Trick or Treat!

In honor of Halloween, I'm going to give you a couple of treats just for the fun of it!

First, scoot on over to Open Culture to download your free audio Halloween story by Neil Gaiman entitled "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" and available through Audible. For every download, Audible has agreed to donate a dollar to one of Gaiman's favorite charities, so your download is for a good cause as well! From Open Culture:

Gaiman also has a few requests: first, you need to download the story by Halloween in order to make the donation; second, please don’t give the story away—encourage people to go download it for themselves; and lastly, “wait to listen to it until after dark.” Atmosphere matters.

Your other treat is a tip on a Halloween app that is fun for all ages! Mojo Masks is a simple camera overlay app that allows you to choose a mask, overlay it on your face (to which it oddly adheres so that you can play with different expressions as the mask moves with your features), and simply snap for a great Halloween photo that could work for your Halloween greeting card or Facebook profile. Here are a couple I snapped this morning:

Note that while the base app is free
and comes with a few masks, the best
masks are available in sets for
99¢ per collection.

Happy Halloween! Stay safe and stay tuned!

Ubuntu on Chromebook! (and Using Open Source in the classroom!)

For those OS (Open Source) fans out there, know that the Chromebook hybrid (think: laptop meets tablet) supports the Ubuntu operating system. (Thanks to Scott D. for this tip!) For anyone who is not sure exactly what that means, it's significant to mobile technology (like tablets and smartphones, devices you can take on the run) to be able to run software that is Open Source—I have an OS section of resources started and welcome the contributions of any OS veterans!

We have a workshop coming up in November that will address OS integration in the classroom. Dr. Maurice Dawson and a few of his student colleagues will be presenting! It'll be one of those don't-miss presentations, so we'll be giving you plenty of notice, as well as recording the session for online delivery next semester. (Any off-campus readers can contact me directly for access.)

For the novice, OS means using FREE software for you and your learners. The OS software movement is user-driven and much more accessible to the computer novice than ever before. Watch for our workshop announcement and join the discussion!

The Art of Positive Skepticism

This great article posted at Psychology Today on the Moment of Youth blog really hits the nail on the head in describing the difference between cynicism and skepticism and the value of positive skepticism in learning. But how to inspire such positive skepticism in your learners? Great tips there too!

The Self-Organizing Computer Course

This TED talk was sent to me by my colleague, Everett Alexander. The video talks about the surprising level of motivation found in learners who are flocking into the free, open course movement to participate. I don't want to say too much—this is another TED talk that simply speaks for itself.

iPad Workshop

I'm throwing together an impromptu iPad workshop at the CETL Conference Room (#309) in the LRC on Friday at 8:30 a.m. Anyone interested in learning more about the iPad is welcome to join us! I will give a 1-hr workshop credit to all learners! Hope to see you there!