Month: April 2012

  • Good Things Can Come From Science and Engineering Projects in School

    This weekend, my 8th grade son and I worked on a project for his science class he’s been planning for over a month. In March I asked him to record a short podcast we posted over on our family learning blog, “Draft Design for a Complex Machine to Generate Electricity from Water Power.” This was…

  • Security Tips for WordPress: Understanding Network Attacks

    These are my notes from the April 20, 2012, Oklahoma City WordPress User’s Group meeting which focused on “Security Tips for WordPress.” The security portion of our meet up tonight was shared by Chris Dodds, whose website is FocusFire. (@focusfirebiz on Twitter) MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. We met at The Div…

  • Checking Algebra and Geometry Problems with WolframAlpha

    Like Khan Academy, WolframAlpha is a website everyone should know about– especially anyone taking a math class or helping someone else enrolled in a math class. This evening, I used WolframAlpha to check several different problems my son was working for an end-of-year assignment in his Geometry class. You can see the syntax I used…

  • A Touching Sign Language Performance of David Phelps: No More Night

    A few weeks ago one of the guys in my Friday morning men’s group at our church shared a touching video on YouTube as part of his lesson. This seven minute video was created by an student in Oklahoma who has gone through an incredible number of surgeries since she was born. It is difficult…

  • Additional Books to Read on the POW/MIA Situation in Southeast Asia

    The connections made possible via Internet-based publishing and communication can be both enlightening and challenging. When I was a cadet at the US Air Force Academy in the late 1980s / early 1990s, I wrote a paper about U.S. Prisoners of War (POWs) who were left behind in Southeast Asia following the formal end of…

  • Lessons Learned Following Oklahoma School Beating Amplified by Social Media

    Yesterday in Enid Public Schools in Oklahoma, a middle school student was beaten unconscious and sent to the hospital following a playground fight. Enid superintendent Shawn Hime was quoted in this News on 6 article: Hine said the argument turned physical and that a teacher supervising the playground broke up the fight. “Nothing is more…

  • Add Photo to KidBlog Post

    (Cross-posted to “Instructional FAQs for Yukon Public Schools” and PlayingWithMedia.com) Photos can be added to blog posts in different ways. In this post I’ll explain how to add a photo as a linked image on a free (and ad-free) KidBlog.org site. To reduce the amount of time students spend (and possibly waste) searching for Internet…

  • Apps and Clouds: An Introduction to Internet Resources

    Yesterday I shared an introductory professional development workshop in Yukon, Oklahoma, titled, “Apps and Clouds: An Introduction to Internet Resources.” This evening I published my presentation slides to SlideShare, published a “lightly edited” audio recording of the 98 minute session, and also created a linked webpage with all referenced resources and videos. Feedback for this…

  • Cloud App Bingo

    This afternoon I’m teaching a workshop for Yukon Public Schools titled, “Apps and Clouds: An Introduction to Internet Resources.” The official title is: Technology is changing fast and it’s easy to feel left behind! This session will provide an overview of some of the technology terms and concepts which are buzzwords in 2012. What do…

  • Opportunities and Obstacles for Digital Learning (April 2012) [VIDEO]

    This is a video response by Dr. Wesley Fryer to ideas and proposals shared at the Oklahoma Digital Learning Summit on Friday, April 20, 2012. This event was hosted by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. In addition to praising many of the ideas and proposals discussed by conference keynoters and sponsors, Dr. Fryer offers…