I think I have done well to stick with apps this year, but I’m saying that before I actually write out my list and compare. Here’s what I listed before:
Default Apps + Xcode, Graphic, Pixelmator, Logic, Final Cut, PDF Expert, BBedit.
Plus I keep going back to Fantasitcal, toyed with PDF Pen, and switched to Studio One.
So, significant changes/updates for me are:
- Logic is now officially relegated; I use Studio One and I’m sticking with it (I wobbled a bit because it is not optimised/fully stable on my M1, but I’m putting up with it). Studio One is a pleasure to use (M1 bugs excepted) and has Melodyne to make my dodgy vocals tolerable.
- PDF Pen is not needed for me as it doesn’t OCR Thai text, so I removed it to reduce my app count a tad. I use Preview to read PDFs, and PDF Expert for editing.
- I’ve given up Fantastical as it is costly and the default app is fine for my limited needs.
- The only major ‘change’ for me really is Craft, but it’s not really replacing anything. It has become the starting point for my Digital Garden, so it’s a place for content creation that was never in my arsenal before. Granted, a couple of my items in Notes are moving over, but they are unrecognisable because I am taking time to flesh them out, to make structured pieces of writing rather than quick jottings.
- I plan to move from SketchUp Make to Blender when I next need to do some 3D modelling as I feel SketchUp Make is reaching the end of its (free) usefulness and I want to develop 3D skills better. This may or may not happen, depending on time commitments.
- I plan to move from Graphic to Affinity Designer, which seems better in many ways. I’m not sure if Graphic is really supported now, but I do make use of its dimension tools and I know how to do some simple scripts to create shortcuts that hide/show the layers I want in a drawing with 100 layers. Again, may get delayed.
I didn’t really talk about work-related things, which mostly involves using the Google Suite within Google Chrome (using this means I don’t need to sign in to Google in Safari). I have also used OneNote on and off for curriculum planning. Lots of things are in Google Sheets though, as I have a number of automations that make ordering equipment for lessons a breeze and lots of other things. So, changes for school:
- I spent a lot of time this year looking at various tools for presenting lessons online. I learned a lot, but ultimately I think the hours (days?) spent fiddling with OBS, Zoom, and ManyCam could have been better spent elsewhere.
My final workflow is to use OBS to switch between a desktop view, my iPad and a couple of cameras for live lessons. I feed the virtual cam from OBS to Zoom. - For demos in lessons I use an old Android phone with DroidCam and simply put that up on the board. Any meters, or oscilloscope even, just get placed in the camera’s view. Nothing fancy anymore.
- For pre-recorded lessons, I use Final Cut Pro to mix content from an Olympus OMD camera, audio recorded in Quicktime, and video from Explain EDU.
- Scripts for Lesson Videos are written in Craft rather than as notes in Google Slides. Whilst the old method served its purpose well in allowing me to write lots of lesson scripts quickly and efficiently, I feel I am now at a stage where I want to write them more creatively, and slide notes is just not the medium for that.
- Organisation and planning is also done in Craft rather than OneNote and Google Sheets. I have tried very hard to like and commit to OneNote, but I cannot do so for some reason. I am in love with Craft and I am creating schemes of work that have flow, connections, and tell a story.
I am still enjoying trying new apps, it’s a fun thing to do, but I’m also really enjoying sticking to what I know and trying to focus less on the tech, and more on the creativity.