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		<managingEditor>theartguy@gmail.com (Academic Aesthetic)</managingEditor>
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		<category>posts</category>
		<ttl>1440</ttl>
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		<itunes:summary>Art.  Education.  Technology.</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author>Academic Aesthetic</itunes:author>
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			<itunes:name>Academic Aesthetic</itunes:name>
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			<title>Academic Aesthetic</title>
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		<title>Half of what you see&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/03/12/half-of-what-you-see/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/03/12/half-of-what-you-see/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:08:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=798</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A day or two ago I encountered this image via Twitter.  Take a moment to go over it, there will be a test afterward.

Looks like your standard &#8220;Macs are SOOO expensive compared to PCs are you getting what you&#8217;re paying for?&#8221; ad, right?  A few things struck me when I saw this, but first let [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A day or two ago I encountered this image via Twitter.  Take a moment to go over it, there will be a test afterward.</p>
<p><a href="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/compare.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-799" title="compare" src="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/compare.png" alt="" width="483" height="559" /></a></p>
<p>Looks like your standard &#8220;Macs are SOOO expensive compared to PCs are you getting what you&#8217;re paying for?&#8221; ad, right?  A few things struck me when I saw this, but first let me lay down a ground rule:</p>
<p><strong>I am NOT going to try to disprove that Macs cost more!</strong></p>
<p>Sure, I can probably shop around to find a PC manufacturer that costs the same as or more than Mac hardware, but if I shop wisely then chances are I can walk out the door with a PC and more money in my pocket than if I get a Mac with the same specs. One can argue cost over time and yadda yadda yadda, but that is not the purpose of this post.</p>
<p>Now I know Macs don&#8217;t come that cheap, particularly the towers (which tend to be more high end than the iMacs), but that number still seemed high to me so I thought I&#8217;d take a visit to Apple.com and see if I could recreate that total.</p>
<ul>
<li>I avoided the Education store.  As a teacher I can get some nifty discounts, but for this test I felt that would be cheating.</li>
<li>Apple does not offer a 1.5 TB drive.  I went with a 2 TB drive instead.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here&#8217;s the parts I don&#8217;t quite agree with.  To get the total they list&#8230;</p>
<ul>
<li>I had to use the Apple RAM, <strong>which no Apple user in their right mind  would do</strong>.  You can get the exact same RAM from places like  Crucial.com for much less.</li>
<li>Ditto for the monitors.  You can get the same quality and size for a lot less if you go elsewhere.  Just do a Google search for &#8220;24&#8243; flat panel monitor.&#8221;  Anything less than $900 will save you money.</li>
</ul>
<p>Is the Apple option more expensive anyway?  Yes.  But the creator of this image played their cards right to make the price be as high as possible to emphasize their point.  I&#8217;m not blaming them for this &#8211; advertisers do this all the time.  <strong>It&#8217;s our job as consumers to notice this and take it into account.</strong></p>
<p>There&#8217;s one last thing I&#8217;d like to point out.  Let&#8217;s focus on a single line:</p>
<p><a href="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/compare2.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-800" title="compare2" src="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/compare2.png" alt="" width="479" height="19" /></a>Why look at that!  Everyone knows Macs aren&#8217;t upgradable!  This makes total and complete sense!</p>
<p>&#8230; or not.</p>
<p>If they had made this comparison with the iMac or any of the laptops, they would have had half a leg to stand on.  (You can upgrade the RAM and hard drives, but admittedly to conserve space the rest of the components are soldered together like they are in PC laptops.)</p>
<p>But they went high end, trying to show as powerful a pair of computers as they could.  Mac towers are just as modular as PC towers.   With the possible exception of the motherboard (I haven&#8217;t messed with those for a few years) I can swap out the components in a Mac tower as much as I want.  There are plenty of bays for other drives, and I can even turn it into a RAID if I want.</p>
<p><strong>Half of what you see &#8230;</strong></p>
<p>Is there some truth in the image?  Yes.  I did not display it to say it was 100% false.  But it is not 100% accurate.  It assumes those purchasing the Mac will make several bad decisions that I would not expect someone with the need for that much hardware to make.</p>
<p>It has enough truth in it to make people relax and accept the rest of it as fact as well.</p>
<p>Most advertisers do this.</p>
<p>Many people spreading hoaxes (see my last post about phishing) do this.</p>
<p>And it is our job, as consumers of information, to realize this before we react to what is handed to us.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Don&#8217;t Be A Phish</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/03/10/dont-be-a-phish/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/03/10/dont-be-a-phish/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:51:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=790</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This post has been brewing for a while. What&#8217;s finally gotten me to write it down is the recent spread of compromised Twitter accounts. Teachers &#8211; DEN Stars and more &#8211; are falling for phishing scams because they don&#8217;t recognize the warning signs.  If this post prevents just one person from having an account compromised, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This post has been brewing for a while. What&#8217;s finally gotten me to write it down is the recent spread of compromised Twitter accounts. Teachers &#8211; <a href="http://www.discoveryeducation.com/" target="_blank">DEN Stars</a> and more &#8211; are falling for phishing scams because they don&#8217;t recognize the warning signs.  If this post prevents just one person from having an account compromised, I will consider it worth writing.</p>
<h1>Definition</h1>
<p>Phishing involves tricking people into lowering their guard and giving up something.  It could be a Twitter account info or your online bank login.  Whatever it is, the phisher has conned you into doing something.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s right, the people who do phishing scams are con artists.  Only instead of convincing your grandmother to invest your inheritance in a nonexistent company they&#8217;re convincing hundreds (or thousands) of people to type their PayPal information into a site that looks just like PayPal &#8230; only it isn&#8217;t.  Phishing isn&#8217;t one guy with a pole, hook, and a worm, it&#8217;s a fleet of ships with nets that stretch for miles.</p>
<p>And once you get phished, in most cases you unwittingly join that fleet.  Compromised Twitter accounts send out messages to other people encouraging them to go to the same sites and enter the same information that doomed them.  The same behavior can be seen in email and even online video games like World of Warcraft.</p>
<p>Oh, and phishing is NOT hacking.  I&#8217;ve a friend or two that foam at the mouth when they hear the words used interchangeably, so this paragraph is for them.  In some cases I&#8217;ve heard it called &#8220;social hacking,&#8221; which is at the same time a better and worse description of what&#8217;s taking place.  There is no teenager with more piercings than a pincushion hanging out in his mom&#8217;s basement typing zeroes and ones into a terminal to get into your Facebook account.  More likely it&#8217;s someone with ties to organized crime thinking up emails that would convince your mother that her bank has asked her to log in and verify her identity.</p>
<h1>Prevention</h1>
<p>I&#8217;ve divided anti-phishing techniques into three categories: Hardware, Software, and Social.</p>
<p><strong>Social</strong></p>
<p>Biggest category first.  Get the best hardware and software together and someone can still convince my mother to disable all the safeguards and let in the troublemakers.  Sorry, Mom.  I love you, but it&#8217;s true.</p>
<p><strong>1. Trust nobody.</strong> Just because the email header says its from your best friend does not mean they wrote it.  Just because your sister sent you a Direct Message in Twitter does not mean she found a picture of you that will require you to log into Twitter &#8211; again.  Email headers have been getting spoofed for years, and anyone who has been successfully phished will usually have their compromised account sending out the same message that tricked them to all their friends/followers/contacts.  When in doubt, contact them through another media and ask them if they really sent you that message.</p>
<p><strong>2. Look at links.</strong> PayPal&#8217;s web address is &#8220;PayPal.com,&#8221; not &#8220;PayPaI.com.&#8221;  Look the same?  One ends in a lower case &#8220;L&#8221; while the other ends in an upper case &#8220;i.&#8221;  You&#8217;ll also find wider variations like &#8220;Paypal.ohcomeonyoucantrustusreally.com&#8221;  Replace PayPal with essentially any web based service you can possibly think of.  The more popular it is, the more likely someone out there has made a phishing scam for it.</p>
<p>Why does this matter?  If you go to the wrong address and enter your login and password, you&#8217;re not actually logging in.  You&#8217;re giving your information to the scammer.  Now they&#8217;re logging in as you and doing whatever they want &#8211; usually by changing your password first.<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>3. If you can&#8217;t find it after typing the site address in  manually and logging in, then it isn&#8217;t true either</strong>. This relates to #2.  I&#8217;m constantly  getting emails telling me my PayPal account has been compromised and I  need to click on a link in the email and verify my settings or I will lose everything oh no!  (Of course I don&#8217;t have a PayPal account so I wasn&#8217;t phased by this at all, but plenty of others do.)  If you get an email like that for any service and you think it MIGHT be legitimate, type the web address in by hand.  In this example, I would go to PayPal.com and log in.  If I can&#8217;t find the same notice on that site, then I just avoided getting phished.</p>
<p><strong>4. If it sounds too good to be true, then it usually is</strong>.   You did not win the lottery in London.  (Protip: you have to buy a  ticket first.)  No one in Nigeria wants you to help funnel money out of  their Country.  Blizzard is not giving out exclusive in-game mounts to  select World of Warcraft players.  I&#8217;ve had people trying to scam me  with each of these.  Report them if you have that option, delete and  forget the messages if you don&#8217;t.</p>
<p><strong>5. Change your password &#8211; often</strong>.  This won&#8217;t exactly prevent phishing but it&#8217;s a good security tip nonetheless so I&#8217;m throwing it in here.  While you&#8217;re at it, make it a password that&#8217;s hard to guess.  &#8220;12345,&#8221; &#8220;qwerty,&#8221; the name or birthday of someone close to you, and (for the love of all that is holy please not this one) &#8220;password&#8221; are all horrible passwords and should never be used.</p>
<p><strong>Software</strong></p>
<p>There really isn&#8217;t any software that will 100% prevent you from getting phished.  There IS, however, software that will lessen the blow should you happen to get tricked.</p>
<p><strong>1. Firefox</strong>.  If you&#8217;re running a Windows based computer, there are some things you just have to use Internet Explorer for.  At work, I use IE to add networked printers to the computers in my building and install certain software packages.</p>
<p>For everything else, use <a href="http://www.firefox.com" target="_blank">Firefox</a>.  It is more secure than Internet Explorer has ever been and when security holes ARE found they get fixed FAST.  I&#8217;ve heard some people tell me how slick Google&#8217;s Chrome browser is, but it still doesn&#8217;t compete with Firefox for security.</p>
<p><strong>2. NoScript</strong>.  Firefox is awesome in part because it allows you to install different addons to give you different features that aren&#8217;t available out of the box.  I&#8217;m not too crazy about installing every useful addon I find, but I simply LOVE <a href="http://noscript.net/" target="_blank">NoScript</a>.  In a nutshell, it blocks all javascript, java, cookies, flash, and anything else that can potentially be used to compromise your system.  You can add sites that you trust to NoScript&#8217;s white list of allowed URLs to enable things from those domains on a permanent or temporary basis as you see fit, so sites broken by having their flash based content blocked won&#8217;t stay broken if you really need to see that dancing monkey.</p>
<p>As an extra bonus: By its very nature, NoScript blocks the more annoying ads that you see on various web sites.</p>
<p><strong>3.  Antivirus</strong>.  Find a good one and keep it updated.  Do not install any &#8220;antivirus&#8221; that you see in a pop-up ad, as many of those are in fact spyware.</p>
<p>Also, only use ONE antivirus.  Antivirus programs have recognized each other as viruses in the past.  You don&#8217;t want them trying to remove each other on you.</p>
<p><strong>4. Anti-Spyware</strong> Same as Antivirus except Spyware programs will often play nice with each other.  Get at least two and run scans frequently.  Many phishing sites will attempt to install keyloggers on your computer.  These particular spyware programs will remember everything you type (as in &#8211; your passwords) and send that information back home.  Countless people have been phished once and recovered just in time to have another account compromised because the first attempt opened up a back door.  A good anti-spyware program can help prevent that.  <a href="http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-avg-anti-virus-free" target="_blank">AVG is free and not bad</a>, and <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx" target="_blank">Microsoft has released their own as well</a>.</p>
<p>5. <strong>Another OS</strong>.  Most of the world may run on Windows, but that doesn&#8217;t mean WE have to.  Linux and Mac OS X are both operating systems that are frequently ignored by people who write spyware and/or viruses.  Using them isn&#8217;t a substitute for paying attention to the things under the &#8220;Social&#8221; section, but it DOES add an additional layer of protection.  Linux is often free and can run off of something as simple as a thumb drive, so if you&#8217;re curious you may want to download a version and try it out with no risk whatsoever.  <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/" target="_blank">Currently Ubuntu is one of the more popular flavors of Linux</a> &#8211; I have a whole post about that brewing for later.</p>
<p><strong>Hardware</strong></p>
<p>I saved this one for last because there&#8217;s not a lot to it.  People have ignored these facets for years and still avoided phishing attempts.  That being said, I think both points in this section are at the very least worth consideration.</p>
<p>1. <strong>Get an authenticator</strong>.  These devices are not widely used yet, but they add a layer of complexity to logging in to services that most phishing scams have yet to take into account.  World of Warcraft &#8211; arguably one of the most popular video games ever &#8211; has been publicizing its authenticator for some time now.  Other services, like PayPal, are compatible with authenticators as well.  <a href="http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-103.htm" target="_blank">This episode of the Security Now podcast is a little dated, but offers a decent description of how they work</a>.</p>
<p><strong>2. Get a Mac</strong>.  I&#8217;m not going to set myself up for a fall by saying Macs are invincible.  Any time something is made to be foolproof someone goes and builds a better fool, after all.  However, as Macs are a much smaller portion of the market they tend to be overlooked by some aspects of phishing scams.  Spyware made to run on a Windows machine is not going to run on my Mac.  Does this make me safe?  No.  Does this make me safer than if I used a computer running Windows?  Potentially yes.</p>
<p>Security should not be your only incentive for getting a Mac, but if you&#8217;re already thinking about it this is something that could be an additional point in Mac&#8217;s favor.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Door Animation</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/02/23/door-animation/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/02/23/door-animation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:11:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=786</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As in &#8220;Watch out for that DOOR!&#8221;
Yes, I&#8217;m still playing with Frames.  And my students start using it this week.
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As in &#8220;Watch out for that <a href="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/DOOR.mp4">DOOR</a>!&#8221;</p>
<p>Yes, I&#8217;m still playing with Frames.  And my students start using it this week.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<itunes:duration>00:01:01</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>As in "Watch out for that DOOR!"

Yes, I'm still playing with Frames.nbsp; And my students start using it this week. </itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>As in "Watch out for that DOOR!"

Yes, I'm still playing with Frames.nbsp; And my students start using it this week.</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:keywords>Uncategorized</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:author>theartguy@gmail.com</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:block>No</itunes:block>
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		<title>Playing with Frames</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/02/19/playing-with-frames/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/02/19/playing-with-frames/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:12:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Misc. Video]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=775</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m at a Clay Animation training session sponsored by my employer.  I&#8217;ve done stop motion animation before, but not with Frames.
I&#8217;m really liking Frames.  My previous animations have all been compiled in iMovie or (against my will) MovieMaker.  Those programs work, and are often pre-installed on computers, but Frames was designed specifically for stop-motion animation.  [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m at a Clay Animation training session sponsored by my employer.  I&#8217;ve done stop motion animation before, but not with <a title="Software by Tech4Learning" href="http://www.tech4learning.com/frames" target="_blank">Frames</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Frames-MouseAnimation-2.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full  wp-image-778" title="Frames-MouseAnimation-2" src="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Frames-MouseAnimation-2.png" alt="" width="500" height="305" /></a>I&#8217;m really liking Frames.  My previous animations have all been compiled in iMovie or (against my will) MovieMaker.  Those programs work, and are often pre-installed on computers, but Frames was designed <em>specifically</em> for stop-motion animation.  Most of the concerns I had going in were resolved in an &#8220;Oh, so it <em>can</em> do that&#8221; way, followed by an &#8220;Oh, you mean it can <em>also</em> do <em>this</em>?!&#8221; moment.</p>
<p>I&#8217;d write more about it, but I have to go back to playing &#8230; er, I mean learning how to use this software.</p>
<p>(Oh, and if you liked the music, <a title="21 MP3 Bits for Video" href="http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2007/11/18/21-mp3-bits-for-video.html" target="_blank">Bre Pettis made it</a>.)</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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<enclosure url="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/MouseAnimation.mp4" length="801864" type="video/mp4" />
		<enclosure url="http://academicaesthetic.com/podpress_trac/feed/775/0/MouseAnimation.mp4" length="801864" type="audio/mpeg"/>
<itunes:duration>00:01:01</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>I'm at a Clay Animation training session sponsored by my employer.nbsp; I've done stop motion animation before, but not with Frames.

I'm really liking Frames.nbsp; My ...</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>I'm at a Clay Animation training session sponsored by my employer.nbsp; I've done stop motion animation before, but not with Frames.

I'm really liking Frames.nbsp; My previous animations have all been compiled in iMovie or (against my will) MovieMaker.nbsp; Those programs work, and are often pre-installed on computers, but Frames was designed specifically for stop-motion animation.nbsp; Most of the concerns I had going in were resolved in an "Oh, so it can do that" way, followed by an "Oh, you mean it can also do this?!" moment.

I'd write more about it, but I have to go back to playing ... er, I mean learning how to use this software.

(Oh, and if you liked the music, Bre Pettis made it.)</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:keywords>Art,,Education,,Misc.,Video,,Technology</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:author>theartguy@gmail.com</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:block>No</itunes:block>
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		<item>
		<title>Ask me &#8230; anything?</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/02/08/ask-me-anything/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/02/08/ask-me-anything/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:27:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=769</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
So I submitted a proposal for this year&#8217;s MICCA MSET conference, and since I&#8217;m under the delusion that I might actually have my proposal accepted I&#8217;m researching even more web based tools that could be used to enhance classroom instruction.  This is one of them.
I withhold my opinion on it until I&#8217;ve had a chance [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a title="Formspring.me" href="http://www.formspring.me/theartguy" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://img.skitch.com/20100208-k2b5jq9crbpcj1qj9gqdia1tmy.preview.jpg" alt="formspring" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">So I submitted a proposal for this year&#8217;s <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">MICCA</span> <a title="Conference formerly known as MICCA" href="https://www.msetonline.org/" target="_blank">MSET conference</a>, and since I&#8217;m under the delusion that I might actually have my proposal accepted I&#8217;m researching <em>even more </em>web based tools that could be used to enhance classroom instruction.  <a href="http://www.formspring.me/theartguy" target="_blank">This is one of them</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">I withhold my opinion on it until I&#8217;ve had a chance to kick the tires a bit, and I&#8217;d like your help with that if possible.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">So go ahead.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.formspring.me/theartguy" target="_blank">Ask me anything</a>.</p>
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		<title>You found me.</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/01/06/you-found-me/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/01/06/you-found-me/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:38:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/2010/01/06/you-found-me/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you are in my Technology Concepts class and you are reading this now, congratulations &#8211; you found my blog!  Now good luck on today&#8217;s test.
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you are in my Technology Concepts class and you are reading this now, congratulations &#8211; you found my blog!  Now good luck on today&#8217;s test.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>New toy.</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/12/30/new-toy/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/12/30/new-toy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:17:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/12/30/new-toy/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
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		New toy., originally uploaded by TheArtGuy.
	

Used some Christmas cash from my parents to buy my first digital camera in years &#8211; A Canon PowerShot SX120 IS.
10x optical zoom, full manual mode, 10 megapixels, AND it still fits [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<style type="text/css">
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</style>
<div class="flickr-frame">
	<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartguy/4227850249/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4227850249_cfcb577116_m.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="New toy." /></a><br />
	<span class="flickr-caption"><br />
		<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartguy/4227850249/">New toy.</a>,<br /> originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/theartguy/">TheArtGuy</a>.<br />
	</span>
</div>
<p>Used some Christmas cash from my parents to buy my first digital camera in years &#8211; A Canon PowerShot SX120 IS.</p>
<p>10x optical zoom, full manual mode, 10 megapixels, AND it still fits in my pocket since that wonderful zoom lens retracts almost completely into the body.</p>
<p>Does this mean I&#8217;ll be taking more pictures (and ones that aren&#8217;t from a blurry little cameraphone) this year?</p>
<p>Oh, I hope so.<br />
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry<br />
<br clear="all" /></p>
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		<title>PUWT Bingo</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/11/14/puwt-bingo/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/11/14/puwt-bingo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:33:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=760</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m at the PUWT conference again, and it&#8217;s awesome as usual.
That being said, here&#8217;s some things that I&#8217;ve encountered at every conference I&#8217;ve ever attended (click to make it bigger):

There&#8217;s some good and bad in there &#8211; there always is &#8211; but if you look you&#8217;ll see the good vastly outweighs the bad.
And that&#8217;s something [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m at the PUWT conference again, and it&#8217;s awesome as usual.</p>
<p>That being said, here&#8217;s some things that I&#8217;ve encountered at every conference I&#8217;ve ever attended (click to make it bigger):</p>
<p><a href="http://img.skitch.com/20091114-qttex95c1n3n3hsmx5sakkuh4u.png"><img src="http://img.skitch.com/20091114-qttex95c1n3n3hsmx5sakkuh4u.png" alt="" width="75%" /></a></p>
<p>There&#8217;s some good and bad in there &#8211; there always is &#8211; but if you look you&#8217;ll see the good vastly outweighs the bad.</p>
<p>And that&#8217;s something that helps make it awesome.</p>
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		<title>Things to do at the new job:</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/08/11/things-to-do-at-the-new-job/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/08/11/things-to-do-at-the-new-job/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:44:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nextgenteachers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/08/11/things-to-do-at-the-new-job/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Start Monday. (Woohoo!)
Use no textbooks.  Textbooks, especially ones about technology, seem like they&#8217;re out of date before they&#8217;re shipped.
Avoid handouts whenever possible.  Papers have an annoying habit of getting lost, &#8220;lost,&#8221; or simply ignored.  Also, I&#8217;ve never seen a school copier go more than 4 weeks without having a spectacular meltdown.  Handouts have their uses, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<ol>
<li><strong>Start Monday</strong>. (Woohoo!)</li>
<li><strong>Use no textbooks</strong>.  Textbooks, <em>especially</em> ones about technology, seem like they&#8217;re out of date before they&#8217;re shipped.</li>
<li><strong>Avoid handouts whenever possible</strong>.  Papers have an annoying habit of getting lost, &#8220;lost,&#8221; or simply ignored.  Also, I&#8217;ve never seen a school copier go more than 4 weeks without having a spectacular meltdown.  Handouts have their uses, but I refuse to be one of the teachers staring at a copier exuding the <a title="Wikipedia Article" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_smoke" target="_blank">magic blue smoke</a> 5 minutes before class and wondering what I&#8217;ll do now that my entire day&#8217;s lesson plans are shot.</li>
<li><strong>Avoid paper whenever possible</strong>.  When I first played with the form feature in Google Docs, my initial thought was &#8220;I could use this to build a test!&#8221;  I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll be using Google Docs for everything, but I will find ways for students to hand their work into me digitally.  I&#8217;m looking at a Drupal installation for this at the moment, though I might play with Moodle if Drupal doesn&#8217;t fit the bill.</li>
<li><strong>Use wikis</strong>.  They&#8217;re easy to update, tamper resistant, and can replace textbooks and handouts in my classroom.  The best part is I expect my students to have a sense of ownership if they know that they helped make the class &#8220;textbook.&#8221;</li>
<li><strong>Tie art in with everything</strong>.  It&#8217;s an art class.  It&#8217;s a computer class.  It&#8217;s <em>both</em>.  I intend to keep it that way.  The technology aspect is hard to avoid when teaching in a computer lab, but one can lose sight of the art when dealing with MS Word.</li>
<li><strong>Avoid busywork</strong>.  As any former substitute will tell you, a class can sense fear.  They can also sense when you&#8217;re wasting their time.  Every lesson I plan will have me asking &#8220;When will they need to know this?&#8221;  I&#8217;ll ask, because my students will be asking as well.</li>
<li><strong>Have students blog</strong>.  Maybe not every day.  Maybe not every class.  Maybe not in a way that allows the whole world to see everything they write, but every day people are using social networking platforms in ways that will hurt them in the long run.  One of my goals is to teach them how to do it responsibly.</li>
<li><strong>Blog more</strong>.  This is a new position with a very open curriculum.  There are frameworks in place, of course, but I have a lot of freedom and that means I&#8217;ll be trying a lot of new ideas.  I intend to share what does and doesn&#8217;t work.</li>
</ol>
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		<title>On the new position</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/07/12/on-the-new-position/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/07/12/on-the-new-position/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:00:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=757</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Things I will miss:

 The students. Sure, there will be students at the new building, But I feel this way every time I lose a building. This doesn&#8217;t get easier through repetition.
The staff.  With some exceptions, the staff (and not just the teachers!) in all of my buildings were joys to work with.
Getting my [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a title="6Puppets08_10 by TheArtGuy, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartguy/2401205235/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2057/2401205235_bba2dda905.jpg" alt="6Puppets08_10" width="500" height="375" /></a></p>
<p>Things I will miss:</p>
<ul>
<li> <strong>The students</strong>. Sure, there will be students at the new building, But I feel this way every time I lose a building. This doesn&#8217;t get easier through repetition.</li>
<li><strong>The staff</strong>.  With some exceptions, the staff (and not just the teachers!) in all of my buildings were joys to work with.</li>
<li><strong>Getting my hands dirty</strong>.  There&#8217;s nothing like a good ceramics project.  Or painting project.  Or any media that requires a sink.</li>
<li><strong>The local community</strong>.  The town surrounding my base school is on my top 10 list of places to live.</li>
<li><strong>The mobility</strong>.  As an itinerant teacher I got to visit 60+ classrooms a year.  For all its drawbacks, that was a great opportunity to observe vastly different learning styles and take the best from each.  I am certain it has made me a better teacher.</li>
</ul>
<p>Things I won&#8217;t miss:</p>
<ul>
<li> Waking up in the morning and wondering, in my state of &#8220;not quite awake&#8221;-ness if I&#8217;m at the 7 AM building today, and therefore late, or the 8 AM building, and therefore will get there on time. (Then usually I would look at my clock and realize it was 2 AM and I should really go back to sleep.)</li>
<li>Being required to make other teachers complete certain tasks without the authority to make them complete those tasks.  I will not go into details here.</li>
<li>Only seeing my students four or five times a year.</li>
<li>Having my office / storage area consist of half the conference room, separated by a temporary wall that blocked no sound whatsoever.  (I wore headphones for multiple reasons.)</li>
</ul>
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		<title>What I did this Summer</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/07/09/what-i-did-this-summer/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/07/09/what-i-did-this-summer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:49:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/07/09/what-i-did-this-summer/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What I did not do:

Spend lots of time blogging.
Go to technology conferences.
Spend lots of time with my PLN.

What I did do:

Unplugged and spent quality time with the wife.
Plugged back in to play video games &#8230; with the wife.
Got a job offer for an art/tech position where I will have my own computer lab and see [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What I did <em>not</em> do:</p>
<ul>
<li>Spend lots of time blogging.</li>
<li>Go to technology conferences.</li>
<li>Spend lots of time with my <a title="Plurk " href="http://www.plurk.com/theartguy" target="_blank">PLN</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>What I <em>did</em> do:</p>
<ul>
<li>Unplugged and spent quality time with the wife.</li>
<li>Plugged back in to play video games &#8230; with the wife.</li>
<li>Got a job offer for an art/tech position where I will have my own computer lab and see my students much more often than once or twice a quarter. It&#8217;s in a new K-8 school opening this year in the county.</li>
<li>Had an interview the next day.</li>
<li>Offered the job on the same day.</li>
<li>Asked what the administration&#8217;s take was on blogging.</li>
<li>Convinced administration that I could teach blogging to students in a responsible way.</li>
<li>Accepted the job.</li>
<li>Missed my exit on the way home from the interview.  Twice.</li>
</ul>
<p>Those that know me will understand this was a decision that I was ready to make, but it still won&#8217;t be easy.  There are a lot of staff and students in my previous buildings (dang, it&#8217;s still feels odd typing that) that I&#8217;m really going to miss.  Most of them I didn&#8217;t even get a chance to say goodbye to.</p>
<p>I think I&#8217;m going to let this sink in for a day or two.</p>
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		<title>Hey, I know that guy!</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/06/17/hey-i-know-that-guy/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/06/17/hey-i-know-that-guy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:53:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nextgenteachers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/06/17/hey-i-know-that-guy/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Made some origami for his kids a few years back, actually&#8230;  In any case, here he is speaking in front of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Scott Kinney, Vice President at Discovery Education, at a hearing regarding the Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools on June 16, 2009. 
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Made some origami for his kids a few years back, actually&#8230;  In any case, here he is speaking in front of the U.S. House of Representatives.</p>
<p><object width="445" height="364"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fzw9vykNydE&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;rel=0&#038;border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fzw9vykNydE&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;rel=0&#038;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object></p>
<blockquote><p><span>Scott Kinney, Vice President at Discovery Education, at a hearing regarding the Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools on June 16, 2009. </span></p></blockquote>
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		<title>On Language</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/06/16/on-language/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/06/16/on-language/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:46:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nextgenteachers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=749</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m one of those teachers who will respond to the word &#8220;mines&#8221; by asking &#8220;Gold or silver?&#8221;  and the question &#8220;Can I go to the bathroom?&#8221; with &#8220;I don&#8217;t know, can you?&#8221;
Yeah, you can say I&#8217;m a stickler about some things.  It&#8217;s genetic, I think.  Just try ending a sentence with a preposition when my [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/10/14/conservative-cat-does-not-like-your-new-ideas/"><img src="http://icanhascheezburger.wordpress.com/files/2007/10/128347380320000000conservativecat.jpg" alt="128347380320000000conservativecat.jpg" width="60%" align="right" /></a>I&#8217;m one of those teachers who will respond to the word &#8220;mines&#8221; by asking &#8220;Gold or silver?&#8221;  and the question &#8220;Can I go to the bathroom?&#8221; with &#8220;I don&#8217;t know, <em>can</em> you?&#8221;</p>
<p>Yeah, you can say I&#8217;m a stickler about some things.  It&#8217;s genetic, I think.  Just try ending a sentence with a preposition when my sister&#8217;s around.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m critical about this because one of the things we teach in school (according to our curriculum, at least) is how to communicate well.  People who speak &#8220;properly&#8221; are more likely to do well in interviews and score higher paying and/or better quality careers.</p>
<p>But it&#8217;s not the only way people speak.  I dare you to turn on a radio and count how many times the word &#8220;ain&#8217;t&#8221; is used in one hour&#8217;s worth of song lyrics.  There, it&#8217;s acceptable.  In school, it&#8217;s not.</p>
<p>It gets worse when you head online, where sentences like &#8220;LOL school is teh suxxorz I hav a gud job even wit low gradez.&#8221; are easily understood and not criticized for grammar or spelling &#8230; in some circles.</p>
<p>&#8220;In some circles&#8221; is apparently the key phrase here.  In art we need to know our target audience, and we use our works, whether they&#8217;re visual, auditory, or something else, to communicate something.  I&#8217;m not likely to use Modernism to illustrate a children&#8217;s story about a young boy&#8217;s first week at school.</p>
<p>But online we have a wide variety of audiences with which we can participate, and the language norms can be incredibly different in each tab of our browser.  Several people I follow on <a title="Plurk " href="http://www.plurk.com/theartguy" target="_blank">Plurk </a>and <a title="My Twitter account" href="http://twitter.com/theartguy" target="_blank">Twitter</a> are fans of <a title="I can has cheezburger?" href="http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/03/07/funny-pictures-i-question-the-general/" target="_blank">some strangely talking cats</a>, but you still won&#8217;t see us posting things like &#8220;I can has Summer vacation!&#8221; or &#8220;Invisible budget&#8221; in our Professional Learning Networks.</p>
<p>So, if you remember how I started this post it&#8217;s safe to say I&#8217;m not in favor of students handing in essays written in 1337 or LoLspeak, even though I&#8217;m capable of communicating in both.  But I&#8217;m not so quick to dismiss these offshoots of the English language.  They were created by a generation that found themselves understanding the new technology far better than most of their teachers, so they built their own rules around it.</p>
<p>And if you look at it that way, it kinda roxxorz.</p>
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		<title>Digital Age meets Dark Age</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/06/02/digital-age-meets-dark-age/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/06/02/digital-age-meets-dark-age/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:38:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=743</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Don&#8217;t mind me, I&#8217;m just trying out a few websites.

]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Don&#8217;t mind me, I&#8217;m just trying out a few websites.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.history.com/marquee.do?content_type=Marquee_Generic&amp;content_type_id=53129&amp;display_order=5&amp;marquee_id=53127" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-746" title="thedarkagesonlinegame" src="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/thedarkagesonlinegame.jpg" alt="thedarkagesonlinegame" /></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>On Employment.</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/06/01/on-employment/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/06/01/on-employment/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:03:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=741</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So, I might not have the same job next year. (Link opens PDF.)
Whether or not it happens, I have been thinking a bit about my little corner of the internet and its effects on my chances of getting hired.  I know some bloggers use assumed names so they just don&#8217;t ave to worry about that.  [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So, <a title="Link opens PDF" href="http://www1.pgcps.org/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&amp;ItemID=91590" target="_blank">I might not have the same job next year</a>. (Link opens PDF.)</p>
<p>Whether or not it happens, I have been thinking a bit about my little corner of the internet and its effects on my chances of getting hired.  I know some bloggers use assumed names so they just don&#8217;t ave to worry about that.  Too late for me, since last I checked googling the quite common name of &#8220;Aaron Smith&#8221; got me <a title="Google ego search" href="http://img.skitch.com/20090601-nac8hkiqwrcs42xfepi3q9kqw2.jpg" target="_blank">this result</a>.</p>
<p>It is my hope, my dream, that schools with the right idea about both the arts and technology will see my ramblings here and think I am someone worth keeping in their employ.</p>
<p>I am also hopeful (though slightly less so) that the opposite is true &#8211; that schools with the wrong attitude towards the arts and technology will look upon my works and <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">despair</span> (sorry, couldn&#8217;t resist the literary reference) write me off as someone they wouldn&#8217;t want.  But then, somehow I doubt those kinds of schools would bother looking at my website in the first place.</p>
<p>But mostly, I&#8217;m hoping that I don&#8217;t have to <em>look</em> for a job in the first place.  It is a big scary world out there and I&#8217;ve yet to recieve my renewed teaching certificate (completed the last requirement in December) in the mail.  I know I was thinking of changing careers, but for some reason now does not seem the time for risk taking.</p>
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		<title>Tumblr Tumbles</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/30/tumblr-tumbles/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/30/tumblr-tumbles/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:21:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=737</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So the other day I was saying to myself&#8230;
&#8220;Self, you don&#8217;t have enough accounts on web 2.0 type websites.  You should go find another.&#8221;
So I went and started a Tumblr page.

OK, that&#8217;s not true.
The real reason was because on a semi-recent (actually kinda old &#8230; I&#8217;m a little behind) episode of Net @ Nite [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So the other day I was saying to myself&#8230;</p>
<p>&#8220;Self, you don&#8217;t have enough accounts on web 2.0 type websites.  You should go find another.&#8221;</p>
<p>So I went and started a Tumblr page.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/tumblr.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-738" title="tumblr" src="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/tumblr.jpg" alt="tumblr" width="500" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">OK, that&#8217;s not true.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The real reason was because <a title="Net@Nite 88: Gina Trapani" href="http://twit.tv/natn88" target="_blank">on a semi-recent (actually kinda old &#8230; I&#8217;m a little behind) episode of Net @ Nite</a> it was mentioned that Tumblr allowed you to use your phone to call in audio that would be posted directly to your Tumblr page.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Sound familiar?  Yeah, it&#8217;s what <a title="Podcast hosting" href="http://www.gcast.com/" target="_blank">Gcast</a> lets you do, only <em>unlike Gcast they haven&#8217;t started charging for that feature yet.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Well &#8230; I was underimpressed, to say the least.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">There was no option to hear your recording before posting it live to the internet.  I&#8217;m someone who usually needs at least one do-over when it comes to recording anything, and I see how this could go very, very wrong.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Also, I know phone calls are by default low quality audio, but I think they may have compressed the file even beyond that.  I assume this was in the name of conserving as much bandwidth as possible, and considering Tumblr&#8217;s popularity I understand that could be a big issue.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Unfortunately, the final nail in the coffin was that the resulting RSS feed didn&#8217;t have an enclosure.  That&#8217;s geek-speak for &#8220;It may be audio on the web, but iTunes will never let it be a podcast.&#8221;  Except for certain thinking-outside-the-box uses, this is not a Gcast replacement.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The rest of Tumblr was a collection of ups and downs.  The service is a miniblog, as it allows more than microblogs like Twitter but it&#8217;s not nearly as full-featured as WordPress.  They have multiple posting methods, whether from their web interface dashboard (seen above) a variety of apps via their API, or their bookmarklet, which I have to say is one of the slickest (and ironically, feature rich) ones I&#8217;ve seen so far.  Still, nothing they had really jumped out at me as being better than the other services I was already using.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">And then I decided to search through the Tumblr community to see what I could find in the way of educators, and I discovered that I&#8217;m not likely to recommend this service any time soon.  At least, not until they include a Google-like <strong>safe search</strong> feature.  I found too much that I would be embarrassed to have to explain if a student showed it to me in class, and that was while looking for teachers!</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">My final take?  If all of your friends are using Tumblr go ahead and make an account.  If you want a free blog?  <a title="Edu-Blogging 101" href="http://blogging101.wikispaces.com/blogservices" target="_blank">There&#8217;s plenty that are better</a>.  Want a microblog PLN?  Go with Plurk or Twitter.  Picture posting?  Flickr.  Cool links?  Del.icio.us or Diigo.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">But don&#8217;t bother with Tumblr, it really doesn&#8217;t seem to be worth it yet.</p>
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		<title>10 Ways To Be A Better Presenter</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/22/10-ways-to-be-a-better-presenter/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/22/10-ways-to-be-a-better-presenter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:54:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nextgenteachers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=734</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Having survived my 4th consecutive year presenting at MICCA &#38; a few other places, I think it&#8217;s safe for me to say I know one or two things about it.  At least, I&#8217;ve yet to have a session that ended emptier than when it started, so I&#8217;ve got that going for me.
So here&#8217;s a list [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a title="Josh Wolff's Adventure by TheArtGuy, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartguy/188452798/"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/48/188452798_1484431a71.jpg" alt="Josh Wolff's Adventure" width="500" height="375" /></a></p>
<p>Having survived my 4th consecutive year presenting at MICCA &amp; a few other places, I think it&#8217;s safe for me to say I know one or two things about it.  At least, I&#8217;ve yet to have a session that ended emptier than when it started, so I&#8217;ve got that going for me.</p>
<p>So here&#8217;s a list of 10 things that, if done correctly, will help your audience stay engaged and secure in the fact that you know what you&#8217;re talking about.  (Or at the very least, they&#8217;ll help you fake it.)</p>
<p>They&#8217;re numbered, but the order could be changed.  I&#8217;m not giving much thought to that part.</p>
<p><strong>10. Market yourself.</strong> Don&#8217;t spend too much time on this, but your audience should know why you&#8217;re worth listening to on this subject.  Are you a DEN Star?  Google Certified?  Do you have 20 years experience working with Web 2.0 technology?  (OK, maybe in dog years&#8230;)  Spend 30 seconds telling them why you&#8217;re special.  Letting them know how to contact you if they have more questions later is good, too.</p>
<p><strong>9. Don&#8217;t sit down.</strong> Some people can get away with it, but most of us can&#8217;t.  An enthusiastic presenter is more likely to capture an audience, and you can show your enthusiasm better while up and moving.</p>
<p><strong>8. Podiums are walls.</strong> Even if they aren&#8217;t the big, bulky, &#8220;This could stop a truck and still be usable&#8221; podiums, they create a barrier between you and your audience.  Don&#8217;t hide behind one unless you audience scares you.  (In fact, don&#8217;t use one then, either.  Audiences can smell fear.)</p>
<p><strong>7. <em>PowerPoint</em> is there to back <em>you</em> up.</strong> Not the other way around.  Substitute &#8220;PowerPoint&#8221; for &#8220;Keynote,&#8221; &#8220;<a title="Zooming presentations" href="http://www.prezi.com/" target="_blank">Prezi</a>,&#8221; &#8220;Google Presentation,&#8221; or whatever you intend to use.  If all you&#8217;re doing is reading your slides, you&#8217;re wasting space, time, and potentially oxygen.</p>
<p><strong>6. </strong><strong>Limit yourself.</strong> Just because a product or service can do 53,781 different things does not mean you have to cover all of them.  Tying in with #7: Just because PowerPoint has a plethora of transitions does not mean you should try to use all of them in a single session.  &#8220;Random&#8221; is the worst possible transition choice ever.  In both cases, you should pick your favorites and stick with those.</p>
<p><strong>5. Ask questions. </strong> Your audience is full of intelligent people.  (Granted they&#8217;re listening to you, but there&#8217;s no reason to let them know that&#8217;s a strike against them!)  The questions you ask could be ones that just check to see if they&#8217;re paying attention or ones that change the course of your discussion topic, but they should have some way of knowing that you&#8217;re acknowledging their presence.</p>
<p><strong>4. Don&#8217;t print your PowerPoint.</strong> I&#8217;m not just saying that because as I type this it&#8217;s <a title="Wikipedia Article" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day" target="_blank">Earth Day</a>.  I&#8217;m saying this because paper is made of matter.  The science geeks out there (including me) will be happy to tell you that means it has mass and volume, and that means 2 reasons why your audience will resent your 10 page printout once it&#8217;s added to all the other printouts they&#8217;ve collected at that conference.  It adds up and shoulder pain is serious business.  Do them and yourself a favor and make a wiki with all the useful information on it.  Share the link at the beginning and end of your presentation and everyone will be happier for it.</p>
<p><strong>3. Don&#8217;t admit mistakes that don&#8217;t mater, but admit the ones that do.</strong> So you wanted to cover 21 different Web 2.0 sites and skipped #17?  Forget about it.  If you have a wiki (you read #5, right?) they&#8217;ll be able to find ay small points you missed on there.  But remember that with the exception of my 2nd grade teacher, we&#8217;re all human.  Breathe deep, correct it if you can, acknowledge it if you can&#8217;t, and move on.  Your audience will respect you more or it, trust me.</p>
<p><strong>2. Have a backup.</strong> PowerPoint will crash.  The network will go down.  <em>Something will go horribly wrong</em> if you don&#8217;t have a plan B.  When I&#8217;m talking about websites I&#8217;ll usually have screen captures of all the features I want to showcase, just in case.  I learned this lesson the hard way.  I will not share that story.</p>
<p><strong>1. Your presentation will never be finished.</strong> I&#8217;ve seen keynote speakers changing slides shortly before they presented.  I myself have redone a presentation several times, then scrapped the whole thing to start over again because I wasn&#8217;t satisfied.  Leonardo da Vinci reportedly said &#8220;Art is never finished, only abandoned.&#8221;  That you want to keep making it better is admirable, but don&#8217;t stress out that you&#8217;re not &#8220;done.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>MICCA09 Sessions 3 &amp; 4</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/22/micca09-sessions-3-4/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/22/micca09-sessions-3-4/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:38:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MICCA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MICCA09]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=730</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As I was presenting these myself, I wasn&#8217;t actually taking the time to give a play-by-play in Plurk.  You can see my wikis for Session 3 and Session 4 if you want my take on them, though.
Another option would be to check out Selena Ward&#8217;s Plurk log of my Session 3 and someone else&#8217;s Session [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/miccapic2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-731" title="miccapic2" src="http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/miccapic2.jpg" alt="miccapic2" /></a>As I was presenting these myself, I wasn&#8217;t actually taking the time to give a play-by-play in Plurk.  You can see my wikis for <a title="Art 2.0 Wiki" href="http://artguy.wikispaces.com/Art20home" target="_blank">Session 3</a> and <a title="PLN Wiki" href="http://artguy.wikispaces.com/PLNhome" target="_blank">Session 4</a> if you want my take on them, though.</p>
<p>Another option would be to check out Selena Ward&#8217;s Plurk log of <a href="http://www.plurk.com/p/pewwf" target="_blank">my Session 3</a> and <a href="http://www.plurk.com/p/pf1wj" target="_blank">someone else&#8217;s Session 4</a> (She didn&#8217;t attend mine because she&#8217;s already a PLN master).  Good stuff, there.</p>
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		<title>MICCA09 Session 2 Plurk Log</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/22/micca09-session-2-plurk-log/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/22/micca09-session-2-plurk-log/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:28:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MICCA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MICCA09]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=727</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
theartguy MICCA Session 2: &#8220;Gaming: How do I get Started?&#8221; with Dr. BJ Gallagher


April 21, 2009 at 11:28 theartguy says Slight delay while scrounging for a laptop.


April 21, 2009 at 11:30 theartguy says Handout is a wiki: begingaming.pbwiki.com/


April 21, 2009 at 11:31 theartguy says Came up with using games in education while working with special [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1 class="content"></h1>
<p><a class="user-nick" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="plurk_content">MICCA Session 2: &#8220;Gaming: How do I get Started?&#8221; with Dr. BJ Gallagher</span></p>
<ul class="responses">
<li id="response-205326806" class="odd">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:28</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Slight delay while scrounging for a laptop.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205330895" class="even">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:30</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Handout is a wiki: <a class="ex_link" href="http://begingaming.pbwiki.com/" target="_blank">begingaming.pbwiki.com/</a></span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205333184" class="odd">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:31</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Came up with using games in education while working with special needs kids.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205337159" class="even">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:33</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Most games are &#8220;Drill &amp; Practice,&#8221; others are a little more adventurous.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205338654" class="odd">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:34</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">&#8220;Complex Games&#8221; are the way to go, though there is a learning curve for some.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205342546" class="even">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:36</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">&#8220;If a student&#8217;s in a wheelchair, they can pick an avatar that can get up and move!&#8221;</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205343815" class="odd">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:37</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Mention of Runescape &#8211; she was cooking shrimp in the game and fought a troll.  Heh.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205347079" class="even">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:39</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="plurk_content">&#8220;If you want to get started find yourself a middle schooler. Not a high schooler they know too much.&#8221; <img src='http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' /> </span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205351913" class="odd">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:41</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="plurk_content">Somewhat brief mention of MMORPGs while looking at Wikipedia article on gaming.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205354478" class="even">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:43</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">I&#8217;m somewhat confused &#8211; not about the gaming, but about the presenter&#8217;s enthusiasm. She seems enthusiastic &#8230; but not.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205357477" class="odd">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:44</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Universal Design for Learning, Differentiated Instruction, games can be used to support these systems.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205363789" class="even">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:48</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">&#8220;How are our games perceived around the world?&#8221; A good point is made here, some of our games don&#8217;t fit well with other cultures.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205365338" class="odd">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:49</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">World of Warcraft removed a character based on a panda because China didn&#8217;t think it was a positive image.</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205371049" class="even">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:52</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">I see how gaming can be used to assist education, but she could be making the connections better than &#8220;Here&#8217;s some links on some sites.&#8221;</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205433715" class="odd">
<div class="message"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 12:31</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/timholt">Tim Holt</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">keep these updates coming!</span></div>
</li>
<li id="response-205444065" class="even">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 12:38</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Next two sessions are mine &#8211; think my audience will mind if I stop to Plurk? <img src='http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<h1 class="content"></h1>
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		<item>
		<title>MICCA09 Session 1 Plurk Log</title>
		<link>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/22/micca09-session-1-plurk-log/</link>
		<comments>http://academicaesthetic.com/2009/04/22/micca09-session-1-plurk-log/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:25:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>theartguy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MICCA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MICCA09]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://academicaesthetic.com/?p=725</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
theartguy Session 1 is What Google Can Do For You by thetechtiger!  Woot!


April 21, 2009 at 10:11 theartguy says im.textthemob.com/id751


April 21, 2009 at 10:32 miz mercer Back to being artguy I see


April 21, 2009 at 10:38 theartguy says For now at least &#8211; don&#8217;t want to confuse the people I introduce to PLNs today.


April [...]]]></description>
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<p><a class="user-nick" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="plurk_content">Session 1 is What Google Can Do For You by <a class="ex_link" href="http://www.plurk.com/thetechtiger">thetechtiger</a>!  Woot!</span></p>
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<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:11</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content"><a class="ex_link" href="http://im.textthemob.com/id751" target="_blank">im.textthemob.com/id751</a></span></div>
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<div class="message"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:32</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/mizmercer">miz mercer</a> <span class="plurk_content">Back to being artguy I see</span></div>
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<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:38</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">For now at least &#8211; don&#8217;t want to confuse the people I introduce to PLNs today.</span></div>
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<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:39</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Currently explaining Gmail &amp; Gchat</span></div>
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<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:43</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">It&#8217;s all a quick overview of everything right now.  Cal, Docs, Maps, Earth</span></div>
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<li id="response-205246073" class="even">
<div class="message"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:44</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/bethmharvey">bethmharvey</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">I love the site &#8220;text the mob&#8221; I have never seen that. Good luck on your presentation. Our teachers are most interested in Google Docs</span></div>
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<li id="response-205247189" class="odd">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:45</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">&#8220;If you can use Office, you can use Google to make web pages.&#8221;  So true <img src='http://academicaesthetic.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </span></div>
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<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:47</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Best part about Google Docs is no more thumb drives to transfer documents. IMHO</span></div>
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<li id="response-205251722" class="odd">
<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:47</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Side note &#8211; this isn&#8217;t a PowerPoint. WHole thing is in <a class="ex_link" href="http://prezi.com/" target="_blank">prezi.com/</a></span></div>
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<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:49</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Google Groups &#8211; discussion boards.  Can be public or private. Lots of good ones already exist.</span></div>
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<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:52</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">iGoogle</span></div>
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<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 10:56</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Overview done, now for the nitty gritty!</span></div>
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<div class="message highlight_owner"><span class="time">April 21, 2009 at 11:02</span> <a class="user" href="http://www.plurk.com/user/theartguy">theartguy</a> <span class="r_qualifier q_says">says</span> <span class="plurk_content">Form &#8211; create a web based survey (or quiz or test!) and all answers are placed in a spreadsheet! I use this all the time and it&#8217;s awesome.</span></div>
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