Kindle

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Thing 22 – Mobile things

I am rather a dinosaur as far as mobile technology is concerned.  My mobile phone is an old “clam shell” design that no one would want to steal (hopefully).  It can take photos but there is no capacity to search the internet, or I don’t think there is.  At the moment I prefer to keep it this way although I am beginning to consider a smart phone in the future.

My mobile technology is my iPad 2 which I have had for several years and would not be without.  I use it for note taking and taking photos at conferences and events as well as being the platform that I tend to use for reading my eBooks.  I tend to use Kindle but have Kobo and Bluefire reader as well.  I also tend to use the iPad for Facebook, Twitter  and checking my emails.

Another App that I have recently started using is the one for Easy jet.  It allows me to check in online and even gives me my boarding card, so that I don’t have to worry about printing it out.  However not all airports are set up for this and I have had them print out a card when I have gone to baggage drop.

I am not a great user of Apps and tend to go to sites via the browser but sometimes it is not possible to do it that way and you have to get an App for either the iPad or for the PC.  I suspect that my lack of concern about being connected 24/7 is something to do with my age.  Yes, it is good to have a phone for when you want it and also to be able to access information wherever you are, but I think that there is a real sense that the technology is overpowering us and that we need to get back to a stage where the human is in control.  Honestly, it does not matter if you are out of touch for a short while.  Anyway ‘rant over’, I think there is a time and place for mobile technology but as with everything else we need to use it sensibly.

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Thing 8 Curator Tools

Well this is my second attempt at writing this entry.  The first one disappeared when the draft failed to get saved on the blog.  I did not scream, there was just this gentle moan as I  now have  to remember everything I said before.  It will teach me to do manual saves more frequently and not rely on the automatic ones.

Anyway I had been talking about the types of curation tools that I have come across and the ones that I now use on a regular basis.  The one that I seem to use most is Pinterest, possibly because it is very easy, lots of images etc enable you to pin them and it is a great way of putting together images for work and for leisure interests.  Mine tend to be for courses I have done, libraries, books I want to read (great to have the visual key) and I think I am going to try recipes as well.

The other tool that I use quite a lot is Diigo, which is a bookmarking tool that allows me to collect together references about the same or related topics; you do this by the tags/keyword you assign to the link. Very quick and simple to use.

I was interested in the two other tools that have been mentioned on Thing 8 and I had not used, so I went and had a go to see how  they felt.  I have signed up to Flipboard as I think that it has possibilities and helps bring a range of articles to my notice that I might have missed otherwise.  I had heard of Storify and I know a couple of colleagues have used it successfully but  it is something for the future maybe.

Two other tools that I have on the computer and I am just starting to use are Scoop.it and a little red armchair for a tool called Readability.  Scoop.it trawls the internet for articles and references to subjects that I have nominated, but it will also allow me to capture information that I come across from a variety of sources.  Readability is something I had almost forgotten about but I have just given it a try and it is great for saving documents to read later and even to send to your Kindle.  Somehow reading a report whilst curled up in a chair is better than sitting at a computer.  Finally I am going to mention Jing and Screencast.com  which shows as a small sun shape at the top of my computer screen.  It allows me to capture images, pages or even video and then save it to my computer.  It is great for saving pieces of information that you want to read later.

Given the amount of information that we are inundated with it is so useful to have curation tools that are easy to use and help keep a track of information for both professional and personal interests.