Raise your hand if you know what that funny looking black and white thing is on the brick wall above. That is a QR code. What, you may well ask, are QR codes? QR = Quick Response. A bit of an unknown here in the U.S., but they are all over Japan (and have been [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘web resources’
October 12, 2009
Screenshots – How to Make Them and How to Use Them
Do you know how to take a picture of whatever is happening on your computer screen (known as a “screenshot”) and then play around with it and fancy it up? If you do, find another entry on my blog to browse. If you don’t — read on!
Taking a screenshot (and then futzing with it) can [...]
July 17, 2009
To the Moon
Where were you on July 20, 1969? I put that question to my friends and family last week and I got a wonderful collection of answers. A common element in all their stories was a small, scratchy (typically borrowed) black & white TV set, with a large group of people, crowded around to watch the [...]
May 19, 2009
Twenty of My Favorite Things
Recently, a colleague asked me what ideas I might have for interesting student projects that would take advantage of these new, participatory media tools. I thought about it and started to make a list. I came up with about 30 ideas but some of them were a little weak…. so I whittled the list down [...]
May 11, 2009
Video Tools
Video is a powerful medium. No doubt about it. Not only does it have an emotional quality to it (that amplifies its impact) but it packs information efficiently. The only catch is that when we show a video to students, we like to sort of narrate it, explain it, or at least provide context. We [...]
April 28, 2009
Visual Story Telling
Here’s an interesting idea. Gardner Campbell (Baylor University) asked his new media studies students to tell a story in five frames (uploaded to a group on Flickr). The resulting student projects are really quite clever and intriguing.
What biology story could your students tell in five frames? Or ten? What could we learn about what they know (and how they [...]
April 22, 2009
Twittering Away
I think I’m finally beginning to understand Twitter. It’s taken me over a year….I admit, I’m a slow learner. But, confound it, when I first started using it, I just didn’t get why this application would be necessary. Why would I want to hear that “Kadee” is “finally going to bed at midnight.” or that [...]
April 3, 2009
Blogs? …Wikis? …Social networking?
One of the most challenging things to grok in this wacky, new, web 2.0 world is when to use what tool for which thing. When is a blog the right tool for you to use with your students? Or is that something you should just do yourself? What about wikis – when do I use [...]
February 27, 2009
New Presentation Tool: Prezi
I’d read about it and I’d even seen it in action on Will Richardson’s blog but I didn’t get around to trying it until today. I’m talking about Prezi – a new online presentation tool. I love it. It’s in a beta release right now so in order to give it a spin you go [...]
February 10, 2009
Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin
Not only is it Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday this week, but 2009 also marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. So it seems this is a fitting week to cull through some of the most useful and interesting online resources relating to Charles Darwin, the Voyage of the Beagle, [...]
