Note: As of 1 Oct 2026, this is a FULL STATIC COPY of all 6,390 posts shared on this blog since 2003. Updated content and ideas from Wes Fryer are still available!

Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wes Fryer

Category: design

  • Oklahoma Students Reflect on Scratch Projects at Scratch Camp (March 2013)

    Today in the last hour of our fourth day of Spring Break “Scratch Camp” in Yukon, Oklahoma, ten of our student participants briefly shared one of their Scratch projects and described how they’d built it using different Scratch blocks. Scratch is a wonderful, FREE software program from MIT which allows students to create games, tell…

  • Why Scratch Club?

    (cross-posted from the Yukon Public Schools Learning Showcase) This Spring 2013 semester, twenty-four 4th and 5th grade students are participating in “Scratch Club” after school at Independence Elementary. STEM teacher Chris Simon is sponsoring the club, which students were invited to apply for in December. See the previous post, “Yukon Students Learning Computer Programming with…

  • Yukon Students Learning Computer Programming with Scratch

    (cross-posted from the Learning Showcase website of Yukon Public Schools) The December 12, 2012, issue of the Yukon Review featured an article on page 11 about students taking STEM classes with Chris Simon at Independence Elementary School. STEM is an acronym for “Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.” The article was titled, “‘Scratch’ teaches students computer…

  • Publish a Free Digital Magazine with Zeen

    Zeen (@zeen_com on Twitter) is a free, online platform in beta for creating digital magazines. The website lets you quickly pull photos from Flickr, Instagram, Facebook, as well as videos from YouTube and integrate them into slick, multi-page online magazines. Today I created a travelog magazine about our family’s recent fall break adventures titled, “Boston…

  • Breakthrough Thinking by Peter Diamandis

    These are my notes from Peter Diamandis‘ luncheon keynote, “Breakthrough Thinking” at the 2012 State of Creativity Forum in Oklahoma City on November 13, 2012. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Follow conference conversations today on Twitter with the hashtag #SoCF12. Over next couple of decades, we will be building a world of…

  • Captivated by the Tesla S Series Electric Car in Portland, Oregon

    Today my wife and I traveled to Portland, Oregon, enroute to the Oregon Association of School Libraries 2012 Conference in Seaside where I’ll share a keynote tomorrow on “Mapping Media to the Common Core.” A couple weeks ago I heard the NPR segment, “Tesla’s Big Gamble: Can The Electric Car Go Mainstream” on the NPR…

  • 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…

  • #playingwithmedia Digital Fabrication in the Classroom

    The satisfaction to be derived from success in a great constructive enterprise is one of the most massive that life has to offer. -Bertrand Russell The first time I remember “creating” something for a school assignment was in 3rd grade. Up until this point, what I remember about school involved completing worksheets at my desk,…

  • Scratch Camp in Edmond, Oklahoma: June 8-9, 2012

    Scratch is a programming language developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. Scratch makes it easy for children to create their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art – and share these creations on the web. As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational…

  • Bark Buddy iOS Game Development Begins with GameSalad

    About six months ago my 8 year old daughter announced, “I want to create a game for my iPod Touch called Bark Buddy.” At the time I knew a little bit about game development using Scratch, but not much about true iOS app development. My son and I visited with Rachel about her ideas for…