sharing playlists

Good grief, is it really Friday already?!  No matter how behind I am this week, I need to pull out some fluff for Friday. How about a nifty playlist? What’s that, you say? Well, in iTunes and other media sharing products, users can often share their “playlists,” or groupings of music that they’ve created. I [...]

new media literacies

Take a look at this website from MIT called Project New Media Literacies. The content examines what students need to be both consumers and producers of information and media. You can also join their email list and download a white paper about “confronting the challenges of participatory culture.” 
The topic reminds me of when I was working [...]

they danced their Ph.D.s

Some time ago I posted a note about Dance Your PhD in my Friday Fluff. But I really think this wonderful little project at the crossroads of arts and sciences deserves another mention: the winners have been annouced! Check out the 2009 AAAS/Science Dance Contest (“Dance Your PhD”).

get yer nerd badge

It’s Friday, so it must be time for Fluff. Yes, it’s the day of the week that I get off topic or write about something that amuses me.
Today it’s all about nerd badges. You know, like merit badges for Boy Scouts … except these are badges of recognition for your nerdy talents. You know you [...]

tech therapy

Tech Therapy is an excellent podcast from The Chronicle of Higher Education. I don’t think I’ve ever said that and recommended it as a podcast subscription (although I have recommended individual episodes). Let me correct that: I recommend Tech Therapy – it contains a number of thought-provoking conversations and interviews. The current episode (#42) is especially [...]

YouTube university

YouTube is partnering with several universities to make video of lectures and other video available under a Creative Commons license – both on YouTube and for download. The universities include Stanford, Duke, UCLA and UC Berkeley. So far I haven’t been able to find a “channel” that features them; I had to access them separately. If [...]

turn on, tune out … whatever (whenever?)

Today’s the big day for TV. Sort of.
February 17, 2009, was to be the day that television stations in the United States transitioned their broadcast signals from analog to digital, requiring either a set-top converter box for your old analog TV, a digital television, or cable/satellite reception (cable and satellite customers don’t have to worry [...]

KySTE conference discount and presentations

KySTE is inviting Kentucky college students – those majoring in Education or otherwise headed to K-12 careers – and their professors to register for and create presentation proposals for the annual KySTE Technology Conference and Workshops in June.
The event is set for June 17-19, 2009, at North Bullitt High School in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. The KySTE Conference is designed [...]

remember pong?

And now for your Friday Fluff! Yes, here it is, the origin of the (television and arcade video game) species: video ping-pong. Believe it or not, the game, in its several versions as generic ping-pong and tennis, is more than 40 years old. It may not have been the very first, but it is one of the [...]

Darwin bicentennial birthday, too

I focused on Lincoln yesterday, since he, too, is a Kentuckian; however, I would be remiss not to note that Feb. 12 also marked the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. And, this year also marks 150 years since the publication of Darwin’s On The Origin of the Species.
Here are a few resources for marking Darwin’s [...]