Cloud Education: Teacher's Edition

Next week, we'll discuss my exam for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification but this week let's focus on the GTech Summit experience.  I had the opportunity to speak at the GTechSummit last week on how Snapchat and developing AR experiences can bring a new learning experience into the classroom for topics like marketing, programming, and graphic design.  You can find the recording of my presentation at https://zoom.us/rec/play/xsYQ_-a_TnmL_wvt539jzNbNVXsDplKvq-4iovR6HUTJfUsvHxyRYnm4fgx3zsfkv8VmbTe9VeDVc-YN.g_hN1_KMkI1_NqEK?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=zRe23oo6QHecWcmMdR61jw.1628686493314.938e1b4c6094b2a5f501732ccf99adc6&_x_zm_rhtaid=833 

Check out these links below for additional information on GTech and LensStudio

Gtech Summit https://sites.google.com/genoaschools.com/g-techsummit

LensStudio https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/

In today's episode, I discuss an interesting video from We Work Remotely's career fair in April 2021.  The takeaways I found most interesting are 

One of the reasons that I enjoyed this video and a topic for one of my next blogs is because it's a testament that consistently working for your goals and your dreams do pay off. Even the little failures that come along the way are still experiences for us to learn and grow.  Amazon Web Services (AWS) has multiple resources for developers and entrepreneurs to learn and improve their skill sets.  The resources are there for the taking, just need a little motivation and desire to dive in and make progress to your own dream job.

See below for links.

We Work Remotely https://weworkremotely.com/

WWR Interview with Automattic engineer César Tardáguila https://youtu.be/TRJVSuByuiE

AWS Training & Certification https://www.aws.training/

Hocking College AWS Academy https://hockingcollege.regfox.com/aws-academy-cloud-fundamentals-452021---5282021?__hstc=152003750.732f939ec71c5cc19b0b25fbcf60f369.1589416045726.1626260323203.1626285569703.197&__hssc=&hsCtaTracking=6c0fb543-b97e-4a0d-a8c0-5a9709ab94b3%7C8eb435c8-f7d2-4ac5-9ef8-327f008e6594

Today's episode was inspired by Nike's Run Coach as he talked about his method to coach was to help his runners to remember their love of what they are doing.  I thought that was a great topic to cover as we learn new technologies like AWS services.  Is reasonable and realistic for us to love it all the time?  No.  Hopefully, the ratio of "loving the learn" is approximately 80/20 and that's okay!  It's expected.  It's normal.  I have my days where as much as I'm intrigued by the technology and working towards my next certifications, I reach burnout and take a needed break.  Ultimately, it's important to remember that you're learning these new technologies because you have goals to build your future around the career opportunities of cloud computing.  

#LovetheLearn

We recently hosted STEAM camp at Hocking College.  Students from local high schools were able to learn about careers and activities related to robotics, art, cybersecurity, ethical hacking, augmented reality, and more.  

For my session, we covered augmented reality and use cases for this emerging technology.  The slides that review career opportunities can be found at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Room1dmxoC6Cl1LgsXtAHNshreqKPQrcjCTaXQ4zuag/edit?usp=sharing.  I explained to the students that my side hustle includes helping small businesses with their marketing and that includes social media marketing so that's where my natural focus and interest lies in but don't think that's the only use case for AR technology.  There are multiple use cases already being implemented or organizations are working to learn how to implement them.  Current examples include medical training, factory floor training, real estate markets, and more that I'm not even aware of or have been thought of yet.  

One of the reasons I'm so fascinated with AR is that it provides an opportunity to combine art and development (visual coding or the more traditional "hard" coding").  If you check out my website https://tashapenwell.com/, you see that the banner says "Analytical, Curious, Creative" and learning and developing on AR technologies is a perfect way to explore those three characteristics.  

This week we hosted STEAM camp at Hocking College and I am excited to share the world of augmented reality (AR) and digital marketing (well at least as much as possible in two hours😉).  

Snapchat filters are built using free software called LensStudio.  One of the nice things about diving into AR technologies is that, in my experience, the platforms are very similar across the different vendors and apps.  There are three basic fundamental parts of building an AR experience.

1.  Objects

2.  Assets

3.  Materials

While varying platforms may use a different name - the similarities are evident once you're aware of it.  The layouts and UI for the platforms I've worked with (LensStudio, SparkAR, and Amazon Sumerian) are also very similar which aids a great deal in the learning curve of different platforms.

If you have any questions regarding AR technologies, digital marketing, or more, check us out at https://withkoji.com/@HockingCollegeComputerScience or text me at 740-645-0509.    

In this episode I share about my personal health journey and sometimes my motivation to keep with my routine is the external surroundings of being by the river.  The water - whether it be the Gulf Coast, the Ohio River, or a local lake is my happy place. It's my calm when things are turning like a tornado.  

I wanted to share how motivation in learning is often similar in that it needs the motivation to keep it up - especially when things start getting hard.  Technology is an ever-growing and constantly changing field that one can often be overwhelmed when trying to learn skillsets for their future careers.  My best tip that I practice myself and that I advise my students is to find what you really like and dive into it.  This doesn't mean to forget other things in life but once you find that spark - those things that motivate you - explore it.  For me, my personal areas of fascination are in AR and VUI, and as time allows with other responsibilities in life you'll find me creating, practicing, and failing forward in my learning in these areas.  

I tell my students that in your two years with me you'll (hopefully) discover what you love, what you like, what you hate.  My goal is to help fan the flames of what you love and like and help you manage w/ what you hate.  Your goal should be to catch the fire of interest and start working towards that career early on those interests.  

It's been a busy few months.  I've been taking classes to earn my Real Estate license along with AWS courses so the podcast has been a little dormant lately.  Now that the classes are complete (and AWS learning never stops) here's to trying to get back into the swing of things.  

Today's episode is a review of my Augmented Reality (AR) presentation for COSI Science Festival last week.  The platforms we covered are the three that I personally enjoy exploring and creating with.  

1.  LensStudio for Snapchat

2.  SparkAR for Facebook and Instagram

3.  Amazon Sumerian for anything!

You can see the slides full of links and YouTube tutorials at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tKYlhnn8YqP64oTeMRvlJGc3bAjqs-CVLVfkIXy-AjM/edit?usp=sharing.