DD Shift

Yes, I am hearing the song “Sweet Child o’ Mine” by Guns and Roses.  I have the TV on in the background, and apparently this song is in a movie called “The Wrestler” which was just reviewed by Larry King on Larry King Live.

Allrighty, down to brass tacks.  I have just reduced the amount of time that I spent researching a topic by using two (free) web tools.  The first one is:

• Diigo – This allowed me to read through several web pages and highlight (online) the things that I thought were useful.  This saved:

  - Time: I didn’t have to write everything out or copy it by hand, and later when I wanted to refer to my notes I was able to look them up through my tags!

  - Trees:  I didn’t have to print out to save my highlights…

  - Space:  I can always go back to my highlights, and I don’t have to save them anywhere on my hard drive or in hard copy!!!

• Zotero – In the end I needed to create a bibliography.  In general, I regularly have to create bibliographies with two completely different systems:  MLA and APA.  Zotero will automatically bookmark and generate these bibliographies for you.  And, with the simple selection of a dropdown box it will generate the correct bibliography format for you.  This is helpful in three ways:

  - Saves Time: Zotero can generate a bibliography faster than I can.

  - Encourages Better Tracking of Sources:  You can easily keep track of web resources with Zotero.  At the minimum it requires the press of a button.  And, as you are researching, you can manually add other resources as well.  If you are in practice of bookmarking all of your web resources, you are more likely to also be more cognizant of capturing other types of resource information (especially since it is so easy to generate a bibliography with all of it in the end).

  - Better Bibliographies:  You don’t have to think with Zotero.  For the different types of sources, it prompts you for the correct information for the bibliography.  And, when bibliographies are generated, it does it in the correct format.  No more corrections due to bad formatting, missed commas, missed information, etc.  Zotero does it for you.

I think that these two tools are essential for efficient research and resource-tracking.  I strongly recommend them for teachers and students.  They are easy to use and they make life easier!!

I’m hearing the song, Paper Planes, by MIA.  They use a nice sample from another song that I can hear but can’t quite place in this song.

OK… I know that it has been a while since I have posted.  But, to my defense there was a bout of time when I could not log in.  They were performing some sort of maintenance that kept forcing me to change my password and never actually get to the edit screen.  This is the first time that I have tried since August, I think.  But, here it goes.

I have been toiling about looking for 2.0 tools for teaching, and here is what I have recently come up with:

• Quizlet – this is a cool site for drill and practice learning.  You can make digital flashcards that quiz you, test you, and even make little mini games for you.  This is not for higher-level learning, but it is good for rote memorization.
• I have developed a few course pages using Google Sites.  They provide free webspace to create basic websites (all with a very easy interface for development).  You can see an example of a more complex site here:  DIS ToK.
• There are two different application development (free) environments out there (excellent for creating simple games and getting students to use higher order thinking skills):  Scratch and another hosted by Microsoft that I can’t seem to find right now…
• I have found an interesting tool for coding learning called Hackety Hack, but I haven’t tried it out yet…
• If you want to create very cool characters for handouts in your classroom, check out SP Studio by Janina Koeppel.  I would recommend it for teachers to use to create images for the classroom, but not to recommend to students (due to a section of the app where you can have your character choose weapons – ugh).

I am hearing the Family Guy theme song.

I feel like Stewie stymied by broccoli. I read today that they are putting Dr. Horrible back online for free. Harrumph. We paid for the download. Garr!!

But, then I followed another link and found out there there are several professionally-produced sci-fi shows coming to the internet soon… Will this kill the creativity of the little guy?

Dr. Horrible\’s Sign Along Blog

I am hearing the Time Warp from the soundtrack of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Additional responses to Dr. Horrible:  sidekick anyone?

Dr. Dreadful

Chassy Cat

I am hearing the theme song from Underdog.

Here is a nice, short video called “Font Conference” that demonstrates both good and bad filming technique.  I have to admit that I laughed out loud when I watched it.  It might be a good thing to show students during the  technology filming unit to demonstrate:

• Use of stereotype in humor (not always funny – why or why not).
• Creative use of common settings to create a totally different atmosphere.
• Show that you can create something in 3 minutes with a definite beginning, middle and end
• Look at timing and detail – how often does the font name play a role?  How much time does a font name need to be on the screen for you to really absorb it?  Did they do a good job with each one?
• Use of specialized knowledge as humor — does it work?  Why or why not?  Is it good for the general public?  Why or why not?
• Camera angles:  especially with Times New Roman.  Why did they film the way that they did?
• Camera shots:  when shooting people, did they always do it “correctly”, or are we missing any body parts in places that make you feel uncomfortable as a viewer?

I’m hearing the song “A Man’s Gotta Do…” by Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible and Penny.

Perhaps a pre-quel? Brilliant!

I am hearing the song “On the Rise” by Penny and Dr. Horrible.

I have to say that I am disappointed, although I do understand Whedon’s position on Dr. Horrible. There will be no continuing episodes for Dr. Horrible. And that, my friends, is horrible. It is, from my frog perspective, irresponsible.

If you stop Mr. Horrible here, the story is a parable. And, it is a parable of the x-generation kind (not the next-generation… they aren’t old enough (or egotistical enough (yet) to “get it”). I won’t give you the moral of the story. I want to avoid spoilers, and you have to figure out the moral yourself. The prognosis (as an x-generation slave) is not good. And the message hits home.

But, we could look at it as a morality play. This leaves room for growth. Penny is Charity. Captain Hammer is Justice (ahh justice). Both of these “celebrated” virtues leave room for improvement; Charity is blind (but not chaste) and Justice is a vain, corporate tool… ah, but I digress. Which virtues (and vices) will Dr. Horrible meet in the next episode?

Or, this story could be epic; an epic of Parzival-ish proportions. Dr. Horrible has joined his round table (the evil League of Evil)… all he needs now is a sage villain to teach him the ways and a quest (and plenty of characters along the way). I believe Dr. Horrible longs (demands, even) to be epic. And, those characters that he encounters on his quest, they are futter for future spin offs.

Oh, and Penny is not all that weak, after all. Her character is significantly more developed than Captain Hammer’s. And, as Charity, she is far more reflective than I had first expected. And, her fate was necessary to drive home a point. But, she was not a dim-witted female–look at the subtext. She was simply a victim of her virtue.

Perhaps Whedon won’t create the next episode, but who is to say that there will be no new episodes? “Online” is a tricky frontier…

And, this is the best thing (hands down) that I have seen from Joss Whedon. Thank you to the writers’ strike!!

I am hearing the song “Someone Keeps Moving My Chair” by TMBG. “Mr. Horrible, Mr. Horrible, telephone call for Mr. Horrible…”

Today I saw something most exciting in the land of film-making: Dr. Horrible’s Musical Blog. We have already downloaded all 3 episodes from iTunes. This is a very cool reactionary project intending to bypass the man during the writers’ strike in the last year. It’s a noble cause with hillarious, musical, larger-than-life results.

The reactions to this experiment have been overwhelmingly positive, although there have already been some critiques: notably the weak female supporting role and the suggestion that Dr. Horrible is actually a copy of Dr. Steele. But from server crashes to #1 downloads in iTunes, I think that Joss Whedon and his merry crew of world-dominator-wannabes might just be on to something.

I have always had a weakness for evil geniuses– Pinky, Stewie, el Seed– especially when they are set on taking over the world. It’s time to add Dr. Horrible to the list.

The question is: how do we respond? Whedon has done a very powerful thing by releasing this little series online. There are thousands of people with cameras and creative ideas out there just waiting for something fun to respond to… Is Dr. Horrible that something? Will it be a viable money-maker? If it is, is it an anomaly, or is this the unofficial beginning of something big?

I am hearing the song “Irish Blood, English Heart” by Morrissey. This entry will be pure music. So, if you are here for educational purposes, skip this.

On July 4th, zufälligerweise, I was in London visiting my partner in crime… and, much to our surprise Morrissey was playing at a concert in Hyde Park. Having had missed opportunities to see him in the past (timing was always wrong, wrong), we seized this one. We acquired tickets through some sort of suspicious sidewalk reseller… and we were in.

I was skeptical. Morrissey was playing at the O2 Wireless Music Festival, so I expected a crowd that were there for the general music (and obviously the drinking). Morrissey followed a very disaffected performance by Beck, and we came closer to the stage as soon as Beck finished. I soon realized that I was surrounded by plenty of people who were much like me; mid-thirties, there to sing along… There were also enough people there to make it unpleasant; beer bottle hurling boozers, megalomaniacs shoving through the masses to take their places in front (they are, after all, entitled and untouchable)…

As with his live performances that I have heard (recordings), Morrissey provided his standard stream-of-consciousness satire between songs. He changed his shirt twice. You can find the song list all over online…

He performed well. His voice was full on. The crowd, given the awkward mix, was dull. I loved the performance. I hated the venue.

Given my limited experience seeing him actually live, it appears he’s too big to play in a venue that is relevant for his voice and his lyrics. Or, maybe today’s available venues are too big to be relevant. In the O2 venue, I felt that the music held more mockery than mitleid. Of course, that is my own frog perspective. And, I won’t have that again.

I am hearing the song “A Real Religious Man” by Mister Loco.  Ahhh Nacho…

This is just a footnote in my quest to find good shorts…  Here’s a list (actually a series of listsl) from Mental Floss called “Shorts that Don’t Suck“.