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: digitalstorytelling

  • Proposed free videoconferences for Tandberg and CILC

    I’m sitting in the airport in Salt Lake City, Utah, enjoying both the view out the window and a fantastic laptop work booth Delta airlines provides here for wired travelers. I’m enroute to the 21st Century Learning @ Hong Kong 2009 conference, which starts later this week. My neighbor wasn’t too sure about the propriety…

  • Praise for Red Eye Removal and Custom Book Ordering in iPhoto ’09

    My six year old’s best friend is moving to Texas in two weeks, and ever since we learned their family is moving we’ve been planning to order a custom picture book as a going-away present for them. Their going away party is this coming Friday, so today was about the last possible day for us…

  • Addressing the R Word Proactively and Flagging YouTube Videos

    We refer to students with special needs as “disabled” for good reasons. This 30 second public service announcement video by Special Olympics HQ explains why, and recommends the “The New R Word” should be “respect.” I found this video, unfortunately, when researching YouTube Community Guidelines for flagging videos. This short tutorial gives the basics on…

  • Criteria for moderating comments on a viral video

    Cross-posted to Google’s Education Blog, “The Infinite Thinking Machine.” Two days ago, my nine year old daughter recorded a two minute video response to President Obama’s September 8th speech to students and I posted it to YouTube. Since then, in a little over 48 hours, the video has been viewed over 70,000 times, received thousands…

  • YouTube comment moderation is great (and recommended) when videos go viral

    My 9 year old’s YouTube response to President Obama’s speech to U.S. students yesterday has become quite popular around the world in the past 28 hours. At this writing, it has been viewed over 20,000 times and received the following daily honors. Note these are in 20 different countries, in addition to the United States.…

  • Over 17,000 views on YouTube in 24 hours

    This does not qualify as a viral video, perhaps, but I was still blown away to see that my daughter’s 2 minute response to President Obama’s speech yesterday has had over 17,500 views on YouTube in just 24 hours. Whoa! What happened? I’m not 100% certain, but apparently thanks to Twitter and Facebook links it…

  • President Obama’s Speech to Students: A Great Opportunity for Synchronous, Live Discussions

    Novel, stressful or otherwise challenging situations can often tell us a great deal about individual and organizational attitudes and values. The responses of schools and school leaders to next Tuesday’s Presidential address to U.S. students is a case in point. It is instructive to listen carefully to the reasons school leaders are providing to either…

  • Exemplary Digital Stories from Kansas, Oklahoma

    Teachers in Kansas, Oklahoma, participated in our phase 1 Celebrate Oklahoma Voices workshop this past week, and created some superb digital stories. These are five we’ve featured among the 431 videos now included in our online learning community. The Five Fighting Starrs of Oklahoma tells the amazing story of Paul Starr’s grandfather and five of…

  • Transferring cell phone recorded audio (voicenote) to a Mac computer

    I’m in Kansas, Oklahoma, this week leading a Celebrate Oklahoma Voices workshop for teachers in Kansas Public Schools. One of our participants, Carolyn Emde, is creating a story about one of her neighbors who went to Australia last summer on a People to People exchange trip. The student, Adam, brought back a digeridoo from Australia,…

  • Your Superintendent Crisis Plan Doesn’t Prepare You For This

    Cross posted to the Storychasers blog. Terry Brown is the superintendent of Earlsboro Public Schools, in Oklahoma, and participated this past summer in one of our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices digital storytelling workshops. In May of 1999, Terry was superintendent of Bridge Creek Schools, an unincorporated community devastated by a F5 tornado. Terry’s 4 minute COV…