I am the first to admit it: I am a sucker for great design! And can you believe this? It makes me want to get a little dog, just so I can have the crate. Humm, I wonder if you could build a terrarium in there? This is so fabulous.
Creativity
Building iPhone Apps
For the last few weeks, on Mondays, I get myself over to the new Ford Building on the Smith College Campus. Now, I’m the first to admit, I am not a programmer. However, as a designer I’m intrigued with development and thus am assisting Lou Franco with ‘testing’ some chapters of his soon-to-be-published book.
Lou has the patience of a saint. St. iPhone or St. Xcoder is how I like to refer to him. He is a great teacher! In class, he sometimes tends to run through code pretty quickly when he is showing examples.
Some of the stuff we cover in our workshop goes over my head….Lou does move thru the information. But I am happy-no, I am joyous to say, I get most of it! I mean, come on everyone has an idea for an iPhone app. A few that have just recently come to mind:
- A Shit List App: something you could interface with that would assist you in being sure others met your criteria for being on your Shit List. And, of course, there would be some type of meter or rating system. Maybe it could even connect with your Contact list? Humm…..the possibilities. [Note: this is obviously a bit of a joke here. Then again, who knows….maybe there is something to this. Humm.].
- Then there is this behavioral app I’m working on….I can’t reveal the name just yet….let’s just say the market is for parents to use when their child isn’t behaving in the manner the parent prefers. This one is still in development stages.
- And then, an app to help you ‘know’ what types of organic foods are currently ‘ripe and ready-to-pick’. This needs to coordinate with locate organic farmers and dovetail with their crop growth charts….however, I firmly believe there is a need for this. Especially, as we grow more conscious of the foods we eat, where we buy those foods and in getting the freshest possible foods-locally.
If you have an idea for an iPhone app [or iPad app for that matter]. Leave me a comment….maybe we can get started on one. After all, I have a classroom full of Techie-Developers all of whom I am sure would love to develop a iPhone app.
Joining The Institute for Digital Media Arts [IDMA]
Another group I am happy & proud to be working with is The Institute for Digital Media Arts [IDMA]. I am creating a Web Design Diploma for them.
- The Web Design Diploma offers students the opportunity to explore the design of websites, interactive media, and other digital technologies. Following a project-based curriculum, students will immediately gain knowledge and learn skills about tools and technologies used in designing and creating digital products.
- Student studies will focus on design, functionality, target audience, and user experience. The studies will remain grounded in the fundamentals of information architecture, basic front and back end web development, and interactive media design.
- These courses are developed to be presented completely online.
Fun and exciting times, online.
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Even More Free Tools for the Virtual Instructor
The learning curves have been steep, over the past couple of weeks. I have been introduced to a few more free tools I wanted to share.
- Zoho.com is an autoresponder and so much more. While this autoresponder is secure, I have to admit the back end of this system can get ‘geeky’ so be prepared and you do not always have the ‘pretty’ options to make forms look swanky. Function and form.
- Text’em allows you to text from the comfort of your own computer. This learning curve is quite simple and you can have an account up, running and be texting within moments. The wonder of this process is that you do not have to reveal your phone number, within your texts. These is an inbox-email-type system to read responses to your text and create further responses. This is perfect for a Virtual Instructor who does not want to have their contact information out there. A couple of slight drawbacks: the system in not instantaneous [it took about 15 minutes to process an outgoing text & nearly as long to receive a reply to that text-during testing phase]. And you have to collect your contacts’ providers.
All and all, these freebies are worth a look. Let me know what you think.
Drive: What Motivates Us?
Last fall I heard Daniel Pink speak at Westfield State College, Westfield, MA[who BTW have a wonderful Speakers Series, if you are ever in the area during the school year on a given Monday night]. For years, I’ve been a big fan of Mr. Pink’s work and was thrilled to hear him in person. He was promoting his newest book Drive. Here is a fabulous video illustrating Daniel’s point. Enjoy!
More FREE Tools
Three big concepts will be pushing e-learning:
- Clouds
- Mobile
- Wireless
Then there are open source applications and FREE tools to create with. Audacity, Jing, Screencast are a few that come to mind. Today, I learned about:
- Podbean: An ultra simple podcast publishing solution.
- Voki: See sample below.
- Voicethread–Transforming media into collaborative spaces with video, voice, and text commentingwhich actually has a free version as well as a pay version. Check out what it can do here. Think threaded discussion, with images, interaction, audio, video….it’s amazing!
Here’s what Voki can do. Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages. Watch how I follow your cursor……wild. Think of the fun you and your students can have.
