Just a little case study to show how being paranoid can pay off: All this winter my screen saver was a lovable group of snowmen ice skating on a frozen pond. The whole thing was 3D rendered and the younger kids loved it. It is not, however, the best screen saver to have in March when the snow from our last big blizzard is still fresh in our minds and we can’t wait for the unbearably hot global warming just because it means we don’t…Continue Reading “Trust No One?”
Passwords: Everyone online has them. Many of us forget them. Some of us never change them. But you know what? It’s about time to start! I have students that even now think “qwerty” and “12345” are good passwords. I have seen more than one adult use “password” as a password “To make things easier.” These are only good things if you want your account to be compromised, so I’m making this post to show a quick and easy way to make passwords that are simple…Continue Reading “Good Passwords: Make one and use it!”
Today an email started floating around amongst various fellow employees of my school district. It contained a link to a particular YouTube video along with the caption “This video needs to be shown to teachers!” I thought it was worth tweeting, and apparently I think it’s worth a blog post as well because here we are. On the surface it’s a very upbeat video. “I can do this!” “You can do this!” The part that’s left out is the part that belongs to the viewer….Continue Reading “What are you doing?”
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 “Macs are SOOO expensive compared to PCs are you getting what you’re paying for?” ad, right? A few things struck me when I saw this, but first let me lay down a ground rule: I am NOT going to try to disprove that Macs cost more! Sure, I can probably shop around to find a PC manufacturer…Continue Reading “Half of what you see…”
This post has been brewing for a while. What’s finally gotten me to write it down is the recent spread of compromised Twitter accounts. Teachers – DEN Stars and more – are falling for phishing scams because they don’t recognize the warning signs. If this post prevents just one person from having an account compromised, I will consider it worth writing. Definition Phishing involves tricking people into lowering their guard and giving up something. It could be a Twitter account info or your online bank…Continue Reading “Don’t Be A Phish”
I’m at a Clay Animation training session sponsored by my employer. I’ve done stop motion animation before, but not with Frames. I’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. 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…Continue Reading “Playing with Frames”
So I submitted a proposal for this year’s MICCA MSET conference, and since I’m under the delusion that I might actually have my proposal accepted I’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’ve had a chance to kick the tires a bit, and I’d like your help with that if possible. So go ahead. Ask me anything.
Start Monday. (Woohoo!) Use no textbooks. Textbooks, especially ones about technology, seem like they’re out of date before they’re shipped. Avoid handouts whenever possible. Papers have an annoying habit of getting lost, “lost,” or simply ignored. Also, I’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 magic blue smoke 5 minutes before class and wondering what I’ll do now…Continue Reading “Things to do at the new job:”
Made some origami for his kids a few years back, actually… 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.
I’m one of those teachers who will respond to the word “mines” by asking “Gold or silver?” and the question “Can I go to the bathroom?” with “I don’t know, can you?” Yeah, you can say I’m a stickler about some things. It’s genetic, I think. Just try ending a sentence with a preposition when my sister’s around. I’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…Continue Reading “On Language”