Inside View

Lusting for Sphero BB-8 #wishlist

THE NIGHT BEFORE APRIL'S ICT in Education Conference, I watched our young son engage with a miniature BB-8 built by Sphero. I think we need a little BB-8 in our home, along with the Sphero Sprk+, a 117 euro programmable robotic ball. [1]

Sphero wants to teach children the joys of coding. The Sprk+ has a gyroscope, accelerometer and LED lights that can be programmed to come on in any order. It will pair to my Android phone or to my wife's iPhone using a Bluetooth connection that has a range of 30 meters.

The Sphero community--full of people who show off their handiwork--leads interested people in teaching owners the basics of programming and lets them code a series of commands. [2]

The Sprk+ is shockproof and waterproof with a battery that lasts for 69 minutes. I can charge the battery wirelessly from its hub.

1. Get Sprk+ for $129 and free shipping in the USA.
2. Sphero Commnity: Let's Play!

Learning Clever IoT Windowing and Grouping h/t @niallermoran

The Internet of Things is real and I've a collection of special spaghetti cables that can connect, measure and transmit. A lot of companies are doing to same thing when connecting devices to reduce costs, to transform, to innovate and drive costs down.

Refreshed Android @inoreader helps my curation flow

Screenshot of new Inoreader views.

I'VE USED INOREADER as my primary RSS reader ever since Google Reader slipped into the Dead Pool. Inoreader's elegant functionality boosts my ability to efficiently curate content.

The Day Facebook Live Arrived for Me

Updating Facebook with @topgold.

I WATCH FACEBOOK LIVE download on my iPhone 5C, hoping it would find its way to my Android phone (seen updating above) but it didn't. Now I wonder what I should do with the new-found capability because I don't want to create another way for my friends to ignore me.

Integrating O365 Workflow Ideas #MSFTedu

Photo of Zoom H6 by @topgold.

EVERY SEMESTER GOES BETTER when I tweak my workflow to do more with less time. During the spring semester of 2016, I'm going all-in with OneNote and iterative activities that leverage shared co-authoring through Office 365, the service used on our campus network at the Limerick Institute of Technology.

Digital and Contemporary Marketing Practice

I'M LOOKING AT three syllabi of instruction for different cohorts of students in business and creative multimedia while noticing several conclusions that might be drawn about their perspectives on digital and contemporary marketing practice.

Design Thinking with Lumia.

I have dozens of clippings inside my OneNote collections that are relevant to the space of digital and contemporary marketing practice. But I prefer to reduce that large collection to six key points, substantiated by listening to the Daily Tech News Show.

First Touch of Windows 10

I LIKE WINDOWS 10 for several reasons and can base my opinion on running the preview edition for several weeks along with wanting to tinker with the way my operating system works. First impressions: Edge is faster than Chrome. And Cortana is better than Google Now, especially when connected to the Bluetooth head unit in our Nissan Qashqai.

Photo of Windows 10 starting to update.

Because I have a Windows 10 Mobile, I've seen big innovation with the web browser. Edge does some clever things. I like how its Hub works. I'd like to see a way to import my Lumia 1520 Hub content onto the Microsoft Surface.

Clever OCR Workflow in OneDrive

I HAVE DISCOVERED a clever way to automatically tag and organize photos with OneDrive. The cleverness starts with a leading image containing block capital letters. Let me explain.

Photo of kids on a pig by @topgold.

Like many other people, I let all of our handsets (Apple 5C, Lumia 1020 and Xperia Z3) automatically upload photos to OneDrive. When starting a new day's activities, I often print capital letters on a hand-made clapperboard, citing the venue or activity name on the clapperboard. Most of the time, my hand-printed letters are discoverable when I search OneDrive for them five minutes after I upload them.

Starting #edsketch15 with friends

Sketch by @topgold in Moleskine.

ON THE HEELS of another ICT in Education Conference, I noticed the biggest cross-talk and sharing is happens when images or videos are shared. Knowing that behaviour, I'm going to try to upload a sketch a day onto my InsideView blog and cross-post the images into an album on Flickr.

The idea comes from Steve Mouldey in New Zealand. [1] He laid down a challenge "to share a sketch every day in May" and then use #edsketch15 when sharing on Twitter, Google+, Instagram or any other social media.

Steve cites Austin Kleon's "Show Your Work" [2] when encouraging "everyone to sketch something they have been reading, thinking about, trying out, observing, questioning, exploring, reflecting on, working on that day".

Are you up for the challenge?

Mobile Livestreaming Since 2010 #mojocon

Qik Livestream recorded 11 March 2010 on Nokia E90.

IT IS EASY to forget things that happen before their time and Qik's livestreaming service is one of them. We first started covering live events with Qik running on Symbian phones in 2009 and made the process part of the creative multimedia degree programme in Tipperary Institute.