Making a Screencast

This past weekend I explored and played with Quicktime to create a screencast. The focus of the video was on using three different word cloud creators. This came from a question from one of my students about how to use the suggested word cloud generators so she could make a word cloud for her blog.

Since Wordle can sometimes cause issues when the latest Java plug-in is not installed, I suggested using another tool such as ABCya or Word-It-Out. All of these tools are free and do not require a sign in or account to use. A favourite tool of mine is Tagul, which is free but requires a log-in or sign-up. Worth it since it creates some very interesting word cloud images including ones set to an image that you upload. This coffeecup image is one I created. Scroll over the image words to see what happens.

Created with Tagul.com

My Shoe Selfie

If my shoe could talk, what would it say? How would it describe me? What stories could it tell about adventures experienced or miseries endured? How did my shoe come to be with me? What is our story?

My shoe is a hiking and travelling shoe. It's tasted the dust and dew at Machu Picchu. It's a long standing shoe while waiting in airports. It's a go-to shoe when trekking the trails.