Category Archives: mobile

The tag is the soul of the Internet

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cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by giulia.forsythe

She raced up the steps to the top of the parking garage. She knew the perfect spot to catch the last gasp of the sun as it set upon Seattle from her location at the university campus.

As she climbed the stairs she pulled out her mobile phone, readying the camera. At the spot she was anticipating to take the photo a tall figure stood, elbows raised. She was not alone in her mission to catch the sunset. It was a man about her age, slightly taller. He was holding his mobile phone, steadying it as he tried to get the autofocus to shift its attention on the spectacular view.

Brushing aside her usual trepidation around new people she walked up next to him. Although he was attractive, that alone would not be good reason to trust him. She pushed out thoughts of bad horror films set in parking garages; getting the perfect shot was more important than paranoia or embarrassment and he was standing in the exact perfect spot. Besides, it was about the art. They were mobile phone photographers, hunting for beauty. Capturing. Sharing.

As she took her shot, he glanced at her.

“Are you going to tweet this?” he asked.

“ha, yeah, probably through instagram,” she replied.

“it’s breathtaking isn’t it?

She despised small talk but it was breathtaking and she had to agree. Her enthusiasm was bolstered by the beautiful view. She thought of all the sunsets she had watched in her life. Some romantic, some heart breaking; a full range of emotions and memories swept through her. This was the first sunset she could remember that was merely an introduction, a first meeting.

“I’m going to tag it #SeattleSunset” she mused aloud, not really to him but more as a note to herself.

“I have a lot of adjectives I’d like to use too. Tags are imperfect. So many ways to describe a moment. How can you tag a summer breeze?”

She glanced at him sideways, not able to tell if he was being facetious or solemnly serious, “#summerbreeze?” she quipped, “I read that The tag is the soul of the internet, you know. Clive Thompson said instagram is like that poem, Thirteen ways to look at a Blackbird. I can’t stop thinking about that”

She finished uploading her gorgeous sunset to instagram and tagged it #SeattleSunset.

“I read Collision Detection too. Heh. Well, I guess you and Clive have got a point,” he said, “Oh, dear. I’m late. Best be on my way,” and with that, he gave a huge smile, turned and walked away.

She stood there and stared at his back for a moment. Two small pieces of paper slipped out from the folder he was holding under his arm and floated silently to the concrete floor. A small breath of air came out of her mouth, but no sound. She watched him disappear.

She turned on her heel and walked in the other direction towards the other staircase, to go down to the second level to her parked car.

Later that evening when she scanned through her instagram feed, she came upon her Seattle sunset photo again. Impulsively she clicked the #SeattleSunset tag which brought her to a set of 158 pictures all tagged the same.

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by giulia.forsythe
So many images of the same stunning sun, multiple perspectives, one tag. Skies of red, yellow, purple, blue and gold with intense fluttered clouds were framed by dark silhouetted trees, deciduous and conifers; buildings, from the space needle to low flat strip malls; horizons ranged from very high to very low or non-existent. They all shared that one desire to capture that Seattle sunset and now were linked through their tag.

Would her parking garage rooftop co-conspirator be among them? She couldn’t decide if she should look really intently with that purpose.

If it was meant to be, their tags would align again in the future, she figured.

The tag is the soul of the internet.

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Notes:

I am sad to report this is a complete work of fiction but I do need to give special thanks to @injenuity for her Flash Fiction inspiration (which I just may make a DS106 assignment because I like it so much) and her instagram photo of a Seattle sunset and her subsequent tweets.

I have tagged this as Visual Assignment 272: Picturing Prufrock, because my drawing is an illustration of a poem, just not specifically T.S. Elliot’s poem. I am taking the assignment in the broadest sense. Artistic license!

Rhizome Remix

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This week’s #change11 facilitator is Dave Cormier, talking about Rhizomatic Learning – Why We Learn. I saw him present at the University of Guelph #eportfolio week earlier this year.

I know that as the Manager, Web Communications and Innovations at Prince Edward Island University he is well versed in the pragmatist view of a bureaucratic policy maker. Ah, but you don’t have dig too deep below that job title to see that Dave is also a husband, father, French philosopher-citer, teacher, @gsiemens-contrarian, coffee-science hobbyest and nomadic, rhizomatic learner. Perhaps even a #socialartist?

Leslie Lindballe went on ds106radio a couple weeks ago, did some rhizome reading and reflecting live on the air. The following week Dave presented in Alec Couros‘ ECI831 class and I downloaded the video, listened to it on my mobile and did a little bit of drawing.

My Animated Doodle about Rhizomatic Learning

I like it for my first real try. But. Do you know what it really needs?

Someone to say something.
Narrate this thing!
Sing to it!
Play the guitar, ukelele! Or didgeridoo! Or piano!
Just make some sense of it. (if any is to be found!?)

So, I’m issuing a remix challenge. Record some audio for my doodle: using your PC, Mac, mobile, soundcloud, YouTube, etc. (your tool of choice, etc.), while watching the video and post it here for me. Or download the video using MPEG StreamClip and do whatever you like to it! (Update: I’ve made a version without audio for easier remixing)

Of course, feel free to take your own nomadic rhizomatic learning path. Cuz that’s cool too.

Some of my fave nomads: Leslie and Alan Levine (hopefully GNA Garcia) are joining me in a G+ hangout Wednesday November 9, 2pm EST to talk to Dave about Deleuzian, Rhizomatic Nomadic Learning. I think Tim Owens will be there (yaay!) and we *might* also be on DTLT Today. (Please join us if you can!)

Technical Sidenotes

I’ve been wanting to try animation for a while now but have gotten in the comfortable groove of using AutoDeskSketchBookPro and not Brushes, which will record your brush strokes on the iPad to make a movie. However, in light of Tim Owen‘s recent question: where is the change? and Nancy White‘s highly interactive and thought-engaging week about #socialartists, I decided to move out of my comfort zone, try Brushes again and do a little animation. Resolution could be better. Anyone know what export settings I should use from iMovie!? It goes in sharp and comes out fuzzy :( Audio: mixed in some CC music by Serge Seletskyy.

Mobile Learning

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What does this set up in terms of ‘have’ and ‘have-not’?

On one hand, North America is a continent full of people who ‘have’ too much. Far too much. Shouldn’t we pay more for things? We have SO MUCH!

The problem, I think, is that our over-abundance over-shadows that there are millions of people in North America just scraping by; marginalized groups we tend to overlook.

What can we learn from Zoraini Wati Abas and Open University Malaysia?

Canadian Universities would be under huge scrutiny if they ever paid for the text plans for students to allow for SMS communication.

But what about those marginalized groups? Northern communities, new immigrants, Aboriginal groups, homeless, the working poor are all groups who slip through the cracks. Some of them live in third world conditions but they have to live with first world expenses.

There is such a diversity of need within the student population. How do we implement something that is fair and balanced?

Student loans are helpful but after the six-month grace period interest starts accruing. My Ontario Student Loan paid for my tuition, textbooks, rent, and day care. I’m still paying it off and at this rate it will take about 15 more years (at least). I am loathe to calculate the total cost of my education. What if I had to use my student loan to pay for exorbitant cell phone rates too? Because my class required it?

As Ontario aims to reach a 70% post-secondary attainment rate, we need to be looking at these non-traditional learners and ask ourselves where they are in terms of mobile learning.

Do they have cell phones? Are they old cell phones like my ancient mocked phone? How would they feel in a class where everyone else had a smart phone? Would they be at a clear disadvantage? Can they afford to send texts, surf the web, interact with their phones as we would hope?

In what circumstances are education providers expecting these learners to choose between groceries and a mobile device?

I wish I had more answers but I guess change comes from asking questions. And I have a lot of those.