Emma Duke-Williams :: Blog

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/12/bye-bye-n-85/

I’ve now had an N85 for a fortnight’s trial, thanks to Womworld.

So, my overall thoughts.

I’d orginally wanted it to see how well our eLearning tools work on it. Unfortunately, the VLE wasn’t that easy to navigate using it. It’s very much designed for a large screen (and uses frames), so perhaps expecting it to work was a little ambitious! Also, the web front end for staff email didn’t quite work. (I could login, navigate to messages, open them, but could only read the first little bit; to read the whole lot I had to “reply”).

Other sites, however, worked perfectly, so it’s our software that’s to blame, not the device! Gmail worked beautifully, the BBC was great; I couldn’t get iPlayer to work (but it didn’t claim it would, so not that surprising … but the previews on the BBC mobile site were fine. )Twitter was great too & I was able to read this & other blogs.

The camera was fabulous! I’ve already posted some of the images that I took of my mouse collection, (the only put of focus close up was the one I took of it!); I’ve also taken some good outdoor photos - as well as some inside at a conference. Those weren’t quite as good - but photos taken in a dim conference setting never are!

Getting online was very easy at home - set up the wireless connection very easily & it asked me every time which connection I wanted to use (which is what I’d wanted it to do … didn’t want to use up my PAYG BB connection!) - though at work was a little more difficult. In theory, it seems that I can (we have WPA2 Enterprise & have to install a certificate. I’d nearly got there … I think, just needed a bit more time to finally get it sorted). The 3G signal was fine when I was out & about; OK, so it had a few issues on the train between Portsmouth & London - but so do phones. There are lots of hills en-route.

I’ve also tested the GPS - which seems very efficient in cities - and in the country if you’re near a road. That would do me, as I’m used to map reading & I think it would be a great danger to lose that ability to navigate without having to rely on gizmos. It’s not sensible to be out without a decent map/compass/ know what on earth to do with them!

Other apps (e.g. games) I didn’t even try - I’m not a gamer &, given that it’s got internet capabilities, if I have a few minutes spare, I’d rather read the news or whatever, than play a game.

The pdf /word reader was handy, though I never did test whether or not someone sending me a docx file would have let me open it …

Prior to this trail, I’d have said that I didn’t need a phone that did more than make calls & send texts, however, I can really see the potential of the Internet. The camera was great - and v. convenient, but I do have 2 pretty decent digital cameras, that I really rather like & I find it much easier to take photos via a viewfinder than at arm’s length.

The main drawback, to me, were I to get one of my own would be the keypad. I much prefer the fact that it has keys - I’m a bit of an obsessive finger print remover, so a touch phone doesn’t really appeal. The N-85’s keypad was pretty responsive & once I’d set predictive text, reasonably fast, but I think I’d rather have the sort that has a minature qwerty keyboard.

Overall… 4.9999/5

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/12/ning-the-marmite

You love it or loathe it.

I’ve recently read several posts singing the praises of Ning. I’ve had an account on it for quite some time & I’ve yet to learn to love it in the way that some do.

It does have some very good points - quite a lot in fact:

• It’s very easy to set up.


• It’s free (or commercial, if you choose) - though those teaching 13-18 year olds can have an ad-free version for free.


• It’s possible to have a very private network - which can give educators the privacy they need - especially for that 13-18 age group.


• It can be customisable - so different Nings can look different.


• Within a Ning, it’s possible to have forums, individual blogs etc.

So, why don’t I like it?

Well, it’s really the fact that it creates separate Nings. So, I can join several Nings, and people in one need never know I’m in another. But, *I* know, and I’d really quite like to have an easy way to see an overview of my life in all my social networks.

From an educational point of view - especially at Higher Education, all too often the structure of both the modularised curriculum, and then the VLE on top of that, encourages siloisation of learning. If we then create a Ning to support each subject - we’ll then have further siloisation of learning.

Other SNSs - such as Facebook & Elgg, make it possible for the user to see their overall activity in all their communities - but to customise (particularly in Elgg) who can see what.

My other bug bear with Ning, is that even with the communities hosted on Ning, I have to login to each one. I can’t login once & see them all. OK, so I have Firefox set to remember passwords, so it’s just a case of clicking, but I still have to do it!

So, I’m afraid that, despite several attempts to get over it & indeed, membership of several Nings (not visited that often) I just can’t see myself ever getting into the Love it camp.

Maybe, were I teaching younger students, then I might see a use; especially at class level (rather than subject level), but for me, and for what I’m teaching, it just doens’t do anything.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/12/upsunet/

Last week, Terry King & I went to the “International Elgg Conference” at Brighton University. Some of you are, no doubt, sick of me “banging on” about Elgg, (I see it’s recently won the InfoWorld “Best Open Source Social Networking” software recently)

Other Universities (e.g. Brighton, Westminster [theirs is closed, so the link is to Slideshare], Graz Technical University, Leeds University and Nottingham [private, so no links]) already have installations of Elgg; and it’s something I’d like to look at here. There are, however, aspects we should consider - we already have blogs for students via UPSU - though they don’t seem that active. However, some recent Ideas… by Shrey would suggest that there are some technical limitations to their current set up.

I can how hear students pointing out that they don’t want the staff to see their comments. Fair enough - though I’ve just found some of their blog postings! However, the feature of Elgg that I feel particularly powerful is the granularity of permissions. If you could be bothered, every single post could have a different set of viewers. So, friends can see one set of posts, lecturers another, other students on the same units a third and so on. (Oh, and to add to Shrey’s Twitter comment - there’s a “Shoutout” plugin that can either bring in your tweets - or if you don’t want a twitter a/c, you can just do it within Elgg - Edusapces have activated it)

One of the main drawbacks that I see at present in the way that the permissions systems work is that it’s not possible (as far as I know - but the newest version of Elgg has a lot more features I’ve yet to experiment with) to have users that merely have “read/comment” rights, but not posting rights. I can see why Universities don’t want to have anyone registering - due to storage issues, however, people might realistically want friends from home - but not the whole world to see certain comments. If, for whatever reason, they don’t want to use Facebook for that, then a “reader” user in Elgg would allow them to be added to a group, but not to have a blog. So, all are happy.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/12/edcom-expert-cen

I took the EdCOM students to the ExPERT centre - to see an alternative interface when it comes to computer based learning.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/12/happy-40th-birth

On 9th Dec 1968 Doug Engelbart demonstrated what was to become a mouse.

Now, as I look round my desk, I have:

A kitkat mouse (ball)

Trackerball (which I prefer)

Wacom tablet & wireless mouse (all 3 of these are connected to my PC)

Tablet - trackpad & pointer - fingers also work (it generally has a minature mouse attached, but not today)

OLPC’s track pad (not generally on my desk, but I’ve been using it recently)

OLPC’s “joystick” in reader mode.

The N85 - with a trackpad. I used the N-85 to take the rest of the photos - and am incidentally VERY impressed with their clarity!

So, what do I use the most often?

• PC - it tends to be the trackerball


• Tablet - mixture - the trackpad is quickest, the pointer more accurate - the miniature mouse is my preferred choice - but can’t always be bothered to get it out (e.g. today!)

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/12/n-85-gps/

Managed to locate myself nicely on the map yesterday - it wasn’t so sure when we were walking & well away from any roads, but seemed fine when we were near roads.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/12/n-85-still-getti

I thought that I’d more or less sorted out the certificate issue. I have found it now - in what appears to be the correct place … and, have managed to set it to “trusted” - which it wasn’t after I’d installed it.

However, the other day I found a place where I could define what sort of WPA I wanted (AES etc) - from my memory & also from the notes in the instruction manual (c. page 42), there ought to be the option to “edit” the access point. But, I can’t find that any more.

This is getting annoying! (Though, judging by the discussion boards, I’m not the only one having difficulties)

3G seems fine … I just don’t want to use up all the allowance I have!

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/12/n-85-getting-onl

I’ve been trying to get it onto the University Wireless - requires WPA2 etc., also need to have certificate - which I was able to get onto the phone … and to “save”, though not quite sure whether “save” is the same as “install”.

Home was fine - just had to enter the passphrase.

Originally, I’d put the SIM card from my PAYG phone in - but that didn’t have data associated with it. I’ve also got a PAYG dongle - and so put that in. (It’s not that easy to change sim cards … have to have a fairly accurate finger!)

So, have got online wirelessly & also via data service.

The functionality is surprisingly good. I like the way, when, scrolling through a page, it switches to a minature of the page to help you find the bit you want.

The only two site I have had problems with have been the webmail interface for Groupwise email - which doens’t seem to let me scroll much when reading messages. The only way to read a message is to reply to it..

Our VLE isn’t great either … I suspect this actually says more about the apps we’re using, than the phone.

The maps have let me find where I am

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/11/twitter-updates-

• N85 - first thoughts.: Once I’d figured out how, exactly, to get the SIM card in - I then tried to g.. http://tinyurl.com/688dy3 #


• BBC & GMail work fine on the N85, University VLE works. Sort of. Not tried the chat or anything, and the layout’s v. sprawly. #


• Virtual Worlds.: The BBC’s click have a report this week on Virtual Worlds - looking at Twinity and .. http://tinyurl.com/59n7vs #


• N-85 TV: Just been testing the video - by watching a BBC trailer. Very impressed! Now wondering how I find.. http://tinyurl.com/69vtm6 #


• @dajbelshaw oh yes, my Gmail’s gone up to 7268 MB too, can’t say I’d noticed the chat, as I keep it disabled anyway. in reply to dajbelshaw #


• just about to go & listen to @stephendfry reading Harry P. while lying in my bath. #


• @mberry LOL! I see I’ll be seeing you in Brighton on Monday. in reply to mberry #

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http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/11/n-85-transferrin

I decided to try to copy my contacts list from my phone to the N85, it all seemed to go smoothly, the Nokia PC Suite moved the contacts etc. However, when I then wanted to send a text, it wanted to know the message centre. I guess were you to get one on contract, with its own sim, rather than taking a (payg) card in/out of an existing phone, it would already know its message centre - rather than having to put the card back in the other one & copy (manually) the centre number down.

I’ve now located some instructions - for things like enabling the predictive text (which wasn’t in the material that Nicola pointed me to, nor was it in the help files on the phone - at least, not that I could locate!)

The particular phone I’ve got has an EU plug … I’d thought I’d got an adapter at home, though, of course, most of my adapters are for me going to the EU, not to plug EU things in. Luckily I remembered that one of my other devices has a dual plug thing on the end - an EU plug plugged into a UK one. (Could do with more of these sockets!)

(Taken at CAU in China)

The text seems to have gone fine, now that I’ve added the messaging centre.

I never did seem to be able to get iPlayer content on it, but I was able to play some ITV previews. However, from reading the iPlayer site, as it’s necessary to download & then transfer to an N95, I wonder if it’s the same for an N85 (which would be a pain, having to install the full iPlayer, rather than using the Flash streaming). Or, perhaps I should just try another programme.