)

So, all in all, I'm pretty confident that I've chosen the right subject for my app. I think they'll use it and appreciate it. It's almost as if actually going onto the internet is too old school. If you can't get it from your phone, it's too much work.

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All I Need to Know to Create a Mobile App I Learned in Kindergarden

Mitchel Resnick writes: "Underlying traditional kindergarten activities is a spiraling learning process in which children imagine what they want to do, create a project based on their ideas (using blocks, finger paint, or other materials), play with their creations, share their ideas and creations with others, and reflect on their experiences -- all of which leads them to imagine new ideas and new projects."

What's missing from education is play - and the creative and critical thinking that come out of it. Imagination is key, and those who dare to use theirs are the ones who've changed the way we communicate with each other across boundaries of time and place. And yet, we continue to favor an educational approach that keeps imagination and play on the sidelines while focusing on the right answer.

I consider myself one of the players. Most projects I delve into are head first, problem solve throughout type things. I grab the ball of play doh and start squishing, adjusting, and squishing until I like what I come up with. However, for class projects, I always find myself squelching this side of myself in favor of the finished product I think will be the right answer. I realized reading Resnick's article that this mindset is exactly what is holding me back from this mobile application/website.

I'm hesitant to play, because I'm uncertain about my abilities with the technology. I've done a lot of web searching and "reading up," but I haven't just jumped in. When I think about my most successful projects though, they are the ones where I taught myself what I needed to know along the way. Building this mobile site really shouldn't be much different than those - build, share, knock down, adjust, rebuild. Not something I haven't done before.

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