I spent the last few days thinking about my topic for this week's blog - I got my answer this morning. A few days ago I learned of an individual, Troy Adams who is running across Canada to raise awareness for brain injuries. On April 1st, he began his journey in St. John's NFLD, and is currently in Cape Breton. Troy is running 40 plus kilometres per day. So far he has ran 940 kms to date!
I was fortunate enough to be able to run with him today for a bit - this is where AT comes into this story. As mentioned, he is a brain injury survivor, and as a result of his injuries, learns differently than he did prior to his injury. We had a long discussion during our run today - some of which involved the adverse effects this injury has on his brain. While he was speaking, I couldn't help but think of all the apps he could use with his IPhone to accommodate his everyday life. I wont get into too much detail because I know this can be read by anyone online, but the moral of my story is that, now of days, AT can be used by a lot more people than we think!
For more information on Troy's story check out troysrun.com, http://www.facebook.com/CrossCanadaRun, or @troysrun. Watch for him in your community!!
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Wednesday, 11 April 2012
The Limitations of Blogs and Smart Phones
One of my main responsibilities as Project Manager with the Purdy Crawford Chair in Aboriginal Business Studies at Cape Breton University to administer the Business Network for Aboriginal Youth. This is a mentorship program recently launched to try to increase the amount of interest in the study of business at university with Aboriginal high school students across Nova Scotia.
Currently, we have 30 students, representing 19 high school and 12 First Nation communities from one end of Nova Scotia to the other. This program involves 2 face to face youth conferences. However, the day to day interaction occurs via various social media vehicles using BlackBerry technology. Bell Mobility has donated a BlackBerry for each student (30), and each mentor (10) in the program.
Students are in groups of 5 based on their areas of interest relating to business. In their groups they are responsible to complete a challenge every 2 weeks. Each challenge integrates business related topics and social media. 2 of the 6 groups were asked to view their challenge (assignment) on my WordPress blog and submit for this challenge in the form of a reply. Some of these students do not have a computer at home, which means I have to make sure that each of the challenges can be completed entirely using their BlackBerry. With WordPress, in order for students to respond, they had to create their own WordPress account and WordPress Blog, which proved very difficult using the BlackBerry. Students were able to get it done, but it took extensively longer to create this account and respond to posts. Some BlackBerry apps are very easy to use - this is not one of them!
This was not significantly related to AT, but when we started using Blogger, I thought it would be fitting to tell this story. I don't own and Iphone, but I suspect that WordPress for IPhone would be much easier to use!
Currently, we have 30 students, representing 19 high school and 12 First Nation communities from one end of Nova Scotia to the other. This program involves 2 face to face youth conferences. However, the day to day interaction occurs via various social media vehicles using BlackBerry technology. Bell Mobility has donated a BlackBerry for each student (30), and each mentor (10) in the program.
Students are in groups of 5 based on their areas of interest relating to business. In their groups they are responsible to complete a challenge every 2 weeks. Each challenge integrates business related topics and social media. 2 of the 6 groups were asked to view their challenge (assignment) on my WordPress blog and submit for this challenge in the form of a reply. Some of these students do not have a computer at home, which means I have to make sure that each of the challenges can be completed entirely using their BlackBerry. With WordPress, in order for students to respond, they had to create their own WordPress account and WordPress Blog, which proved very difficult using the BlackBerry. Students were able to get it done, but it took extensively longer to create this account and respond to posts. Some BlackBerry apps are very easy to use - this is not one of them!
This was not significantly related to AT, but when we started using Blogger, I thought it would be fitting to tell this story. I don't own and Iphone, but I suspect that WordPress for IPhone would be much easier to use!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)