I Dream in Code

Dreaming in Code

I have been experiencing a strange phenomenon lately. I think that I can consider myself a card-carrying geek now: I dream in code. It started last week. I was creating web templates for myself as a student, helping the students I teach learn how to code, and reading about how to make cleaner code. Then it happened. Instead of daydreaming about tropical islands to make myself fall asleep, I kept running through code in my head. I couldn’t stop it. I would think of a palm tree, and then my brain would flash

<palmTree = “beautiful” />

do
{Swim.inOcean()}
while
{niceOutside == true} //Bad Code

I suppose it has something to do with the concatenation of HTML, CSS, and JAVA in my life right now. To make things even more interesting, I read 75 pages of an introduction to JavaScript last night while my wife slept (she went to bed at 9:00, what was I supposed to do?).

Is there a support group for this sort of thing? Perhaps I should lay off the code for a while and practice some Photoshop tutorials.

Posted on March 6, 2008 by Ryan

Filed under Web Design, Technology, School as Teacher, School as Student | | 2 Comments »

eTech Ohio Conference Presentation Materials

Tomorrow I will be presenting at the eTech Ohio Conference for Ohio’s school technology coordinators and teachers. I have been selected to present on the topic of the use of open source software in the school setting as it relates to student instruction. The session will take a look at the following programs: GIMP, Nvu, OpenOffice, Scribus, Blender, Inkscape, and Dia. We will see how these programs compare to their commercial counterparts, see examples of student work using these programs, and discuss resources available to help teachers and students alike learn more about these free programs. Below you will find a link to the handout from the session, with links to the download sites for these programs, as well as a treasure-chest of free helpful resources for learning how to use them.

Open Source Software Resources (.pdf)

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Ryan

Filed under Technology, School as Teacher | | 2 Comments »

Student Gimp Projects

Here is some work that my students created with a program called GIMP . The project was to create a realistic image from scratch (not importing any clip art or other photos), using only the basic tools that GIMP provides. In a few of the images, there is a realistic wood grain, which comes with the program, but other than that, everything is an original art creation

Gimp Creation