Resources » Fun

Magnetic Poetry

mrlang — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:41:30 +0000

Some of you might have played with magnetic poetry on fridges before, but like with most other things, there is also an electronic version and that is what you can play with here.

http://play.magpogames.com/poem/Nature/kit/

http://play.magpogames.com/poem/Kids/kit/

http://play.magpogames.com/poem/Geek/kit/

http://play.magpogames.com/poem/FirstWords/kit/

Presentation Tools

mrlang — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:00:56 +0000

I am a big fan of having students present and share their learning in unique ways. As a result the students tend to have more fun and ultimately get more out of it. Below are a few resources that some of my students have used or played with in the past. The best part is that they are all free.

Prezi – Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas and the connections between them. The result: visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery. (Sign up as a Teacher or Student for some extras)

Slide Rocket – SlideRocket was founded in 2007 with the vision of building a better presentation experience, one that provides for every part of the presentation lifecycle and helps you make great presentations.

Exmpressr – Tell your story anyway you like. Add photos, music, video, and audio, and share it publicly or privately in an instant.

Wordle – Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide.

Tagxedo – Tagxedo turns words — famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters — into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.

Aviary Advanced Creative Tools – Aviary is a suite of powerful creative applications that you can use right in your web browser. We’re on a mission to make creation accessible to artists of all genres, from graphic design to audio editing.

LoopLabs – Looplabs is the web’s premiere online music mixing application and platform. Since 2000 we have connected millions of web users from around the world to the art of music mixing through our extremely intuitive and easy-to use software interfaces.

Wix - Wix is a simpler, faster and better way for you to create Flash web content.

WordPress – A better way to blog (I personally prefer WordPress over Blogger but both work fine and are free.)

Blogger – Create a blog it’s free.

Some Cool Sites

mrlang — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:18:09 +0000

Below are some websites that I have come across. It always amazes me what is out there for free. Some of these sites might make your life easier and others are just cool. Most of these are a result of Google and all that it has done for online environments.

Chrome Experiments – We think JavaScript is awesome. We also think browsers are awesome. Together, they can do some beautiful, magical, crazy things. And that’s why we created this website.

Google Mars – Google has worked with Arizona State University to provide some detailed maps of Mars that you can explore.

Aardvark – Aardvark was conceived as the first Social Search engine: a way to find people, not web pages, that have specific information.

Google Body – Google Body is a detailed 3D model of the human body. You can peel back anatomical layers, zoom in, and navigate to parts that interest you. Click to identify anatomy, or search for muscles, organs, bones and more.

Art Project by Google – Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.

Mind Lab – How is our consciousness connected to the world? Explore the unconscious functions of the brain with visual illusions and mysterious perceptual phenomena.

How Stuff Works – Is the award-winning source of credible, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works.

Today I Found Out – Today I Found Out is a site founded on the precept that it is always good to learn something new every day.

A Few Videos to Get You Started

mrlang — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:25:00 +0000

Kseniya Simonova – Sand Animation

Jeff Han Demos his Breakthrough Touchscreen

A Story of Mixed Emoticons

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth

Phil Hans Paints the Mona Lisa with Hamburger Grease

Link to Phil Hans website – Lots of cool stuff here.

John Lee Demos Wii Remote Hack

Theo Jansen Creates New Creatures

Changing Education Paradigms

Adam Savage’s [Mythbusters] Obsessions

For Parents …

mrlang — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:17:15 +0000

I will be posting links to articles, videos, and research that has influenced my teaching and the decisions that I make within the classroom with respect to my students and their learning. I will also try to provide articles that may influence how you choose to parent.

Parenting

Teaching

Intriguing TED.com Videos, well there might be some videos from other places as well.
I tend to search up and watch TED videos in my spare time as a way of finding out about some of the amazing things that are happening in the world around us. I hope that you enjoy these as well.

Jeff Han Demos his Break Through Touchscreen

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth

John Lee Demos Wii Remote Hack

Theo Jansen Creates New Creatures

Derek Sivers: Keep Your Goals to Yourself

Derek Sivers: Weird, or Just Different?

Adam Astrow: After Your Final Status Update

Kevin Slavin: How Algorithms Shape Our World

Robert Lang: Idea + Square = Origami