BCM241 – The Specs

The Connected BCM Classroom – INTRO

This digital story starts here

“Spatial media are more and more mediating how space is understood and the interactions occurring within them. Geographic spaces are evermore complemented with various kinds of georeferenced and real-time data – pictures, thoughts, statistics, reviews, historical documents, routes – that can be accessed through a plethora of augmented and location-aware maps and interactive displays that have multiple points of view.”

(Kinchin, Lauriault & Wilson 2017, p. 9) Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – INTRO”

The Connected BCM Classroom – TUTORIAL ROOM

A visit to a BCM tutorial

The spatial design of the classroom hasn’t changed much from the past, and it is making teaching and learning more problematic. For example, large classrooms that are built for traditional ways of teaching become physically and visually distracting to students, and they eventually get lost in their own devices.

(a teacher, when interviewed)

Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – TUTORIAL ROOM”

The Connected BCM Classroom – OUTRO

The story doesn’t end just yet

Here we are, four weeks since this project started, and it has – against my most wistful expectations – opened up even more questions than it could actually answer.

I will close this story off with some memorable moments from my interview with a lecturer/tutor. Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – OUTRO”

The Connected BCM Classroom – HOME

Now let’s head home for some self-study

(Click on bottom-right button to expand/open in new window)

I don’t even bother trying,

is many’s honest reply to the question in the focus group of whether they had ever tried anything to keep themselves focused during classes or when self-studying. Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – HOME”

The Connected BCM Classroom – LECTURE THEATRE

A visit to the BCM lecture

(Click on bottom-right button to expand/open in new window)

In any BCM lecture theatre, it is relatively reasonable to remark that the number of devices is likely higher than the number of people in that same space. Although the positive influence of media use is undeniable, the practice still raises several issues, especially the shrinkage of students’ attention span.

They seemingly drift off to another world … I’ve found myself approached by students after class, asking me questions about matters that have been covered but somehow they missed, and this is getting more and more common.

Continue reading “The Connected BCM Classroom – LECTURE THEATRE”

Clicky Clickety Clack (Goes the Keyboard Under My Dancing Fingers)

How I have grown – in the past year – as a student, a researcher, and a writer.

A little more than a year ago, I started typing the very first words of my very first blog post, also the very first words of my very first (BCM111) assignment at a university 7000 kilometres away from home.

Back then, The Specs was still named (after so many attempts) The January Journal, a reference to my birth month, and an attempt at a catchy title. The header image was still a default one provided with the theme, the wording clumsy and bland, the references redundant and irrelevant, and the blog’s owner utterly confused and disoriented.

Two sessions (plus a Summer session) and three writerly subjects (BCM110, BCM212, BCM241) later, The Specs has gained certain acknowledgement by my lecturers, tutors, and my friends. I have grown so much as an independent student, researcher, and writer.

bcms@uow Bloggies — *The Specs won best BCM Blog, Autumn Session 2017*

Continue reading “Clicky Clickety Clack (Goes the Keyboard Under My Dancing Fingers)”

Be Present – Self-Regulation of Media Use

How not to let media use interfere with personal relationships

“Everywhere we go, we carry with us options far more enticing than the place and moment we happen to be standing within …”

This is a comment by Josh Pulman (cited in Maloney 2017) regarding his photography project, Somewhere Else, in which he captured images of people being together in shared public spaces yet in another space created by their own electronic devices Continue reading “Be Present – Self-Regulation of Media Use”

Just. Stay. Focuse- ooh this looks interesting I wonder what it is and that seems pretty cool too and…

Staying focused is getting harder and harder, isn’t it?

This is one of my all-time favourite TED Talks – Tim Urban perfectly captured the process of procrastinating, particularly the distractions influencing us during any task, be it a really insignificant or remarkably important one. (Some of us might have trouble staying focused throughout this 15-minute video, I’m quite certain about that.) Continue reading “Just. Stay. Focuse- ooh this looks interesting I wonder what it is and that seems pretty cool too and…”

A Squiggly Line – on Taking Pictures in Public Spaces

Where do we draw the line to taking pictures of strangers in public spaces?

bcm241 PhotosInPublic — *The squiggly line to picture-taking in public* (artwork by me)

As suggested this week in BCM241, I did something I very usually do yet rarely put any thoughts into it. I took pictures of strangers using media in public spaces. Continue reading “A Squiggly Line – on Taking Pictures in Public Spaces”

Me, Myself, and I (and a Movie)

How I enjoy going to the cinema alone – and how that has to to with time geography

Since I’ve been in Australia a year and a half ago, I haven’t set foot in a single movie theatre (Well I actually have, but just to see the price and had to ‘casually’ walk out – those prices were ridiculously high, compared to what I had been so used to in Vietnam (about AUD3.00-4.00 per ticket).

I absolutely, utterly, extremely love going to the movie theatre on my own, Continue reading “Me, Myself, and I (and a Movie)”