No cyborgs in Siceluff Hall, it’s just Lanette Cadle, associate professor of English, with her new Google Glass. Cadle jumped at the opportunity to become a beta tester for Glass and used her social media savvy skills to do just that.

Cadle saw a great potential for Glass, especially since she publishes about social media; particularly the rhetoric of identity. However, Cadle couldn’t apply to be in the first group of beta testers. “I had to wait until Glass was offered integrated with traditional eyeglass frames. That happened on January 28,” said Cadle.

She immediately went to the Explorer site and applied. “I wanted a chance to make my case and also have fun checking to see if Google was as social media aware as they appear to be. I wrote a blog entry at lanettecadle.com and titled it Pick Me! I wanted no ambiguity. To make sure, I posted the link on Facebook, tweeted the link and posted the link on Google+. The next morning I had an acceptance email from Google welcoming me to the Explorer program,” said Cadle.

 Cadle is using Glass for her daily emails, appointments, phone calls and texts, and to create media for her classroom. “One way to look at how Glass functions is to think of it as a cross between a really good butler and an iPad,” said Cadle. She even has the option to speak aloud her emails and texts through the voice recognition Glass comes equipped with.

Cadle blogs daily about her experiences with Glass via her googleglass tag stream.