And now, a self-serving post...

I could use your feedback on something for my thesis. See these two frames below? I'm making some frames with labels on the sides. I'm going to photograph teaching artists "in action" with these frames, the idea being that they have these shifting identities that frame how their work can be viewed.

SO HERE'S THE QUESTION: Which is more readable -- the text facing outward or inward (i.e., does it make more sense to have the upside-down label be on the top or bottom part of the frame)?? Pretty please comment with whether you think A or B is the more readable version. Thank you so much!!!

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PS - Check out Big Think!

Maybe everyone in the world already knows about this site except me, but just in case you haven't come across Big Think, you should check it out. They interview experts about all sorts of interesting and relevant (or random) questions and topics.

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What is art and what is not?

Here's a video from Big Think about what is art. I really like this guy's articulation of attentiveness as a core element.

School of the Future

While it may sound all cutting edge and high tech, the School of the Future is actually a rather grassroots project organized by teaching artists in New York. They are creating an alternative "school" in a public park this summer. Each curriculum developed for the school is an art project.

So, it doesn't necessarily tie in with the other kinds of technology resources we've been sharing on this blog and talking about in class, but the project reminds me of some of the work that Stockyard Institute does (which we'll be discussing in class tomorrow). I'm personally interested in it because of my thesis topic (teaching artists and the relationships between their teaching and art practices). In other words, it's an exciting project and good to know about even if it has nothing to do with Cyberped. Check it out! :)

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Mashable: the Social Media Guide

I guess I'm on a social media kick... I discovered Mashable when I was researching options for creating the Art Education departmental website last summer (what is now our Ning site). The LISTS pages have all sorts of resources and reviews of various sites and tools by category. It's worth browsing!

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Social Media: Fad or Revolution?

Our recent Techno Teach-in presentations have me thinking about social networking and social media. Did you know that social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web? Learn this and other interesting facts in this video:

Inside the Mind of Google

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After some conversation in class last week about Google taking over the world (and how I'm going to convince Miguel of the amazingness of iGoogle and gmail if it's the last thing I do), I wanted to share a link to this CNBC Original I caught part of a few weeks ago: "Inside the Mind of Google." Check out the website for a fun quiz to test your Google IQ (question 3 is particularly funny).

The piece is long, but I'm embedding the Hulu video of it here... let's see if this works! :)

Free online software alternatives!

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Check out this blog post, " 7 Essential multimedia tools and their free alternatives," originally posted on a blog called 10,000 Words: Where Journalism and Technology Meet. There are some great resources listed that you might be able to use in a classroom if you don't have access to expensive software.