“What’s In Your Bag” is a feature where Tech Nova asks the average Ghanaian what devices and gadgets they use in their daily lives. For today’s feature, we’re showcasing the gadgets used by Kajsa Hallberg Adu.
This post was written by Kajsa Hallberg Adu
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) 8GB, 2,7 MHz, 120GB
My work computer since October last year. I use it daily and always have too many programs and tabs open. It integrates with my other devices and I have a TimeCapsule and a portable hard drive at home to back up my work.
iPhone 7, 120GB
This phone was a combined birthday and xmas gift from my husband. I am too cheap to buy personal devices, they just cost so much. He is more practical and says “as you are online all the time, you better have good stuff”. I like to have big storage so I never have to pause taking photos of my adorable children to make more storage space.
iPad Mini 4, 120 GB
This is my work device and I have had it for about 2 years. I use it for grading using the app Turnitin. That allows paperless grading with automatic plagiarism and language checks, meaning I can spend more time giving feedback to students. I love the voice comment option, but rarely find a quiet place to grade. Importantly, I also store all my academic reads on an integration with Dropbox called Papership. It also integrates with Zotero for referencing. Combined, it means I can annotate journal articles on the go and not having to print too many papers.
I have toyed with the idea of getting a keyboard for it and scrapping the MacBook outside the office, but decided against it due to ergonomics.
Flic
I just had to buy this Swedish invention last summer. It is a blue tooth button that can be connected to your devices. You can program the button to take a photo, activate an alarm, or open a particular program. I love that one can also wear it like a brooch as it is my fav color – mint green.
Link: https://flic.io/
Plattan ADV Wireless Headphones from UrbanEars
My wireless headphones are many times just covering my ears from sound coming from the outside, but other times filled with energetic or calming music. It is great they are wireless as to not get entangled in any chord or not having to unplug if I get up from my desk, but I often forget to charge them and then the chord comes on and after some time I forget they are wireless!
I have had them since august 2015 and they are sadly falling apart, possibly as I have kept them in my bag every day since I got them.
Link: https://www.urbanears.com/ue_us_en/plattan-adv-wireless
DSCVR Headset
This headset makes your smartphone a virtual reality headset. I use it to test applications for work – I am leading a group at Ashesi University experimenting with using virtual reality in the classroom. We chose a version of the cardboard in plastic so that it can be wiped down as multiple users will handle it.
Link: https://www.imcardboard.com/dscvr.html
Notebook
The most revolutionary tech is a notebook for meeting notes, doodles, and diary writing. I always carry one and have been very particular about pens in the past, but now (perhaps since I became a mother?) anything goes. Without a notebook, I feel unprepared and frankly naked.
This one is from a fav place in my home town, Leva. It has blank pages in a recycled material that is off white, perfect for my needs.
http://www.levakungslador.se/gardsbutik.pab
Kajsa Hallberg Adu is a lecturer at Ashesi University. She’s also the co-founder of BloggingGhana.
You can catch up with Kajsa by reading her personal blog at Kajsaha.com
