Tech Treasures

I feel like a pirate opening a treasure chest. I have spent the week trying to assimilate all that I learned at FETC last week. My Google Reader has been overflowing with new sites and cool lessons to teach. And I have papers to grade, so exploring new stuff is always more fun!

Here are the jewels for the week:

* My own iPad! I received an iPad as part of UWA’s project to see how we could use table computers in the higher ed classroom. I am trying to pace myself though and see how my iPhone apps work on it and then I will add other apps. I also started a blog for this project.
* Cool web pages to locate Creative Commons pictures for digital projects
o Wylio
o FlickrCC
o Compfight
o Multicolr Search Lab
* Awesome Stories web site that tells all types of non-fiction tales with great multimedia links to audio, video, pictures, and web pages. I was especially intrigued by The King’s Speech since I have seen the movie twice.
* Appolicious where you can create lists of apps for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch and share with others. Here is my first list.
* Knoword is a great vocabulary game that I have test-driven on my computer and my iPad. It’s almost as much fun as FreeRice.

So there are my five gems of the week. I hope that you find some treasure that makes you happy you stopped by my blog. Please leave a comment on how you liked or disliked the tools.

Pictures Really Are Worth 1000 Words

My Nieces and Nephews

So there is my Animoto of my nieces and nephews. I love these kids and hope to always be in their lives. So here is a shout out to Hallie Grace, Luke, Eli, and Ella Kate! Love you guys

Some random thoughts on images and pictures . . .

Images are certainly something that attracts me to blogs. I like to see pictures of where the blogger is or has been. I also love pictures of classrooms. I like the colorful, elementary ones and the more “boring” secondary ones. I really love the pics of kids working with technology to do new, exciting things. I think images are a way to give my blog a KICK in the pants.

I think I have had a camera since I was eight years old. My first one was a simple Kodak Instamatic; I imagine that I took lots of “bad” pictures that my parents got developed for me. I also remember having a Polaroid and loving the instant prints. I had a 35mm during high school and college. Again, I took lots of pictures, not all of which turned out very well. I was, however, learning to be a good photographer by taking lots of pictures in the hope of capturing that one spectacular image.

Then, the onset of digital photography rocked my world. I could take an almost unlimited number of pictures and decide which to print or keep BEFORE spending any money. I absolutely loved this new development in photography. In fact, I love digital photos so much that I have almost crashed my HP laptop with all the pictures I have loaded. And I also have both a Picasa and Flickr account. Here is a link to my Fowler's Fotos 365 blog that made it until May 2010 and then I went back to work and it fizzled. Not that I have quit taking pictures, but I have quit posting them. I might need to pick that habit back up again.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from 2010 that I have stored digitally on a computer that I can get to at the moment.  Family, travel, and work are represented here.

Taken with my "new" camera--CoolPix S205 12 MP--Christmas 2010

Taken with my iPhone in Denver 2010

Taken with my "old" 4 MP Nikon Cool Pix in January 2010