How to Build The Ultimate Smartphone Projector--so freakin' cool

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Can we not salvage one important thing in this horrible excuse for an administration?

Copied and pasted. Thank you, my favorite organization in the whole educational world: This makes using your voice easy!

Urge your Senators to restore net neutrality protections

 

The Senate is poised to vote very soon on a Congressional Review Act (CRA) Resolution that would restore net neutrality protections  the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to eliminate earlier this year. Without net neutrality, telecommunications providers are free to establish fast lanes for particular online products, throttle delivery of others, and potentially raise prices and decrease services for students and educators nationwide. Right after the FCC voted to eliminate net neutrality, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a CRA that would repeal the FCC’s order and reinstate net neutrality.

Reports indicate that we are only one vote away from the CRA Resolution receiving Senate approval. To date, all Senate democrats and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) have committed to voting for the CRA. It is important that all senators hear from you now about your support for this resolution. Additionally, there’s a group of four senators who may be particularly close to switching from a “no” to a “yes.” These four senators are: Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO). Advocates from those four states – Louisiana, Nevada, Alaska and Colorado – are especially encouraged to contact these members and urge them to vote “yes” on the CRA.

ACTIONS TO TAKE THIS WEEK:

     1. Tweet at your Senators.
 

STEP 1: Use our handy tool to easily tweet at your Senators, asking them to support the net neutrality CRA. The system will automatically tag your Senator.

STEP 2: Choose from one of the pre-written tweets or tweet both.

     2.  Call your Senator’s office and ask them to vote “YES” on Sen. Markey’s Congressional Review Act Resolution to restore net neutrality protections.

STEP 1: Click the "Call"  button and wait to be connected to the office. Phone script will appear for you to review before you confirm you want to place the call.

STEP 2: Ask to speak with the staffer handling net neutrality. If the staffer is unavailable, ask to leave a voicemail.

 

Thank you for your ongoing edtech advocacy support.Your voice matters!

Poems. I wrote some poems. I call this little collection "Forth and Back"

One Actor

Indefatigable spirits flag not

In the face of

Obstacle, stale air,

Standardization,

Or achievement,

But nourish caring hearts

Through handcuffed and assassination-rife times.

Racism has many costumes

But only one actor,

The infant, fearful soul.

Go

Peace, she whispers,

And lets go her soul.

Takes forever leave of it.

And it

From her.

Intention

At some urgent last moment

I will know that it is.

If I do not manage a smile

You must remember that

Was my most intended intention.

Stop

You say to stop

Right where I am.

How could I stop

Where I’m not?

Pi

Ease along now

Even as you will

Yourself to stay put.

Just how many

Realities can we be?

Perhaps Pi.

What

Open any door and stand

In what you have made,

An opening framed by…what?

Watch what the door kept hidden,

What it kept from you,

What kept being

Without you.

Beyond this portal

Are more portals

And within each,

More portals,

And with each,

More what.

Break

Open any door.

Find joy or hatred within.

Smile upon discovery.

Break down.

I

Find myself?

How does that

Which is I

Perceive that

Which it is?

I would more

Likely find

That sad I

Seeking I.

End

University of Western Australia Machinima Awards 2018

Hey, y'all,

I logged into SL this morning to an announcement of an upcoming event and I went there.

You may or may not know that the ISTE Virtual Environments Network meets most every 3rd Tuesday of most every month to view and share machinima. What is that? It's film made from video in online games or virtual worlds. This hour was the culmination of a year of competition and the organizers were clearly dedicated to the art of machinima.

I had to go. Now I have my work cut out for me (in spare time, certainly not in my work day as middle school Technology Teacher). I want to view as many of the winners as I can. I've browsed around a bit, and what I've glimpsed is nothing short of stellar. I have a link for ya.

The videos were originally archived for viewing at the site linked below, but it appears to have been taken down. I'm not sure why, but I can speculate: Second Life has been known to be a bit picky about websites using the moniker "SL" for any part of their names. So, skip to the bottom for a list I pulled out of an immense text chat log.

Here are the winners for the University of Western Australia's 2018 Machinima Awards, as judged by a panel of educators from diverse geolocations. The big winner is at the very end, just like the winners were presented!

Judges:

 - Chantal Harvey - Judging Panel Chair

- Harnake Hunspal - Freelance Producer and Director

- Tess Baxter  – Digital artist and PhD candidate in contemporary art at Lancaster University

- Craig Harbison – CEO of Diamond gate Films, 

The panel for the Merlion Prize was jointly led by Singh Albatross and Kaylee West. The panel for the PookyMedia Prize, led by Pooky Amsterdam (these winners are not shared because their links were not shared in text chat, and viewing them is, after all, the point of this post)

. 

The panel for the UWA Prize & Craft Prizes, was led by Janway Zifanwe.

AWARD FOR ENCHANTMENT: “Art and Transformation - a dialogue at intervals” by LAMPIHALER,  -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOb2XDFioOY

THE INNOVATION AWARD:  “A Night of TV” by SECRET RAGE of Dallas, Texas, USA -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHeYXFK5LGE

THE ARTISTRY PRIZE:  “Alcyon and Ceyx” by JOSEPH NUSSBAUM -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2oRAJF_qXQ

AWARD FOR RHYTHM: “Happy” by IONO ALLEN of France -- https://vimeo.com/250912097

ANTON MESTER AWARD: “Staring Into the Aperture” by VEYOT -- 

https://vimeo.com/239689140

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY: “MemesZ” by TANTRA SANGHA & M1NN0TAUR -- 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYN5_W3iGes

EXPERIMENTAL FILM AWARD: “Change Dreams” by ELLE THORKVELD -- 

https://vimeo.com/246845975

BEST DOCUMENTARY STYLE ART FILM: “A Journey from the Past: Singapore” by DIANA ROSE of Jakarta, Indonesia -- 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fImRu5VW9g

UWA SPECIAL PRIZE (3-way tie): 

     “For Love and Art” by AMELIE MARCOUD -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VLT4rPnVag

     “Never Say Never” by SUZIE ANDERTON of Inworld Films -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-llbqYfZpk

     “The Amalgamation of Objects” by CHIC AEON of Corvallis, Oregon, USA -- https://www.slartist.com/slartistuwa-amalgamation-of-objects_bd7a7f678.html

Slartist@UWA Machinima Challenge SLARTIST@UWA MACHINIMA CHALLENGE WINNERS ARE:

5TH PLACE: “Cerulean” by Bryn Oh of Canada -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhIKEak5p3Q

4PLACE: “Before the World was Made” by ISABELLE CHEREN of the UK -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=042sdxgvBIU

3RD PLACE: ”The River of Forgetting” by NATASCHA RANDT and KARIMA HOISAN of Gelsenkirchen, Germany and San Isidro del General, Costa Rica -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikl7lnCOP1k

2nd PLACE:  “Serendipity” by TUTSY NAVARATHNA of Pondicherry, India -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMMmbpwlMrc

1ST PLACE: The WINNER of the Slartist@UWA Machinima Challenge: Art of the Artists: “Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) and Intrusion Detection System(IDS)” by GLASZ DECUIR -- https://vimeo.com/249233312

Enjoy! 

Midnight Reef in Second Life

Enjoying some virtual down time when I have real down time. :)

https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cFeX2RDFmc

My Current Digital Portfolio

Is it Really February?

Lots of thoughts these past few days as I'm laid up with a brutal case of pneumonia, drinking fluids like an OJ, Vitamin Water, La Croix junkie. Sleeping in what I can snatch between painful coughing bouts and binging alternately on Beatles vinyl and foreign films. I thought to myself, "Self, why aren't you blogging?"

It's true, I'm at one of those stages in my blogging path where I'm tied up in work and family and a major writing project that may only be published posthumously (though this illness bout is putting a little imaginary pressure on that timetable). I haven't done it, but I likely could search "sorry" on this blog and timeline-out the intervals where I have let slide my self-imposed responsibility to share. This has been one of them.

I do better at my school blog, Mister Merrick's Falcons Tech, but that's geared toward school parents and students. Actually, I owe them a weekly post as well. I'll get to that this week. You're more than welcome to check that out.

This blogging is an interesting animal. My dear sis-in-law calls it my book. "It's your book." Well, actually the book is Lives, available at Lulu.com. This is my odd attempt to communicate with you. I don't have to tell you who you are: You know that. If you are reading this it's for you. I have lots of colleagues, if not many close friends, but you can read some of the why of that in Lives, and certainly in my thinly veiled memoirs tentatively entitled "and before that... (memories of a lucky life lived). No link for that one--you thought I'd slip up, didn't you?

One bit of good news if you do enjoy scottmerrickdotnet, the ISTE planning season is gearing up for ISTE2018. The online program came out today and you can see all the offerings at
https://conference.iste.org/2018/program/search/. I'm but one of 1900 presenters and if you are interested in education there is no other conference over the year that will reward your time better.

Time for a little personal opining:

So, lately I've been immersed a bit in the politics that are not politic. I've been incensed, bewildered, and sometimes oddly amused by the state our nation has found itself in. Most recently, it is the school shootings issue that twists my soul into pretzels. The students' uprising--and make no mistake, it is blossoming into that--may just be the ray of hope that we need in order to sucker slap the country back into its senses. I have a rifle, but it is not an AR-15, and I have only recently acquired it for target shooting. I don't even hunt. I do think that it would be a good thing to have for the zombie apocalypse, especially if my target practice pays off in the form of solid headshots. Isn't that as good a reason as any to have a weapon in the home?

All that said, we need to look at the way other countries have made their laws support in some cases almost nearly absolute reduction in gun deaths. Something must be done and I applaud our students for gathering into a like-minded group dedicated to showing our greed-driven politicians what needs to be done. It is not a travel ban, y'all, as the Judiciary repeatedly reminds us.

It's a long read, but please, please take the time to absorb this recent post by "theindependentthinker,' Michael Sparks. The 12 Most Common Fallacies in the Gun Arguments (and How to Refute Them).

There's this:

From http://theweek.com/cartoons?sort=publish_date&page=5 with thanks

If we cannot keep our children safe at school, and we cannot, given the current ease of purchasing guns, we are worthless. I speak as a teacher who may one day at this rate be called upon to be a hero and is not sure he's up to it.

Do you know companies are now peddling bulletproof panels for school backpacks? What!?
What?!!!

I have more to say about other thoughts and I will get back to saying them. For now, be safe, love your neighbor, and cast off your paranoia but keep your wits about ya. Remember, "Just because you're paranoid does not mean They are not out to get you.

Peace out,
Scott

educatorstechnology.com, y'all

Ya'll,

I have a link for ya.


http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2017/09/32-educational-websites-organized-by.html

This is pretty stunning if you run a computer lab or you are a classroom teacher who wants to amp up your tech in the classroom. I stumbled upon it a week or so ago and, otherwise focused, simply pasted its url into a new blogpost so I'd have the draft to share it. Why is it worth visiting? First, just look at this quote from its "About" frame:

Coming to you from the wonderful Nova Scotian city, Halifax (Canada), Educational Technology and Mobile Learning is an educational blog dedicated to curating, reviewing and sharing EdTech tools and mobile apps. The purpose is to help teachers and educators effectively integrate digital technologies into their day-to-day teaching, learning and professional development. For any questions regarding the blog website or the published content , please contact EdTech admin, editor and blog owner, Med Kharbach at: info@educatorstechnology.com.

Med Kharbach is a doctoral researcher and a former teacher with 10 years of classroom teaching experience. Med's research interests include: discourse analysis, language learning, linguistics, Internet linguistics, critical linguistics, new (emerging) literacies, critical pedagogy, and educational technology.

How can you deny that you are tickled to learn about a regularly maintained, smartly written, and timely collection of collections. Just view the homepage via the screengrab below and Favorite, Subscribe, Bookmark, and RSS feed at will.

Finally, it's homebased at freakin' Halifax, Nova Scotia. Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

Stellar.

Hurricane Harvey and Great Music

Hey, all,

Any and all sales of my CDBaby digital album from Alaska will, until further notice, go to help my brother Ed work through the impact the recent hurricane had on the life of his family.

Pick up some good tunes and help out, please!

Pick up tunes to help!

Important Passings

Since this blog has always been an oblique mashup of professional and personal, sort of "my book," as much-loved sister-in-law Amy calls it, I feel a need to share with interested parties that my dear mother-in-law, Ann Jennalie Cook Calhoun, passed away on August 13 after illness followed by surgery one month prior. She will be missed.

Also, her husband, "GMan" to my children, their last living grandfather, passed away on the same date. As Ann's health deteriorated, his own followed suite and he was admitted along with her to Alive Hospice, where they struggled for only several days before passing, both in the same hospice room, passing only hours apart. Gerry went first, and I believe that Ann felt that passing, and joined him as soon as she could.

There is a wonderful picture of the two of them holding hands, both unconscious, near their final moments. I would like to share it as inspiration and solace to those of you who knew them.

For anyone wishing more detail, we have set up a Caringbridge.org website.

Vanderbilt News has published a beautiful tribute to Ann, which you can view here.

Hold on to the ones you love, and tell them, frequently, that you love them.

Peace out.

Alike

This incredible short film was shared on Facebook by my dear brother-from-another-mother, James Paige Morrison, and I want to share it out with everyone who might benefit from watching it. That's you.

It's almost a cliche' that the systems which control our growth from infancy to the grave can stifle creativity, almost as if they were designed to do so. They have, in fact, rather evolved to do so. Perhaps with a little more awareness, we can help them further evolve to embrace creativity. LOTS of discussion in the educational arena surrounding this. It's the essential reason that STEM became STEAM. The addition of the A, adding Art to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math is the best development in formal education since the addition of the pencil.

Let's keep the educational trend pendulum swinging in that direction (because you do know it swings, don't you?) and when it gets to its apogee, let's push it a little further! Watch: