Michael VanPutten

While working on my undergraduate degree I used to take some time to sit in Waldo Library and read magazines — looking for visual inspiration, interesting ideas, etc. I loved to read about everything. This was during the mid to late 1990s when Wired magazine was at its best, and when I first learned about […]

This chalkboard wall calendar is a great example of how to have fun while staying productive, focused, and motivated.
Marthastewart.com has easy to follow illustrated instructions and videos on how to create your own chalkboard wall calendar. Simple purchase some chalkboard paint from your local Lowes or Home Depot, mask off a section with tape, and […]

I’ve been chatting with some associates about the relation of time, media, and location. In browsing the Web, I came across an interesting tool from AOL that came out into beta over this past summer. Somehow, it never hit my radar: circaVie enables users to post photos, notes and details and then display information in […]

This week in my educational technology class we are studying methods for evaluating online educational technologies. Our assignment calls us to review our recent proposals for development of an educational technology application in order to reflect upon how we would go about evaluating the tool.
Dabbagh and Bannan-Ritland suggest that a four step process for evaluation […]

I am currently working on my MA in Educational Technology at Western Michigan University. This semester I am taking a class about how to develop online courses. The assignment this week calls for us to post a paper we drafted to a blog. So, included below is my paper that describes a plan/overview of one […]

Ed (aka m703324 on YouTube.com) posted a very nice stop motion animation titled “NO boundaries“. He created the animation using a digital camera, chalk, and a chalkboard in one of his employer’s conference rooms. Ed’s notes state:
A little stop motion animation I made for the company I work for. In a way It’s a little […]

I have been spending much of my winter break completing tasks that have been collecting dust on my to-do list. One of these tasks was to merge, validate, and organize my archives of bookmarks.
I came across a fun bookmark from last March to Andy Budd’s blog. Andy posted notes from his SXSWi presentation titled ‘How […]

Thomasz Baginski wrote and directed a short animated piece titled ‘Fallen Art‘. The piece was created by Platige Image, a Polish visual effects company.
Fallen Art is a story about generals, soldiers, and a very special project (watch the video — I will not ruin the surprise for you!). Baginski uses sound to weave this tale. […]

Boinx iStopMotion is a fun piece of software that enables you to create stop motion and time lapse animations using your iSight or DV camera. Creating stop motion animations can be fun for both kids, parents and teachers. The software also comes with a great tool for printing Flipbooks of your animations. iStopMotion retails for […]

On May 18th, 2006 a team of six people released a beautiful animation under a creative commons license titled ‘Elephants Dream‘. By May 29th, over 500,000 visitors had downloaded the animation. Over the months that followed remixes of the animation began to appear online. A ‘making of’ video was released by the creators of ‘Elephants […]