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traditional long form content: a post with an explicit title and body

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Some links and interesting things I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks

Cardboard

I like using cardboard in school, some inspiration.

2023 C.A.M.P.The Cardboard CollectiveThe Warehouse

As a working artist, I engage with kids as co-creators, seeking to share knowledge and expertise in context as ideas unfold and discoveries are made. I also share the art research processes and methods I use in my own art practice, as we take on projects big and small.

Amber Dohrenwend, Artist – Cool Tools

Amber Dohrenwend is an American artist based in Marquette, Michigan. She constructs post-consumer cardboard sculptures, costuming and installations.

Blog | MQTCompass.com

Amber Dohrenwend build an art installation out of locally recycled cardboard strips.

Tech

FFmpeg Explorer!

A tool to help you explore FFmpeg filters.

My use of ffmpeg is very basic indeed, mostly taking images and making video from them. This is much more advanced. I remember trying to make a video grid. Altough that post claims a quick try it took me a while and gave me a real headach trying to expand the grid. FFmpeg Explorer has an example that shows you how with a click. (can’t recall where I got this one, but thanks)

TiddlyPWA — TiddlyWiki Storage & Sync Solution

Have you ever wanted to combine the power and customizability of TiddlyWiki and the convenience of a modern offline-friendly, encrypted, synced notes app? Now you can! With…

HT Joe I use TW a bit at a beginners level. This looks nice and the syncing is interesting.

Media

Take to The Streets | Eparapo

My daughter sent me this, nice.

Rear Window Timelapse – Jeff Desom

Meticulously assembled using After Effects and Photoshop, Rear Window Loop is a large scale projection that shows Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 masterpiece as a never before seen panorama.

We were watching a tv show about Hitchcock, reminded me of this video.

Worrying

Daring Fireball: Twitter/X’s Descent Into an Antisemitic Cesspool

Antisemitism is more than just a form of bigotry and hatred, it’s a millennia-old conspiratorial crackpot worldview. And Elon Musk is seemingly sinking into it.

Still the social network of choice by schools in Scotland.

‘Life or Death:’ AI-Generated Mushroom Foraging Books Are All Over Amazon Don’t trust AI

The featured images is a montage of screenshots of some of the links. I’ve done that twice, so made an AppleScript.

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Bookmarked Jetpack AI Assistant – WordPress AI Content Generator Plugin.

Is the Jetpack AI Assistant available for free?
Yes, the Jetpack AI Assistant block is currently available for free up to 20 requests. We encourage you to try it out and share your feedback. You can upgrade your plan to continue using the AI Assistant after the initial 20 requests.

I was quite interested in this, but not enough to pay £7.50 a month for it. The need for an account and payment also rules it out of Glow Blogs too.

I’ll continue to occasionally dabble with ChatGPT.

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I’ve been lucky, imo, to have been using an old 27 inch iMac as my computer in school since I started 8 years ago. Despite its age it has been a wonderful machine for me. Returning to my classroom last week I found it will no longer start up at all. No response to the power button. This was my Mac when I worked at the Education Computer Centre before being redeployed to the classroom.

Apart from my familiarity with Macs (going back to system 7) a Mac fits really well with a class all using iPads. The ease of sharing via Airdrop is probably the biggest advantage. It’s simplicity and the way it doesn’t depend on the cloud make it useable even if our internet connection is slow or down. I can quickly collect the pupils work via AirDrop and manipulate (print, combine, resize, assess, organise etc) it on my Mac.

I also prefer using the Apple productivity apps on an iPad but like creating & editing them even more on a Mac.

Large screen computers are rare in primary schools but I have been spoiled. We mostly use quite small laptops. I find these quite difficult to work on. If I use a trackpad for more than a few minutes I get pain in my shoulder and a couple of fingers go numb.

As we now only buy Windows machines in my L.A., I have access to a Windows laptop. However, my old fingers are Apple-trained. I am currently using a rather old MacBook Pro. I have the keyboard from the iMac plugged in, along with the mouse. I think I might just buy a cheap screen and add that as well. I can bring it home and make my Mac mini a dual-screen setup when the laptop follows the iMac.

Having used the MacBook for 4 days I realise how many think I’d added to the iMac (and have at home) that make my life easier. I am going to have to spend some time adjusting the MacBook to my habits. The ones l’ve particularly missed so far are:

  • FastScripts and the AppleScripts I run from it. These are pretty simple: resizing images, collections URLS from tabs to a list and the like.
  • HyperKey, that lets me run said scripts from the keyboard.
  • Various shell scripts, mostly for montage and combining images.
  • Alfred, as a launcher and clipboard manager.
  • I’d miss Rectangle if my screen was bigger.

All small things that I use without thinking and make my life simpler.

This week has certainly made me appreciate the technology I’ve been taking for granted. I also need to remind myself that in my time of teaching, I’ve gone from a couple of computers in a whole school without a network, to 1-2-1 iPads in my class today. Can’t complain!

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montage of screenshots of pages linked in post.

Classroom

The hour approaches…

  • Which One Doesn’t Belong?

    This is Which One Doesn’t Belong?, a website dedicated to providing thought-provoking puzzles for math teachers and students alike. There are no answers provided as there are many different, correct ways of choosing which one doesn’t belong. Enjoy!

  • Solving word problems using tape diagrams – The Other Math Tape diagrams are especially useful for modeling addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and ratios/proportions. might work in wel lwith Number Talks, or be a break from them.
  • Those Circle Things – Blue Cereal Education Nice way to start discussion, 4 things, which one is different… no right answer..

    You probably figured out pretty quickly that there’s usually more than one solution to which one doesn’t fit and why. These aren’t multiple choice questions with one objectively “correct” answer. It’s the process of examining each item in comparison with the others that forces us to review what we already know, reinforces the information we use to argue whatever point we choose to make as a result, stretches our understanding of each item a bit, and lays the groundwork for actual analysis and argument should we eventually go there.

Maps

WordPress

  • WordPress Playground

    Experience a WordPress that runs entirely in your browser.
    …WordPress Playground makes WordPress instantly accessible for users, learners, extenders, and contributors.

    And

    Even more insane and amazing, Ella van Durpe used WordPress Playground as the basis for a new note-taking app for iOS and macOS. Blocknotes is a stripped down version of WordPress that lets you create notes like you would create posts in WordPress.

Fun

  • Town Square

    Town Square is a generative sculpture, animated with slow-paced movement. The work is code-based and runs live in the browser. A random seed was chosen by the artist, cementing the generative shape of the sculpture. A looping video file for exhibition purposes can be provided upon request. Made with html, css, javascript, and three.js. Creator Anna Lucia

    I am often impressed with various html/css/javascript art ideas, this is a lovely one. I’ve occasionally taken baby steps, usually in response to the Daily Create.

  • Garry Knight: “Using AirPods as a Hearing Aid…” – Toot.Cat. I might get some AirPods and try this, my hearing is getting a bit worse with age…
  • Let Me Google That I recall an old flash thing that did this. Just need a silly question now…

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It depicts two people in nomadic garb leading a demon, or Persian div, in chains between them. The female figure holding the chain to her face is painted to look nearly as ferocious as the captured div. The concept of divs as evil supernatural creatures of mysterious origin dates to pre-Islamic Persia, but they are also described in the text of the Qur'an. Divs in Persian literature and folktales are sometimes captured and forced to use their magic to serve a king or hero.

Featured Image: Demon in chains | Cleveland Museum of Art CC0

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After not posting to Instagram for over 18 months, I signed up for Threads. So far, a whole bunch of posts from accounts I don’t know stream by quite quickly. Disconcerting. I still dislike the algorithm.

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Bookmarked Degenerative AI in education by Ben Williamson.

But what if, instead of being generative of educational transformations, AI in education proves to be degenerative—deteriorating rather than improving classroom practices, educational relations and wider systems of schooling?

I’ve read this a couple of time, and probably need a couple more.

I guess, like other technologies that have entered the classroom, we are very much in the hands of the powerful. We get the technology we are given. Usually at a low cost, but perhaps at a high price?

As a side note, Jetpack now offers to change the tone of what I write with AI. Here is the humorous rewrite of the previous paragraph:

Continue reading →

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Me:

how could I display a list of links using the WordPress opml in the body of a page?

chat.openai.com:

[opml url=”URL_OF_OPML-FILE”]

Replace “URL_OF_OPML_FILE” with the actual URL you copied in the previous step.
For example:

[opml url=”http://yourwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/links.opml”]

  1. Save or update the page.
  2. Preview or visit the page to see the list of links displayed.
    WordPress will parse the OPML file and generate the necessary HTML to display the links.

Me:
Are you sure there is an opml shortcode? This didn’t work on my site

chat.openai.com:

I apologize for the confusion. You are correct that there is no built-in OPML shortcode in WordPress. I apologize for the incorrect information provided.

What was intriguing was the total confidence for the reply and the immediate apology, did it check to see if I was correct? It then went on to offer a plugin suggestion…