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"You've probably seen them in newspapers, magazines or other paper-based publications: two-dimensional bar codes, called quick response codes (QR codes). What are they? They have been described as paper-based hyperlinks, and this is a good description. You simply take a picture of a QR code with your smart phone, and you get redirected to a website using your cell phone's browser. They can also be used digitally-you can append a QR code to a Tweet, or they can be displayed on a web page to transfer contact information directly to a cell phone, for example. This technology is blurring the distinction between smart phones, digital destination and content, and paper-based communication mediums."

Lecture webcasts are readily available on the Internet. These include class lectures, research seminars and product demonstrations. Webcasts routinely combine presentation slides with either a synchronized audio stream (i.e., podcast) or an audio/video stream. Conventional web search engines retrieve this content if you include "webcast" or "lecture" among your search terms, or search a website that specifically organizes lecture content. But users, particularly students, want to find the place in a lecture when an instructor covers a specific topic. Answering these queries requires a search engine that can search within the webcast to identify important keywords. TalkMiner aggregates and indexes lecture videos available across the internet. The system processes RSS feeds from a variety of sites to collect lecture videos. The system automatically processes the video to generate metadata describing each talk including the video frames that contain slides, their time offsets, and the text recovered from those frames by optical character recognition. TalkMiner does not maintain a copy of the original videos. When a user plays a lecture, the video is played from the original website on which the lecture video is hosted. As a result, storage requirements for TalkMiner are modest.

Ookaboo is a collection of free pictures, indexed by precise terms from the semantic web. All pictures on Ookaboo are in the public domain or are under Creative Commons -- that means that you can use our pictures for your web site, classwork, or other creative projects! All data

"I've had some amazing discussions with some colleagues recently about QR Codes and how we can use them. When I got over the initial "huh?" response as to what they are, and they understood that the code can contain type of data, we started to get somewhere really quite quickly. So, this post is really to consolidate my previous posts and to make it slightly more graphical - images are often easier to follow."

"We are suffering here and there from a cut-and-paste culture bred by the ease with which any of us can locate and save information. Sadly, Google and its relatives give us all a false sense of security and wisdom as we can search for something as elusive as "the truth" and Google delivers an answer in less than ten seconds. Enter "the truth" in Google, elect "I'm Feeling Lucky" and with little hesitation or needless strain or effort we have our answer."

An older but good blog post by Jaymie McKenzie that explores the wisdom we think we are getting when we totally rely on a search engine to deliver the 'answers' instead of activities that are more challenging and worthwhile.

"There are lots of ways to record your Skype calls easily, allowing you to save them locally for posterity (ie. covering your back). But mostly you'll want to record a call and drop it into a podcast or make it publically available for all. I've collated the best apps for recording Skype in this list. While some of the applications are free, most of them require you to shell out a few bucks. The list is split into separate sections for Windows and Mac."

"There are quite a few QR Code generators online. Some of them like Barcode Maker simply cosmeticize the Google Chart API while others like ZXing have full MECARD encoding. Here are the best examples:"

"Police have issued a warning after reports that more than 40 Commonwealth Bank ATMs have been dispensing large amounts of cash. Police are unsure at this stage what has caused the fault and are liaising with the Commonwealth Bank, which has been hit all day by a technical glitch that has disrupted its online banking, ATMs, and eftpos services."

Interesting programming bug for a machine to spit out cash.

Microsoft are busy counting down, Look carefully at how many are still using IE6 in China and the world. This may be a long wait.

All search engines are engaged in a constant battle with entities that aim to manipulate search engine results for various reasons. Search Engine Optimization can be a major money earner or a significant distraction depending on what side of the search activity you are on. This infographic explores how Google is attempting to deal with one aspect of SEO, Content Farms.

"In June 2010, a computer virus called Stuxnet was discovered lurking in the data banks of power plants, traffic control systems and factories around the world. Pandora's box has been opened; on the new battlefield the aggressors are anonymous, the shots are fired without starting wars and the foot soldiers can pull their triggers without leaving their desks."

Game Maker for Mac Lite has the same restrictions as the PC Lite version but you cannot share the game with your friends as you cannot save the executable. Exclusions are * No 3D functions are available. * Sprites cannot be rotated. * Cannot create executables of the games.

"Handheld computers are everywhere. From mobile phones to handheld games, it's a very familiar sight to see people of all ages gazing into screens that they can hold. Schools are discovering that handhelds like iPod touch and iPad make great learning tools. In fact, handhelds can play a big part in project based learning. Not only do projects motivate students because they use exciting handheld technology, but they also lend themselves to student voice and choice. Watch or read below to be inspired to bring project based learning into your classroom, learn strategies for creating effective driving questions, and see how an iOS handheld can play a role in the the planning, research/investigation, and presentation of projects."

"So I'd like to get more specific about what I think is wrong about the Khan Academy approach by writing about things I see as wrong with the way we teach math in the US. No matter if we agree or not about Khan Academy, I'm fairly certain we can agree math learning is not going as well as we'd like (to say the least.) Too many people are convinced by the system that they "hate math", and even students who do well (meaning, can get decent test scores) are often just regurgitating stuff for the test, knowing they can safely forget it shortly afterward."

"Being able to solve everyday complex problems through communication and cooporation with others are the skills that students need to learn and practice to prepare for the future. Communicating effectively and efficiently with diverse audiences and solving everyday problems are important in a society that is moving at a rapid pace in a Global Market. The ability to solve everyday complex problems is an important and necessary skill for students today. Problem based learning (PBL) provides a learning environment students require to resolve everyday problems while applying previous and learning new knowledge. Cooperative learning, as a part of PBL, allows students the opportunity to communicate ideas and knowledege. As a teacher it is also important to communicate effectively with students to guide the learning process as well as model how to question and reason through a problem. The web-enhanced 3 part seminar series is designed to review and apply the basics of PBL to allow you to create a PBL unit to use within your own classroom."

"It is a common view that "if only someone could break this down and explain it clearly enough, more students would understand." Khan Academy is a great example of this approach with its clear, concise videos on science. However it is debatable whether they really work. Research has shown that these types of videos may be positively received by students. They feel like they are learning and become more confident in their answers, but tests reveal they haven't learned anything. The apparent reason for the discrepancy is misconceptions. Students have existing ideas about scientific phenomena before viewing a video. If the video presents scientific concepts in a clear, well illustrated way, students believe they are learning but they do not engage with the media on a deep enough level to realize that what was is presented differs from their prior knowledge. There is hope, however. Presenting students' common misconceptions in a video alongside the scientific concepts has been shown to increase learning by increasing the amount of mental effort students expend while watching it."

"But as we use the Internet for "free," we have to remember that if we're not paying for something, we're not the customer. We are in fact the product being sold - or, more specifically, our data is. So here's a tricky question: Who owns all that data?"

"Download free and premium stock photos and illustrations for websites, advertising materials, newspapers, magazines, ebooks, book covers and pages, music artwork, software applications and much more. All our free images are of high quality, produced by our community of professional stock photographers and digital illustrators. "