Why the hell is #Starbucks using "Boulange" as a new brand?
Here is a possible explanation.
Verbal to Visual Classroom, forum posts so far
March 10th :
I’m logging in while waiting for my Skype meeting to begin. ;)
I am a university professor looking to revitalize my course notes and course presentations. I have had some success incorporating sketchnotes and similar visual components in the last few years, but I want to take it to the next level, develop a system possibly, at the very least a workflow that would mitigate the length of time it take to prepare such notes. I want the developpe a better technique as well, in terms if layout especially.
See you all in here and maybe during the webinar,
— Tournevis
March 10th :
I don’t know what Doug would say, but I understand context as both the place and the circumstances in which the note taking will take place. For me, this means in the classroom (both the physical classroom and the online classroom) where the class notes/presentations I make allow my students to better grasp, understand, learn and (most importantly) feel engaged by the material I am teaching. My context, therefore, is the transmission of information from my brain to the students.
March 13th :
I have tried so many things over the last few years, but I have found what I hate using, what I dislike to use, and what I like in what I use.
I prefer to use fountain pens to write, but it’s difficult to sketchnote with those, obviously. What I like about fountain pens is the fact that they are not hard on the hands. I suffer from a chronic condition that causes a lot of pain in the extremities and fountain pens don’t make things worse. But for sketchnoting, I found that using Sharpie Pens are a good compromise. They are not so hard on the hands because I don’t have to press hard to make a mark on paper. I have a large variety of colour. I use black as the base, the ancor, and colours from emphasis and symbols. For shading, if I’m doing that kind of sketchnote, I use Crayola PipSkeaks, because they are cheap, easy to find, the colour does not bleed through and my son can steal them without me crying over a 20$ marker. As such, the writing implements I use in sketchnoting are inexpensive.
The paper I use is expensive however. This comes out of using fountain pens for so many years. Fountain pens need a particular quality of paper and it means price is usually high and availability is hard. Over the years I have used a large variety of notebooks, from Europe and Japan, some VERY expensive, but I have stopped using almost all of them. I have settled in the moderately priced Moleskine sketchbooks, which are not the cheapest, but the paper is stiff, there is almost never any bleed through. I would prefer it to be white rather than cream, but I can fix that on the computer after scanning.
I am currently trying a new product, the SketchyNotebook, which has very white paper, but it is somewhat transparent. I normally don’t like that, but the note book comes with a number of PVC templates (lined, grid, projection, etc.) that show through the paper. This is great for me, because I suck at layout. Everything is crooked so help with layout is wonderful. Even if I never buy another SketchyNotebook, I plan to use the template a lot in the future. Maybe using blank notebooks?
Things are evolving.
March 22nd :
I’ve just started doing the exercises for the Text Module, but I do have something to contribute now, which I have found useful in creating visual class notes on my computer.*
I have been using visual classnotes in my teaching at university for a while now. So far, these notes have taken three forms:
a) using the chalk board to direct class reflection (classic teaching method)
b) creating discussion prompts in seminars
c) creating slide presentation for lectures
The latter two are almost always done directly on my computer. I have at times drawn them on paper, then scanned them, but I found that it’s faster and easier to make them on the computer directly. To make them still look like handwritten sketchnotes, I started using Mike Rohde’s sketchnote font, but since I have created fonts with my own handwriting. I have used manyservices, but the service I now prefer is here:http://www.yourfonts.com/
The first seminar discussion prompts I did used Mike Rohde’s font and icons bought on the internet:
I have now been using my own fonts and drawings:
So in both examples above, the writing is done with my handwriting fonts on my computer. The drawings are done by me. I have a large set of icons and basic figures that I have done, scanned and keep as png files on my computer for that very purpose. I do buy a few icons (usually from the Noun Project:http://thenounproject.com/) but prefer to draw them if I have the time and access to my scanner.
–Tournevis
* Yes, using a computer might be considered cheating…
March 22nd :
I use Cam Scanner, when on the road. I digitized the notes I took at a colloquium I attended Thursday-Friday with it. I think it does a good job overall. You can see my notes here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tournevis/sets/72157649121587133/
But that it is not a perfect solution. When I have the time, I scan my notes on my flatbed scanner, an Epson Artisan 800, and I send them to Pixelmator (on a Mac). In it, I use the “Select color” function to select the background cream of the paper, then use the “Fill” function to replace it with white. I can then use the “Reverse selection” and “Fill” functions to change the color of the writing and drawing, or even use more granular functions to change only some of the text or images. You can see examples of my cleaned out notes (and some not cleaned out) here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tournevis/sets/72157643591558944/
–Tournevis
The Verbal to Visual Classroom
I am taking another course. I have ben taking courses, webinars and stuff forever. Hell, I even literally went back to school last summer. But I have never really talked about it, except for last summer. I'm changing that. I will be talking about the classes I'm taking. Why not? I talk about the classes I'm giving, no?
Anyhoo.
I am currently registered to the Verbal to Visual Classroom, an online course by Doug Neill, of verbaltovisual.com. The course started last week with the Introduction modules and Doug should put up this week's modules any moment now. I am enjoying it.
I do not expect to learn a lot from the course about visual note taking and sketchnoting per se. I have been doing this for a while now. I do think what I will learn are tricks and structures to make my sketchnotes more legible, clearer, have better layout. I don't need help planning sketchnotes, but I do need pointers as to how to take better live sketchnotes. Those are hard for me. I am horrible with layout on the fly. I need tricks I can depend on to achieve better layout on the fly.
The other thing I hope to get from this course are techniques and workflows to make doing these visual notes more quickly, especially in the university context. I have started using visual notes as class notes for my students since last year. I have used them as discussion starters in seminars, as slides in presentations and such. However, my default mode is words. It makes writing visual notes a more difficult process than it should be. My visual class notes are good, but they could be better and they take so much time!
In the end I have two objectives for this course, depending if I'm taking live notes or class notes. And the problems are distinct, even if they stem from the same fact. I'm a words woman.
Evidently! This is a blog for goodness sake! I do words well! Easily! This is not a vlog, nor a Tumblr. I do words or I do images. It's the in between, the both together that's hard for me. I've tried to start visual journaling several times in the past, to no avail. Really, those were bad.
I'm taking this course in hope that something will click in this weird brain of mine and find a way to fuse both image and text. In the end, that is really the hard part for me. It doesn't really matter that my lines are crooked or that my writing swerves all over the place. It's that my drawing brain and my writing brain seem to be on different planes. I need to merge them. Somehow.
On and forward.
Métis in Space podcast (the fan-girling blog entry)
People, go take a listen to otipêyimsiw-iskwêwak kihci-kîsikohk, Métis in Space Podcast right now. They just finished their first season and it is glorious! Basically, take two marvellous, foul-mouthed nerdy Métis women, drinking red wine and watching Hollywood-made SF. And ripping gigantic holes White colonial narratives in the process. I. LOVE. IT. Chelsea and Molly are hilarious. They are relentless and that is perfect. This podcast is made by Indigenous women for an Indigenous audience, so they have no will (and no reason) to coddle the poor White people whose ass is getting ripped. They also have no mercy for academics, because we deserve it, every last bit of it. The "Ask a môniyâw" segment are the best part.
So, yeah, I'm a fan. They don't want to be studied by White academics without previous permission and compensation so, Reader, bear that in mind. I'm just gonna wait for season two, help them along when the crowdfunding campaign starts and listen. 'Cause these girls are great.
Cue ominous flute.
Kingston Transit only like visible disabilities
On their website, Kingston Transit states:
"Kingston Transit strives to provide safe, accessible transit service for all passengers" they say. They are lying. They are not committed to be accessible for all customers with disabilities. Only for those with visible disabilities, i.e. those with mobility aids. If you don't have a mobility aid, you are foul ball. They don't care. The signs inside the busses state that Courtesy seating is reserved for those with mobility aids. Even if the policy officially states "1. passengers with mobility limitations. 2. passengers with disabilities and seniors." if your disability does't show, forget it, they will not help you.
In fact, the bus drivers will act aggressively against you. I cannot count the times I have been asked to leave a Courtesy seat, even when I was the only one in the bus. "Why don't you have a cane or somethin'?" I can count on one hand the number of times a driver leaned the bus to let me in, even when I had luggage. Forget about them leaning the bus on campus; it never happens. There is this one driver who will sneer every time I endeavour to climb into the bus making faces in pain. He loves it to see me try to climb in the bus. He's even raised the bus a few times right after an elderly person climbed in as I was climbing in.
I hate Kingston Transit. And they hate me.
So ready to move on
I wish I could be content with my job, because it's a great gig on face value. I am employed by a world-renown university, in a reputable department. I am paid extremely well. Really. It's indecent. But I feel intense discontent.
I have been unhappy since the beginning. For the last 13 years, I have had to deal with colleagues successfully dictating what I should be teaching, then telling students not to take my courses, implying to my face that I am not good enough for the department, then writing to the department to try to prevent my rightful promotion. Why? Because I am French-speaking, because I work on Francophones, because I am a historical anthropologist and not a social historian, because I don't have a penis. Only in the last three years have I finally been able to dictate my teaching load and in fact teach in my domains of specialty (including in the French department in French), though I have just discovered that one colleagues has resumed his telling students to stay away from me. I don't have inconvertible proof unfortunately, which is why I have not slapped him with a union grief, but still, ugh!
I have written about all this before, but the sentiment remains. I am so completely ready to move on. Either to a new department within my university (but the options are minuscule) or without. There is a slight possibility on the horizon that might materialize around 2017, but that is still pretty far away and contingent on that university's budget and government support.
Most importantly, my husband does not want to leave his job, he is extremely happy where he is. If the new position does come about for me, he would have to leave his current employment, because we would be leaving Ontario. This is causing him significant anxiety. My wish to leave my job causes him anxiety, so I do not mention it much. I am not willing to leave him either, so I have not been as gung ho in my search for another position as a result.
Then I listen to my son talking and all I want is to move back to Québec to make sure he doesn't turn into a Canadian nationalist willing to fully Anglicize. But all he has as models are the kids in his French Public school who are already embracing assimilation and two parents who work in English. Hell, this entry is in English! There are limits to what can be done here. He has expressed the opinion that if we were to leave Ontario, he would consider moving to Québec City, because his grand parents live there. And my bother-in-law who builds houses, because building stuff is cool. However, my still-very-hypothetical job prospect would be in Montreal, so much negotiation and comforting would be needed to make him accept the move.
This all means that two out of three members of my household don't want to move. So I am stuck in my nearly joyless job. My courses are at least satisfying. Quite so. I am teaching my specialties and I know what I'm doing. I am a good teacher. I am very good researcher, but I have had to put much of that on the back burner since my son's arrival. I am on sabbatical in 2015-16, so I'll be finishing all the manuscripts finally. I'm ready to move on to a new project too, so this does not help with everything else stated above. I can find some satisfaction in the everyday performance of my teaching duties. Unfortunately, this is not enough.
Will I be applying to the position in Montréal if it materializes. You can bet on it. I want this badly. But it will bring great difficulties in my personal life that will have to be sorted and will not be easy to solve. My son will adjust no matter what. My husband's happiness will take a lot more work.
In short, blargh.