Last week Anthony Greenwood gave his Lunchtime Lecture entitled ‘Joining the Google Family’. Anthony, who is the Information Officer with the International Observatory on End of Life Care at Lancaster University, is a big fan of the computing possibilities currently provided by Google, and uses the ‘social layer’ it provides on a daily basis. Anthony spoke about the range of Google applications, their ability to integrate into an extremely powerful computing system, and their relevance to the Android platform as implemented by many laptops, mobile phones and tablet devices. The lecture started with an explanation of how Google is able to take information, which the user provides in the course of their general computer use, and how this information is then fed back into the system in order to provide material which is aimed directly at that individual. Anthony paid particular attention to the range of possibilities provided by Google+, such as video conferencing, photo storage and editing, and the ability to create different knowledge communities. Some social networking sites put privacy and user control low down on their priority list whereas Google+ facilitates the creation of circles which can be used for family, work and social aspects of the user’s life. Using an example, Anthony demonstrated how he was able to organise, facilitate and then document an event with his colleagues. He did an expert job of showing us how he’s able to use the Google suite of applications to coordinate his digital life in a seamlessly across his full range of devices in an easy and stress free way. This was an interesting and accessible lecture, which provided the group with valuable insights into the kind of possibilities an integrated social layer can offer us all, should we choose to make use of it. You can listen to an audio recording of this lecture on our Senior-Learners-Forum website: senior-learners-forum.wikispaces/%28E%29+Recordings+of+Lectures Also last week, the ‘Memory and Learning in Later Life’ project had its first meeting of 2014. The group fed back on some homework they had undertaken into the part played by the national anthem in the Christmas festivities and people’s significant memories of it. The lack of lyrical knowledge was uncovered, as was the lack of knowledge regarding the origins of the piece. There was a discussion of the forthcoming trip to Athens, as well as the final conference which will take place here in Lancaster between the 6th and 9th of June 2014.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 17:22:08 +0000
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