In wake of the corona virus and any emergency, schools are looking into online options. This video will guide you through some of the best tools available (and are free!) to perform this task quickly and efficiently. This video is for K12, higher education, and anyone looking to teach online.
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I have created a new website where I can share some of my interests outside of instructional design, esports, and education. This new site will focus on tech tips, health, fitness, finance, lifestyle, etc. I wanted to keep all of that out of my personal site (this one you are reading) where I try to keep it professional and focused on things around my career. Anyway, check it out:
As you know if you follow me, I am the advisor of the esports club at UNCW. Recently, I have been getting a lot of emails from schools, clubs, or organizations who would like to know how to set up their own esports tournament. The following video goes through the basics you would need, the minimum, when hosting a small tournament. I kept this simple so that it would be easy to follow and there are a lot of details left out (on purpose). The idea here is that you have a guide to work from to put together a plan to host your own tournament.
Update from Week 4 – I am impressed. Still blocking blue light. Very happy with the results.
See my final video here:
Update from Week 3: In addition to everything I noticed in week 2 my headaches are gone. I haven’t had to take headache medicine for 10 days, which is pretty unusual. If I go a full 2 weeks, that will be impressive and a record. Not sure if its just the season, my new diet, or the blue light. My guess is that I am sleeping better and straining less at the computer which is leading to better sleep and therefore less headaches. I will keep you posted at the end of my 3 days next week.
Update from Week 2: I am noticing something new – I can’t stay awake in bed to read. Usually I read from 30-60 minutes per night. For the last 1.5 weeks I have been falling asleep within 5-10 minutes. The first few nights I didn’t think anything of it but now its the same every night. This is cool but I really need to finish my latest book!
Original post:
I have been interested in blue light glasses for quite a while now and for Christmas this year got a pair (https://amzn.to/37twDgw)! Actually I got two pair! So naturally being curious I decided to try them out. I wanted to do a 30 day challenge to see if I noticed any difference in my sleep or headaches when wearing the glasses. You see, I have read that these glasses can do all sorts of wonders, which makes me think they are snake oil. But I am a migraine sufferer, so anything that could potentially help is worth trying out, especially if it’s risk free!
So I began my journey by researching blue light. What I found was that blue light, like most other things in life, is both good and bad. It’s great for us in the day, it gives up energy. But at night, it can mess up our sleep and sleep is very important for human health. So essentially being on a screen right before bed can affect our sleep (notice I said can, not does because the research is very undecided at this point).
So the first thing I did was test my blue light glasses. I bought a test kit from amazon to test them (https://amzn.to/2ugdlNy). This test kit showed they did block blue light. The problem was that I didn’t know how much blue light the test kit shows was being blocked. Additionally, I couldn’t find any research saying how much blue light needs to be blocked for you to notice a difference. This makes this all more tricky as I essentially need to self experiment. So self experiment I did…
Additionally, I also realized that I can block blue light on my devices without glasses. There are settings on your PC, Mac, Iphone, Android, etc that allow you to block blue light.
OK so lets talk some results. Keep in mind, I am only 1 week into this test but I have already learned a lot.
First a side note – I noticed in my research that when blue light is blocked that a screen should appear orange/red. This is what also happens when I turn off the blue light from my computer and phone. But my blue light glasses are clear. The company claims to have some “other technology” allowing it to be clear but when I see what the researchers from NASA are using, they are also using orange tinted glasses. This leads me to my results…
Wearing the glasses, I am noticing nothing. No difference. None whatsoever. But what is interesting is that as soon as I turn the blue light off of my computer or phone, like within minutes, my eyes feel less strained. I really notice this difference right away. I haven’t noticed it impacting my sleep or headaches but there is a difference. This makes me think my blue light glasses need to be the good orange ones (https://amzn.to/2QQlSiV) or they aren’t blocking enough blue light. So my initial opinion is that the clear glasses don’t block enough. I also think you do not need the glasses at all. Why not just turn the blue light off your computer and phone an hour before bedtime? They have settings to set a time so you won’t even need to do it more than once. Anyway, those are my initial results. I will post more over the next few weeks of my 30 days challenge. Here are some videos where I discuss all of this:
ATTENTION! ALERT! – The following tutorial SUCKS! And you have to take it! – Sound familiar (minus the suck part)?
In the following video I discuss why Elearning sucks! Well most of it that is:) There is some really great training out there but for the most part, when I take a self paced Elearning tutorial I want to pull my hair out or fall asleep. I have outlined 10 reasons here which are discussed in depth in the video. I hope that the trend to develop boring training can change…
1. Untrained ID
2. Lack of investment
3. Nobody knows better
4. Rely only on tech solutions
5. Rely on simple dev tools
6. ID one stop shop
7. Solution before problem
8. Job aids vs training
9. Reinventing the wheel
10. Boring is acceptable
I recently was on vacation, using a brand new alienware computer, and ran into a lot of overheating issues. This is not something I normally experience with my home computer, which is also an alienware, so I had to take steps to solve the issue and make sure the computer wasn’t broken and to lower the temps. High temps can mean a broken machine or it can just mean you need to make a few adjustments.
The main issue I was running into was that games, like Overwatch, were increasing the temps to 99 degrees celsius. That is way too high and can damage a machine. Ideally you don’t want temps above 85-90 when pushing the processor and temps below 65 when idle. To monitor the temps, I used a program call HWINFO, which was showing high temps after just a few minutes of gaming. Here are the steps I took to lower the temps on the machine:
1. Used a laptop board that was vented and angled.
2. Undervolted the machine using throttlestop.
3. Lowered the amount of turbo boost the machine can use.
I describe how I do each of these in the video. By the end of the process I was able to keep the machine below 80 degrees at all times. That means that my machine is not broken and just needed some adjustments to maintain a good temperature. Remember laptops cram a lot into a small space so high temps are not unusual when you push the processor. This was a new machine and hadn’t been tested. I find all of my machines usually need adjustment to find that sweet spot to maximize performance while keeping the machine below temps that will damage it!
I have been talking a lot about this topic recently so decided making a blog post and video was worthwhile. First, I want to point out that addiction to anything can be serious and if you found my post or video looking for help, please go to an addiction professional. I am a tech professional stating my thoughts on video game addiction.
We hear from the media that video games are addictive and causing a downfall in society. Is that true? Well it turns out we used to think the same thing about reading.
“Concerns about Lesesucht (reading addiction) had been at their highest in Europe during the 1700s with the rise of the entertainment novel. There were fears that society would go to wrack and ruin – women would neglect their housework, people would begin living in fantasy worlds, sexual excitement would be stimulated, everyone would become socially isolated, no one would get anything done. The noble pursuit of reading, for spiritual and scientific edification, was being debauched and degraded. Moral anxiety about new media repeats itself later with radio, then television, then video games and internet.” (Source – https://corpus.nz/curing-lesesucht-addiction-to-reading/)
In fact you can see this at the beginning of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast when the town thinks Bell is ‘crazy’ for reading!
So it seems as if there is a reason we are afraid of new media. I am not sure why but it does seem like there is.
But the question is still, are video games addictive? The answer is – no more than anything else (but this headline doesn’t make money). It turns out we can be addicted to anything. Food addiction, work addiction, exercise addiction, running addiction, internet addiction, texting addiction, sewing addiction, surfing addiction, etc. When you dig further in the research you find that there are mixed numbers but overall none of these are really more addicting than the other.
But did you hear that 87% of the population plays video games? So what. 100% of the population eats food and we are aren’t bashing food (at least the healthy kind) because of food addiction. What we are doing is encouraging healthy eating – the same thing we should be doing with games which is encouraging healthy game play. While addiction is serious there is no reason to be concerned about games being any more addicting than anything else just like books. My advice: teach healthy game play. See my video for more info:
