Community and Collaborative Comicstrips

Bitstrips is a site that has taken on the collaborative model for the creative side - telling stories with comics.

Bitstrips helps you create your characters and tell your story through their process of "Design, Create and Laugh." It has used a collaborative model that allows your to share your comics, get feedback, track how many people have viewed your comic, other comics by the author, etc....

This art form has been around for a long time and is one that most of us have grown up with. As kids, it was one of the first tools that really motivated many of us to read.

So what is it that attracts young and old to comics or cartoons? Many adults today still enjoy this form of media. Is it the way the story is told? Is it the visual with the text? There has been a lot of research done on the art of telling stories through comics.

I have used Comic Book Creator in the classroom and teachers and students love it! Classes have used it for developing study reviews or presenting an idea/project.

Use Comics to help students understand a difficult concept or theory - first have students develop a story around the concept. Characters don't have to be "real people" and they can give live to concepts and theories. If students have developed a storyboard first around their story, they could present it in a variety of ways. Staging the story and taking photographs (like frame-by-frame animation), then uploading the images into Comic Book Creator. Students could draw the images and scan them or draw in Photoshop Elements and then the images then import them into Comic Book Creator.

Students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia have been drawn to programs like Comic Book Creator as it has allowed them to be able to express themselves and tell their stories.

Don't think comics are just for kids.....this can be a very powerful way to get kids hooked into learning and telling their stories.

Other Links:

NACCAE (National Association of Comics Art Educators) http://www.teachingcomics.org/

Comics in Education http://www.humblecomics.com/comicsedu/

Comics in the Classroom http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev105.shtml

Comics Art Education http://www.educationatlas.com/comics-arts.html

Comics in Education http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=4

Better Education Through Comic Books http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/51650/better_education_through_comic_books.html

Motivating Through Comics http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=42174&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html


Creating your comic avatars in Bitstrips.






Starting your Bitstrip comic panels.

Create your own Pinhole Camera - from Handheld to 3D

Corbis is a "creative resource for advertising, marketing and media professionals worldwide" based in Seattle.

Corbis has created some great templates for Pinhole cameras that can be freely downloaded.



Move the lesson to the next level......
Once students have created their pinhole paper cameras move them into the visual 3D world.

Download a free 3D program such as Google SketchUp
and have the students design their own Pinhole Camera in 3D. Once they have completed that, import it into Deep Exploration and watch the magic. Students will be able to bring their Pinhole Camera to life. Students can learn what it is like to become digital instructional designer. Using Deep Exploration they will be able to tell/present their digital story on how their pinhole camera is put together what happens inside when the camera takes the picture - showing the end user how to use it.

This interactive 3D story can then be published in any of the Microsoft products (Word or PowerPoint) and Adobe Acrobat. Students can continue building their story around their interactive 3D story with further research (text) and 2D images.

Other links:

Wikipedia: Pinhole Camera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera

Pinhole Gallery - hundreds of pictures from artists around the world that have used a pinhole camera
http://www.pinhole.org/

Make a Pinhole Camera from a Pringles chip tube http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/pringles_pinhole.html

Pinhole Visions - the art of pinhole photography
http://www.pinhole.com/

MIT OpenCourseWare materials that are most useful for high school students and teachers.

MIT OpenCourseWare (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has over 1800 online courses to be viewed and freely participate in.

There is now a resource area called MIT OpenCourseWare: Highlights for High Schools that helps to support science, technology, engineering and math instruction at the high
school level.

One example is a guitar building project where students learn about the "physics principles by examining the physics responsible for producing music with electronic stringed instruments, while building, testing, and playing their own electric guitar. Students will design their own Guitar bodies, construct their own pick-ups, assemble their own guitars, tune them using a chromatic tuner, and use them to play a simple song."

Adventures in Art: Online Activites and Projects for Kids

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC (USA) has a great website that is full of resources for the classroom.

Two main education areas are:

• NGA Kids - this resources is full of interactive flash games, programs and projects for students of all ages to engage with.
  
• NGA Classroom: for Teachers and Students - lessons and resources can be accessed by a curriculum, topic, or artist.

Online Tours are available for exploration by artist, artworks or themes. There is also a large collection of videos and podcasts that can be downloaded about various topics related to art, artists and artworks.

Left brain supporting the right brain and a whole lot of Adobe

I came across the creativetechs blog last week.....what a great site! They offer great tech tips and training workshops (if you live in the Seattle area.)

You will find great tips on:

• everything Adobe
• links to other great website tutorials
• administrative information (ie: setting up a leopard server)
• how to create your own favicon using Genfavicon free website
• "Whats New in CS3" .pdf booklets....great tips and shortcuts

Definitely a site work checking out....you can even save it to you favourite news aggregate :)

Using Social Networking to teach Gaming Concepts globally

Playing games over the years has moved out of the arcade around the corner and into the home or on a mobile device. Games are used for learning, recreating simulations, and just for fun.

Using the social network hook, MyGLife.org is moving beyond the player and into users (youth 13 yrs and older) becoming game developers.

MyGLife.org is developed by World Wide Workshop, a "organization dedicated to conceptualizing and developing applications of Internet media technology to enhance learning, creativity and understanding among children and youth in developing communities around the world."

MyGLife.org has "100s of "educational activities, simulations and tutorials to play, learn, explore and contribute new ideas online."

Designed to help youth:

1. Learn internet media technology and game-development skills;
2. Hone professional and life skills;
3. Experience positive virtual communication with other communities; and
4. Foster social change
   (read more....)
   

School Chat....
The concept of learning through gaming, play, interactive medium is here to stay and evolving and changing as I type this post. It has woven its self into the corporate world and slowly into classrooms around the world. Working with students over the years in interactive media classrooms, I have seen first hand the power of learning when students are in the role of instructional designers and developers. When students are allowed to unpack and repackage information in a process and outcome that has come from them....time and time again it has been proven that through this process ALL types of learners are engaged and immersed in learning the content.

So next time you have a "project" for your students to do....let them create a learning artifact or module in an engaging and meaningful way. Either in the form of a game or some other interactive medium.

(First read from: BBC News)

Wearable Computers - the future is here

The Eurotech Group started out as an "idea factory" in Amaro, Italy. With offices now all around the world, Eurotech Group has become a leader in the "field of high technology for computer miniaturization."

A very unique product that Eurotech has developed which is ready for market is the Zypad, the "wearable computer." The Zypad WL 1000, and Zypad WL 1100

The idea of "wearable technology" or "wearable computers" has been around for awhile. Back in February, 2002 there was a posting that talked about Tokyo street fashion. It was titled "In Toyko, Street Fashion Goes High Tech".

We have seen wearable computers in film as part of a fictional possibility for years and now it is a reality.

School Chat....
So how could wearable computers work in a school setting? Imagine students working in collaborative groups. Future student workflow might look like this....

• students no longer need to carry laptops around or be restricted to desktop computers around the school.


• if students used a device similar to Zypad they would be able to work in a mobile collaborative environment.


• input devices such as keyboards and a mouse....not to worry. The wearable computer could work with a virtual keyboard that projected onto any surface (such as the I-Tech's Virtual Laser Keyboard shown to the right.)


• wearable computers have bluetooth and wireless capabilities and students can easily upload work to and from their personal learning digital storage area on the network.


• leaving for a field trip.....lets say to the zoo? Students upload GPS data to their wearable computers that their biology teacher has set. They are required to view certain types of marine and land mammals that they are studying in class. The GPS directions will easily move them through the zoo to the points of interest that the teacher wants them to touch upon.


• while at the zoo - each place the students stop to visit has a 3D interactive station that engages the students and tells the history of the animal they are looking at. Information can then be transferred through wireless connection from the interactive station to the students wearable computer.


• students are able to record what they see through the microphone built into their wearable computer..... this is saved as an .mp3 file.


• pictures can also be taken with the web camera that is built into the wearable computer.


• on return to the classroom from the field trip....students work in collaborative teams easily sharing their data from the trip to create a presentation from what they had discovered from their field trip.


• once presentations are complete they are uploaded to the class digital storage area and then presented to the rest of the class.

Just a small example of what could be done with the integration of wearable computers in the classroom.....but there are soooooooo many more exciting possibilities.

15,000 + TV shows & 250 Channels.....Free online TV with Joost

How important is it for countries to get their broadband and telecommunications up to snuff...just ask those innovators who are counting on television broadcasts coming through your computer.

The folks at Joost have opened up a new free online television website. "You're the channel director, the boss of TV land. Slice and dice to create your own channels. Watch what you want, when you want."

"You can sit back and watch on your own if you'd like, or you can jump and get involved. Chat, IM, and share..."

What kind of content is available? There is a lot of music video type stations and other popular culture...BUT there are a lot of educational stations that are currently available as well (just look under documentary....there are 14 to date.) For example - if you choose the TERRA (the nature of our world) station: you will find a documentary on The price of ivory or Jewels of the Jungle part 1.

Joost and Education
One of the strengths of Joost is the ability to "Chat with friends and other channel viewers while watching Joost using the IM or Channel Chat widgets."

This extends distance/global collaboration among students and teachers to a whole new level. Students around the world can have real-time discussions while watching a show together.

It will be interesting to see if Joost takes a YouTube approach....will people be able to create their own TV Channels?

A great way for students to present projects and work.....especially with a tool such as Adobe's Visual Communicator 3.

I see a whole lot of potential for education and corporate training.....it also opens some unique opportunities for 3D and interactive television.....this will be a site to watch. Give it a try.

Cold and germ transfers in computer labs.....Belkin releases a washable mouse

For any technology instructor, teacher or computer lab technician....we know that when the cold and flu season hits, one of the biggest transfer of germs from your students is through a computer mouse.

Belkin has come to the rescue with a new product (a search quickly showed some online vendors now selling this product) called the washable mouse.

This new mouse also has a changed look....the scroll wheel is now a scroll pad. The new navigation requires just a touch to let you scroll horizontally or vertically.

• Works on many household surfaces including upholstery and wood
• Features optical technology with 1200dpi
• Powered via USB cable (I am sure a bluetooth or wireless version is just around the corner)
• Suggested price is around US$29.99.

This new product will also be great for use with other home entertainment units such as game stations or web TV....where ever there may be liquids that could be spilled. I have sent a glass of water flying across my desk a few times during late night research sessions.....I have soaked a few keyboards and mice in my day.

Pinwheels for Peace: September 21, 2007 - A great project for individuals, classroom or whole school/community!

"In today’s world, peace needs to become more than just a word."

Pinwheels for Peace is an incredible program that was started by two art teachers Ann Ayers (also an Adobe Education Leader) and Ellen McMillan that teach at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, Florida. It was started as an art installation project in 2005 as a "way for students to express their feelings about what's going on in the world and in their lives."

(©2007 Ayers and McMillan)

Pinwheels are childhood symbols that students create in all sizes and shapes. As part of the creation process students are encouraged to write their thoughts about "war and peace/ living in harmony with others" on one side of the pinwheel, then visually design their feelings on the other side of the pinwheel.

View the photogallery of the last two years.

Once all the pinwheels are designed they are "planted" together outside on International Day of Peace, September 21, 2007.

In 2005 (the first Pinwheels for Peace) it was estimated that there were 500,000 pinwheels over 1,350 locations worldwide. 2006 approximately 1 million in 2,500 + locations. It would be great to beat that record for 2007!

Check out the locations around the world that have committed so far in participating for 2007.....your class/school could be one of them!

Simple Storytelling Technologies - Shadow Puppets with Raymond Crowe

Sometimes the simplest technologies have the biggest impact. It doesn't get much simpler than an overhead projector with a cardboard matte frame and a little imagination!

Below is a video that one of my colleagues sent me (thanks Barbara). The performer is Australian Raymond Crowe who performed this at the 7th Annual Helpmann Awards in August (Australian award show for live performance).

Please give it a moment to download and turn up your speakers!

Classroom Ideas:
Students can use this technique for storytelling.
Have your students plan their story. Storyboards can easily be produced using PowerPoint.

How (for Windows):

1. Open PPT
2. Use 1 PPT slide for a large storyboard templates or 3 PPT slides for smaller storyboard templates.
3. In PPT choose File --> Send to --> Microsoft Word.
4. I usually choose "Blank lines next to slides"
   
5. Word will automatically create the storyboard template and it can be saved or printed.
   

How (for Mac):

1. Open PPT
2. Use 1 blank PPT slide for a large storyboard templates or 3 blank PPT slides for smaller storyboard templates.
3. In PPT choose File --> Print
4. In the Print properties box choose "Print What" --> "Handouts (3 slides per page)"
   
5. You can select how many storyboard boxes (slides) you want per page.
6. Then choose to print to .pdf (to save the template) or print straight to your printer.
   

The students could use 2 different pathways to produce their story.

1. Work through it using their hands/light or cutouts/light. This can be video taped, edited with Premiere Elements or Premiere Pro, adding audio with programs like Soundbooth or Audition afterwards.....then published into a video podcast.
   OR
   
2. Create the silhouette characters and animated them in Flash CS3. Easy to add a soundtrack (music or script) with Soundbooth or Audition afterwards. This too can be published as a video podcast or as other video formats.
   

Students could use this short video as an introduction to a digital portfolio or as a part of a project presentation....have fun with this and let your imagination go :)

Links for the classroom:

• Puppets in the Drama Classroom
• Build a Puppet Shadow Theatre
• Make a Spider, Make a Dog, Make a Swan (pdf)
• Shadow Puppets and Their Presentation
• Lights Out! Tell a Puppet Story
• Puppetbuilding.com
  

Social PowerPoint Presentations?????

Everything on the web now is about sharing and social commenting....even our PowerPoints!

Slideshare is a place on the web to host and share your presentations. Now you can even create a slidecast which is a combination of your slides + podcast (audio).

How to get started

• Upload your presentation file to SlideShare.
• Go to Edit slideshow>Create Slidecast tab. Enter your mp3 url there
• Synchronize slides & audio using the synchronization tool and click publish

Your Slidecast is now ready for public viewing on SlideShare or anywhere else you embed the presentation.



I found this Slideshare by Alexei Kapterev and thought it would be suiting to include a "Death by PowerPoint" slideshare :)

You can embed or link any of your presentations or presentations that have been made public on Slideshare on your blog or website. If you are familiar with YouTube....then you are familiar with Slideshare. Your presentation is bundled up into a flash file (swf).

Classrooms....
Slidecasts can be loaded onto blogs for students to view if sick or use for study tools.

Desktop publishing starts to move to the web....

Web 2.0 is shifting what we did with standalone computer applications to web based applications. The earliest form of a web based application was Web Email....many have moved from using applications like Outlook as their only email source and also use Hotmail, Gmail, etc... just a couple of the many web based email services now available for free.

Limitations to web based applications and the success of these will depend on the Internet connections...which in many countries (sad to say) are still not efficient.

Still need a quick overview of Web 2.0? Watch the video (from YouTube) called: " 'Web 2.0' in just under 5 minutes. " by Michael Wesch (if you don't see the video below your network probably has YouTube blocked).


Tabblo (supported by HP) is a unique website that allows users to upload photos from a variety of sources (within Tabblo, Picasa, Flickr, your computer, etc...). You can create a number of different documents once logged into your free Tabblo account such as:

• online (photo album....a "tabblos")
• comic
• photocube (that you print and cutout)
• a book
• poster
• postcard

Customizable layout and design tools let you swap and resize pictures, add photo effects, customize colors and layouts, and add text to help you tell your story.

The Tabblo community: share your stuff, see what others are doing, see the photo challenges that are available for users to participate in.

Create your own video wall for your blog or MySpace page and more....

Known as the Remote Control for the Video Web, blinkx has an index of over 14 million hours of video....the website claims to be the largest and most advanced video search engine. With "more than 200 media partnerships, including national broadcasters, commercial media giants, and private video libraries, it has cemented its position as the premier destination for online TV."

blinkx users can search for video content, create personal video playlists, or build a customized Video Wall for their blog or MySpace page. The search engine behind blinkx was developed by a Cambridge University computer science graduate, Suranga Chandratilleke.

blinkx has come a long way since its development in 2004. What makes blinkx unique is it has spiders that search the audio track of millions of videos and indexes them. As some audio tracks many not have words metadata is also indexed.

Classroom....
Teachers can build a video wall for their classroom blog that deals with their classroom content. Students can build personal playlists to help them with their research projects. Give it a try.

My video wall for Barry Bonds (below)...successfully hitting #756 and beating the all time record...may take a minute to load...your school firewall may have some of the videos blocked. Just click on the box to activate and as you move your mouse over the video images each one will expand.

Online media album...telling digital stories

VoiceThread (beta) is a different way to build voice stories/communities through the web.

I think I could use VoiceThreads this morning as I have completely lost my voice to a winter bug :(

"A VoiceThread is an online media album that allows people to make comments, either audio or text, and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows an entire group's story to be told and collected in one place."

The VoiceThread marketing team created a great diagram explaining what VoiceThread "is not." They call it the proverbial elephant....check it out (roll your mouse over all of the points).

The cool thing about VoiceThread is you can have 1oo's of voices that comment on one of your images. Each voice is represented by a small avatar/image of that person. You can click on each image and hear the message the person left.

Classroom....
It could be a great tool that is used for peer review/collaboration. Students could post their work and other students could comment and critique the work by leaving audio messages (VoiceThreads).

Start with a story concept and use VoiceThreads to build the story....everyone could add a piece....what direction would your story take?

Access free archived webpages, moving images, texts, audio, software and more

Internet Archive (a non-profit) "is a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, they provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public." June, 2007 the Internet Archive officially became a library according to the State of California.

The Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections.

Presently in the archive there are:

• 81,652 movies
  
• 41,948 concerts (live music archive)
  
• 167,691 recordings (audio)
  
• 239,925 texts
  
• 85 billion pages (archived webpages)

This collection is growing everyday!

Text, for example, can be available in a variety of formats: PDF, DjVu, B/W PDF, TXT, Flip Book, and via FTP.

Great tool for research and presentations:

Whether you are looking for a video or audio files for a presentation/assignment there are an amazing collection of media files to download.

NOTE: As this website is based on "free speech and free access to all" there may be content on here that is not appropriate for young children. Please be sure to check through web content prior to using in a classroom with students.

Designing for Small Screens and Mobility

After attending the Adobe Education Leadership Institute last week in San Francisco (see postings for the last week of July) and listening to the various presentations by product managers....it enforces my plea to digital media instructors (if you haven't already).......start teaching your students HOW to design for small screens AND everyone else should be at least having discussions around the impact/influences this is having on our lives (good and bad).

Of course the only restriction to HOW SMALL the industry will be able to go with screen size is going to be the restriction of the human eye. I already know of several new technologies that are addressing this issue now and I am sure there will be many more ideas/designs in development to deal with our human deficiencies.

A great book that I found while wandering the bookstore at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) a week ago (at a day session with the LifeLongKindergarten research group). There were so many great books....but there is only so much weight one can carry on the plane! Designing for Small Screens written by a group of authors that call themselves Studio 7.5 . It is an easy book to read with a lot of great images that you could use in your classroom. It starts with the history of mobile devices and then moves into understanding how to design for a small screen.

Another great book to accompany this book that I have written about last year is sisomo (sight, sound, motion) by Kevin Roberts. That discusses how "screens" impact and interact with our lives.

Two good books to start you going (along with the links below) if you are designing or teaching for small screens (which in my opinion....needs to be taught in ANY interactive media program).

Further Resources:

• Paul D. Hibbitts (a usability/user interface design specialist & university instructor) has compiled a great collection of resources on his website related to small screen interfaces.
  
• Small Surfaces - http://www.smallsurfaces.com/
  
• Article: Reading in a Digital Age: e-Books Are Students Ready For This Learning Object? (PDF) http://ijklo.org/Volume3/IJKLOv3p239-250Buzzetto.pdf

Building Learning Communities....turning the corners....Day 2

There have been several organized activities that have been setup for the BLC conference...last night we did the Boston Duck Tour with several of our groups from the conference. It was a great tour. The Duck Tour guide/driver "Captain Covert" was absolutely hilarious! Not only did we get a good overview of the history of Boston but we got a stand-up comic routine as well. There were quite a few duck boats scooting around the town and I am sure that all the guides were great....but I highly recommend Captain Covert if you get a chance to choose.

After the tour, people had a chance to either do some shopping, eat dinner or have a walk. Our small international group (Canada/NZ, UK and AUS) decided to take the walk to find the Cheers Bar....which we did.

You never know what is going to happen at a conference or in a hotel. Last night after we returned to our room and ready to get some sleep...I started to hear water running....I jumped up and ran into the bathroom and there was a stream of water coming out of our bathroom ceiling all over the bathroom. I ran down to the front desk to let them know....they ran up to the room above us and apparently the room above had plugged their toilet and flushed it a couple of times.....apparently a lot! The water continued to stream down for what seemed like an eternity but was about 30 - 45 minutes. The floor was flooded. The hotel was booked solid but a room was found for us and we had to move rooms around 1:30 in the morning.

Ewan McIntosh did another great presentation this morning on "We're Adopting: An Adoption Strategy for Social Software in Education." Ewan talked about the strategies that he and his team in Scotland use to encourage teachers to use technology.

Emergent is an important aspect in the success of teacher technology integration. Emergent behaviour is is basically learning by example.

5 examples of emergent behaviour is:

• lead by example
• lead by reminding
• provide adequate support
• lead by mandate (one of the worst things to do...ONLY use it if you ABSOLUTELY have to)
• personal and school benefits compliment each other

The last presentation of the afternoon was Marco Torres. Marco's presentation "Lights, Camera, Learn: Movie-Making Made Simple and Fun!"

All week Marco's students have been here at the conference videotaping (for podcasts on the BLC07 site) and taking photographs to record the conference. I had a chance to talk to these young people and they are really amazing. The ideas, positive outlook and passion that they have for their work and their future was quite inspiring.

Marco is a social studies teacher that found a voice for his students through video. Marco talked about the ownership of multimedia and stated that it is a language that isn't owned by anyone. Multimedia is a tool to be able to communicate effectively and globally. Some steps and tips on best practices was highlighted in the workshop. Check out the links below for further information.

Websites:
sfett.com (student website with lots of films the students have produced)
cinedlg.com (produced outside visiting schools)
FlickSchool.com (podcasts on quick how-to's)

Building Learning Communities....let the games begin

Day 1 of the BLC conference is an early one with a lot of people attending the "earlybird workshops", grabbing a bite to eat and then off to the keynote....all before 8:30 am!

On most seats was an egg remote called Activote. The key note Dr. Tim Tyson used this in the first couple of his slides. Several questions were asked....press A, B, C or D for your answer. And instantly a graph appeared on the PPT slide showing the results of the audience.

A few things that stood out for me from Tim Tyson's presentation:

• "Can we shift control (in the schools) to the kids to empower their learning?"
• In examinations....are we testing memorization or are we testing accessing knowledge/information. If the latter then students should be able to bring all of their resources with them into the examination room.
• "Who is doing the thinking work in your classroom?" Usually the teachers while the students think passively and only do what is asked of them.

Tim Tyson spoke of what a Web 2.0 school should look like....the relationship of technology and the student body:

• learners authentically engaged
• self-directed learning
• project driven instruction
• independent problem solvers
• empowered by technology innovation
• collaborative learning environment
• relevant

Session 2 - Marc Prensky:
Marc presented several points for the audience to think about. He believes there will be several things to look at for the future:

- programming as the 21st century language
- exponential change
- the new paradigm of learning
- the new rules of engagement

We should have our kids master:
- oral communication
- logical thinking
- the 7 habits of highly effective people (this isn't a secret from the adult world...share it with our kids)
- programming

The last session of the day was Ewan McIntosh had a great presentation on Public Body (and private faces). He talked about the different spaces we use.....Secret Spaces (such as mobile, SMS and IM...), Group Spaces (Bebo, Tagged, Facebook, etc...), Publishing Spaces (LiveJournal, Blogger, Flickr, Photobucket...), Participation Spaces (Marches, Meetings, Markets...), Performing Spaces (SecondLife, Presentations, World of Warcraft, Home...), and Watching Spaces (TV, Gigs, Theatre, etc...).

Ewan talked about EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES make the biggest impact. For example...CD ROMs have the least amount of impact on technology....but still used it education.

Ways to share it all will have the biggest impact! eduBuzz.org is a wiki that Ewan and his colleagues have put together to help their educational community have a voice.

A colleague of Ewans (okay well actually his boss) runs an interesting blog called Don's Blog....one interesting article is Emeging Leadership issues...which has a huge impact on moving forward (or hoping to) in brining emerging technologies into your program or school.

Last session of the day is Marco Torres - Lights, Camera, Learn: Movie-Making Made Simple and Fun!"

Scratch - a free programming language great for all ages

I attended a full day Scratch workshop today at MIT with the folks from the LifeLongKindergarten program. Program Director Mitchel Resnick works with his team of developers, researchers, consultants and students in developing new ways to "engage people in creative learning experiences."

Walking into the E15-100 has several projects happening in this huge 2-story collaboration area the LEGO Learning Laboratory/Smart Cities/Computing Culture/and Lifelong Kindergarten projects.

As you walk into the area there are huge bins that climb the walls full of LEGO ( Mindstorm came out of collaboration from this group for LEGO.)

Scratch is a great programming language that can be used to create your own animations, games, interactive art and digital stories. It is presently being used in primary, intermediate and high schools.

Download Scratch Projects that have been uploaded to the gallery and pull apart the code blocks to see how projects have been built.

The Scratch Boards take the interactivity the students can develop to a whole new level. The boards can be purchased online from the Scratch website and allow students to create Scratch projects that "sense and respond to things going on in the world outside your computer." A demo was given to us on how to use the alligator clamps and a banana peel to play music. This one you HAVE to try...check out Ewan McIntosh's posting where he video taped the banana playing in action!

Schools/classes can setup a free account in the Computer Clubhouse and share their Scratch projects with other students in a safe environment.
To download your free copy of Scratch....go to the download page (Mac or PC) and start to have fun!