The Mac Jedi's Mobile Commander

The Mac Jedi's Mobile Commander

This is pretty cool in my opinion.  Lance Ford, Director of Technology at Howe Public Schools has customized his Honda Element with a Mac Mini Computer with a Xenarc touch screen car stereo.

I read about this on Wesley Fryer's Moving at the Speed of Creativity weblog.  Wes has done a great job of describing the Mobile Commander so I would just direct anyone who is interested to his website for more information.

All I have to say is Wow!  I hope that Lance is planning on attending NECC in San Antonio this summer so that I can see this in person.

Web 2.0 = School 2.0

I was reading "The Invasion of Web 2.o" at the Classroom 2.0 Website and came across this slide. The commentary on the website doesn't describe "School 2.0" other than the reference in the slide but I like the sound of "Web 2.0 = School 2.0"  as a catch phrase.

I read Wes Fryer's Moving at the Speed of Creativity post on April 16th about "Here for the Learning Revolution" and that got me thinking.  If Wes can claim Here for the Learning Revolution for his yet unwritten book maybe I can do something with "Web 2.0 = School 2.0"

There is a contest described in Dr. Scott McLeod's Dangerously Irrevelant weblog concerning a button design "I'm Here for the Learning Revolution" to be given away at NECC in San Antonio, Texas.  I'm going by the way and I would like to "claim" at least one button for myself and one for my wife, a computer technology teacher, who is also eagerly looking forward to EduBloggerCon 2008 & Classroom 2.0 "Live", Saturday, June 28th.

So, for anyone out there I would like to claim the phrase "Web 2.0 = School 2.0".  I don't know what I will do with it yet and I would look forward to anyone who would care to comment on this idea.

Animoto

Animoto Website

Animoto is an application to make videos.  It is also a lot more, you take your digital photos, your music (I used songs from iTunes) upload them to the Animoto website and in a few minutes, about 5 minutes, they turn your pictures and music into a professional looking video with some interesting effects.

You may sign up for a free account where you are limited to 30 second videos.  You may upgrade your account (pay a monthly fee) to make 60 second videos.  You may then link them, upload them to your YouTube, Facebook, Mysapce and other websites.  I had no problem uploading them to my social networking sites.

There is an Education Program for Teachers.  You just have to send an email to Animoto and they will give you a classroom code to allow all of your students to make free videos for a limited time.  You will have to email rebecca@animoto.com to get your classroom code.  I set up my account late Saturday night, sent an email and by early Monday morning, Rebecca had already sent me a classroom code for my students to allow them to create their own all-access account.

I came across Animoto by reading Ewan McIntosh's Edu.blogs webpage.  Mr. McIntosh has some very interesting blog entries and I am looking forward to spending some time reading what he has to say.  I would love to hear him speak sometime and living in Edinburgh, Scotland. Wow!  I have never been to Edinburgh but it is one of the places I would love to visit.

If you would like to pay for an all-access account you can enter this Animoto Referral Code: wcmkzvnq and they will give you $5.00 off and I will get a referral.  I know, this is pretty blatant but I had to give it a try. 

I have made a few Animoto Videos.  In about 30 minutes I was able to create 2 using some family pictures and I really enjoyed what came back.  Try it, you might just have a lot of fun with this application.

Here is a fun video I created with some Apple Computer pictures and a Leann Rimes song.

The Merchants of Cool

The Merchants of Cool PBS Website

The PBS Frontline program from 2001 is about how companies are marketing to teenagers, what is cool and how to sell to the growing market of teenagers who have disposable income

PBS has a number of very good programs that are available to watch online.

This particular program, The Merchants of Cool takes a look at how companies are marketing to kids without seeming to do so.  By making themselves cool, companies are re-thinking their ways of advertising to kids.

Is this right or wrong?  View the program yourself and come to your own conclusion.