A random link led me to a series of fantastic tonal toys. Some of these are simply diversions, and some are elaborate programs that can be used to create amazing compositions. Here’s a quick run-down of what I found…

Pulsate

Think wind chimes. This little Flash app by Andre Michelle is hypnotic and addictive.  Clicking on the black work area will create a circle that expands from the click-point.  The circle will continue to expand until it touches another circle, so you need to create at least two for this thing to work.  When two circles touch a bell-like tone is generated, and the circles reverse direction.  If they had been expanding they now contract.  A contracting circle will contract until it reaches a single point, then start expanding again.

The pitch of the tone is determined by the size of circles.  A larger circle will create a deeper tone, and a smaller one a higher pitch. An interval is created, but sometimes the larger circle’s pitch is so low that it’s hardly audible.  It sounds like the app is tuned to a pentatonic scale to minimize dissonance, much like a set of wind chimes would be be tuned.

Rhythm is determined by the expansion rates of the various circles.  You can create very complex patterns  by positioning circles closer to or farther away from each other.  Circles within circles also create neat patterns.  I find it fascinating to start with a simple pattern of three circles, and gradually make the pattern more complex by adding more circles.

Here’s a short video of one of my creations.  However, I suggest that you follow the link and create your own to get the full sensation. (more…)

Our recent photo trek through Laurens County raised lots of questions for me.  I had seen places about which I wanted to learn more.  There were the questions about name origins – Ghost Creek Road and Dead Man’s Curve in particular.  I wanted to know if there were documented incidents that led to these names.  I also wanted to know more about the spring we found on Bramlett Road – what rallies were held here, etc.

Of course, I first turned to online resources to see what I could find.  A simple Google search didn’t reveal much initially.  In fact, I was getting a bit discouraged.  I even turned to Facebook, and was able to get some anecdotal answers, but nothing documented.

I still haven’t found the answers to these questions, but I did find some great reference materials.  First up are the ones I’ve mentioned here before – SC DISCUS (requires login),  SCIWAY.net,  and the new South Carolina Digital Archive.  All of these have excellent primary source materials, or links to those materials. (more…)

I had an eye-opening discovery this week.  One of our principals contacted me about an e-mail she was expecting that hadn’t arrived.  I went into our district spam filter to see if it had been caught there.  While looking for the e-mail, I noticed a lot of traffic from Facebook that had gotten caught in the filter.

At first I thought the Facebook traffic was just generic spam, but decided to click on one to make sure.  Imagine my surprise as I found myself looking at a personal message between two of our teachers about a date they had gone on.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with the message itself, but I’m sure these folks would be appalled to know that I had been privy to such personal correspondence.

The problem was that one of the teachers had used her district e-mail account to sign up for Facebook.  The default setting for Facebook is to send e-mail notification for any wall posts, comments, or private messages.  All of this traffic was coming into our system and subsequently being caught in our spam filter.   I’m sure this teacher didn’t think anything like this would happen, and if she were not getting the e-mails, she would have been unaware of the problem.

Even though the message supposedly was sent within the confines of Facebook, it still wound up on our system.  At that point it becomes property of the district, and could be discoverable by subpoena or FOIA request.  We currently don’t use an e-mail archiving system, but that’s probably going to happen before too long.  When that happens we (my IT staff and administrators) will have even more access to personal messages, whether we want it or not.

I’ve heard some instructional technology gurus call for greater interaction between students, teachers, and parents on social networking sites such as Facebook.  I don’t think that’s such a great idea.  I think there needs to some clear boundaries between the personal and the professional, and that’s just not easy to do on Facebook.  I guess one could create a “teacher” account separate from their personal account, but that can get to be a bother.  My friend John Woodring suggests using a Fan Page.  I still think it’s best just to keep the two separate.

Facebook isn’t the only problem, though.  A teacher that signs up for any other service with a district account will have e-mails coming back from that service.  This could include banking, or any other service that might include personal information.

Starting this fall we’re going to begin insisting that teachers use a personal account for all social networking systems and non-school related services, and to reserve their district account for professional use only.  We have tried to make this standard practice, anyway, and have used the phrase “incidental personal use” for what is allowable.  We’re doing this to protect the teacher, as much as anything.  That way my tech staff doesn’t have to read any personal Facebook soap operas as they find their way into our e-mail system.

Related Posts:

• Facebook and Online Responsibility
• Teachers and Facebook

One of the reasons I upgraded to an Android phone was my interest in Augmented Reality.  I knew I would be doing some traveling this summer and wanted a way to check out items around me quickly, without having to bring my work Blackberry along.  I got a chance to put the new smartphone through its paces last weekend in Washington DC, and here are some of my initial feelings about AR…

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The folks over at the Google Earth Design blog have been running a series on creating Google Earth tours.  They have had some excellent suggestions for creating effective tours. (Part 1, Part 2).  It was enough to get me to try creating a tour or two.

For some reason I haven’t done much with GE Tours.  To me they seem passive in a constructivist classroom.  If I’m doing a presentation, I prefer to use a series of placemarks that I access as needed, rather than a fixed tour.  In fact, the GE Design Blog states the following:

If changes of scale and location are not important your narrative it is quicker and just as effective to use presentation software such as PowerPoint.

However, their blog posts inspired me to at least give it a shot.  I won’t repeat all of their suggestions, but here are a few things I learned…

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