Hope Baugh

@hopebaugh

In which I and my library co-workers explore 23 Mobile Things in 2015.

35 posts

Thing #23: Art

The final Thing! I can hardly believe it! I have learned so much on this 23 Mobile Things journey!

But it’s not quite over yet. Let’s see..the app choices for this final Thing include Bitstrips, Forge of Neon, Muse Art, Paper, and SketchBookX. First let’s visit the ol’ App Store and see if any of them are available in versions that my ancient iPhone can handle...

I downloaded Bitstrips but then the only way I could sign in was through my Facebook. No, thanks.

Forge of Neon and Muse Art require iOS 7 or higher. Ah, well.

I can’t find a free “Paper” app in the Apps Store, only one that wants $1.99 from me. Hmm.

I only have a small iPhone handy right now and the SketchBookX requires a 4inch screen or larger.

Well, phooey!

But I had fun watching the various introductory videos and skimming the introductory articles. If I had a newer device, I think I would enjoy the Paper app most, even if you do have to pay $1.99 now to get it, but I think I would enjoy it even more if I had a stylus to work with rather just my fingers...

But I’m not going to go shop for a stylus because I want to finish this Thing today and be done. Not with learning, mind you, but with this particular course.

Thanks again, Katherine Huddle, for researching and compiling and creating the 23 Mobile Things adventure!

Thing #22: Language & Translation

I enjoy learning new languages so I had already explored Pronunciator when CCPL first got it. So..for this Thing I decided to learn about DuoLingo and Google Translate. (When I watched the introductory video to WordLens it said it had moved to Google Translate.)

Reading the recommended Slate article, I am intrigued by DuoLingo’s so-founder’s idea that he will keep the site free by earning money from the bits of documents that students translate automatically as they learn.

I also love that his motivation at least partly comes from wanting to help people in Latin American countries who can’t afford schools that offer English classes. Knowing English will improve their chances of getting a good job. However, people do have to be wealthy enough to own a device that has iOS 7 or higher on it. I will remember this app whenever I finally get around to upgrading my own device. DuoLingo sounds like fun.

GoogleTranslate also requires iOS 7 or higher but I watched the introductory video and was delighted. Imagine if I had been able to just hold up my phone to signs when I lived in Japan in the early 1990s?! No more wondering what kind of filling was in the neatly labeled rice balls at the grocery store, for example.

But then I read the Guide article and became a little less delighted: you can only do that point-your-phone-at-signs thing when you’re online. Ah, well. Still pretty cool.

Thing #21: CCPL

I often use CCPL’s mobile “app” to check our catalog, to place holds for myself and to see if I have anything overdue or ready to pick up. I wish it had the full descriptions of items in the catalog so I could, for example, who the reader is for an audiobook, but I’m not really complaining because I love the convenience of what it does offer.

When I looked at “choose your own” list of other CCPL-related apps, I didn’t remember much about AccessMyLibrary so I tried to download that one. It requires a newer iOS than my old phone can handle. Ah, well. I think I already know the libraries near me anyway.

Then I tried BookMyne, which I sort of remember testing a while ago because it is a SirsiDynix product but it was not still on my phone. I could download an old version today so I did. The recommended reading lists featured award winners from 2009, which made me laugh. I tried the barcode search function but either my phone’s camera is too old or I misunderstood what that function was supposed to do. I looked up an audiobook and found a little more info than is available through CCPL’s mobile “app” but still not who performed it. There were reviews and a summary plus the number of copies owned by CCPL. There was no “place hold” button so I guess you have to remember how to get back to the sign in page and do that first.

Anyway, the app as a whole didn’t seem to offer enough extra value for me to make it worth taking up that space on my phone so I deleted it after I had explored it. But I can see how it might be useful to people that want to keep their tbr list close to their library’s catalog and/or who are looking for reading suggestions and/or who are somewhere new and want to know what libraries are near them. Or whose library does not offer its own mobile website the way CCPL does. I think it’s good that CCPL is listed on this app.

Thing #20: Email

I have had work email on my phone for quite a while now but had not heard of Accompli. It requires iOS 8 so I won’t be downloading it today but I am glad to be learning a bit about it. I was interested to read that Microsoft bought it last October.

I can see the advantages of being able to access ALL of your email, including big attachments, on your phone, which we can’t do on our library webmail (or couldn’t the last time I tried, which was a few years ago at a conference. I had thought I’d be able to and was dismayed to find that I couldn’t.)

I can also see the advantages to being able to look at an email and at your calendar more quickly than the time it takes to switch back and forth between separate apps.

Not directly related to this Thing but I still hope to become an email ninja some day. I.e., to be able to get to Inbox Zero every day. Or at least every week. Or at least once before I die. (lol)

Thing #19: Communicating

I had already tried Skype and was interested to learn more about Snapchat. I read all of the articles and watched the suggested video plus another video that was offered at the end of one of the intro articles. (It was a video about how to be a good Snapchat artist.) As with many of our 23 Mobile Things, my phone is too old to let this app become one I’d really use. For one thing, my phone’s camera doesn’t flip forward and back and doesn’t load up quickly.

So I didn’t create a Snapchat account today but I probably will some time in the future. In the meantime, I’m glad to have a better sense of how it works.

I was also interested in learning more about Google Hangouts. Again, it requires iOS 7 or higher, which my phone does not have. But I watched the short video on the official Google Hangouts website, plus the suggested Android video, and got a sense of how Hangouts work on either system.

I think regular ol’ texting works okay for me, at least for now.

Thing #18: Calendars

I use the alerts in my calendar that came with my iPhone all the time so for this Thing I looked at the articles about the Sunrise app. I can sort of see why it appeals to some people: several things such as Facebook events and map directions are brought together in one place. But I don’t necessarily like consolidation for consolidation’s sake. Sometimes just having my calendar on my phone feels like too much consolidation! (lol)

Thing #17: File Sharing & Cloud Storage

For this Thing I chose Google Drive over DropBox or Box, not because I had never used Google Drive before but because I knew I didn’t know all there was to know about it, especially in terms of working on files with other people. I read the “tips” article and the GCF tutorial on sharing and collaborating and learned a lot.

Thing #16: Presentations

Oh, my, I have spent way too long exploring this Thing. I watched Chip Dizard’s short video about Haiku Deck but then got sidetracked watching his short videos about SnapChat, video production, digital ministry and more.

Those were all useful, too, though and eventually I got back on track. I watched the videos and skimmed the articles about PowerPoint, Prezi (zoom!) and Google Slides.

I made a quick little pres using Google Slides and thought, “Hey! This is easy!” only to realized when I went to look at it again that I already had made and saved another Slides presentation in my Google Drive! (lol) No wonder this one was so easy.

But I need to accomplish something else today so instead of trying again with one of the others, I am going to...Well, I’m not sure how to share a Slides set here on Tumblr, so maybe you’ll have to take my word for it. It is five Slides long, titled “Three Favorite Classics” and has one slide each for Dracula, Great Expectations and To Kill a Mockingbird.

“A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people—people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.“ E. B. White was born today in 1899.

Happy belated birthday, E. B.!

Thing #15: Games

Uh-oh. This Thing includes all the time sucks that my friends have warned me about but so far resisted: Candy Crush Saga, FarmVille2, Words with Friends, and more. Eeep!

My first choice to try was the New York Times Crossword Puzzle app. Like the Lumosity app offered under Thing #13: Education, doing crossword puzzles is supposed to exercise your brain. It is supposed to help prevent Alzheimer’s and other memory loss diseases. I don’t know if it truly does, but I do think crossword puzzles are fun, yet not so fun as to be addictive.

Oh! I forgot (heh - memory loss) to mention when I wrote about Lumosity in Thing #13 that I thought it was funny that the app let you set a reminder for what days and times you wanted to “train your brain” with the app’s games. Wouldn’t it train your brain if you asked your brain to help you remember to train rather than relying on app alerts? (lol) But I do use the alerts on my iPhone calendar so who am I to judge.

Anyway, the crossword puzzle app needs iOS 7, which I don’t have, so in the name of professional development, continuing education, and continuous improvement, I went to my second choice: Angry Birds. My four-year-old nephew loves this game. I have never played the actual game but I have loved playing with AB toys - both homemade and purchased - with my nephew and hearing his explanations of who everyone is and what they do. Shoot the catapult!

My ancient iPhone was able to install the free Angry Birds. It said, “Welcome back..” and a user name I created for another free game I have that is much less famous. I played three games of Angry Birds, toppled the big tower and improved my score.

Uh-oh.

Thing #14: Hoosier Helpers

After watching the videos and skimming the articles, I tried installing the Department of Natural Resources app (recently updated as a partnership with the Department of Techology, I think it said) but it requires iOS 7. ‘Same with the Inside Indiana Business app and the Visit Hamilton County app. However, I am glad to know about all three of these apps. I didn’t know about them before and I think I will find them useful if and when I buy a tablet and/or update my iPhone.

I already subscribe to the IndyStar but rarely check it because it offers so little news that interests me. However, I keep hoping.

Here’s a gif of someone hoping for more local arts coverage in the Indy Star:

Thing #13: Education

I looked at all of the videos and several of the intro/demo/review articles provided for Khan Academy, iTunesU, Lumosity (and Elevate), AccessMyLibrary and Tutor.com.

One of our Teen Library Council members says the reason he doesn’t use the library’s Tutor.com service even though it is free to library card holders is that he prefers to watch a video over talking with a live online tutor. I respect his opinion, of course, but I think in most cases if I had a homework question, I would want to be able to ask the question and get help with that particular aspect of the topic rather than have to sit through a whole video that may or may not make things clear for me.

Most TLC members that have tested our Tutor.com service say they would recommend it their friends, though, so this one person is probably unusual.

One thing I hadn’t realized until I watched the little video from Tutor.com on the 23 Mobile Things webpage is that students can take a photo of their homework, upload it, and then write or draw on it with their tutor using the app’s whiteboard. I thought it had to all be drawing only, no photos.

I tried installing AccessMyLibrary on my ancient iPhone to see what the articles were by library staff but (sigh) the app requires iOS 7 or higher, which I don’t have.

Ah, well.

oldfilmsflicker

Desperately Seeking Susan, 1985 (dir. Susan Seidelman)

This is my first attempt reblogging something on Tumblr. But hey, look! Here is my favorite audiobook performer, Will Patton, as the creepy guy that I mentioned earlier. :-)

Thing #12: Hobbies

Craftsy and RetailMeNot were new to me.

I can see how Craftsy would appeal to someone that wanted to take a class but either couldn’t leave the house or wanted to work at their own pace without the teacher and/or other students breathing down their neck, intending to be encouraging but actually increasing their art anxiety. But if you WANT to get out of the house and meet new people and be able to ask questions IRL while also learning a new craft or hobby-related skill, an in-person class still would be worth the stress and possibly higher cost.

RetailMeNot is not my kind of thing at all. Gah! It reminded me of people that feel virtuous for shopping at Walmart “because it costs less.” I’m not saying I never shop online or at big box stores, but my first choice is always to shop locally, preferably from stores that source locally, too, and treat their employees well. Is there an app for shopping with social and environmental consciousness as well as thrift?

I also disagree with the guy that reviewed the RetailMeNot app and gave it 10 out of 10 stars and said, “Nothing beats crowd-sourced information.” Actually, a LOT of things beat crowd-sourced information. (lol)

That said, my sister uses Yelp a lot and so now I do, too, for restaurant info such as hours, menus, locations. Sometimes I skim the reviews but I always take them with (heh) a grain of salt.

I had used Epicurious and IMDB before, too.

I thought I would find Epicurious helpful in the grocery store. I.e. - Oh, look! Salmon is on sale! What’s a good recipe for salmon and what else do I need to make it? But the phone app (when I tried it a few years ago, at least) was too cumbersome and not populated with enough recipes yet for that purpose, so I eventually deleted it from my iPhone. However, the video demo provided via the 23 Things website convinced me to keep Epicurious in mind to try again when/if I buy an iPad. (Although I still wonder how people thumb the arrow down to the next step in the recipe when they’re cooking without getting their device goopy!)

I use IMDB constantly - to check on the status of YA books that have been rumored to be getting made into movies, to see what else such-and-such actor was in, etc. I love the way Will Patton performs the audiobooks for Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys series, for example. When I looked him up on IMDB, hey! he was the creepy guy in the movie “Desperately Seeking Susan” and has since, apparently, also starred in this TV series (which I have not yet seen):

Thing #11: Audio & Music

I was glad to learn more about Spotify in this Thing because I’d been hearing references to it for years but didn’t really understand what it did. Now I will probably spend the $9.99 a month for the best subscription if and when I ever buy an iPad and/or new iPhone. It sounds (heh) useful and fun!

I had already tried Pandora a few years ago but gave it up because it drove me crazy to hear substitutes instead of what I actually wanted to hear. For a while, for example, I was (pardon the expression) crazy about Patsy Cline. I’d be in the mood to hear her rendition of “Crazy” and Pandora would give my Johnny Cash. Ack! No, thank you! But I can see how people that want suggestions for new musicians to listen to might enjoy this app.

I had never heard of SoundHound before buy my brother had turned me on to Shazam a few years ago and I always used up my 5 free uses early on in every month because I enjoyed that app so much until my phone got too old for it, so the article that compared the two was interesting. Again, when I finally get a new device, I will probably get both of these apps and test them for myself. I bet I would enjoy both of them.

I watched both of the little videos about Magic Piano. It reminded me of DDR or Guitar Hero, only for fingers on a tablet rather than feet on a big pad or hands on a big, guitar-shaped device. It also reminded me a little of the Simon’s Cat app, which I think I finally deleted because I wanted the room on my phone but which I loved for a long time because a) I love Simon’s Cat, period, and b) you could pick out “meow” tunes yourself or listen and try to repeat the tunes provided.

I have been interested in podcasting for several years now and learn a little bit more every time I take a workshop or explore resources like the ones in this Thing. As always, thanks for the good food for thought, Katherine!

Thing #10 Augmented Reality

I watched the introductory video about Aurasma and the article/video about how Disney used it for their StarWars attraction. I didn’t download the app but I can see how teachers and students would find a lot of fun uses for their school work.

I skimmed the article explaining why the Historypin folks decided to put their resources into more mission-critical activities rather than on app updates for the many devices that are out there. Totally understandable.

I watched the introduction video (and from there, the newer intro video) on Layar. I confess I “tsk!”ed the beautiful young couple that were on the beach for a gorgeous sunset and had decided to look at it through the Layar app on their phones. I mean, c’mon..some forms of reality do not NEED augmentation. They only need to be appreciated by people that are fully present for them. But I did go ahead and download the Layar app to see what it would show me is near me based on the view from my office window. It felt like another version of Yelp, but I probably was not able to fully explore it in the time I had. I’m also pretty sure they put Greek’s Pizzeria on the wrong part of Main Street but on their map but ah, well. I also searched for nearby libraries and read the “reviews” of ours. Some were from several years ago.

I skimmed the article on how various libraries have used QR codes and remembered that I have wanted to do QR code “If you liked___, you might also like___” booklists since oh, 2009 or so, but there always seemed to be something more urgent demanding my attention AND the feedback I got from teens back then was that QR codes were more annoying than useful. But I still think there is potential in using some kind of augmented reality for readers advisory (e.g. book suggestions in the stacks.)

(Added the next morning: I woke up thinking that a great thing about augmentation apps is that they could replace physical billboards. If people really want to advertise/see advertisements, they can look through their phones while the rest of us enjoy the view.)(lol)

I am augmenting this post with this gif just because it’s cute:

Thing # 9: Video

Since I played around with Animoto a bit at a Staff Professional Development Day (thanks again for that session, Katherine H!) I decided to explore YouTube a bit more for this Thing. But before that, I read the “15 Ways Libraries Can Use Vine” article and found a lot of good ideas that Chaise and Lynsey are doing with our Instagram account. I also read the article on making time-lapse videos using iOS 8. Fun stuff!

I had deleted the YouTube app that came with my iPhone, I think because I didn’t use it much and I wanted the space. But I installed it again (the older version for my old iPhone) for 23 Mobile Things and watched the video that teen volunteers took of the Ozbots at our library’s first Tinker Tuesdays event and which librarian Karen S edited using WeVideo. More fun stuff!

Watching videos on the tiny old iPhone screen will probably never be my favorite thing but I could, and have, spent hours exploring YouTube on desktop screens. When I finished All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, I wiped my tears and went straight to YouTube to see if any BookTubers had talked about it. (And of course, they had.)

My dream is for our Teen Library Council to make book review videos on a regular basis.

I’d like to watch some “how to make videos” videos on Lynda.com, too.

Hope Baugh @hopebaugh - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag