Finals for Summer I have wrapped up, and while Summer II starts back up for some on Monday (myself included), this 4th of July weekend is a great time for a break. I’ve compiled a list of some fun ways you can enjoy technology this summer break.
Look at the stars
I often look at the night sky and wonder what I am looking at. Constellations, galaxies, and even satellites are floating above us, and SkyView is an Augmented Reality app that guides you to their location and to help you identify them. With this stargazing app, you can use your phone camera to precisely spot and identify celestial objects in the sky, day or night. You can download it on iOS or Android.
Stream Hamilton on Disney Plus
Hamilton is a Tony award-winning musical that tells the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The show’s music draws heavily from hip hop, R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes. The Hamilton movie was recorded with the original 2016 Broadway cast, which consists mostly of Black, Latino, and Asian American performers. Through this use of modern storytelling methods, Hamilton has been described as being about “America then, as told by America now.” Disney Plus’ release is notable in the current climate of political protest against systemic racial injustice and calls to reform everything from entrenched policing laws to the hiring and compensation practices of corporate America. Watch on Disney Plus (subscription required).
Learn about American history through award-winning documentaries
Peruse the American History in Video channel on the Academic Video Online streaming platform that University Libraries has available for free to all students. It includes hundreds of documentaries most frequently used in history classrooms. Learn about the Battle of Gettysburg, understand the scope and legacy of the American Civil War, or grasp the defining spirit of an era through Summer of Love, The West, and Africans in America.
Tune into a podcast or two
Podcasts were my favorite thing to listen to on my drive to school. Since I don’t commute, for now, my podcast routine has stopped, but I’m slowly getting back into them and am reminded of how enjoyable they are. Lately, I have been dedicated to learning more about history since it’s a subject I feel I can grow in. The “11 Great History Podcasts” list has a great variety of historical podcasts to listen to like Backstory, a podcast hosted by four historians who upload fully researched episodes that are 30 minutes to an hour-long and offer some of the most interesting aspects of American history. They have some specialized episodes like the history of the number 13 in America, the cultural history of UFOs, but they also get into topics like incarceration, opioid addiction, and immigration.
Take an online tour of The Wittliff Collections
Founded by Austin screenwriter and photographer Bill Wittliff and his wife, Sally, the mission of The Wittliff Collections is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing of the Southwest’s literature, film, and music, and the photography of the Southwest and Mexico. The Wittliff Collections have digital collections such as the largest institutional collection of photographs in the U.S. of one of Mexico’s greatest contemporary photographers, Graciela Iturbide. Or you can explore the National Tour of Texas, a year-long documentation of Dick J. Reavis’ journey experiencing every highway in Texas.
Chantal Lesley is a marketing and communications specialist student employee in the IT Marketing and Communications office.
