One of the most daunting tasks for any budding researcher is the data collection process as part of your study. For many researchers this is a part of your work that will test you to the limit and take you far out of your comfort zone. However as with all things there are methods and mechanisms which you can use to make your process as easy, efficient and painless as possible. How I hear you ask? Why mobile devices off course!
It’s been a few weeks since my last blog post, the advent of the summer holidays and the completion and submission of my PhD has been the immediate priority. More to come on my relief that my PhD is now done and dusted, just awaiting the viva date!
However today I wanted to write about something a little different. In this blog post I want to talk about my own anecdotal experiences on the key advantages and disadvantages of buying everyone in an organisation iPads.
Previously I wrote a blog post about iPad apps for research in higher education, it was a two part blog post, you can find part 1 here and part 2 here. I want to carry on with this series of blog posts but today I want to really focus on using iPad apps for increasing productivity.
Twitter as a tool has become somewhat of a cultural icon. Over the years since its inception it has morphed into a powerful tool that has caused enormous change from the Arab spring to viral pictures of cats. It has shown itself to be a useful tool across various different industries and disciplines and has caused a huge amount of disruption in areas such as print media. The same industries such as print media now also use twitter to keep it touch with members of the public for up to date information, pictures and videos and news that are occurring in real time.
In my view there is also great scope to use twitter for research, however one of the biggest issues many researchers and academics have about this medium is how can you possibly say anything of relevance within a 140 Characters. This is quite a challenge for many academics!!
This is the second part of a two part post which talks about essential iPad apps for Researchers and Academics. You can access the apps 1-5 outlined in the first part of the post by clicking here. This blog post covers apps 6-10.
This is the first part of a two part post which talks about essential iPad apps for Researchers and Academics. This post covers apps 1-5 and the second post which should be available in the next few days covers apps 6-10.
As a full time academic member of staff and a active researcher one of the most important factors as part of my workflow is efficiency. I am constantly looking for ways to make my work life easier and more efficient. Hence it should come as no surprise that for me the iPad is now an essential part of my life and my work.
However what are the key apps? After 3 years of playing with every type of app under the sun the following apps are in my view essential for any researcher and academic: Continue reading iPad apps for Research (1 of 2)→
A few years ago my house was burgled on my Birthday :(. Various Items were taken:
My sons Xbox,
A few Xbox games
Some cash
The TV remote (I know!!)
My laptop
While the other elements could be replaced quite easily the laptop contained my PHD, which by this time had become a considerable amount of work (three years). It was then that I realised there was no physical backup of my work on a USB, CD or on my work PC. For a fleeting moment there was panic, mad panic but then the calm descended when i realised I had a “virtual” backup on my Dropbox account.
