On a side note
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The tutorials have been designed as ibooks which is unfortunate for those of us who don't use Apple computers and software. Although PDF versions of the ibooks have been provided for us, the experience was not quite the same and at times even problematic: most of the PDF files do not include links to external content and many pages from the ibooks aren't visible in their PDF versions.
In order to work around this problem, I borrowed an Apple Computer from a friend. However, I only had it for a days so that I had to rush through the tutorials and screenshotted my way through them. An experience which one could call fitting because I rarely work with Apple computers and again had to realize how different the software was from my Windows computer. However, for me, it was not possible to see this as an enriching experience: I wanted to start working on the contents of the tutorials but was often frustrated by the difficulties of working with an entirely different software than I was used to. An experience which reiterated itself during the study week in Borås where we also had to cut videos on MACs. I again realized frustration and convenience are very big players when it comes to learning, especially with digital toos. Also, Although I think it is important to learn how to use both systems, I don't like the fact that in order to have the whole proPIC learning experience, I have to have an Apple computer. For future projects like proPIC, my feedback would be not to make having an ibook compatible device a premise for this course. I think, either e-books should be designed for all software, or an open-source software should be used in the first place. It is however interesting to realize how much education and the use of these devices relies on companies providing them. The argument often heard is that Apple offers better digital devices which was probably also the reason why these tutorials have been designed as ibooks. Nevertheless, it is a pity that the full learning experience was restricted to Apple users. |