Fred Bartels's Blog (10)

<* warning, a political post *> I received my TIAA/CREF quarterly statement yesterday. Yet another loss of value. I take a long term view and believe/hope that much of the value will return by the time I retire in 10 or so years. However, if we don't handle the current financial mess well it might not. The Japanese stock market hasn't come close to recovering from its high during their real estate bubble 15 years ago. The frustration is caused by my belief that this financial disaster d… Continue

It is easy to forget how powerful computers have become. A video like the one linked below is a good reminder of the information processing power inherent in current information technology. http://www.byhook.com/video/telematics.html Continue

Seems like there might be quite a bit of potential using the approach discussed in the article referenced below, especially in AP Courses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jbmurray/Madness and the site which this project produced: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:MMM Continue

Have some fun with word clouds at the Wordle site. This is from a rationale for student laptops document. Continue

Looking for a way to easily manage, organize and download all those great new video resources on the web? Take a look at Miro. An outstanding free open-source tool for working with Internet video. Thanks to Kerri Richardson for pointing out Miro on the NYCIST listserve! Fred Continue

No, it's not a really bad case of atheletes foot. It is a revolutionary way to teach computer science concepts. Created by the same folks who made BlueJ. Take a look here: http://www.greenfoot.org/ Fred Continue

Received the automated phone message at about 6 am. "Due to the approaching winter storm.... " Ahhhh, bliss, bliss, bliss! The price will be paid later with the snow shovel. This is a much needed break as the unusual full 4 week stretch between Thanksgiving and winter break was starting to wear people down. Continue

One of the great things about this site is the chance to put faces together with names. There are many people who I've exchanged emails with for years and never met in person. Now I'm able to put faces with many of those names, and that turns out to be surprisingly meaningful in helping develop a sense of community here. So, if you have an avatar or non-face image please consider replacing it with a nice portrait shot* ... you can find plenty of helpful videos on YouTube to learn how to strike t… Continue

A little bit of time to kick back and reflect on a busy fall. Trees here in the NY area putting on their last show before shutting down for the winter. After some snow flurries yesterday it is expected to be up near 70 on Wednesday. I've got a nice juicy SketchUp project to work on and some good books to read. Should be an enjoyable and relaxing break. Hope the same for all of you! Fred Continue

I spend most of my free time working on design and art with SketchUp. The results can be found in the wiki/blog I keep here: http://dws.editme.com I spent many years maintaining a blog-like website about student laptop programs. The url for that site is here: http://www.learningwithlaptops.org I plan to use this blog to share reflections on teaching in the independent school world in the early years of the 2… Continue