SomeTime is an open, self-organized event that brings active Finnish social media users together to brainstorm new ideas, tools and uses. SomeTime began in 2010, and each year it draws two to three hundred participants, both in person and online. This year, SomeTime was held at Tampere University of Technology, right next to my office. So it was a great opportunity to go and feel the atmosphere, which you can’t experience fully through remote access.
The highlight of the morning was Jari Jussila’s presentation about the measurement of emotions in the digital environment. Jussila’s group aims to understand the user’s emotional path in, for example, an online store. What brings a sense of control, enthusiasm? What generates positivity or negativity? And what kind of feelings are likely to get retweeted on Twitter? On the basis of a small amount of research, it would seem that the tweets containing amazement and joy spread most effectively.
After Jussila, Jaana-Piia Mäkiniemi examined feelings in the world of teaching under the title ”Technology in education – enthusiasm or irritation?” Especially during busy periods, schools should not simply thrust new technology onto teachers, because schools typically lack the necessary technical or other support. With careful preparation, however, new technology can reduce teacher’s stress by updating teaching methods and thus avoiding frustration.
The afternoon was reserved for workshops. There were presentations about schools in the future, online parenthood, Periscope, Buffer, and OneNote, which I’m taking full advantage of thanks to Outi Lammi’s recommendation.