Author Archives: dogtrax

#WalkMyWorld: A Social Media Experiment

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I’m a sucker for ideas, particularly ones that seek connections between people and their lives and technology. So consider me intrigued by a project by friends Ian o’Bryne and Greg McVerry (and a few others) called #Walkmyworld, where, as they describe it:

Over the next ten weeks, we would like you all to share (once a week) with us a “walk” in your “world.” There really are no rules to this challenge. The only real “rule” to this challenge is that we ask that you share this publicly on Twitter, and include the hashtag (#walkmyworld) in your post. We also ask that you share an image or video that captures this “walk” in your “world” once a week. The beauty of this challenge is in what you decide to share.

This is part of an ongoing, multi-year venture Ian, Greg and others have been working on, and sharing out at NCTE each year, around digital media and writing. Poetry is often at the heart of it, and Ian writes in his post that he anticipates a shift towards poetry in Walk My World at some point.

I’m still trying to think how I might get my students documenting their world, but this morning, I opened up Vine and shot this very humdrum video of what I do (after I walk the dog) — which is get my java and get writing. I wanted to keep the coffee mug front and center each time, as the frame for the video (and well, my morning).

What’s your world like? Join/follow the #walkthisworld hashtag on Twitter.
Peace (in the walk),
Kevin

Playing with Fragment and Photos

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I have an app called Fragment that does all sorts of odd things to photographs. I used it this week for two Daily Create assignments over at DS106. The first was to “app up” a silhouette, but I abandoned the shadow idea in order to play around with the “app up” part of things. I took a shot of some art on our walls and created this:

Then, yesterday, the call was for a Cubomania Self Portrait. Alan Levine reflects on how he did his here (using Big Huge Labs). But I realized that I could use Fragment again for mine.

It’s intriguing to play around with composing with images.

Peace (in the camera’s eye),
Kevin

Some Warmth on a Cold Day

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Yesterday, I received this in the mail (and recorded it in Vine):

It is from my friends Franki and Mary Lee over at A Year of Reading. It’s actually been eight years of reading/sharing for them, and as a celebration, they are planning to spend each month donating to charity in the name of a blogging friend. It turns out that I was the first on their list (humbled and honored), and they donated to a group known as Birthday Wishes, which helps ease the lives of homeless children.

Thank you, Franki and Mary Lee. It’s a pleasure to be in your community and network and more. And such projects remind me of the human interaction behind the digital conversations, too. While I have met both Franki and Mary Lee (at various conferences, including their own Dublin Literacy Conference), most of our time “talking” is online at our blogs and at Twitter. But friendship blooms in all sorts of places.

It’s a frigid day outside (hello, Polar Vortex) but there is some warmth in here.

Peace (with sincerity),
Kevin

Book Review: Attack of the Killer Video Book

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http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61N7st80-cL.jpg

How’s that for a title, eh? Attack of the Killer Video Book. Along with a new video camera under our Christmas tree, my younget son received this fantastic book resource on how to make movies on the cheap. Written by Mark Shulman and Hazlitt Krog, with great illustrations from Martha Newbigging, this book is a perfect fit for any 9-year-old filmmaker. (I have the revised edition — Take 2 — but I am not sure what has been revised from the first edition.)

Told with a sense of humor and various illustrations and diagrams and cartoons, this book really gets at the heart of shooting a movie, from the initial storytelling, planning, technical aspects of setting up the camera and microphones, right through to editing software on the computer and publishing, and kicking back to enjoy the fruits of the labor. Plus, the book reminds you to bring along snacks for any friends who join you in making the movie. Snacks are important.

The writers even provide a sample script at the end of the book, as both a model and inspiration. I was very happy to see how much time is spent on the “good story” aspect of the moviemaking, which can be the most difficult element. For many young people, the whiz and bang of the shooting of video (bloopers anyone?) overtakes the desire to spend time on a good story to tell, but here, the writers push home the idea that a good story is at the heart of every good movie.

This book would be a good addition to any classroom, as I suspect there are budding filmmakers in our rooms, probably even students we would never suspect of it.

Peace (in the flick),
Kevin

 

Curating More Flipboard Magazines: Digital Stories and Making Learning Happen

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I’m enjoying the curation of some Flipboard Magazines (as I wrote about the other day) and I have since added two more along lines of my own interest.

  • Making Learning Happen: a collection of articles related to the Make Movement and Connected Learning.
  • Digital Stories: a collection of pieces about digital storytelling, transmedia and how technology is transforming the way we tell stories. I am curating this with my friend, Bonnie.

And the other two magazines I already shared out about:

If any of those are of interest, feel free to subscribe.

Peace (in the flip),
Kevin

 

Book Review: This Machine Kills Secrets

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http://b-i.forbesimg.com/andygreenberg/files/2013/09/ThisMachineKillsSecrets_CVF2.jpg

“Cypherpunks write code.”

Andy Greenberg’s This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange, The Cypherpunks and Their Fight to Empower Whistleblowers is a fascinating look behind the headlines of Wikileaks and even the impact of Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning to show the movement to provide safe, secure and anonymous means for leaking secrets to the world. The quote above is from one of the manifestos from a group of hackers who want to change the world through the release of information. Known as cypherpunks, they believe that creating systems for whistleblowers will make politicians more honest, and make the world a better place.

The history of the cypherpunk movement is a fascinating story, as Greenberg toggles his tales between characters and events, including the parallels between The Pentagon Papers (which kickstarted the whole “information should be free” ideals, really) of the Vietnam War and Bradley Manning’s securing and releasing government documents via Wikileaks. For Manning, it was not much more difficult than downloading files to a flashdrive. Amazing, really.

“Cypherpunks write code” means that political action is in the doing and the deeds, not just in the lobbying for more openness and protesting for change. Much of the book ends up focusing on Wikileaks (and very little about Snowden, as his case catapulted into the headlines after the book was written, and Greenberg mentions him only briefly in an update at the end of the paperback book) and the technical prowess and push going on behind the scenes to create online, technical spaces for secrets to be submitted, vetted and revealed.

I’m not sure yet about how I feel about all this.

On one hand, I see the value of shining light into the darkness of politics (I am a former journalist, after all). On the other, the line between openness and putting people’s lives in danger is a difficult one to discern (as Greenberg expertly points out throughout the book), and the anarchy element of some of the cypherpunk movement makes it difficult to know motives. My basic belief is that our elected officials need to be held accountable for their actions and books like this one show the efforts of many to do that.

Whether you believe Assange (of Wikileads) to be a hero or a villain (and that may go beyond the politics of Wikileaks and into the realm of legal charges against him right now for actions against women), Greenberg’s point — and others, too — is that the idea of leaking information is now part of our modern culture, and the cork can’t be put back into the bottle.  Too many people have access to too many files in digital formats. More leaks are bound to happen. The only question is: what kind of information will come out next and who will release it and why? Time will only tell.

Peace (beyond the veil),
Kevin

A Goodreads Tally: What I Read in 2013

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Like a lot of people on Goodreads, I set a reading goal for myself in 2013. I wanted to read 110 books. I made it, but just barely. Thankfully, we were on school vacation and I had time to read, by myself and with my son (my read aloud companion). We cranked through some books. For 2014, I am lowering my count back to 100 books, which seems more manageable now that we read fewer picture books as my youngest is a bit older. I still like the challenge, and the way it forces me to keep track of the books I am reading.

You can view some of the books I have underway right now:

Kevin’s currently-reading book montage

A Reader's Book of Days: True Tales from the Lives and Works of Writers for Every Day of the Year
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013
This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information
Unearthed Comics: Un-Earthing the Universe, One Comic at a Time
The Island of Thieves



Kevin Hodgson’s favorite books »

Peace (in the books),
Kevin

Embracing OLW: Making a Robot

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The other day, I mentioned that my “one little word” for 2014 is MAKE, and so, here is a robot that I made with my son. The parts came in a kit and we worked on it together. He then set it up to threaten the Lego dudes. They took the attack in style, as only headless Lego peeps can do. We used Vine to capture it.

Peace (in the make),
Kevin

Student Video Game Showcase: Adventures in Geology

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As my sixth graders begin finishing up their science-based video game projects, I hope to share out a few. This one — Adventures in Geology — is a good example of how a student has come to understand the balance of designing and publishing a challenging game that has story and science baked in.

Give it a try. (If you are on a mobile device, the game probably won’t work. If the embedded game does not load, you can use the direct link to her game).

Peace (in the game),
Kevin