Because I keep braking my phone trying to get a spark off it !!!
i'll just get my coat........
Bushcrafters and technology
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Because I keep braking my phone trying to get a spark off it !!!
i'll just get my coat........
Scots_Charles_River
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
When teaching technology at school, I always give the example of how we moved form throwing stones at animals, attaching a stone to a stick, making a bow and arrow, making traps/snares then progress to going to the supermarket.
We still teach design sketching but then model those designs in 3D Modelling software. So it's all about progression.
Unfortuantely we (most of western society) have become addicted to handheld technology and TV and have become sedentary.
So , there's nothing wrong with reading a kindle rather than a paperbook, nothing wrong with using photoshop and a diggy camera rather than blood, charcoal and sticks to paint a cave wall...........
I have an Outdoor Learning class and we teach back to basics eg build a wood survival shelter which allows deeper learning - Wood types, wood uses, sustainability, structures, triangulation, weight, volume etc. But we also use tents.
We still teach design sketching but then model those designs in 3D Modelling software. So it's all about progression.
Unfortuantely we (most of western society) have become addicted to handheld technology and TV and have become sedentary.
So , there's nothing wrong with reading a kindle rather than a paperbook, nothing wrong with using photoshop and a diggy camera rather than blood, charcoal and sticks to paint a cave wall...........
I have an Outdoor Learning class and we teach back to basics eg build a wood survival shelter which allows deeper learning - Wood types, wood uses, sustainability, structures, triangulation, weight, volume etc. But we also use tents.
Any one listen to the beeb4 series, 100 greatest objects? interesting that the No1 object the british museum director chap stated was a solar powered lamp that is transforming many lives in the developing nations, literally bringing people into the light. Now students can study at night and seek to improve their life chances. it allowed mobile phones to be topped up for a small fee to the light owner, giving them a small income, notably to women.
where we are inundated with gadgets and technology to the point of bordering on the ridiculus, many of us would probably yearn for the bush lifestyles many families see a simple device a as a torch or lamp as simply enlightening.
strange world?
where we are inundated with gadgets and technology to the point of bordering on the ridiculus, many of us would probably yearn for the bush lifestyles many families see a simple device a as a torch or lamp as simply enlightening.
strange world?
Scots_Charles_River
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Older societies, and so called un-civilised populations may actually be more civilised. Just because bushman, amazonian tribes etc don't have Tvs, power, endescopes, Xboxes etc doesn't mean they are not civilised. Although life expectancy and infant mortality may be best to measure true 'development' as a society.
Indeed they may treat there young and old better than so called civilisations. In Bhutan 'Gross National Happiness' is more important then 'GDP' !
Indeed they may treat there young and old better than so called civilisations. In Bhutan 'Gross National Happiness' is more important then 'GDP' !
here's a phone that *could* satisfy quite a few of our bushcraft emergency comms needs - imagine one of these in a bothy for emergency use?
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/01/09/phone_maker_punts_aa_powered_blower/
on another side, I note no one has mentioned leatherman type multi things - tool or toy?
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/01/09/phone_maker_punts_aa_powered_blower/
on another side, I note no one has mentioned leatherman type multi things - tool or toy?
Technology is great, as long as you can happily switch it off and do without.
When we're out, i take my phone (Samsung S5570 mini) which has GPS, Viewranger mapping and all the usual functions, but mainly for the dogs! why? well the dogs have GPS tracker colllars (Retrieva if anyone's interested) and it runs using a mobile phone with GPS and mapping, so if the little dears go running off anywhere, its only a few keystrokes away to find them, and anyone who has a dog, especially whose lost a dog, will understand that!
Other than that i try to adopt the KISS principle- Keep It Simple Stupid, there's a big difference between need and want, so if i NEED it, i take it, but other than my phone, it's usually head torch and normal torch.
When we're out, i take my phone (Samsung S5570 mini) which has GPS, Viewranger mapping and all the usual functions, but mainly for the dogs! why? well the dogs have GPS tracker colllars (Retrieva if anyone's interested) and it runs using a mobile phone with GPS and mapping, so if the little dears go running off anywhere, its only a few keystrokes away to find them, and anyone who has a dog, especially whose lost a dog, will understand that!
Other than that i try to adopt the KISS principle- Keep It Simple Stupid, there's a big difference between need and want, so if i NEED it, i take it, but other than my phone, it's usually head torch and normal torch.
Thanks for the heads-up on My Tracks, I have it on my HTC phone now and know that every day I walk the dog 2.58 miles before work - and I even know how much climbing I've done... brilliant little app, and free!
Steve
I reckon that we (as in us lot on here) have it about right.
We obviously use modern technology every day because it offers us so much and makes life more comfortable, but by definition as bushcrafters we are motivated by using and understanding early technology and our place in the natural world.
We obviously use modern technology every day because it offers us so much and makes life more comfortable, but by definition as bushcrafters we are motivated by using and understanding early technology and our place in the natural world.
That's the point I see here. Technology is great if it helps you do something you couldn't do before. If a solar lamp allows you to study in the evenings, that's great. If it's what you need to do to feed your family.
But so much of it is just there to make us buy more stuff!
So yes, we should use technology. But we should be its masters, not the other way round.
I done the most enlightening thing ever about 2 years ago. When I returned to ni I decided to not get a tv. I have not missed it once.
Sent from my HTC Salsa C510e using Tapatalk
Sent from my HTC Salsa C510e using Tapatalk
I have not had a TV since 2005, I never miss it.
When out and about a headtorch, a mobile and possibly a camera, if on a longer trip, chargers/spare batteries for these.
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It is gadgets I dont get on with - not tools!
When I am in the wilds an EPIRB is a tool - getting onto Twitter is Farcebook is a gadget
If I want to take a photo a camera is a tool - listening to canned music is gadget time...
I got to the wilder places to escape the clutter, noise and general BS of the modern world ...but I like to do it safely.
Relying on water soluble technology like phones that tend to run out of signal/battery in next to no time does not hack it for me
Toys should live in the playground, tools should survive in the wilds
Too true, couldn't have said it better!
Only electronic thing when out for me is my high tech torch..
Agree with John. Too many gadgets defeats the purpose of the exercise for me. No portable radio, no music player, just the mobile phone which has no camera just in case someone wants to reach me (many places I go are out of its range anyway)
Do we feel vulnerable without our mobiles? I think I do? Even though I hardly call or take calls from folks, I hesitate when going out for a walk or bike ride without it, I feel secure with it. Yet for most of my life I did not have one and it did not stop me from adventure.
It is partly that I think and partly that other people expect you to take one with you so you can be contacted.
It's strange, isn't it? I also feel insecure if I go out without my mobile. Spoken like a true addict.
I have read of someone saying they were able to fix a vehicle because they had a leatherman on them and were able to use the pliers.
Perhaps a very technological yurt. Arthur C Clarke commenting on Stonehenge said that it showed that if a baby born in the Stone Age was transported through time and brought up in present day he would be quite capable of being an astronaut.
Wow, what I love about this forum is how apparently uninteresting posts (to my mind, and meant with no disrespect to Red Devil) prompt quite astute feedback and provide food for thought.
I'm with the Luddites on this one. Or should I say, a born again Luddite!
The only times I can ever recall being truly content is when I've been alone on the hills, in the glens or woods, paddling my canoe, fishing a river or loch, gutting a fish, skinning a rabbit, etc. And yet, for a short time, I let something come between me and the beauty of being... I was about to say "being alone", but that's not entirely true so I'm happy to leave it at that; The Beauty of Being!
There was a new woman in my life, a wonderful woman and remarkably, still there! But she's a city girl and doesn't quite understand this half-savage with a need for mountains, lonely places and wild things = dangers to her mind; so she bought me a GPS, demanded to have the numbers of people in the know and insisted I keep her informed when I'm out. Human relations are reciprocal and we comply out of consideration and respect for others.
I found myself pre-occupied with looking to see if I had a phone signal, or GPS fiddling, or screwing my eyesight gawping at the thing in the dark, or worrying whether I'd switched it off when not in use, so booting the bloody thing up again. The damned thing switches itself off, dopey!
My moment of enlightenment came when I maddened myself after having walked for a couple of hours to an archaeological site in the hills east of Annandale (a motte and baillie, which I believe may have been built by the first Lord of Annandale, the Norman, Robert de Brus in about 1124.) and had to turn back because I'd left my GPS in the car. I didn't get that far, as I realised that I had map and compass with me and knew how to use them!
I now call or send a text at a likely spot prior to leaving the car, then switch the phone off. The GPS, when I take it, lives in my rucksack where it's too much trouble to find. The sweetness of being out and about has returned to me!
I don't need canned music, I've got a hundred songs in my head and I can sing, or at least I think so. I carry my camera and my watch. The only other high-tech pieces of equipment I need are map and compass, they tell me distance, gradient, angle, height, elevation, contour... if you don't know, I won't bore you further...... What concerns me is that we're losing our pride in doing, our workman-like bearing, the value of skills and our work-ethic - The things that made us Human Beings in the first instance are seen as obsolete and Craftsmen have become eccentric curiosities.
I dropped into a local pub for a pint with a mate, and couldn't get near the bar for lovely lassies having a great time. There were 4 or 5 tables occupied by lads who fiddled with their mobile phones for the best part of the evening.
As my mate said, "They're no like us!"
We need to get ourselves back to the real world!
Cheers,
Pango.
I'm with the Luddites on this one. Or should I say, a born again Luddite!
The only times I can ever recall being truly content is when I've been alone on the hills, in the glens or woods, paddling my canoe, fishing a river or loch, gutting a fish, skinning a rabbit, etc. And yet, for a short time, I let something come between me and the beauty of being... I was about to say "being alone", but that's not entirely true so I'm happy to leave it at that; The Beauty of Being!
There was a new woman in my life, a wonderful woman and remarkably, still there! But she's a city girl and doesn't quite understand this half-savage with a need for mountains, lonely places and wild things = dangers to her mind; so she bought me a GPS, demanded to have the numbers of people in the know and insisted I keep her informed when I'm out. Human relations are reciprocal and we comply out of consideration and respect for others.
I found myself pre-occupied with looking to see if I had a phone signal, or GPS fiddling, or screwing my eyesight gawping at the thing in the dark, or worrying whether I'd switched it off when not in use, so booting the bloody thing up again. The damned thing switches itself off, dopey!
My moment of enlightenment came when I maddened myself after having walked for a couple of hours to an archaeological site in the hills east of Annandale (a motte and baillie, which I believe may have been built by the first Lord of Annandale, the Norman, Robert de Brus in about 1124.) and had to turn back because I'd left my GPS in the car. I didn't get that far, as I realised that I had map and compass with me and knew how to use them!
I now call or send a text at a likely spot prior to leaving the car, then switch the phone off. The GPS, when I take it, lives in my rucksack where it's too much trouble to find. The sweetness of being out and about has returned to me!
I don't need canned music, I've got a hundred songs in my head and I can sing, or at least I think so. I carry my camera and my watch. The only other high-tech pieces of equipment I need are map and compass, they tell me distance, gradient, angle, height, elevation, contour... if you don't know, I won't bore you further...... What concerns me is that we're losing our pride in doing, our workman-like bearing, the value of skills and our work-ethic - The things that made us Human Beings in the first instance are seen as obsolete and Craftsmen have become eccentric curiosities.
I dropped into a local pub for a pint with a mate, and couldn't get near the bar for lovely lassies having a great time. There were 4 or 5 tables occupied by lads who fiddled with their mobile phones for the best part of the evening.
As my mate said, "They're no like us!"
We need to get ourselves back to the real world!
Cheers,
Pango.
Top post.
I am also baffled by groups of people who seem to be out together but when you watch them a bit closer they have nothing to say to one another because they are constantly playing with their electronic comforters.
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