SPRING SEMESTER 2020 enjoys historic standing as the time traditional academics pivoted dramatically into an emergency remote mode. Fortunately for me, I had 20 students near the finish line of the "Emerging Trends and Technologies" module who could produce a set piece that will enjoy critical appraisal whenever anybody looks back at what might be possible through a distance education collaboration of students. Continue reading

-- Tadhg's online handle is ___________. Bernie is @topgold -- What does "interaction" mean? -- How was Tadhg interacting in the year 2015? -- How does interaction make Tadhg a better animator? -- What sort of online interaction has Tadhg done during this period of social isolation? Where was Tadhg in Discord during the past month? -- What sort of technology prevents people from feeling isolated? -- What are MMOs? What creative opportunities are possible through MMOs? -- What are disadvantages of interacting in virtual reality? -- How can someone put a bad experience with Tinder behind them? -- How could a newly trained animator find work through the concept of interaction? -- What strategy about future employment would you be willing to share? -- What do you think interaction will look like in the year 2050? Continue reading

THESE DAYS OF SOCIAL DISTANCING have made me more eager for real connections so the arrival of the TapeReal App on our well-used iPad piqued my interest. Continue reading

ONE OF THE BIGGEST concerns I have about being locked out of work is losing any sort of internal communications. Since we cannot meet casually around a coffee dock or chat at a table in the canteen, I'm trying to use apps (in the screenshot) that give me meaningful online pulse points. Continue reading

DOCTOR HANDSOME aka James Hamblin (above) and Nervous Nelly aka Katherine Wells join me many mornings as I walk our Bedlington Terrier on a tightly constrained two km radius of our home in Ireland. I listen to their prescriptions for Social Distance, because their podcast from The Atlantic seems to drop into my podcatcher around sunrise many mornings just as our dog announces it's time. Continue reading

I'm rarely disappointed when the same long reads appear in both my podcatcher and my blog reader. I recommend a long read from both The Daily and Audm about astronomy and extrasolar planetary science. Few astronomers have contributed to exoplanet research as mightily as Dr. Sara Seager of MIT. Continue reading

YEARS AGO, Dave Winer set up Weblogs as a frictionless way to share collaborative notes. In the late 90s, I pulled commentary from around the world through Winer's Radio Userland and then the newsfeeds of the world started hiding behind closed apps. Continue reading

BEFORE BEING TOLD to keep our social distance, I went all-in and subscribed to Disney Plus, Netflix, Google Premium, and Amazon Prime--then noticed Mia (12) diving deep into Studio Ghibli (see My Neighbor Totoro above). After stressing my credit card with two new subscription fees (and renewing Express VPN so we can be region-agnostic), we now have a wishlist of films for the kids during the next 10 days of our confinement. Here are the ones we will watch during our first weekend stuck inside the house. Continue reading

IRELAND HAS TAKEN CONTACTLESS to a whole new level by effectively locking down venues such as community swimming pools, libraries and cultural centres. The Corona Virus Strategy also means changing my teaching style from hands-on lab session to a virtual realm, a new connotation of "contactless" in our daily routines. Continue reading

I'VE STARTED USING my laptop and Note 9 screens to stay in touch with people through Zoom. I feel I'm getting closer to people by having meaningful conversations and then documenting the process through open education initiatives. Continue reading

LIKE MANY FAMILIES, we're practicing evidence-based techniques of self-isolation--like the ready-made face protection shown in the photo. I've also observed three items related to surviving during the 2019 Corona Virus. Continue reading

In 1989, I created basic computer literacy training material for US Army snipers and tank mechanics, two student groups comprised mainly of GED graduates. Since that time, I’ve tried to ensure high levels of accessibility as the absolute measure of merit with whatever I create. Through the years, I’ve validated ten tips for effective distance education that I often offer to colleagues for their peer review as they attempt to adapt lectures, assignments, and activities for online learning. It is a lot of work so if have to “get on with it” you might consider a few ideas from my corner. Continue reading

I SAT IN a TippFM Roadcaster as information trickled in from the States where An Taoiseach laid out plan to self-isolate the Republic of Ireland. Some of his guidance was already in place on the Clonmel Digital campus in the form of warning signs and planning to cancel face-to-face meetings with students. Continue reading

FOR THE PAST TEN YEARS I've been using video conferencing facilities (such as the one above), first with my laptop and now with my Samsung Note 9. I think some of the hard-learned skills could be put to good use if we have to close our campus to stave off COVID-19. Continue reading

I HAVE A SET OF MOBILE tools that help me stay on a narrow path of immersive learning. It's time to share what I think are essential 21st century tools. Continue reading

I DIDN'T EXPECT to open a few of my banker's boxes in the attic to poke around some decades-old floppies, Iomega Zip drives, and two different sizes of floppy disks. But that little inventory happened a few hours after chatting with Rachel Dunleavy about how we control "flowing" of information in our lives. Continue reading

SEAN O'GRADY, a creative multimedia graduate from the Clonmel Digital Campus, took a group of current students on a walk-and-talk around the Teamwork.com offices in Cork. We discovered you can learn a lot about a company's ethos from its walls and doors. Continue reading

I'M STARTING TO WEAVE free transcription services into my daily workflow because it's an easy way to hit a personal goal of producing 1000 words a day. I'm using high quality .wav files and Otter.ai services to get content like the text that follows below. It came from episode 490 of the Topgold Audio Podcast. Continue reading

I DON'T THINK our 8yo will ever learn to type because he has mastered smart speakers. Dylan (8) and I chatted about this during a Topgold Audio Clip that you can hear on Spotify. Continue reading

THE FABRIC OF LIFE is getting smarter every year because our world is cognifying. Kevin Kelly offered this observation more than seven years ago as he started sharing parts of The Inevitable, an essential conversation starter in the Emerging Trends and Technology module on the Clonmel Digital campus. Continue reading

CLEVER CREATIVES like Borja Lopez Montes teach me things I will always remember. Today, Borja revived my memory of scary bees when he brought Black Mirror into the classroom as part of a presentation about "tracking". Continue reading

WHILE STANDING at a motorway truck stop, Liam O'Riordan and I discussed how Dark Souls fit into an emerging trend about technology and culture. It's part of an Emerging Trends podcast on Spotify. Continue reading

WE HAVE RESTARTED another audio patching task that involves repairing broken audio links on the Youth Media Team website. This is a problem of my own making and one that Pam O'Brien and I will fix through a process of improved content archiving. I talk about it in a three minute Topgold Audio Clip that you can hear on Spotify. Continue reading