Android Apps for Working Smart ATIA Webinar Narrative SLIDE # 1
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Android Apps for Working Smart ATIA Webinar Narrative SLIDE # 1. Welcome to today’s webinar entitled, “Productivity Is the Name of the Game: Android Apps for Working Smart.” My name is Darren Gabbert, and I am a Senior Business Operations Associate at the University of Missouri’s flagship campus in Columbia, Missouri. 2. According to We Are Social and Hootsuite’s Digital in 2017 Global Overview, more than half the world’s population now uses a smartphone. That is over 3.5 billion people that are smartphone users. And there are all kinds of (somewhat frightening) projections of how many hours a day are spent using these devices. What I want to talk about today is how we can use our smartphones in meaningful and productive ways. To some extent, meaningful is going to vary from person to person. But efficiency and productivity is often achieved through some basic common principals. We are specifically looking at Android devices today. And the apps we are going to look at will address some basic principles of mobile device productivity; productivity in terms of producing, searching, reading and conveying digital information. 3. Learning Objectives a. We have 4 learning objectives that we want to accomplish today. First, we will learn how to save and retrieve information via Simplenote and Chomp SMS. Second, we will learn a strategy for efficient use of abbreviation expansion using Texpand Pro. We will gain the knowledge to create, manage and synchronize a personal digital library using Calibre Library and Calibre Companion. And lastly, we will be able to identify three automated tasks which demonstrate the power of using Tasker. b. And, I have no financial or non-financial relationships to disclose. 4. Who is Darren? a. Before we go any further, let me tell you a bit about the chap that is talking to you right now. I have an advanced form of Muscular Dystrophy, and for the past four and a half years, I have been ventilator dependent. Because of a tracheotomy, I am unable to speak. Therefore you are hearing today’s narrative as synthesized text-to-speech. I am with you live, and will be active in the chat box throughout the course of our webinar this afternoon. b. I have a BS in Computer Science. By the end of the webinar, you will know what the BS actually stands for. I have worked for the University of Missouri’s Division of Information Technology for 28 years, providing assistive technology services. And for the past 9 years, I have had a very active collaboration with the School of Engineering where we have a great group of graduate students doing research in Robotic Assistive Technology. I am accessing my desktop workstation via single switch scanning. I use Words+ EZ Keys on a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with dual 19” displays. I will give you a quick look at this on my screen…. {cut to showing EZ Keys SideTalk} i. This is EZ Keys Side Talk. I am choosing letters by twitching my cheek in front of an infrared sensor. Scanning rate is 100 milliseconds; that is kind of fast. Typing rate is at best 10 words per minute; that is kind of slow. I am cheating right now with abbreviation expansion. Let’s go back to the PowerPoint presentation. c. The point I want to underscore is that I know how important it is to work productively. I get a huge return on any effort I put toward working smart and saving keystrokes. Today I will be sharing what I have learned about productivity and working smart on the Android platform. 5. Productivity for me a. Let’s start by giving some context to the idea of productivity. What makes productivity meaningful? I use EMG single-switch technology to access my Galaxy S8+ smartphone. My device provides my primary alternative communication through an app called Speech Assistant. I am a power user of my Droid. So much so that my wife refers to my device as the other woman. Naming my S8 Monica didn’t help my cause any. For me, meaningful productivity involves keystroke savings for communicating, efficient management of textual information, and automation of repetitive tasks. 6. Productivity for you a. First, your smartphone needs to help you do what you actually want or need to do. I very much enjoy asking people, “Why do you have a smartphone?” And there is always this pause, and a somewhat annoyed expression, before the answer comes back. And often the answer includes texting, social media, navigation and taking photos. All good things, but a smartphone can do these things and much, much more. So we need to put some thought into how this “much, much more” can be meaningful to our everyday activities. b. Secondly, your smartphone should help you do things faster. There are some things that I could do on my smartphone that I choose to avoid doing. For example, composing lengthy email notes is much faster with my desktop workstation. Likewise, most users are faster at text entry on a full-size keyboard. Mobile speech recognition is really good, but it isn’t always suitable to your environment. So productivity often means doing things faster. c. Productivity should also involve making things easier. If I am out-of-pocket and I need to Google something very specific, my smartphone can (and often does) make me look pretty smart. What you lack in the noodle, you can find with Google! But if I am browsing and researching a more general topic, my dual 19 inch displays are where I want to be. d. Meaningful productivity involves doing tasks that are relevant, doing those tasks faster, and making those tasks easier. There is one more factor that I think is worth mentioning, and that involves availability on multiple platforms. If I have an app that seamlessly synchronizes data between my Android smartphone, my Apple iPad, and my Microsoft Surface Pro 3, I then can quickly and easily switch between them. Thus, I am freer to choose what device is best suited to the task at hand. 7. Simplenote a. The first app we are going to look at is called Simplenote. Simplenote allows you to create, organize, and search digital notes. It also automatically synchronizes your notes on all your devices. So what is productive about digital notes? I have a 19-year-old son. And if I ask him if he remembers some important piece of information, he will inevitably say, “Yeah, Dad, I wrote it down somewhere.” That translates into, “No, Dad, it’s gone forever.” Note taking is a waste of time if you can’t retrieve the information when you need it. b. With that in mind, let’s look at Simplenote’s key features. Simplenote is true to its name with an uncluttered, clean interface. You can simply tap the add note button, type the first line which will be the title of the note, and type the rest as the body of the note. And, of course, the value of the note needs to exceed the effort to type it. I think this easily does. i. ACTION: Type “Mother Teresa” on title line ii. ACTION: Type “Do small things with great love” as content of note 8. Simplenote (continued) a. Simplenote’s productivity power lies in using its search and share capabilities To demonstrate the value of search and share, we will consider a collection of quotes that have been saved in Simplenote. I have a number of authors that I distinguish as my best friends. And I collect, and often share, from their words of wisdom. b. A much more favorable method than typing is to select text and share to Simplenote. Here you see I have selected some text from my collection of Martin Luther King Jr. speeches. This screenshot is of the reader app FBReader. And upon selecting text, the context menu appears, and we can choose to share. Select Simplenote. It creates a new note, using the document title within the note title, with the selected text copied. We can see that it has been added to the collection of notes. And the back button will return me to the company of my friend. 9. Simplenote (continued) a. Now I want to share a quote with someone. And I don’t remember the author’s name. I just know it has the word “battle” in it. So I do a search for “battle.” And the search results show the title and first two lines of notes containing the word “battle.” And that is enough to tickle my brain and remember it was our friend Plato that I was thinking about. I can then tap the share button from within Simplenote, choose my SMS app, specify the recipient, and send. 10. Simplenote (continued) a. Another productivity enhancing feature of Simplenote is its ability to synchronize across all your devices. I can access my collection of notes from my Android Galaxy S8+, my Windows Surface Pro 3, my Apple iPad, or from any workstation using the web app. Each is seamlessly updated with any changes as they are made from any of the devices. So in this example, it means I can always add, search and share from my collection of quotes. 11. Simplenote (continued) a. Lastly, if your notes are meaningful, back them up. The web app offers a backup to zip file. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! 12. Chomp SMS v7.17 a. I want us to take a look now at some similar productivity features, as they relate to SMS (Short Messaging Service).