When I started my graduate degree in educational technology in January 2019, I thought that it would be fun to make an app, just for the experience and to see if it could be a minuscule source of my income. I borrowed all these books and watched some YouTube videos but nothing ever came out of it because I never actually started. Throughout my course, I did learn to code a bit more (for an educational game project) and then this idea slowly shifted to the back of my head again.
This past week, I spoke to a friend from my undergraduate years and I don't know what made me mention this but I brought up this rusty idea that has taken up room in my brain rent-free and has not profited my life in any way, shape or form. My idea seemed like it would benefit at least one person (her), however, I think the whole challenge is just getting a prototype done and thrown out into the world. So I thought, I should solidify what this actually is, instead of it being part of a constant dialogue with myself. Who am I trying to help? People who prefer looking at solid timelines in order to plan their schedules and are not tech-savvy at all. What would this app do? Enable people to input their goals and daily plans in a form and it to display onto a minimalist timeline that is displayed on a mobile device. It could be school assignments or a significant date. Wait, isn't this just a calendar that's placed on a straight line? Yes, but no. I thought of a timeline because it resembles the route of a tube or subway map. For me, I've found that linear line of sight helpful in helping me regulate my emotions and avoid being too overwhelmed with the stuff that I have going on in my life. Any other functions? Ideally, the user would be able to focus on one segment of the timeline at a time. And they can plan these significant dates based on how they experience time. A regular time following person might have marker on say, "Tuesday May 18 at 9am" while someone else, who maybe doesn't like these stringent definitions of dates and time may include a marker for "10 sleeps from now". And every time a marker is met, the user would be able to 'close' that marker - the aim is that they would physically check that off, acting as a tactile stimulant but also a mental reward tool.
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As a teenager, my dad had gifted me the book, Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. I don't remember its contents and can only vaguely remember what it's about - living an independent life. Since then, he has also recommended other self-help books tailored towards managing and growing one's own personal finances. I've always thought my brain wasn't built to handle monetary "stuff" and I thought the safest thing for me to do was to put my savings in a sock or stash it away in a bank's savings account and only poke at it when absolutely necessary. But through the years, I've had some immigration and medical expenses come up and I realized my spending rate was higher than my saving rate. I'm in a job I enjoy but unfortunately, it doesn't pay very well (something I accepted because I felt and still feel like its a fulfilling role).
I'm not known to be a procrastinator but I've been putting this blogging this off for to long. I meant to document my preliminary process of creating bite-sized accessible educational content for children and adults alike. I finished my last graduate course in educational technology last December and my virtual convocation happens in less than a month. All I've been doing is stewing on how I'm able to make accessible documentaries and who I have to contact in order to make that happen, but I've not actually done anything about it. I've been using the pandemic as an excuse for putting off this pursuit and that has to change. I spent my afternoon thinking about starting, somehow. Doesn't matter what it looks like, I just need to start the process and get the ball rolling. So, without further ado, I will start with a list of questions that I intend to answer. The plan is to document this via the blog, read a truckload of books and actually remember their content, and then finally create a cumulative product of my journey via mini online videos. Here are some of the questions that have rattled around in my head for quite some time now: 1. What does cultural appropriation mean? 2. How do plants speak to each other? 3. Who invents new shades of colours? 4. What are different kinds of poverty? 5. Why do religious practices for the same religion vary between regions? 6. Why are some gamers so addicted to Fortnite and other PvP games? 7. How did computer coding come about? 8. What the heck is cryptocurrency and how does it work? 9. Can people really stop their bad habits? I'm sure there are other questions on stray scraps of paper around my apartment. This list will eventually accumulate in due time and I am looking forward to the things I will discover and learn...Then again, these topics are all over the place, welcome to the chaos that is in my head. I'm going to bed to mull some more in my dreams. |
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