Fun with Photoshop... er, image editors

I'm a tech dork. That means I appreciate the melding of geek and humor. Cracked magazine posted some brilliant examples of dorky uses of Photoshop. This is not an endorsement of Adobe products, seriously, they could have used any number of image editors. OK - REDACTED, let me correct, dorky uses of various image editing programs that may or may not be licensed by Adobe, Corel, or your mom.

But I digress. I present - from the Cracked web site: Movies that should NEVER me made...

... but if the Hollywood ooze continues leaking from the dirty diaper called California, they might be on my Netflix queue soon.

From an educator's perspective, this is a terrific class project. From a student's perspective, a wickedly fun and creative opportunity. Have at it.

Today, where are your sites?

Hey folks, what is the address of your new blogs?

Click "Comment" to reply.

In Today's Class...

... we played with free collaborative web-based tools that educators can use. This is one of my favorite classes because the people are relatively tech inclined, very willing to try new things in the classroom, and CHEAP! We love the fact that all of these tools are free. Those that regularly use the web may not be impressed, those that are not tech-savvy may also not be impressed. That is not my point. With limited readership to my blog I thought that I would just share what we do over here.

Web 2.0 - This is an overused term for collaborative web sites. The tools we are using are considered Web 2.0.

Wiki - a web site where the content is created by the people who visit the site. To use this in the classroom, a teacher must be willing to release control over the course content. This constitutes a paradigm shift for many teachers - especially those like I was that had behavior ratcheted so far down the students could hardly breathe. Ideas for educational use:

• Online "Reference Book" of course material
• Student notes repository
• Book analysis - interconnect titles by subject and themes
• Character analysis in a story
• Student intro pages - Icebreaker activity

These are the ones I use:

GoogleDocs - Sweet merciful lord, how can you not love GOOGLE? They are putting together fantastic apps free of charge. Here's the skinny - free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software ... wait for it ... wait for it ... FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH MS OFFICE (v. 2003-4)!

OK, I understand that some of you do not share my joy. Ask this: how many students in a class do not have Office at home or have an outdated version of MS Works? More than most of you outside of education would care to consider. Also, the documents can be shared with unlimited people for editing and even have 10 people editing at once. Students could work at home on a group project without physically proximity. Teachers could collaborate on meeting agendas or various other crap from a distance. Imagine it ... committee meetings in the comfort of your own underwear in your living room.

Del.icio.us - Online bookmarks. Fabulous resource. Don't save bookmarks on the browser on your computer, save them online so you can access them anytime, anywhere and share with anyone. Any questions?

You bookmarks are sorted by tags - little keywords specific to del.icio.us, each bookmark can have multiple tags. So when you want to get someone to just your bookmarks about a certain topic, like, ummm, web 2.0 tools and resources ... (click here), you go to del.icio.us/(account name)/(tag).

I can keep some links private - like I wouldn't want students going to my link for Sarah Silverman's confession to Jimmy Kimmel or a recipe for my Grandmother's cannoli.

Like I said, I love this course. I love free stuff. I love making the lives of teachers easier. Most of all, I love being a gigantic geek.

Tip O' The Eyepatch

The Pirate of Selby Ave put forth a challenge to his readers to create the Awesomest Album Covers ever. It was a brilliant technique, using random article and image generators. I must say that my album turned out as cryptic as some of the awesomest ever. I only wish that I could have actually written a song like this. That said, I give you my new band: Huairao District, Children To Speak It.

Feb 5 Web 2.0 Class

Where are your new blogs?

A Dork in Second Life

TIES is getting a presence in Second Life. We have purchased a plot of land through ISTE on ISTE Island 2. Here I am hovering over it.

That's me, TC Kungfu, you can see the meditation treehouse on the left and behind the tree on the right is a bench swing that, for some reason, puts two people on top of each other when they both try to sit there. Kinda inappropriate, especially for an educational venue but those aren't actually on our property, just next to it.

So Dork, you might ask, what are you going to do with the space. Awesome stuff only, I say. We expect awesome meeting places, presentations, demonstrations, musical performances, dazzling technological displays, light shows, fireworks, hookers, fire trucks ... well maybe not all that. We'll probably keep it educationally oriented.

We expect to begin construction sometime in the near future. Til then, enjoy watching my awesome Kung Fu skills. Did I overuse the awesome word "awesome"?

Aren't we grown-ups?

Today I was helping set up classrooms for some contract teachers we are using while some of my colleagues are not available. In our 3 month-old iMac lab there was a mouse missing.

Seriously? Someone stole a @#$%^& mouse!?

I taught middle school for five years, high school for two, and I knew that when we went to the computer lab you need to make sure that all the mouse balls (before IR mice) were in the mice before leaving. When using the portable laptop lab, twice (at two different schools) students tried to steal a laptop - luckily I found them both times. The general assumption in the classroom was that, to quote the CC's previous neighbor, "if it ain't tied down, them @#$%^&s will take it." This was in reference to any items left on their porch.

After today, insert grown-up educational professionals in the aforementioned "them @#$%^&s" part of that quote.

Do we really need to remind adults not to steal things when they go to another place of business? I am grasping for a handle on my emotional state. I shouldn't need to count equipment when I'm done teaching. I shouldn't need to keep that extra lookout for people trying to take things from our labs. I realize I'm back teaching middle school. Let's please grow up a bit.

images:
Watterson, Bill. The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes. Andrews. 1992.