"Smart" Home
In the midst of revising and editing drafts for my "Module One Critical Reflection" essay (thanks Adesola and Hopal for the feedback), I also took on a fun challenge of trying to setup and network some "Smart Home" devices. I'm not sure how it is in the U.K., but out here "Black Friday" is all the rage. By "all the rage" I mean, people camping out in tents in front of Best Buy, Target, Walmart, days prior to the stores opening their doors late on Thanksgiving night. I haven't ever been THAT enthused to save a few bucks on a television, or the latest toy (envisioning "Turbo Man" in Jingle All The Way) however, I do find it fun to go out and experience that chaos once in a while. This year I was working on Thanksgiving afternoon, so when I got off from work, I headed over to Best Buy and joined in on the action. It seemed like the hot commodity items this year were all the "Smart Home"Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. After 45 minutes of sifting through my various setup options, and standing in line for another 40 minutes just to checkout, I brought home the Amazon Echo Dot, the Philips Hue light system, and some smart plugs (voice or phone activated wall outlets). After a weekend of use, I'm not entirely convinced that they're necessary, but I do see some helpful uses for them. Last night I setup a string of commands, so when I say "Alexa, start my day", she starts my coffee, dims the lights up to 50%, and reads me the news headlines and weather.
Let's just put it this way: Could I do all these things myself? Absolutely. Does it quicken the process by a few minutes each morning, sure. Along with the Alexa items, I also installed Nest Home Security cams. These are quite cool items as well, however, I need to figure out how to stop it from sending me notifications every time a squirrel passes the path of the camera. All that being said, if I didn't have prior knowledge in networking, IT, tech, and related subjects, installing and syncing all these units together would have been a LOT more time consuming and troublesome. It's interesting to pause and think about these nuggets of knowledge we don't even give ourselves credit for sometimes. Where did I learn of all of these things? By simply DOING for years and years. Building blocks of educational value without even always realizing it. I'm interested to hear from others. Do you think this kind of technology skill set is a generational thing? Have you introduced "smart home" devices into your lives? What do you see some of the potentially problematic privacy issues being? What creative ways can we utilize these tools to further our practice? Feel free to respond!
Let's just put it this way: Could I do all these things myself? Absolutely. Does it quicken the process by a few minutes each morning, sure. Along with the Alexa items, I also installed Nest Home Security cams. These are quite cool items as well, however, I need to figure out how to stop it from sending me notifications every time a squirrel passes the path of the camera. All that being said, if I didn't have prior knowledge in networking, IT, tech, and related subjects, installing and syncing all these units together would have been a LOT more time consuming and troublesome. It's interesting to pause and think about these nuggets of knowledge we don't even give ourselves credit for sometimes. Where did I learn of all of these things? By simply DOING for years and years. Building blocks of educational value without even always realizing it. I'm interested to hear from others. Do you think this kind of technology skill set is a generational thing? Have you introduced "smart home" devices into your lives? What do you see some of the potentially problematic privacy issues being? What creative ways can we utilize these tools to further our practice? Feel free to respond!
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