Dec 5, 2011 | Mobile, Projects
This semester we asked a hundred freshmen in separate Cornerstone sections to take photos that included the Jacob’s Dream angels. Our object was to illustrate the way disciplines in the liberal arts attempt to provide a more complete view of the human and our relation to the divine.
Once uploaded to Photosynth, the students’ photos were combined into a “synth” which is a 3-D construction of the Jacob’s Dream site based on the many facets of the space captured in the photos. We then shot the space again, attempting to produce a careful survey of the site.
In his Cornerstone Spotlight presentation yesterday, Dr. Greg Straughn paralleled this first example with crowd-sourced initiatives that can leverage the wisdom of the group but sometimes without a coordinated plan or design. Scholarly research often approximates the second example that leveraged higher-powered tools (wide-angle and telephoto lenses) and moved around the site to create a greater degree of coverage.
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Getting Started with Photosynth
To explore each synth further, enter by selecting “Click to View” and then the full screen button in the bottom right. From there, explore each of the main views: the 3D View, the Overhead View, and the Point Cloud View. Thanks again to the students who contributed a nice range of images.
(Photosynth utilizes the Silverlight plugin developed by Microsoft and the following examples are not currently compatible with mobile devices.)
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Cornerstone Students – 172 photos (mostly phone photos)
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Single Photographer – 252 photos (Canon 5D, 24-70mm / 70-200mm lenses)
Dec 5, 2011 | Mobile, News & Events
We often focus on how technology is transforming the way we share finished ideas with a global audience. Easily overlooked is the role they now play on the other end of the creative process. When many of us are ready to begin a project, sketch out an idea, or draft a few paragraphs, mobile apps are now the tools we turn to first.
Here are a few of our favorites.
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Apple’s iWork app was among the first mobile tools to expand our view of how a desktop application could be adapted to a mobile device. Pages is more than a bare-bones word processing app. Document templates, text styles, find/replace, and editing tools all made the mobile version as well.
The app is easy to work with on an iPhone or iPad, but version 1.5 added iCloud integration which makes it that much easier to pick up where you left off on your computer or second device.
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The first of two iPad only apps we’ll start with, tablets are emerging as a third platform with particular needs and benefits. A tablet is far easier to take into a meeting or class for occasional notes. Notes Plus makes efficient use of zooming to make efficient use of a page with handwritten notes and adds the ability to record audio associated with a particular page or notebook.
Stylus recommended, but if you prefer to type, Notes Plus lets you blend handwriting and sketches with typed text.
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One other iPad only app we’re offering this week offers the best way to sketch out ideas quickly, whether individually or as a group. You may have noticed we have a certain fondness for whiteboards in the LS—with 12 of them in our group rooms and another 16 rolling around upstairs. Most ideas don’t appear neatly organized into clear paragraphs or strong images without some work. A whiteboard gives you the space to see how an idea takes shape before beginning to focus it into some final shape.
Whiteboard HD also allows you to project it on an external monitor in a classroom or collaboration room using an iPad VGA adapter. This spring we’ll also be experimenting with an Apple TV in the Screening Room for wireless video mirroring from an iPad or iPhone.
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Free Essentials
Though our #12apps giveaways will focus on paid apps, there are a few free apps we consider essential to basic productivity around campus.
Dropbox – great app for keeping 2gb of files synced across devices and your desktop
Evernote – the standard “digital brain” for capturing and remembering almost anything
SimpleMind+ – a strong mind-mapping app for developing idea maps on an iPhone or iPad
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So what’s missing?
We’d love to hear from you in comments. What apps do you turn to when it’s time to begin a project?
Dec 1, 2011 | Mobile, News & Events
The Learning Studio is heralding the holiday season with 12 days of giveaways. For the first 12 days of December, we’re giving away our favorite 12 apps with an assortment of gear to brighten the final days of the semester.
*Details below for how to enter.
How To Enter
All ACU students, faculty, and staff may enter by following @learningstudio on Twitter or liking ACUlearningstudio on Facebook. That’s it.
Additional opportunities to enter will be announced on Twitter and Facebook each day, and all entries from previous days will remain in the contest through Dead Day, Dec. 12th.
Drawings will be made at random once a day with winners contacted by Twitter/Facebook. All prizes need to be picked up within 24 hours of notification at the main desk in the Learning Studio before they’re thrown back in the prize pool.
We’ve had a great first full semester working with you on campus, and this is our way of saying thanks. Good luck.
