Monday, May 19, 2014

Strong Finish

Last Friday was my last day with Glass.  At the end of the day I pulled all my pictures and videos off of the device and reset it to factory settings, and gave it back to Dave, the Tech Coach who purchased the Glass and allowed me to use it for the past three weeks.  It was hard to give up such a cool piece of technology.  I felt like I was getting more comfortable with it and was coming up with more/better ideas for using it each day.  Dave offered to let me keep it for another week, but I declined.  I didn't want to overstay my welcome, so to speak.  And, since he purchased the Glass, I assumed he was getting anxious to use it himself.

Glass note shown on the phone, all notes
taken with Glass shown on the computer.
Since the last post I've used Glass for mainly three things. I added Evernote from the Glassware Gallery and used it to take random notes.  I teach Tech Ed, and utilize a computer lab, a classroom, and a metal manufacturing lab. Between purchasing materials and supplies, curriculum planning, general teaching duties, and lately Glass ideas and thoughts I have plenty to keep track of. Evernote with Glass worked well for this. When something popped into my head all I had to do was tell Glass to take a note and my thoughts were documented.  If I was ever going to be a full-time Glass user I believe I would utilize this often.

I tried screencasting to my phone a few times during my trial with Glass. I looked into it and thought that if Glass and the paired device were on the same wireless network it would work, but I didn't have any luck when I tried it.  As with most technology devices that use apps, they occasionally need to be updated.  I updated MyGlass and from that point screencasting from Glass to my phone worked incredibly well.  All I can assume is that the MyGlass app update allowed screencasting to be done via Bluetooth instead of having to use a wireless connection, which didn't work for me anyway.  Since it was working well for me I tried an experiment with welding and screen casting.  I wore Glass under my welding helmet and screencast while I was recording a video of another student welding.  I gave my phone to another student to watch the screencast.  It worked well but was hard to see on the small screen of my phone.  It was also very choppy to view, and lagged behind slightly.  I believe the Bluetooth connection just isn't good enough for video.  It was still neat to explore that option and I think in the right circumstances screencasting with Glass could be a very effective tool in education.

I spent a lot of time the past few days with Glass recording video, mostly of welding.  This is what drew me to want to use Glass in the first place.  I recorded students welding and also myself welding.  The perspective of what it looks like inside a welding helmet is something that most people never see.  I think it will be valuable to show beginner metals students these videos before they attempt to weld themselves so they can have an idea of what to expect.  The videos turned out well, but it's hard to see while the actual weld is being made.  The video is just too dark.  I tried changing the tint settings on my helmet but it didn't improve much. Click any of the links below to see the welding videos.
Aluminum TIG Welding
Steel TIG Welding
Student Spoolgun Welding - Screencast
MIG Welding - Vertical Down

While my initial trial with Glass is over I am still thinking about how they could be used in education.  As long as Dave doesn't leave the school district I'm sure he will be open to future projects utilizing Glass.  I'm already planning on asking him if I can use Glass for a welding training I'm going to this summer.  I though it would be a great way to take some notes and document my training with pictures and videos.

1 comment:

  1. Just let me know when your training is and we'll get you set up.

    ReplyDelete