Jason Kries

iPad 2 is looking pretty nice...

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:03:59 -0500

If you don’t want an iPad 2 yet, it’s probably because you didn’t watch the keynote: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1103pijanbdvaaj/event/index.html

Kries Design is official

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:31:00 -0500

Kries Design is official:

Hire me.

"Rock the boat. Maybe it sinks. Maybe it needed to sink."

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:15:58 -0500

“Rock the boat. Maybe it sinks. Maybe it needed to sink.”

- The Think Big Manifesto

What is your sentence?

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:42:55 -0400

What is your sentence?:

This video was enough to make me order this book.

"When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle is going..."

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:23:06 -0400

“When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle is going to look a lot different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.”

- Switch by Chip & Dan Heath

"The way I understand gifts is that the giver must make a sacrifice, create an uneven exchange, bring..."

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 10:28:08 -0400

“The way I understand gifts is that the giver must make a sacrifice, create an uneven exchange, bring himself closer to the recipient, create change and do it all with the right spirit. To do anything less might be smart commerce, but it doesn’t rise to the magical level of the gift. A day’s work for a day’s pay is the win/lose mantra of the industrial era. More modern is to view a day’s work as a chance to generate gifts that last.”

- Seth Godin’s Blog

"If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your own path."

Thu, 27 May 2010 23:28:47 -0400

“If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your own path.”

Facebook is Lurking Everywhere...

Wed, 26 May 2010 23:28:23 -0400

It’s no secret that Facebook has been steadily creeping into more and more people’s lives. The difference is that, until recently, you had the choice to avoid the world of Facebook.

That has all changed. With the new levels of integration being offered by Facebook, websites can now peer into your Facebook account to find out all kinds of information about you, like where you are from and who you are friends with.

An unfortunate side effect of this is that now a whole new list of sites are being seen as extensions of Facebook and are therefore blacklisted by active content filters.

It is very frustrating, to say the least, to have to explain to someone that they cannot access a site like www.cnn.com in a classroom because there is a Facebook widget in the corner of the page.

Anyone else seen this problem?

Speakers With Passion

Mon, 24 May 2010 18:37:49 -0400

I’ve always felt that enthusiasm is contagious. After all, if you do not have the conviction to get excited about your lesson/topic/product/whatever else, how can anyone else get excited about it?

This is the philosophy that has guided my approach to professional and personal interactions for quite some time.

There is something special about hearing a talk from someone who clearly believes in what they are saying. If you want to be moved by the power of enthusiastic speaking (and who doesn’t?), check out TED.com. Here you will find speakers of all different flavors: teachers, scientists, film-makers, photographers, web designers, etc. giving short talks about the things that move them.

Even if you don’t agree or even care about the topics being discussed, I always find it fascinating to watch someone speak who is truly committed to what they are saying. It’s rare enough to be refreshing and exciting.

Here are a few great talks to start with:

Photo from Life magazine. Einstein’s desk the day he...

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:14:03 -0400

Photo from Life magazine. Einstein’s desk the day he died.

Should We Trust Free Software?

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:03:11 -0400

Social network creation site Ning has recently announced they will be abandoning their free model. With so many people (especially educators!) relying on free software such as Ning to carry out their daily professional and personal functions, should we be wary of free web-based software such as this?

While I am not a Ning user myself (I am a Moodler), this scenario makes me lean more than ever in favor of services that you host on your own web server.

*I realize of course that I am writing this on a free blogging platform that could fold up and disappear at any moment. You don’t need to point that out to me.*

Will Apple and the iPad Kill Flash?

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:41:00 -0400

With the explosive sales and popularity of the iPad, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of Flash. The lack of Flash support for this device has been no secret since the moment it was demonstrated by Steve Jobs. With popular sites like CNN.com, Vimeo.com, and even the White House scrambling to make their sites “iPad friendly”, what does this mean for Flash? Should we be preparing an early grave for what was, up until recently, arguably the undisputed king of online video and interactive websites?

What do you think? Can Adobe recover from this? Does the fact that Android powered devices support Flash matter at this point? Is anyone else concerned at how easily Apple has been able to put the usefulness of Flash into question so easily?

Short and insightful commentary on making better...

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 11:50:30 -0400

Short and insightful commentary on making better “presentations that stick.”

-Found at http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2010/04/making-presentations-that-stick.html

Free Online Web Design Tools

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:52:15 -0400

Free Online Web Design Tools:

While this is by no means the biggest collection of free online tools, this is a list of online tools for web designers that anyone from beginner to advanced webmasters may find useful. I will continue to update the page as I find/remember/design new tools.

Enjoy and feel free to share a link with me if you have an idea for a new category and/or link.

"The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money — with a full keyboard, DVD drive,..."

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:24:43 -0400

““The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money — with a full keyboard, DVD drive, U.S.B. jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works. Besides: If you’ve already got a laptop and a smartphone, who’s going to carry around a third machine?””

- David Pogue on the iPad

“Text 2.0″ eye-tracking reading companion: crazy or crazy...

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:32:25 -0400

“Text 2.0″ eye-tracking reading companion: crazy or crazy awesome?

I think this is amazing and really exciting! Imagine the possibilities for education, particularly for struggling readers.

"In everything you do, it’s possible to be an artist, at least a little bit. Not on demand, not..."

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:07:41 -0400

“In everything you do, it’s possible to be an artist, at least a little bit. Not on demand, not in the same way each time, and not for everyone. But if you’re willing to suspend your selfish impulses, you can give a gift to your customer or boss or coworker or a passerby. And the gift is as much for you as it is for the recipient.”

- Seth Godin in Linchpin

Amazing Web 2.0 & 21st Century Tools Wiki

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:39:11 -0400

A former professor of mine shared a link the other day to a wiki on wikispaces.com with an amazing running list of 21st century tools. I’ve long been a fan of lists of great tools and this one did not fail to impress! What impressed me more was the fact that I had only heard of a small fraction of the tools on the list (I’d better get with it!).

From what I could see, the majority of the tools seem to be free. They fall into the following categories:

Audio | Bookmarking | Charts/Graphs | Digital Art | Digital Storytelling | File Conversion | File Sharing | Misc. | Photo Editing | Presentation/Slideshow | Project Management | Search Engines | Social Networks | Suvey/Polls | Timelines | WebQuests | Word Processing | Video/Screencasting

The obvious uses here are related to education, but I can see just about any member of the digital race finding something to simplify (or complicate) their day. While I haven’t quite had the time to experiment with every tool, here are some of the gems in my opinion:

Myna - finally a PC substitute for Garage Band, though not quite as full featured. Still worth a look!
Text to Mindmap - A deceiving simple tool that makes great mind maps for visual thinkers and learners. You can see by the example below how you can take a basic outline and turn it into an idea or content web.
PaperRater - Free alternative to Turnitin.com. Again, not quite as feature-rich as the paid sites, but feeding a piece of writing into it will give you a full report on what the site thinks of your spelling, grammar, word choice, and writing mechanics. Good first stop for students (and bloggers) to get a quick checkup on their writing.

Hope you check out the wiki and find something useful!

Bored with Twitter? It's probably your own fault.

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:09:55 -0400

I know it was mine. When I first started using Twitter a while ago, I made the mistake of using it as a glorified “Away Message”. I was mainly following people I knew and people who started following me. Big mistake. There was never anything particularly exciting or engaging in my Twitter data stream and I could easily spend days or weeks away from Twitter without missing a thing.

Now I am back on Twitter and following a much more interesting crowd. I am following many of the nations leaders in technology and innovation. Now I am finding easily a dozen interesting articles and opinions via my Twitter feed in an average day.

So if you have been using Twitter and are not finding it rewarding, take a closer look at the company you keep. Ditch the people who are still posting updates about what they had for breakfast or commenting on the weather and start following a high class of Tweeter. You’ll be glad you did.

Prezi Presentation Tool

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:38:19 -0400

Move over PowerPoint! While Googling the other day for alternatives to PowerPoint, I happened to stumble upon a very unique presentation tool called Prezi. Prezi lets you design and deliver a presentation in a much more unique and visual manner than the bullet slides we have come to expect and lament from your standard ppt presentation (I’ve done it too).

I had the opportunity to present my Virtual Stock Market software to a group of teachers today at Kean University and I thought I would give Prezi a spin. I really enjoyed using it and I think it kept the flow of my message moving better than recent ppt presentations I’ve delivered.

I have embedded the presentation below. I must admit it is very minimalist and doesn’t hold up well on its own without narration, but it will scratch the surface of what you can do with Prezi. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with Prezi and incorporating it into future speaking engagements.

I’m wondering if this tool is fairly new or if I am just late to the party?

SuperStockGame.com on Prezi