This week I am responding to readings from Alone Together by Sherry Turkle. In Chapters 6-8, Turkle gives many examples of how technology can both enhance and impede our relationships. The assigned prompt reads as follows:
Conversation, discussion, presentation. What are they and how do they appear in your professional life? If you were to diagram the power relationships in each of them, what would the diagrams look like? Which are technology-enhanced and which technology impeded? Is there anything about the current status and role of these in your present professional situation that you would like to change?
I have addressed these questions in a Google Presentation that I recorded with Screencast-O-Matic. I chose this medium so that I could talk through my ideas related to the prompt and the text. I also wanted experience in screencasting and using Google Presentation, both of which I am using for the first time. During the process, I also decided to create a mindmap to show my thinking. I used a new tool for that as well, called MindMeister. I found this to be fairly easy to use.
I did run into several obstacles while preparing this presentation. I first thought that I could record a presentation without using any additional software. When I realized I needed to use a screencasting software, I could not find one that would work on my Chromebook or iPad. Finally, I tried Screencast-O-Matic on my school laptop (PowerBook), and was able to record the presentation only if I opened Screencast-O-Matic in Firefox. It would not work in Chrome. The final step was to upload the screencast to YouTube. This was very easy to do. Although it took some time, it was worth it since these are tools I can definitely use with my students.