Learning about Scratch Basics

Sarah and Rachel recorded this fourteen minute Cinchcast with me today discussing their initial experiences learning how to create with Scratch software from MIT. They discussed learning how to move Sprites, about costumes, loops, coordinate geometry basics, and more. Download Scratch for free from scratch.mit.edu.

Scratch resources from my Fall 2010 undergraduate course, “Computers in the Classroom,” are available on wiki.powerfulingredients.com/Home/cic/resources/scratch.

Scratch Hero

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My Lego Star Wars Story

I have always been big Lego and Star Wars fans. Personally I have a large collection of figures in battle stances. I have also traded the lego minifigures with my friends. Even though we will trade minifigures from different product lines Star Wars is always the most popular to trade. The Clone Wars TV episodes have really been a lifesaver for Lego. Star Wars was always Legos biggest seller and when the last movie was finished Lego needed something to keep the hipe up. One reason why I think that Lego Star wars has done so well is because it is fun to collect them and get more than one set. It is just like you don’t want two borrows from Harry Potter but you will buy two Star Wars tanks. The clones are more fun if you have twenty instead of three. Just like you don’t want twenty Harry Potters. That is why the Star Wars product line has done so well. This is a picture of legoboy12345678‘s clone army that he has posted a video on you tube. He is also my favorite people to watch moc bases of battles on you tube sense he has so many clones.

Clarks’ slimline tanks nsw are designed for strength, space, cost efficiency and great visual appeal.

Peppermint Fudge Brownies

This evening Sarah recorded a new episode for “The International Cooking Show,” demonstrating how to cook Peppermint Fudge Brownies for a holiday potluck. The video is 7 minutes, 49 seconds long.

This episode is significant for several reasons. First of all, it’s the first episode we’ve uploaded to a unique YouTube Channel for The International Cooking Show: www.youtube.com/intcooking. Sarah is applying for a public magnet school next year in Oklahoma City, and we realized all her cooking videos have not (previously) been aggregated on a single website. She wants to list her cooking show on her application resume, so this is needed! We’ll be uploading past episodes to this channel soon, along with new shows.

This episode is also significant because it’s the first one we’ve not only entirely shot on an iPhone4, but also edited and published with an iPhone4 using the $4 app ReelDirector. ReelDirector is compatible with other iOS devices in addition to the iPhone4 and the 4th generation iPod Touch. iMovie for iOS costs $5 but will NOT work on older devices. Since both iMovie and ReelDirector provide movie editing and publishing features, I figured our money would be better spent on an app which will run on our older iOS devices as well as the newest.

Learn more about “The International Cooking Show,” which was designed to be a collaborative project but still needs other project collaborators, on internationalcooking.pbworks.com. In 2011 we’re going to list the project on some collaborative project websites to solicit more participation!

Way to go Sarah!

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Photos from New England: December 2010

I’ve published all the photos from the trip Sarah and I took to New Hampshire and Maine last week to a new Flickr collection.

Collection: New England Dec 2010

I still have more videos to publish, but it’s good to have all the photos online. I’ve found if I don’t share photos fairly soon after a trip, lots of other things get my attention and it’s more challenging to do it later. Lots of GREAT memories were made on this trip. 🙂

CMTC Technology Conference 2010

Wells, Maine

Cathy Wolinsky, Sarah and Alice Barr

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Steve Wozniak’s 9 Favorite Gadgets

Alex: If my invitation to Abilene, TX for a conference where Woz will be the keynote comes through, I want to take you. I want you, Sarah & Rachel to have opportunities to tinker with digital stuff like he did growing up.

Steve Wozniak’s 9 Favorite Gadgets

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, highlights some key historical gadgets that deeply influenced his engineering work.

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