Haugen’s Tech Tips Blog

Sometimes, I want something because it just looks like so much fun… Wacom clearly wants us to think that about their new graphics tablet, so they’ve put fun in the name: the Bamboo Fun, a spiffy little (or medium) USB graphics tablet that has a “pen and paper feel,” a patented “touch ring” (think iPod) for zooming and scrolling, and 4 customizable buttons to free you from your keyboard.
The Bamboo is particularly appealing to me right now, as I’ve been reviewing graphics programs for my student publishing program and a graphics tablet would add some punch to our drawing strategies.
So, if you know my personal elf, and you think I’ve been nice, please let him know that I’ve got a little (Bamboo) Fun on my list…

ATMac is a blog that offers news, reviews and opinions on assistive technology for Mac OS X, by Ricky Buchanan who is himself an avid Mac and AT user.  Organized by type of user, for example “text-to-speech users,” or “deaf users,” or “primary switch users,” and by audience (”content producers,” “developers,” “edcuators,” “users”), you can quickly find relevant entries.

Bottom line - direct, honest info and reviews about state-of-the-art assistive tech for the Mac.

Every now and then, a new product comes along that takes nothing for granted and comes up with a whole fresh new way of doing things …that actually really works. Enter Scribbles… a delightful new paint program for Mac OS X. Gone are the busy tool bars and obnoxious sound effects. Instead you’ll access 12 beautiful brush styles, infinite colors, multiple layers and quick easy tools for resizing your art. Getting your art where you want it to go is also easy, with menu option to export in a variety of formats, send to email or post to Scribble’s free gallery
Better yet, the individual price is only $20, just $14 for educators, and AteBits has a generous site license agreement for schools in the works. Download it, make a nice cup of tea, and have some fun… Your inner artist will thank you.

Screen shots, left to right: drawing screen, layer chooser, color picker…

We’ve just had our first of two weekend workshops for students interested in stop motion animation with Legos and other stuff. I worked with 2 students (4th & 5th grade) who helped lead the workshop, and another 5th grader who signed on for tech support. With 14 other 4th and 5th graders as our students, we piled into school on a Saturday to build sets, set up cameras, and snap away as each group of kids patiently moved their Legos and clay one step at a time until their stories were complete. Next weekend, we’ll pop the photos into iPhoto albums and then into iMovie, adjust playback timing, add sound tracks and sound effects, titles and more.

Our goal is to create a DVD with all the movies that we can then copy and give as gifts to friends and family during the holiday season.

When I work with kids in this way, I am always so impressed by their enthusiasm, hard work and creativity, as well as their willingness to work with and help one another.

We have created a wiki for our program, which you can explore at:

edisonanimators.wikispaces.com/

In preparing for a podcasting workshop this week, I’ve been collecting new podcasting tutorials.  Some helpful finds:

• How to Podcast: Four Basic Steps - Plan, produce, publish, promote…
• How to Podcast - from Podcasting Tools
• Howstuffworks “How to Create Your Own Podcast”
• Make Your First Podcast
• How to Create Your Own Podcast - A Step-by-Step Tutorial on Podcasting

Most of these tutorials rely on Audacity and the LAME encoder. The workshop I’m leading will use Garage Band and iTunes (part of iLife ‘08), since those tools are the focus of a yearlong series of trainings for the teachers I’m working with.  I’ll post links to those materials at a later date!