Just testing out some new video embedding features here.
This is my band, The Sofa Kings:
[youtube]c0eHperB-YM[/youtube]
Binary Code Poem
I wrote a poem in Binary Code.
Can you read it?
(See hint below)
01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110100 01100001 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01110011 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100101 01101110 00001101 00001010 00100000 00100000 00100000 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01101100 01100001 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01100101 01110011 00001101 00001010 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101110 01110101 01101101 01100010 01100101 01110010 01110011 00001101 00001010 00100000 00100000 00100000 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01100100 01110011 00001101 00001010 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01110010 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100101 01110011 01110011 01100001 01100111 01100101 00001101 00001010 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 00101100 00001101 00001010 01110111 01101000 01101001 01100011 01101000 00100000 01101001 01110011 00101100 00001101 00001010 01010111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110000 01101111 01100101 01101101 01110011 00100000 01100100 01100001 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110100 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01110010 01101111 01110000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00100000 01101101 01101001 01100100 01101110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00100000 01100100 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100101 01101101 01100101 01110010 01100111 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110011 01101000 01100001 01100100 01101111 01110111 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110010 01101110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00111111 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010
To read my poem, copy the code and head to Digitalicious to convert to words.
Peace,
Kevin
Kevin
MP3 Player as Personal Narrative
Stephen Levy, of Newsweek, writes:
“Surfing someone’s iPod is not merely a revelation of character but a means to a rich personal narrative, navigated by click wheel.” (Newsweek, October 23, 2006) — an excerpt from Levy’s book called The Perfect Thing.
I don’t have an iPod (I have a thing against Digital Rights Management locks) but I do have an MP3 player that has made long flights bearable and walks around the neighborhood enjoyable. So, what is playing in my mind? I click on my player and here are the first 20 or so songs that come up in shuffle mode:
- James Hunter “Until Your Fool Comes Home”
- The Subdudes “Save Me”
- Dave Mathews “Ants Marching”
- Jason Mraz “Mr. Curiosity”
- John Mellencamp “Worn Out Nervous Condition”
- Matthew Sweet “You Don’t Love Me”
- Shelby Lynne “I’m Alive”
- Brian Setzer “Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache”
- Tiny Town “Little Child”
- The Cure “Boys Don’t Cry”
- Rolling Stones “Happy”
- Bruce Springsteen “Into the Fire”
- Indigo Girls “Virginia Woolf”
- Ben Harper “Where Could I Go”
- GooGoo Dolls “Strange Love”
- BoDeans “Say about Love”
- Ryan Adams “Political Scientist”
- Average White Band “Pick up the Pieces”
- Marc Cohn “Walk on Water”
- Beastie Boys “Ask for Janice”
- Steve Earle “Copperhead Road”
- Joan Osborne “One of Us”
One thing I notice: not too many female artists on that list and I realize that I don’t have too many on my player, although I have quite a few rocking women groups and solo artists in my collection.
A Found Poem: A Wiki Adventure
As part of the ongoing SixWordStory project I have launched with the tech folks in the National Writing Project network, I got inspired to create a Found Poem that uses all of the words posted so far in the Wiki adventure.
Are you curious about what I found?
Head to the Found Poem and/or listen to me read the poem.
Peace,
Kevin
Peace Posters: A Student Audiocast
This was originally posted to a new project I am starting called Youth Radio that seeks to connect upper elementary/middle school students via audiocasts.
The Peace Poster Project: Celebrating Peace in the World
Listen to the Audiocast
Students in Southampton, Massachusetts, have been working on creating Peace Posters. The project is supported by the local Lion’s Club as a way to foster understanding of peace in the world through artistic expression.
Sixth Grader Kathryn takes you on an audio tour of the art classroom, asking these young people to explain the themes and symbols in their posters. Listen in as the students think about the meaning of a peaceful world.
Peace (really),
Kevin
The Digital World
Wesley Fryer (one of those folks whose Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog should be securely fastened into everyone’s RSS Aggregator) just posted a great article that builds upon the concept of digital natives/digital immigrants (as put forth by Marc Prensky).
His idea is that there are more than two layers of people and their comfort level with technology. Fryer suggests that the world might be split into Natives (young people fully immersed from birth into tech); Immigrants (those who are finding their way into tech possibilities); Refugees (those who see tech and don’t want to touch the start button); Bridges (the sort-of undecided about whether tech is good or bad, but keep a toe in the door); and the Undecided (really perplexed about tech).
Here is his concept map to help explain these ideas in a very cute way:
(from http://www.infinitethinking.org/2006/10/digital-refugees-and-bridges.html)
Peace,
Kevin
More Six Word Stories
The NWP Six Word Story Wiki site is gaining momentum in the last few days.
Here are the latest entries:
I can’t wait to see what comes next …
Peace,
Kevin
NEATE Teaching Award
I just learned that I have been awarded the Exellence in Teaching Award from the New England Association of Teachers of English and I could not be happier. I have presented at a few NEATE conferences (blogging, digital claymation, etc) and written a few stories and articles for NEATE publications.
The letter I received gave me some kudos and for me, the award really supports the idea of an intergrated, creative/critical-thinking based writing program for sixth graders, and so I am deeply appreciative.
“Kevin, your teaching is a testament to your passion for innovation and engagement with your profession. Not only do you hold a highly professional ehtic but also you round your teaching to reach and affect students and colleagues alike. The breadth of your skill, knowledge and mastery of your profession is impressive.” — David O., NEATE Award Chairman, in his letter to me.
Wow! Those are very inspiring words to a teacher in the classroom and makes me all the more dedicated to my students and to others around me.
Peace,
Kevin
PS — This award falls on the heels of two NWP colleagues getting recognized for their work, too. Maria Angala of Washington DC won an award for her work for weblogging and Dave Boardman of Maine just won a co-technology teacher of the year award for the state of Maine. So I feel as if I am good company.
Time: More Google Products
You might notice I read through a lot of magazines …
In the recent Time magazine, there is a very funny back-section feature by Evan Eisenberg that pokes fun at the idea of a Google-Universe (it all started with the Big Search) by offering up possible future Google products.
Here are a few that made me giggle:
- Ex-Search — Find out if they are seeing anyone
- Oogle — Stare for hours without seeming rude
- Beagle — Find your lost dog
- Fruedgle — Search your unconscious mind
- Gray Matter — Map the death of your brain cells in real time
- Blobber — Impose your consciousness on the rest of humanity — it’s easy, fast and free!
- Garble — Translate ordinary speech into legalese, adspeak, Bushspeak and dozens more
- Walkie — Use your mobile phone in real time to decide which foot to move next
You can access the real article here.
Peace,
Kevin
Six Word Stories
Wired Magazine had a nice little feature in which it asked writers, filmakers and others to compose a Science Fiction Story in just six words. This is in the model of Hemmingway’s very famous story: “For Sale: baby shoes. Never worn.”
Then I got to thinking, the technology liaisons in the National Writing Project are writers by nature and, although pressed for time, they might be able to pull together six words and create a short story.
So I launched a Wiki, sent out e-invites, added a video welcome, and began mapping (with CommunityWalk) where the writers live in the world. And I am urging them to record an audio version of their six word stories, either as an MP3 or through Vaestro. It’s been very interesting.
Here are a few responses:
- “Inkless pen composes poem. Human deactivated.” — Kevin, Western Massachusetts Writing Project,
- Sadly mistaken, key-we eaten with skin? – Barb, Appleseed Writing Project, Indiana
- “He scratched escaping his own flesh.”– Janelle, Texas Bluebonnet Writing Project
- “Car locked. Keys lost. Stuck. Help!”–Cynthia, Alcorn Writing Project, Mississippi
- Time machine invented. Needed it yesterday. — Sandy, Minnesota Writing Project
- Only God reads hopeful blogger’s meditations. — Scott, Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project
- Poison kisses feed furious, frenzied fantasies.—Lynne, UCLA Writing Project, California
- Picked his brain; there’s nothing left. – Karen, Marshall University Writing Project, West Virginia
- Watching him laugh made me cry. – Kelly, Texas Bluebonnet Writing Project. Texas
- CPM, IBM, email, www. RSS, next? – Donna, Lehigh Valley Writing Project, Pennsylvania
- Title: The End of the Affair (a short romance by Scott, KMWP) Listserv message. Lover hit “reply.” Ooops!
- Got the call. Broke my heart. – Scott, Texas Bluebonnet Writing Project, Texas
- Online avatar secures freedom, files lawsuit — Kevin, WMWP (listen to story)
I recorded and posted an audio version of my first story.
Listen to my story Peace,
Kevin
PS — here is our map:CommunityWalk Map – SixWordStories Mapping