Digital Detox: Rebooting My Digital Lifestyle 📵

Blogpost by Noel Czempik (Student Digital Champion)

In my journey to digital wellbeing, I found myself at a crossroads, dissatisfied with the evolving relationship between technology and me. Once a source of joy for facilitating connections and enriching experiences, it gradually became a frustrating and anxiety-inducing presence. Attempting various strategies, from greyscale displays to setting reminders, proved futile; my devices continued to dominate my time, now laced with guilt and a sense of personal failure, far from the fascination of my early experiences with technology. What had changed?

Swipe Wars: The Smartphone Menace

In the early days of social media, logging in required a ritual—turning on the family PC, navigating through desktop layers, and patiently awaiting the slow progression of the digital world. That world could disappear at the press of a button at dinnertime or the first signs of an oncoming thunderstorm. Fast forward to today, and our devices are ever-present, always in our pockets, ready for instant engagement. The ease with which we unlock our phones without a clear purpose has turned habitual, a craving for the dopamine reward that digital interaction brings.

Initially confined to finite feeds, social media has evolved into expansive content platforms crafted to hold our attention endlessly. In today’s consumer-centric landscape, our devices are not neutral tools but deliberately designed to encourage frequent and prolonged use. While we seek engaging technology, the allure that captures our interest can sometimes work against our best intentions.

From Whoville to Screensville: How the Smartphone Stole Christmas

While invaluable in connecting us during lockdowns and holidays spent at a distance, our devices have also altered the nature of our in-person interactions. I vividly recall the post-pandemic Christmas spent with family, surrounded by screens, each of us engrossed in our digital worlds. It was a far cry from the planned festivities but a reality shaped by the omnipresence of technology.

My once-positive relationship with technology has now turned toxic, and breaking free from my phone’s grasp requires more than just free will.

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Introducing the new AI coaching chatbot in LinkedIn Learning 🤖

Do you have particular skills that you want to develop, but not sure where to start? LinkedIn Learning, an online learning platform which all students and staff at AU have free access to, have just released a new coaching chatbot which may help solve this issue!

What does the coaching chatbot do?

Their new AI-powered coaching chatbot provides personalised advice and resources, pulled directly from the expert-taught content within LinkedIn Learning.

You can ask for advice on challenges you’re facing, or recommendations on how to develop specific skills, and the chatbot will ask you follow-up questions to ensure that you receive the best recommendations.

Top Tip: To get an even better response, link your LinkedIn Learning account with your personal LinkedIn account (how do I do that?) and the chatbot will take your job title or level of study into consideration before providing you with recommendations.

How do I access the coaching chatbot?

You can access the chatbot in two places, either from the main menu (on the left-hand side), or from the homepage.

Further questions?

If you have any questions about this new feature, or about LinkedIn Learning in general, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk).

We’re halfway through our Christmas Learning Challenge! 🎄

We’re halfway through our Christmas Learning Challenge, but don’t worry it’s not too late to join us!

The challenge provides staff and students with an opportunity to develop a range of skills, from tips to boost productivity, keyboard shortcuts in Outlook to developing better sleep habits, by watching 12 short videos from LinkedIn Learning over 12 days.

How do I join the challenge?

The first step will be to activate your LinkedIn Learning account. After doing so, there are two ways for you to join the challenge:

  • You can either follow the links on each day of the challenge from the calendar below
  • Or you can follow our Christmas Learning Challenge Learning Path (which will also display at the top of the LinkedIn Learning homepage when you login).

If you have any questions about the challenge, or about LinkedIn Learning in general, please email the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk), and we hope you enjoy your 12 days of learning!

DigiTip 15 – Learn 3 useful functions in Microsoft Teams 💬

Follow these steps to pin your priority chats to the top of your list: 

  • On the left-hand side of your Teams window, place your cursor over the chat you would like to pin 
  • Right-click once on the chat and click on Pin 
  • Your priority chat will be pinned to the top of your recent chat list 

Follow these steps to mute notifications from your chosen chat: 

  • On the left-hand side of your Teams window, place your cursor over the chat you would like to mute 
  • Right-click once on the chat and click on Mute 
  • Incoming notifications will be muted for this specific chat 

Watch the video below or follow these instructions for saving messages to access them later: 

  • Open the chat you would like to save a message(s) from 
  • Right-click once on the message and click on Save this message 
  • Place your cursor your Teams icon and click on it 
  • Select the Saved option on the menu 

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week! 

Eyes on the Prize: A Student’s Guide to Defeating Computer Eyestrain 👁

Blogpost by Joel Williams (Student Digital Champion)

Whilst computers can be excellent tools to increase and streamline a student’s productivity, staring at a screen all day can have several adverse effects. Through this post, and accompanying infographic, I hope to impart several tips which I’ve used to help make using computers a more enjoyable experience throughout my degree. In this post, I will discuss one common computer-related ailment, Eyestrain. Eyestrain can occur after extended periods of looking at the same monitor or by using a computer in a poorly lit environment.   

20-20-20 Rule  

One of the approaches I’ve found easiest to implement into my studies is the 20-20-20 rule; this approach involves taking a break every 20 minutes, looking at an object 20 feet away (don’t worry, this doesn’t need to be precise), for 20 seconds. Blinking often during this is also suggested, as this can help relax the eye muscles and further reduce the likelihood of strain.  

You can find out more about this via this LinkedIn Learning course

Reducing Blue Light  

Another method to reduce eye strain is to limit your exposure to blue light; this is because the blue light produced by screens can limit the production of melatonin (the sleep hormone), which can disturb our natural sleep cycles and result in our eyes feeling strained at the end of the day. This topic is still up for scientific debate, and you can read more about it here. This is easier to setup on personal machines but with some tweaking can be used on almost any computer at the University. 

There are two main approaches to managing this: 

  • Firstly, you can use software to reduce blue light exposure; MacOS and Windows have built-in settings, Night Shift and Nightlight respectively; you can even enable Nightlight on university computers.  
  • Secondly, most monitors and laptop screens have options which enable you to control brightness and contrast, enabling you to achieve a similar result. However, if you are looking for more customisation, you can use free programs like f.lux which works on MacOS, Windows & Linux, and can provide far greater control over the tone of the screen (shown below).  

Finally, blue light glasses can also be used to filter light not only from your screen but also from the surrounding environment and can be purchased cheaply from several retailers.   

Enabling Dark Mode  

Finally, another strategy which works well on many of the programs I’ve used during my course to reduce eye strain is to enable dark mode; this can be done within both MacOS and Windows and both are designed to aid working in environments with poor ambient lighting.   

However, programs like the office suite and some internet browsers will require additional steps to change. Steps to switch Office to dark mode can be found here, and you can convert any Chromium-based browser to dark mode using extensions found in the Chrome Web Store.  

More information can be found within the Digital Ergonomics LinkedIn Learning collection, click on the image above or use the link here

Join our Christmas Learning Challenge! 🎄

Our Christmas Learning Challenge begins tomorrow, Wednesday 6 December! We have put together 12 short videos from LinkedIn Learning for you to watch and learn from over the next 12 work days. This content ranges from 1-8 minutes and will help you to develop a range of skills – from tips to boost productivity, keyboard shortcuts in Outlook to developing better sleep habits.

How do I join the challenge?

The first step will be to activate your LinkedIn Learning account. After doing so, there are two ways for you to join the challenge:

  • You can either follow the links on each day of the challenge from the calendar below
  • Or you can follow our Christmas Learning Challenge Learning Path (which will also display at the top of the LinkedIn Learning homepage when you login).

If you have any questions about the challenge, or about LinkedIn Learning in general, please email the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk), and we hope you enjoy your 12 days of learning!

DigiTip 14: Use Microsoft OneNote to organise your work 🗄

Microsoft OneNote is a great way to store all your notes, organise your work and create lists all in one place.  

You can create different tabs for different areas of work. Within this, you can add new pages to separate and organise your work, all with their own separate headers. You can colour code your sections to help organise and keep track of your work. You can also create check lists, highlight important information and much more using the ‘tag’ function.  

Watch the video below for a demo on using Microsoft OneNote or follow the instructions below.  

  • Click the ‘+’ icon to create a new section. 
  • Right click on the section to change the colour. 
  • Name the page anything you would like. 
  • Hover on the right-hand side pane to insert new pages. 
  • Add checkboxes either by selecting the To Do Tag or by using ctrl+1
  • You can make pages, subpages by selecting the page, right clicking, and selecting ‘make subpage’. 

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!  

AU Graduate Digital Skills Profile Series – What next?

Blogpost by Laurie Stevenson (Student Digital Champion)

That concludes the first half of graduate interviews in our Digital Skills Profile Series and the second half will be released in Semester 2 so keep an eye on our IS social media channels and our blog for updates!

In the meantime, you may be wondering from reading what our graduates say they wish they had learnt before graduating what is available to you as an AU student to improve your digital skills? Well, here are some of the main resources available to you:

‘How are your digital skills?’ Blackboard organisation

We’ve developed a new Blackboard organisation which provides you with step-by-step guidance on how to use all of the resources mentioned below, including the Jisc Digital Discovery Tool and LinkedIn Learning .

Jisc Digital Discovery Tool

The Jisc Digital Discovery Tool is a bilingual resource that enables you to self-assess your confidence with technology. It will allow you to identify your strengths, in addition to highlighting opportunities to further develop your digital skills. 

LinkedIn Learning

This online learning platform is available for free to all AU students, and contains over 16,000 free courses on everything from photo and video editing, coding, how to play an instrument, art courses and so much more! If you’re particularly interested in developing your digital skills, you can also visit our digital skills collections in the platform. Activate your account today!

Digital Skills Library

Explore the Digital Skills Library, where you’ll find resources to help you develop a range of new and existing digital skills within six categories.

Digital Skills Blog

As well as this series we have plenty of interesting and informative content on our blog page from tips and tricks for MS software, our weekly DigiTips, to our Digital Wellbeing Series.

AberSkills

AberSkills contains a breadth of resources and information about 1-2-1 sessions and workshops to help you develop a range of study skills, employability skills and much more. If you’re interested in developing your confidence with particular software, you can visit the Using Technology in Aber section.

If you have any questions about any of the resources mentioned above, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk).

Top tips for Mastering your Schedule 📅

Blogpost by Joel Williams (Student Digital Champion)

Banner with Student Digital Champion

To accompany a blogpost that I published last week on how you can use time management tools to help you master your schedule, I’ve created an infographic (text version below) which summarises some of the key strategies and tools that have worked for me.

Read More

DigiTip 13 – Schedule and Delay delivery of your emails in Outlook 📨

Depending on who you would like to communicate with, sometimes it is more convenient to schedule and delay your emails for another time. This gives you more time to re-edit the content of your email again if necessary and you can plan for less stress in the future if you can prepare your emails in advance! 

Watch the video below or follow these instructions: 

  • Open a blank new email message in Outlook 
  • Compose the email and ensure you have included a recipient and a subject line 
  • Click on the File tab that can be found on the top left corner of the email window 
  • Select Properties  
  • Ensure the Do not deliver before option is checked  
  • Select the time and date you would like to schedule the email to send out for 
  • Click Close followed by Send 

It’s worth noting that Outlook must be open for a delayed email to be sent out. Ensure you have chosen a sending time when you know your Outlook will be running. 

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!