TELTA Module (Week 1)
The following is a selection of my contributions to the group chat on Slack from from Wednesday 11th January to Tuesday 17th January 2017. The Slack ‘Chat Channel’ was set up by Dr. Frances Boylan on 10th January 2017 and I joined the channel on 11th January 2017.
14th January 2017
Gerard Kilkenny [12:23 PM]
A couple of pertinent technical points:
(1) If you search for “Bb Student” using the App Store app on an iPad, you will not find it. You need to filter from (the default), ‘iPad Only’ filter to ‘iPhone Only’ filter. This is because Blackboard have not bothered to write an iPad specific app. So, the app is an iPhone app that runs in portrait mode only on an iPad. This is not an uncommon practice, Aer Lingus is another example of a company who don’t have an iPad app. In contrast, Google Maps and Geogebra are good app examples from software houses who write separate apps to take account of the different form factors/screen sizes of the iPhone versus the iPad. Incidentally, searching for “Bb Student” using an iPad browser (certainly with the native Safari app) will find the iPad app.
Gerard Kilkenny [12:36 PM]
(2) The ‘Bb Student’ iPhone app works on both the iPad 3 and iPhone 4s both running the latest versions of iOS that run on these two devices 9.3.5). These two devices were introduced by Apple circa 2012. However, when you reach ‘Access all webinars here…’, followed by the message ‘Joining the session using ‘Bb Student’, the app aborts after about 7 seconds. So, the app is not retrospectively robust enough (nor have the software developers trapped the error that causes the app to abort) to run on these devices.
Gerard Kilkenny [12:46 PM]
(3) Notwithstanding all of this ‘bad news’, I can see myself using the app to receive alerts/notifications of DIT Webcourses postings rather than logging in occasionally via the web on a desktop device (PC or Mac) to find a number of postings that are a few days old. In case you think I am a complete Blackboard basher!
(4) I have tested my Windows 10 laptop and I successfully conducted a test access to the Webinar room using WiFi with a reasonably good broadband supply. (Thank you Frances for facilitating this testing). Therefore, I can access the Tuesday webinars without being tied to a fixed location PC or Mac. I think that it’s great to see various technologies being tested out on this TELTA module. There is so much more to be gained than just reading about what’s available. Looking forward to engaging with the TELTA module.:smiley:
Frances Boylan [1:03 PM]
Thanks a million for those posts Gerard & all of the work that went into testing the various options available. Appreciate it. It’s of great help.
Gerard Kilkenny [2:42 PM]
Pasted image at 2017-01-14, 2:42 PM
You’re welcome Frances. Above, the app informing me that I have nothing to do!! 😉
Dave Culliton [8:14 PM]
If it makes you feel any better, Gerard, Bb Student works great on android. :nerd_face:
Gerard Kilkenny [8:25 PM]
I feel better already Dave. Very noble of you to drag yourself away from key sporting events for a spot of testing. I amy
I may drift towards euphoria if I learn that it works on all versions – Cupcake to Marshmallow with Ice Cream Sandwiched in between. I may become ecstatic if I find out that it works on all hardware devices including all of the models made by HTC, Samsung, blah, blah, blah…
17th January 2017
Gerard Kilkenny [10:40 AM]
added an integration to this channel: gerardkilkenny
Note: The text in the line above appears when you add your Twitter handle to Slack. My Twitter handle is @gerardkilkenny.