Finding connections

This is an excellent article on finding the best blogs in the subjects one's interested on. And, as luck would have it, the topic happens to be education.  Social Media cheat sheet from Read Write Web.

The best things in life are free

We're all familiar with the gold standard of creative software, Adobe. And it's hard to argue with Photoshop, Illustrator and Dream Weaver. However, if your budget can't accommodate software that costs more than a decent PC, there are options.

There is Gimp, for example. I've been using it for years as a poor man's Photoshop. It allows one to take an image and manipulate it in layers. It's not as refined as the Adobe program, but it's a great way to introduce students to image capture and manipulation for free.

Here is the download page.

There is a program similar to Illustrator, using bezier curves, called Gestalter. I'm not sure it is still available, I am having trouble finding a reliable download..

Apparently the animation program, Blender, is supposed to be excellent. I haven't tried it, but it's free.