testing scribefire

Uh, does ScribeFire work?!

Testing Vimeo

Cool Tools :: Online Storage

box.net

• Fast, easy. Access your files from any computer in the world!
• 1 gigabite of storage free

Check it out.

Podcasting in the classroom

Glen Bledsoe

Podcasting in his classroom.
Podcasting back and forth with classes elsewhere in the country… and world.

Here’s the website. 

Cool Tools :: Misc. Software

Jers Novel Writer
Very, very cool. Addictive.
Will help you win NaNoWriMo. See our earlier post.
Free to try

NodeBox
So cool. Generated art. You’ve seen this kind of art. You’ve wondered how it was created and marveled at the mystery of it. Download NodeBox and make your own.
Free.

Posterino
Make a Life Poster the easy way (rather than the Photoshop way)
Demo. $24.95 to buy

ComicLife
Probably my favorite software to create with. I can’t think of any other software that produces as nice a product with as little intrusion (you can make cool stuff in Photoshop, but it takes awhile to learn, and even when you learn it, it still is not intuitive or elegant; to me Photoshop is “creating with math” and makes me feel less an artist and more an engineer).
Comes on all new Macs. $24.95

Delicious Library
Easily the coolest app of the last decade. And one that would have been run-of-the-mill had any other guys made it.
$40

Morph Age
Morph any images or movies together. Professional, easy to use (which always means: “made with uncommon effort”)
$100

Cool Tools :: Animation Software

Lego Digital Designer
Lego
“A revolutionary platform for virtual building”
Free
Good website and info
(Not a true animation product, but it does make an animation of the building of your creation)

Anime Studio 5
e-frontier
“Create quality animations from start to finish”
$49.99
Free Demo
Excellent website and info
(e-frontier makes several other, higher-end animation tools… that are very cool: Poser, Shade, Manga Studio, MotionArtist, MagicalSketch, Amapi)

FotoMagico
Boinx Software
“Create the most spectacular slideshows. Perform a breathtaking show.”
$79
Free Demo
Excellent website and info

iStopMotion
Boinx Software
“Fun with Stop Motion and Time Lapse recording”
$39
Free Demo
Excellent website and info
(I prefer FrameThief for stop-action recording)

FrameThief
Frame Thief
“The premier solution for animators on the Mac”
$40
Free Demo
(My students and I have used this program with excellent results)

SoundFrames
katsura shareware
“Generates worksheets for synchronizing the audio track and animation”
$29.97 shareware
Free to try
Good website and info
(katsure makes a wide variety of creative tools)

Toon Boom Studio Express
Toom Boom
“The leading animation software solution for beginners”
$49.99
Free Demo
Excellent Website and info
(Toon Boom makes several high-end animation applications.
I prefer Tab for advanced animation)

The Tab
Digital Video
“Add power to your animations”
starting at $80
Excellent website and info. Thorough tutorials.
(This program is easy to use for as powerful as it is. There are four different versions: The TAB Kids, The TAB Lite, The TAB, The TAB Pro; all at different prices)

Toonz
Digital Video
“The evolution of animation”
(must request a price quote. Expensive)
Good website and info
(This, and ToonBoom, are the “highest-end” animation programs.)

Animoids
Troy Studios
“Your personal 3D animator”
Free as download. $18.72 for CD
Good website and info

Cool Tool of the week

30boxes.com

Very cool. Very easy. Teachers, combine your 30boxes with a blog or webpage.

Here are examples:

Web 2.0 is here!!

“Huh?”

“Web 2.0, man!”

What it is
Here’s the wikipedia entry.

Here are some services (websites) that are “Web 2.0”.

So?
The internet is the computer… finally. In fact “web oses” have sprung up. You don’t need a new computer (unless you want to play the latest games); just use the internet as your computer.

“Psst. Hey, Computer Geeks. Ajax.”

RSS: what is it and why aren’t you using it?

RSS
wikipedia entry?

How to
feed into a blog or other Web2.0 page
feed into an rss readaer

Why you should use them

How to use them in the classroom

Blogging in the classroom

Should you have your students blog?

Could you have your students blog?

Yes. And yes.

Here’s a site where professors discuss blogging the classroom

Pros:

• The tool (computer and internet) keeps students engaged
• Free (if you have internet access)
• Easy to use and set up. You (yes, you) can set up a blog, add content, and monitor the comments.
• Students can continue discussion outside of class. Make it a homework assignment(!): “Please post one thoughtful response to this week’s topic -or- to a classmate’s response”.

Cons:

• Can you think of any?

How:

• Blogger
• WordPress

WordPress even has special blogs just for education. The only difference is the domain name, but still. It’s a nice gesture.

Here are my class pages… built with blogs. I can update and monitor them from any computer connected to the internet–I don’t have to rebuild an HTML page, log into a server, and upload my new page.