Category: playingwithmedia
-
Archive WordPress with HTTrack
I’ve been running WordPress websites since 2005, and creating webpages since 1995. Over that time I’ve accumulated a lot of sites including different blogs, professional development sites, projects, podcasts, and communities I’ve been part of. Many of them aren’t active any longer, but some sites still have content I want to preserve. The problem is…
-
Slideshow via FFmpeg
Since I’m known in our family (and in parts of my community) as someone with a few technology and media skills, from time to time I’m asked to help out with slideshows at special events. In the past this has included funerals for both of my spouse’s parents, as well as my mom’s funeral. Back…
-
Sketchnote to AI InfoGraphic
Today was one of my favorite lessons in my middle school media literacy class: We started our “Froot Loop Conspiracies” unit about the Moon Landing Hoax, Lateral Reading, and using the SIFT web literacy framework to vet and verify online information and sources. Today’s introductory lesson involved watching the first two of three videos, and…
-
Vibe Coding a Mythological Creature Spinner
This school year, I’m unable to use SpinTheWheel.io, a random animal selector I’d been using for one of my favorite middle school creature-design projects. Last spring when I was asked to start teaching two sections of AP Computer Science Principles in February, I co-created this lesson with my colleague Todd Johnson, who took over one…
-
Normalize Your Video Audio with Auphonic (and QuickTime Player)
One of the most common problems I see in student and creator videos alike is inconsistent audio. You shoot a clip facing the camera, then turn around to capture something else — and suddenly the audio levels are completely different. The result is a video that sounds unprofessional, even when the content is great. The…
-
Vivaldi Web Browser
Sometimes my social media feeds in Flipboard on my iPad bring serendipitous links to my attention, and that was the case early yesterday morning with this video from South Iceland from the Vivaldi web browser team. I have not visited Iceland yet, but my buddy and podcasting partner, Jason Neiffer, has, and he’s raved about…
-
Scratch Animation Reverse Engineering
A teacher friend in Oklahoma sent me the following video clip, which I converted to an animated GIF via Adobe. Her question to me was, “How did the student code this in Scratch?” Apparently the student did NOT save the project, so the actual code is not available for inspection and analysis. This is a…
-
Interactive Fiction Database and CYOA Video Stories
I grew up in the 1980s and loved reading “Choose Your Own Adventure” (CYOA) stories. From time to time, as an advocate of “Playing with Media” and “Show What You Know with Media” pedagogy and learning, I’ve created my own CYOA stories and helped others create them too. Today I learned about the “Interactive Fiction…
-
Burning DVDs in 2025
This evening I successfully burned two DVDs for the 40th Anniversary of the Mint Hill Historical Society, which is coming up on Saturday. For several years now I’ve been volunteering with the MHHS, helping with oral history interviews and their website. For Saturday’s event, they want to play a silent slideshow of 1087 photos on…
-
Inbox Alchemy via Vibe Coding
Back in September I wrote about my “DIY Federated Reader” experiment: a Gmail-to-Mastodon bot that turns my newsletter inbox into a public, federated news stream I’m able to read as a “feed” in Flipboard. This project is now featured on the “Trusted Voices” page of ResistAndHeal.com, a website and project I started in December 2024.…