What I Learned from my students - Part 2

Today I had a student, Henry, who wanted to take a picture he had gotten off the internet, make some changes, and use it on his web site. He was using Paint.net. He wanted the space around the picture, you know, the white stuff, to be "clear" so the background of the web page would bleed through. You can see what I mean on the Girl Scout Cookie picture in the Yummm posting below this posting.

He asked me how to do it, and I didn't know off the top of my head. Then he said, "Let's try saving it as a .gif, instead of a .jpg" And it worked!!

Such a simple thing, but it really made his page look much better. I'll definitely remember this trick.

What I Learned from my Students - Part 1

My students have fantastic ideas! Today I gave an assignment to my Web Design class. It was an open-ended assignment, one where they could show case all the things we've been learning on a topic that was of interest to them.

I gave them a couple of ideas for their topic, but made it clear they could use their creativity. Some of the ideas they came up with were clever and touching. I love learning how creative they are! Here are two:

1. Take on a "cause". Jessica did her web site on Autism. She has a personal interest in the topic (someone close to her) and she made her web site about educating people on what it is. How mature!

2. Schools of the "future". Greg chose to do a futurist school. What would their web site look like? Think of the possibilities!

Yummmm

Girl Scouts are using Facebook to sell cookies!!

Maybe someone will write an app to "feed" you cookies like super poke.

Internet Addiction Boot Camp

Young people in China are sent to serious boot camp for being addicted to the internet. Addiction is defined in China as 6+ hours per day for 3+ months. Hmm, does that sound like your Summer Vacation?

Other symptoms many of these kids have is "afraid of people" and "gets upset easily." For that, they face months of boot camp (yes, complete with push ups) where there's no internet, no cellphones, no video games, and no ramen noodles (which seems to be a trend for fast meals while playing online games. Our version of pizza delivery).

The Curious Case of Computer Animation

So that's how they did it! If you've seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, you've wanted to know how they made Brad Pitt look and act so old. Here's a guy that explains it.

Basically, they made Brad make all the faces he could think of and animated them together to fit the script. Then they pasted that on top of other actors bodies. So it is Brad, but it really isn't! Can you get a Best Actor nomination for that?

You thought you were good with computers...

A 4th grader wrote an application for the iPhone that allows his little sisters to draw things with their fingers. It's called Doodle Kids, and it's free. This nine year old has been using computers since he was 2 years old and writing programs since he was seven! And you thought you were good with computers.

Bill Gates releases mosquitoes at Conference

You don't usually think of Bill Gates having a flair for the dramatic. But it seems he is very passionate about fighting malaria in third world countries. Now that he is retired, he can try to do something about it.

So he released lots of mosquitoes at a conference. It worked. He got his story in the news!

If you're interested, you can view it here. It's at about the 5 min mark.

Hackers Hack Highway Signs

You know those signs you see on the highway? Well some hackers changed the messages to:

Daily Lane Closures due to Zombies
Raptors ahead - Caution
Zombies in Area - Run

I laughed when I first heard it. You gotta have a sense of humor. But, now it's been done, so it's probably not a good thing to keep doing. Besides, those signs are there for a reason.