Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Category: apple

  • Takeaways and Learning from the MSON Summer 2020 Annual Conference

    Last week I had the opportunity to attend the second edition of the MSON Summer 2020 Annual Conference, held virtually via Zoom. MSON is the “Malone Schools Online Network” (@MaloneSchools), and for the first time this year (I’m guessing because of COVID-19) their annual conference was open to educators everywhere. Our school (where my wife…

  • Quickly Convert Minecraft EE Portfolio PDFs into JPG Images

    The past two weeks I have led and taught “virtual Minecraft summer camps” for elementary and middle school students, with the help of a fantastic team of high school volunteers who have earned service hours as virtual camp counselors / moderators. I’m in the process of writing down many of my lessons learned from this…

  • How I Use Noun Project Icons in my Class Lesson Slideshows

    This past school year I have absolutely loved the opportunity to return to the classroom teaching fifth and sixth grade digital literacy and media literacy at Casady school, and also teaching an adult Sunday school class at our church (First Presbyterian of Edmond) titled, “Curiosity and Questions: Jesus and Science.” In both cases, I use…

  • Recent Virtual Workshops by Wes (March – April 2020)

    The move to “remote learning” at our school in late-March 2020 has corresponded with an uptick in the number of online workshops and webinars I’ve offered for teachers, mainly for faculty at our school as part of my “day job,” but also a few evening and weekend virtual presentations. All of the workshops I’ve led…

  • Using Jamboard in a Remote Learning Lesson

    Yesterday I used Jamboard, Google’s live, interactive whiteboard, with students for the first time. I prepared three Jamboard slides to use in a “See – Think – Wonder” thinking routine, after watching a video together, so we could use it to make our thinking together visible. In this post I’ll review and reflect on how…

  • Protecting Yourself and Your Family Online (March 2020)

    This past Thursday evening, on March 26, 2020, I shared a free online webinar titled, “Protecting Yourself and Your Family Online.” A recorded video of this 63 minute presentation is available on YouTube, and linked from the VIDEOS page of DesignCreateShare.com. The webinar description was: As we live more of our lives online via Internet-powered…

  • Thoughts on Content Filtering, Parent Education, and School Laptop Initiatives

    The Oklahoman, our largest Oklahoma City based newspaper by circulation, published a scathing article today about Norman Public Schools’ new MacBook Air and iPad “1 to 1 Learning” initiative. The article is titled, “‘They want them gone’: Norman parents complain of school devices.” In case The Oklahoman puts this article behind their paywall as they…

  • Share Podcast Excerpts using Audacity, iMovie and Google Slides

    Today I taught a lesson in which I shared a 4.5 minute excerpt of an amazing 55 minute NASA podcast, featuring an April 2019 interview with Dr. Harrison Schmitt, the Apollo 17 lunar module pilot and the only geologist to walk on the Moon to date! In this post, I’ll share my workflow and steps…

  • Presenting with Keynote and Apple Watch

    This school year I’ve not only returned to the regular K-12 classroom, teaching 5th and 6th grade Computer Classes at Casady School in Oklahoma City, I’m also teaching a new adult Sunday School class at our church in Edmond titled, “Curiosity and Questions: Jesus and Science.” This summer both my wife and I got used…

  • Google Mesh Home WiFi Makes our Internet Access MUCH faster

    This is a review of the “Google WiFi system, 3-Pack – Router replacement for whole home coverage” (NLS-1304-25) product which I posted to Amazon today. “Google Mesh WiFi” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer I have been wanting to purchase a mesh Wi-Fi system at home for many months, and finally pulled the trigger last month. Wow what…