It’s official, the ds106 GIF Fest is upon us! Just in time for the coming Mayan apocalypse no less, huzzah! I thought I’d set the bar really low, to see if I can anger the GIF gods to come and make something better. That, and I thought it might be nice to create a GIF that many of my educational technology brothers and sisters could use in a pinch to illustrate the frustrating nature that is the 21st century work place; we seem...

The PBS IdeaChannel is my new favorite YouTube addiction. Imagine taking everything thought provoking that PBS hangs its hat on, and wrap it up with nostalgia for the 80s and 90s, and you have the social media makings of PBS 2.0, designed for my generation.. For example, let’s compare Santa to Hulk Hogan shall we? Yes, yes, the premise sounds far fetched, but the way the persuasive piece of storytelling connects the emotions and...

I don’t typically go on rants here on the blog. I’ve occasionally voiced frustration about political developments, subpar video sharing sites dedicated to education, or questioned the heralding of large Bill Gates-backed video learning projects, but when it comes to calling out other education blogs, I’m typically quiet. Why? Well, for starters, it usually invites a host of negative or critical comments on my own work,...

It’s back….from the archives of blogs posts long lost! From the farthest reaches of the internet, comes…..”My Animated GIF Day!” Poor setup, I know, but for those who didn’t see the original animated GIF day post back in February, I’ll be telling the story of my day through animated GIFs all day long, so feel free to leave a browser tab open to this post to follow along with my day using that most...

Public educators in Michigan have been under an extreme amount of pressure and stress lately. Our state legislature is getting ready to completely overhaul the funding model of public education, create a state-wide school district that is untethered from meeting assessment standards should the Governor choose, and then this happened earlier today. I’m not going to go into more detail (for now) and debate where I stand on any of these...

For anyone who may be in their mid 20s to late 30s, and grew up watching PBS, the following remixed and auto-tuned video may bring on sudden waves of nostalgia. Please be advised that those under the age of 12 may exhibit signs of confusion. Please ignore them, and then share how amazing Reading Rainbow was with them! But wait, there’s more! Although Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Levar Burton has managed to revive the...