Just in from the MadATer…
Make your own comic at makebeliefcomix.com. What a great way for kids (or adults) to dip into creating comic strips - for fun, for social stories, and more. I especially like the tips that pop up on the bottom.
Steve Jacobs has created One Stop for Free Assistive Technology, a clearing house of free assistive technology tools available for a variety of needs. It is organized alphabetically, but if you choose a few handy keywords, you can usually jump to the products that would be of interest to you.
Steve is also open to submissions of additional resources not yet on the site.
The Constructivist Consortium was established in 2007 by leading educational technology publishers committed to student empowerment, creative applications of computers and the availability of high-quality open-ended materials. This consortium seeks to differentiate member companies and their products from the rest of a cluttered industry.
I keep coming across one of my favorite children’s authors & illustrators Peter Reynolds again and again. I first found him at the TRLD conference in San Francisco, in 2000. He was there to promote his software, but I convinced him (it wasn’t hard) to sign a copy of The North Star for my newborn nephew Joe. Not only did he sign it to Joe, he added a little illustration. His software was good, too!
If you don’t know Fable Vision, or Peter’s books (especially The North Star and Ish), or The Blue Bunny Book Store, you’ve got to check them out! Peter combines a whimsical warmth, a storyteller’s vision, and a solid constructivist approach to learning that makes me want to pull the roof off every school so we can all find our own stars.
Okay, I’m in it for the looks, and maybe I don’t like inconvenience and bulk, and maybe it’s the fun I have with iLife… In any case, if everything else is in chaos, my Mac is always nice and neat!
PS - image from Apple’s new iMac site, comparing an iMac with a Dell
