To educate, inform, inspire

Technology Unconference September

September 25, 2013 - ICC , Learning , Technology - by Mark - No Comments

We held the first technology unconference at Illinois Central College on September 24, 2013. We had approximately 30 in attendance. Given the impact of technology on teaching and learning and the rapid pace of change, I thought it might be appropriate to share a few notes about this event. Here […]

Accessibility Summit 2013

September 18, 2013 - Learning , Web - by Mark - 2 Comments

I had the opportunity to participate in the 2013 Accessibility Summit (online) on September 10 and 11, 2013. Although the focus was on web accessibility, accessibility on mobile devices was also covered. It was a great learning opportunity (without having to travel). It was also wonderful to connect with individuals […]

Little Planets

September 11, 2013 - Adobe , Huh? , Technology - by Mark - No Comments

I am taking a class from Adobe this summer/ fall and I was inspired by a recent exercise dealing with “little planets.” Ok, I didn’t even know this capability existed (which is why I am enjoying the class so much). Based on this exercise, I wanted to duplicate the effects […]

Summer 2013 Reflections

September 4, 2013 - Adobe , Learning , Technology , Travel , Web , WOW - by Mark - No Comments

As the fall, 2013 semester begins, I thought it appropriate to reflect on what happened during the summer. As was the case last year, this was an incredibly busy time for me. Not only did I provide a number of “train the trainer” sessions throughout the country, I helped run […]

Dreamweaver CC and PhoneGap

August 28, 2013 - Adobe , Web - by Mark - 17 Comments

A few years ago, I did a weblog post on PhoneGap. I participated in a Tech Live event in late July where Paul Trani reviewed many of the new features in Dreamweaver CC (and discussed building mobile apps). Paul inspired me to put together these notes for students who may […]

Badges and Moodle – part 3

August 21, 2013 - ICC , Learning , Technology , Web - by Mark - No Comments

This is the third (and final post) I have planned on badges. I may include a listing of badges oone can earn after the fall semester has concluded (this list will be a work in progress during the semester). I thought it might be helpful to see the actual process […]

Responsive Web Design Book

August 20, 2013 - Technology , Web - by Mark - No Comments

This arrived in the mail today (it is an interactive eBook). Many thanks to Matt Leach for the opportunity to review this book. I appreciate that many of my improvements were included. Thanks again for asking me to be the technical editor.

Badges and Moodle – Part 2

August 14, 2013 - ICC , Learning , Technology , Web - by Mark - No Comments

Perhaps the hardest part of working with badges was actually creating them. I decided to use Adobe Illustrator since it generates vector based images (and I haven’t used it that much in the past). I thought those reading this might like to see the process I went through. If you […]

Badges and Moodle

August 7, 2013 - ICC , Learning , Technology , Web - by Mark - 2 Comments

I spent some time this summer investigating the potential use of badges in my courses for the coming fall, 2013 semester. I realize that some students will embrace this concept and others will not. I thought it appropriate to provide an overview of the process of working with earned badges […]

Dreamweaver and Bootstrap

July 31, 2013 - Adobe , Web - by Mark - 11 Comments

Some time ago, I provided an overview of Twitter Bootstrap. While working on a joint presentation at the Adobe Summer Institute with Sheri German, she reminded me of the Dreamweaver extension for Bootstrap. I thought it might be appropriate to include a quick overview of this extension. It is presently […]

Hashcat and WordPress

July 24, 2013 - Technology , Web - by Mark - No Comments

During this summer (2013), I taught a course on content management systems in various cities across the US. I focused on WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal. In San Francisco, Sam Bowne (@sambowne) participated in the class and focused on security aspects of these applications. He reported that he was able to […]

2013 National Web Design Contest

July 17, 2013 - Technology , Web - by Mark - No Comments

During the last week of June, I helped run the WebProfessionals.org national web design contest (held in Kansas City, Missouri under the auspices of SkillsUSA). Details of the contest (as well as past winners) can be found at WebDesignContest.org. Over 30 teams participated at the high school level (secondary) and […]

HTML5 Geolocation book

June 10, 2013 - Web - by Mark - No Comments

I returned from my recent trip to speak at MPICT So. California on web analytics, business intelligence and big data and found a copy of this book waiting for me. I was asked to review this book prior to publication and am pleased the author incorporated some of my recommended […]

Book review – compiler design

May 25, 2013 - Learning , Technology - by Mark - No Comments

My review of the following book appeared in the June, 2013 issue of CHOICE. I thought I would provide a copy on this weblog for those who do not have ready access to the above resource. Compiler design: analysis and transformation, by Helmut Seidl, Reinhard Wilhelm, and Sebastian Hack. Springer, […]

Book review – Instant LESS CSS Preprocessor How-to by Alex Libby

May 16, 2013 - Learning , Web - by Mark - No Comments

I recently received a copy of Instant LESS CSS Pre-processor by Alex Libby from the publisher and thought it appropriate to post a quick review. The book is a short read (81 pages) and comes with a number of code samples.