Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Month: July 2012

  • Professionally Mobilize Your WordPress Blog with PluginBuddy Mobile

    Huge numbers of people today are accessing Internet websites on mobile devices, so it is imperative content publishers pay attention to the way websites display on smaller, handheld screens. A webpage that looks readable and well laid out on a laptop screen can look terrible on a smartphone. As educators publishing curriculum, classroom updates, and…

  • Boiling River: Best Kept Secret In Yellowstone National Park

    If you visit Yellowstone National Park and are interested in “experiencing” hot springs in a very direct way, you won’t want to miss “Boiling River.” This special place is maintained by the Park Service but not listed on official Yellowstone maps or marked with road signs. The popularity of Boiling River has led to some…

  • Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone: Perfect for HDR iPhoneography

    If you have an iPhone, you need the $2 Pro HDR app. HDR photography (High dynamic range imaging) combines a dark exposure and a light exposure of the same scene to create an picture with far more color depth than a “regular” digital image. Even though my iPhone4 has a built-in camera HDR feature, without…

  • OG&E Smart Hours Program is Saving Our Family Money This Summer

    A week ago on Friday, July 20th, the temperature in Oklahoma City was 106 degrees Fahrenheit. While summer temperatures like this inevitably lead to higher utility bills, thanks to our “smart thermostat” (which we received as participants in OG&E’s “Smart Hours” program this past spring) our family is able to manage our electricity consumption better…

  • Changing “Classroom Normal” with Interactive Blogging

    Most K-12 classrooms in the United States today don’t use interactive blogs. By “interactive,” I mean a blog website which permits posts from students as well as the teacher, and comments from blog visitors as well as class members. As I explained in my post earlier this week on the iThemes education blog, “Why WordPress?…

  • Favorite Videos from iPad Media Camp

    (Cross-posted from playingwithmedia.com) In June and July this year I’ve had wonderful experiences facilitating three day iPad Media Camps for teachers, librarians and administrators in Oklahoma. On day two of iPad Media Camp, campers learn how to create “Quick Edit Videos” with an iPad and publish them directly to their own YouTube teacher channel. These…

  • Barnes & Noble Nook eBook Store: A Click Away from “Adult” Content

    Today I visited a Barnes and Noble store in the Fort Worth area and had a bit of a shock when I searched the Nook eBookstore on one of the Nook Tablet eReaders on display in the center of the building. I wanted to check if anyone had written reviews of my eBook, “Playing with…

  • Amazing Minecraft Time Lapse Building Videos

    Today for our fourth day of Scratch Camp in Edmond, Oklahoma, at The Div as part of the Div Jr Program, my 14 year old son (Alexander) joined us and shared several things. Before we got started with our second day focusing on game development in Scratch, I shared two amazing Minecraft videos Alex found…

  • A Video Lecture You Won’t Soon Forget: Video Games and Storytelling

    Daniel Floyd’s ten minute YouTube video, “Video Games and Storytelling,” is a video lecture you won’t soon forget. Reminiscent of “RSA Animate – Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us,” about Dan Pink’s book “Drive,” this video by Daniel Floyd is the most intense, “rapid-fire” visual presentation of related images I’ve seen in a…

  • Webcasting with Ustream, an iPad, a Tripod & an XLR Boundary Microphone

    Last night I had an opportunity to video record a presentation by Jim Singleton, the current President of The Fellowship of Presbyterians, at our church in Edmond, Oklahoma. This was the first time I used my iPad2 and the Ustream Broadcaster application (free) to webcast live and archive an event. In this post I’ll recount…