Five Card Flickr Conversations in the cloud Ken Tothero · University of Texas at Austin VoiceThread conversations are media-centric, which keeps the discussions focused. They also provide an opportunity to reflect, resulting in higher quality input. And finally, the system just plain works. Ken Tothero from the University of Texas at Austin shares his experience using VoiceThread (3:04 Min) Cole Complese · Penn State Cole Complese, the Senior Director for Teaching and learning at Pennsylvania State University, discusses the difference between mobile access and mobile interaction, the breadth of VoiceThread’s use by faculty, and the need for teaching practices to evolve along with new technologies. (4:32 Min) Keeta Holmes · University of Missouri-St. The power of peer feedback and peer review is intuitively available to all participants in a VoiceThread conversation. Presence Text alone can’t deliver the subtlety and expression required for meaningful connection. Intuitive, natural, powerful Anytime, anywhere Scheduling is painful.
Cliche Finder Have you been searching for just the right cliché to use? Are you searching for a cliché using the word "cat" or "day" but haven't been able to come up with one? Just enter any words in the form below, and this search engine will return any clichés which use that phrase... Over 3,300 clichés indexed! What exactly is a cliche? This is Morgan, creator of the Cliche Finder. Or, you might like my crazy passion project: Spanish for Nerds: Learning Spanish via Etymologies! Back to cliches... if you would like to see some other Web sites about clichés? © S. Special thanks to Damien LeriAnd to Mike Senter Morgan's Web page
5 Questions to Ask Your Characters | Book-in-a-Week Many writing workshops start their sessions on character development with a sheet detailing the hero’s name, age, eye color and hair color. They then move onto his job, his hobbies, and his family background. Next they might add a picture from the Internet or a magazine which looks a little like the hero, and perhaps an image of his home or workplace. This is all useful information, and great for keeping track of details so you do not find them changing as you write. However, these are not always the most important questions. These questions can be answered in different ways. The best questions to ask about your characters are ones that will take you away from the predictable paths of family, schooling and employment, so that when you return to their everyday world, you find it enriched by the knowledge you have gained. What keeps your protagonist awake at night? If you find prompts like these helpful, Peter Elbow has a very extensive list in his guide Writing With Power . Follow Me:
Dragon - Dragon NaturallySpeaking - Nuance Dragon speech recognition software makes it easier for anyone to use a computer. You talk, and it types. Use your voice to create and edit documents or emails, launch applications, open files, control your mouse, and more. Quickly and easily capture your thoughts and ideas while Dragon helps you get more done faster. Products Whether you’re at home, school, work, or on the road, Dragon software gives you complete voice control Dragon Solutions Speech recognition tools are being used by individuals and leading organizations to streamline data collection/documentation Support & Training Whether you’re a new or experienced Dragon user, find a collection of resources to improve your Dragon experience Dragon Community Connect with with other Dragon customers to learn more about Dragon, share ideas, get news updates, and more
Anki - friendly, intelligent flashcards Character and Characterisation in the Novel How to write convincing characters Characterisation - the task of building characters - isn't easy. But if you're struggling to build characters with real life and vigour, here is our very own patented technique. If you haven't yet started your book, then work on the exercise below before you start. If you have started, but think that maybe you started prematurely, then back up, do the exercise and then look back over your existing work. Oh, and don't feel patronised at being given exercises. Learning to know your characters Strong characterisation is based on knowledge. The Ultimate Character Builder Begin with a blank sheet (or screen). You should aim to cover at least five pages with this exercise. The less central a character is to your book, the less you need to know him/her. And the exercise will work. Checking your work Once you've got a fair way into your writing (say 5 to 10,000 words), then look back at it. Even genre fiction needs swiftly drawn, believable characters.
Omniglot - the guide to languages, alphabets and other writing systems creative writing prompts . com ideas for writers Baby Names at BabyNames.com | Baby Name Meanings | Baby Boy Names | Baby Girl Names | Top Most Popular Names Make This: A Luminous Faceted Pendant Light » Curbly | DIY Design Community « Keywords: DIY, pendant, lighting, paper Remember those folded up fortune-tellers from your elementary school days? Some kids called them cootie-catchers, but I never really understood the method behind the madness with that one. But I digress, because paper folding prowess was not in vain. Take a longing glance at this beautiful DIY faceted pendant sphere, completely covered in small fortune tellers! Tagged : pendant, lighting, paper, DIY
10 Reading Exercises for Fiction Writers I always find it exciting when I discover a book that in some way echoes whatever I happen to be writing at the time. It might share a similarity of style, story, or structure, or any combination of the three. Whatever the similarity, I find it helpful to delve into the writing to see what lessons I can glean. After reading several duds recently, I finally came across such a book–The China Garden by Kristina Olsson. While the story isn’t similar to my current work, the prose captured me from the very first page. When I find a book like this, there are several things I do while reading it. Analyze the story’s structure. These activities really help me focus on what makes an book outstanding, as opposed to simply reading it and saying, “Ooh, good read.” What books have you found helpful to analyze?
Balloon lights tutorial Here in New Zealand we are now in the middle of winter, and when playing around with some LED fairy lights I thought I would combine my love for origami and bringing some winter sparkle to our house. And so the balloon lights were born!! Ok let’s get started with the tutorial! This is what you need for this project: Pretty paper (appr. 20 sheets, mine were 90 x 90mm) on a white or light background. Here are my 20pcs of paper after I cut them with my guillotine. Now first make a water-bomb base. With the printed side of the paper facing up, valley fold in half. After that turn 90 degrees and valley fold in half again. Now turn the paper over and do the same diagonally. Now for the last part of the water-bomb base. Use the creases you have made so far and the paper should naturally fall into this shape. Here is your finished water-bomb base. Now to make the actual balloon. Fold the corner on the left hand side (top layer only) up to the middle. Now turn over and do the other side. All done!
Carambola Flowers by Carmen Sprung If you’ve been following me on Flickr for a while, you’ve probably seen this picture of Carambola Flowers before – I folded them ages ago! But since my Pro account is going to expire in a few days time (and I don’t feel like upgrading it again), a lot of my old photos won’t be displayed anymore. So I decided it would be a good idea to share the very best of them on my blog! These absolutely beautiful origami flowers were designed by Carmen Sprung and I just love them! Description Video tutorial presented by Sara Adams of HappyFolding.com. Tags: Carmen Sprung, Floral