Impact of the Mobile Phone on Work/Life Balance

Some key findings from the mobile phone study that are of interest to me and that I will be taking into account as I plan teaching strategies that utilize mobile phones.

Especially since “an estimated 94 per cent of Australians own a mobile phone, and for some, it is their most treasured gadget.” (hmmm surely this doesn’t include the under eight year olds?!:)):


The Impact of the Mobile Phone on
Work/Life Balance
Preliminary Report
June 2007
Australian Research Council
Linkage Project


–There is a very high awareness of 3G (86% of males and 75% of females). But 61% of respondents indicate that they do not access internet services via their mobile phone. The lag in take-up is a topic for further research.

–Logs of actual calls made and SMS texts sent show that the predominant use of
the mobile is for contacting family and friends, with work-related reasons far
less important. Men make more calls for business purposes, while women use the mobile for social connectivity.

-Over two-thirds of the respondents report that the mobile phone is an important
medium for maintaining kinship ties, especially for women. The mobile is a device well suited to maintaining intimate relationships at a geographical
distance.

Mobile Phone Tension

Contrast the two statements in bold, these articles were posted on the ABC news site within three days of each other – which is it to be guys? As an educational technologist my support will fall pretty obviously on the side of the positive and I can name a few projects that give support to mobile phones in building more meaningful relationships ( see www.moblog.co.uk/blog/mobdeadly e.g p.60)


Mobile phones enhance lives, study shows
Posted Mon 17 July
“strengthening ties with kin and close friends”
–
– OR
–
Mobiles have Aussies hooked http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/14/1978537.htm
Posted Sat Jul 14, 2007
“reducing the amount of face to face contact people have, which leads to less meaningful relationships” and “a lessening in sympathy and trust and empathy - the things that basically bind together, if you like, a civilised society”

Poetry reading at Sappho Bookstore, Glebe

There were 95 people in the courtyard for the launch of the Poetry Unlimited Press (P.U.L.P) 2007 anthology of poems, Illumina (Guest Editor Judith Beveridge, Edited by Roberta Lowing).

Outdoors, surrounded by richly muraled walls, candlelight lighting up faces animated by alcohol, lattes, friends and conversation. Great heaters could have been roaring furnaces adding to a temperate climate, this feeling helped by the swaying leafy potted palms in the terraced, cobbled courtyard.

The sentiments of the guest poet Judith Beveridge were authentic, humane and raw about why people need to and want to read and write poetry. I never got poetry before I met and became close friends with Michael Buhagiar, and the poetry lined path I have been led down is inviting, rich and nourishing, and of great comfort to my psyche.

I participated in the open mic. section of the night by reading my own poem, even though I was feeling extremely unbaked as a poet! I did it though, that on its own is an achievement, to actually do something that I had said I wanted to. I was welcomed back to my table with pride and love from my companions that was completely disproportionate to my poem or its reading. I felt loved.

I am working on my use of language to communicate ideas and and feelings that people can connect to. I haven't got anything new, but here is one of Michael's just published in the anthology Illumina. People really like this poem, it is a descriptive, emotional and reflective poem and all cat lovers will relate to it!

Michael Buhagiar
Requiescat

A hillock blisters the field of spread.
Black gold lies ready to yield it prize.
Zeus has sown his seed in this bed
And his son will soon astonish our eyes.

Rub it and listen! It begins to purr,
A genie slinks from his cloistered home,
A white snout first, then night of fur,
A nugget of truth from the formless loam.

This was our game: I'd flip the spread
To hide that form curled up as if dead.
The ball is the term of the smiling mask.

Now to bury a stiffened corpse is my task.
And as the bleeding shreds of old day fade
A sun arises on the game we played.

(included here with permission from Michael Buhagiar - Thanks Michael!)

Riverview Hotel Balmain

Image: 'Oh my God it's Damien Leith 1'
www.flickr.com/photos/65176998@N00/419269766

There is a really good Irish band on the Second Sunday of every month from about 5.00pm at the Riverview Hotel in Balmain/Birchgrove.

We enjoyed them, as did the crowd of locals who seem to use the Riverview as a community loungeroom, lots of cheer and spirited joining in with the singing. Balmain provided an eclectic mix of folk this particular Sunday night, including Frank a philosopher and classical pianist, Damien Leith and his beautiful family and other poets, performers and writers!

Damien generously and genuinely performed two items, including the modern day hymn Hallelujah, recently released as a cover by Jeff Buckley, and possibly originally recorded by Leonard Cohen, let me know if this isnt accurate! I hold a mental image of Damien with the band in the rustic pub setting singing with all his soul to his family and friends, and the community in the bar that night.

I thanked him for performing,"no problem!" he said.

Reminds me of a quote on Alfie's blog "be excellent to each other".

Eeek! We caught a Geek!!

Rose Grzdanic and myself were lucky enough to have our very own geek in residence on Saturday night. Craig Bottomley (Botts!) was in Sydney from WA as part of a geek-fest up in Lithgow on the weekend.

I shouldnt be so disrespectful, because the geekfest was in aid of reviewing and consulting on some new tools being developed by Peter Shanks (Shaggy!) creator of the enchanting and hours of fun Flickr CC and the VTE trainers friend Training Packages Unwrapped.
Botts is right up there in my opinion as a human being and geek mentor extaordinaire. He won my heart years ago by demonstrating and sharing the plan for young people to achieve IT units of competence by setting up and participating in LAN parties!

So Rose and I had a geek to ourselves and we were very demanding to see, know and hear everything that Botts could tell us. Botts talked about how one resource - say a video - may need to be adapted into a few different file formats and presentations to make it available in the best way for learners, rather than just to suit whatever technology we (the teacher, the Institution) want to use.

I got a lot of value out of Botts and Rose, we covered a lot of mlearning territory -developing educational games for mobile devices and educational and commercial applications for premium SMS and MMS aggregators.

Rose and Botts also fleshed out and described the future with a merged google earth and second life environment where your real life location and environment is reflected in secondlife and your avatar friends can join you in a virtual geographical location of where ever you actually are!! Good one guys!

In a funny twist we ended up conversing with Alex Hayes on Skype who is over in the desert in Parngurr Western Australia connecting communities, minds and hearts - it almost seems like Alex crossed to the other side of the country when he heard Botts was coming.

Mobile Second Life

After connecting with 150,000 people from 104 countries as part of an online brainstorming session, IBM has identified the key five innovations it claims will transform how people around the world work, play and live over the next five years.

The one of the “Next Five in Five” that really grabbed my interest was:

* The popular online immersive destinations, such as Second Life, will evolve into a full-fledged 3D Internet, allowing new kinds of interactive education, communication and consumer experiences.

To me this means that in world and real world will become more closely integrated, it will be easier to link in world and real world events, business activities and of course educational activities. So, learn anywhere, anytime with all the connections, resources and experiences that an environment like Second Life can give you!