Made In Me

http://www.madeinme.com/

 

The Land of Me is a collection of playful learning activities that adults and children can enjoy together. Created in collaboration with early learning experts, six enchanting chapters inspire you and your child to create monsters, buildings, music and more.

You Write the Caption!

Behind the Scenes of The Electric Company

A great summary of last week's ASIFA event on TEC:

http://redballoonblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/behind-scenes-of-electric-company.html

Mashable Awards

http://mashable.com/awards/

 

Nominate your favorite company, person, site or gadget in the 4th Annual Mashable Awards.

Submissions once a day per category till Monday, November 29, 2010

Top 5 per category will advance to finalists round starting December 1, 2010

World's Smallest Stop-Motion Animation Filmed

http://news.discovery.com/tech/worlds-smallest-stop-motion-animation-filmed.html

Microsoft’s New Browser Is Pretty Cool. No, Seriously.

via NYT: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/microsofts-new-browser-is-pretty-cool-no-seriously/?src=me&ref=technology

 

"... if Microsoft's triple-threat of speed boost, popular features, and app-like Windows taskbar integration keeps up, next year's PC buyers may not feel the need to replace Internet Explorer with something else."

102 year old lens on a 5Dmkll

http://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?p=133996#p133942

Visa's “Wave to Pay” Offers Transit Purchases via iPhone Swipe

via FastCompany

"Visa announced today initiatives in New York and California to create more convenient payment experiences for riders of mass transit. The company is aiming to integrate VisaNet, its electronic payment system, to let commuters avoid the hassle of digging through a wallet or pocket book for cash as the subway pulls away from the station."

http://www.fastcompany.com/1690302/visa-launches-wave-to-pay-transit-purchases-on-iphone

WiCM Event: FableVision

I attended a Women in Children's Media event last night featuring FableVision. Gary Goldberger, President and Co-Founder, showcased some of their recent projects, and talked about "cool stuff" in the world of transmedia. My notes are below:

9/15/10

Gary Goldberger, President and Co-Founder, FableVision (Boston)

• "Media producers who partner with content experts"
• Big ideas into simple format

Fablevision =
(1) Creative Studio: Client-based (e.g. Henson, PBS Kids)
(2) FV Learning = K-12 software distribution

ANIMATION-ISH product (co-pro with Toon Boom)

• Basic animation software (downloadable)
  

FAB@SCHOOL DESIGNER

• Funded by NSF
• Visual fabrication using simple software
• Make paper crafts, 3D paper crafts, 3D fabrication / models
  
• Used Blender, an open source 3D animation tool

LURE OF THE LABRYINTH

• Funded by DoE
• Games to teach math and literacy
• Multi-player classroom game that lasts a semester (takes about 6 - 9 hours to complete)
  
• Avatar-based graphic novel experience, where your personal avatar is part of the story
• Rules of the game are not explained and left to the players. Math content comes next.
• 5.6MM complete games
• Free on thinkport.org
• Summative research paper coming soon
  

Secret of Useability:

• Strip away everything that slows down experience. Limit barriers to play.

CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF BOSTON

• Goal: Get tweens engaged in philanthropy
• generationcures.org
• FV created tween content within that site: Zebrafish
• Zebrafish.com story - transmedia:

1. First came animation
2. Graphic novel
3. Zebrafish.com (game about scientific method)
4. Battle of the bands for high school students (they raised $20k in 1 evening)
5. Online battle of the bands where winner gets song professionally produced and featured on next RockBand title

• 10k hits / day with limited marketing in Boston (some launch local launch events)

OTHER STUFF GARY THINKS IS COOL:

• Little Airplane's new transmedia, Small Potatoes
  
• Wild Planet remote control car - spy vehicle with programmable video display
• Lego Universe - epic VW (beta now) all buildable content within world

THE TRANSMEDIA CHALLENGE:
** don't rush into market (especially because of different timelines for different types of content)
Strategically release content
Must have one person to oversee ALL platforms

• Transmedia = It's not about one character on multiple platforms, but doing interesting things on each platform that take advantage of the medium.
• Don't forget the offline living room experience (e.g. Dino Train geocaching event)

Other random thoughts:

• Apple looking for developers to showcase gyroscope functionality (but may not be age appropriate for 3 year olds?)
• City + states giving $ to game companies to produce there -- tax incentives

Karate Tournament Saturday October 23rd

Hey everyone,

I'm participating in karate tournament Saturday October 23rd at Hunter College. Please let me know if you want me to grab you some tickets. $10 in advance $15 at the door, kids $5 in advance $10 at the door. Thanks so much!

Lori

Ted Talks: The Child-Driven Education

J found this great video from Ted Talks

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

 

"Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education -- the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching."

Stephen Fry's Interactive Memoir for iPhone

Via Fast Company

 

"British actor-cum-Twitter hero Stephen Fry releases his memoirs today and, in an overture to his improbably huge Web fanbase, it's got an app that harnesses the visual language of the Internet to transform how we read."

 

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662285/infographic-of-the-day-stephen-frys-interactive-memoir-for-iphone

Google Instant Proves Google's Design Process is Broken

via Fast Company

 

"If you have any type of design background, it's probably funny to you that Google frequently mentions "design," but doesn't mention any "designers" involved -- the Google design process seems to simply be creating a bunch of fairly obvious alternatives, and testing the hell out of them."

 

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662273/googles-design-teams-focus-groups

 

Puppet Making with Jim Henson

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/10/maker-jim-henson-in.html

Go cats, go! IKEA Let Loose a Herd of 100 Cats Into Store to 'See What Happens'

IKEA Let Loose a Herd of 100 Cats Into Store to 'See What Happens'

An English IKEA decided to release 100 live cats overnight. Why? Why would you question such a thing? The video is the most amazing and life-affirming event. Ever. Embrace it. Watch it a thousand times. Watch it ten thousand times.

As far as I can tell, the team at the wooded dorm-furnisher extraordinaire just let the cats run around the empty store completely for the hell of it, and the results are simply wonderful.

The staff pegs the stunt as an "experiment," but I wouldn't exactly say the scientific method is at rigorous work here—and that is a great thing. The cats fight each other. They climb into boxes. They jump. They screech. There are a hundred of them. A grown man yells "Go, cats, go!"

And then, like a dreamscape vision of that high school girl you always loved but never had—they are gone. Were they ever there? Where did they go? They have vanished, but the furry mirage won't soon be forgotten. The only proof: our memories, and perhaps some seriously bad allergies for the shoppers who showed up the next morning. This ELGÅ wardrobe—so affordable, so easy to assemble. And so full of the aura of one hundred manic felines. [Laughing Squid]

Send an email to Sam Biddle, the author of this post, at sbiddle@gizmodo.com.

Go cats, go! IKEA Let Loose a Herd of 100 Cats Into Store to 'See What Happens'

IKEA Let Loose a Herd of 100 Cats Into Store to 'See What Happens'

An English IKEA decided to release 100 live cats overnight. Why? Why would you question such a thing? The video is the most amazing and life-affirming event. Ever. Embrace it. Watch it a thousand times. Watch it ten thousand times.

As far as I can tell, the team at the wooded dorm-furnisher extraordinaire just let the cats run around the empty store completely for the hell of it, and the results are simply wonderful.

The staff pegs the stunt as an "experiment," but I wouldn't exactly say the scientific method is at rigorous work here—and that is a great thing. The cats fight each other. They climb into boxes. They jump. They screech. There are a hundred of them. A grown man yells "Go, cats, go!"

And then, like a dreamscape vision of that high school girl you always loved but never had—they are gone. Were they ever there? Where did they go? They have vanished, but the furry mirage won't soon be forgotten. The only proof: our memories, and perhaps some seriously bad allergies for the shoppers who showed up the next morning. This ELGÅ wardrobe—so affordable, so easy to assemble. And so full of the aura of one hundred manic felines. [Laughing Squid]

Send an email to Sam Biddle, the author of this post, at sbiddle@gizmodo.com.

Apple relents on Flash-derived iPhone, iPad apps

via Cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20015954-264.html?tag=topStories1

 

"Apple undid license restrictions for software developed for iOS devices on Thursday, saying it was taking developer feedback to heart. "We are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code," Apple said in a statement."

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20015954-264.html?tag=topStories1#ixzz0z3FdHHBa

Apple To Publish Guidelines For App Approval

by The Associated Press

text size A A A

September 9, 2010

Apple Inc. said Thursday that it will publish the guidelines it uses to determine which programs can be sold in its App Store.

The move follows more than two years of complaints from software developers about the company's secret and seemingly capricious rules, which block some programs from the store.

Developers have had little guidance from Apple, meaning they often had to complete their programs only to find them blocked by the company. The company has been known to block applications because of sexual content, because they contain political satire, and because they just don't do much.

All the same, Apple's store has been a runaway success since its launch in 2008, and now has more than 250,000 applications for iPhones, iPads and iPod touches.

Apple also said it will lift restrictions imposed earlier this year on using third-party development tools that "translate" code written for another platform. That means developers who work in Adobe Systems Inc.'s Flash or Oracle Corp.'s Java language can convert their programs into iPhone apps without rewriting them.

The App Store's chief competitor, Google Inc.'s Android Marketplace, has few restrictions for developers.

Adobe shares jumped on the news, rising $2.29, or nearly 8 percent, to $31.60 in morning trading. Apple shares rose $2.87, or 1.1 percent, to $265.79. Google shares gained $8.68, or 1.8 percent, to $479.26. Oracle shares rose 23 cents to $24.37.

Aug Rreality T-Shirt / Rock Paper Scissors

Cat in the Hat Launches on PBS

The new series The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That just launched on PBS... Although historically known of literacy education, the creators are concentrating on SCIENCE literacy this season.

Take a look at their new website: http://pbskids.org/catinthehat

Google logo turns to animated particles

check it out at http://www.google.com/

Some Newspapers, Tracking Readers Online, Shift Coverage

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/business/media/06track.html

The School That Gives Kids Their Own iPads

No more pencils, no more books, no more clunky desktop PCs or laptops!

http://blogs.forbes.com/parmyolson/2010/09/02/the-school-that-gives-kids-their-own-ipads/?boxes=Homepagechannels

Google Code University

http://code.google.com/edu/courses.html