#IllRideWithYou

This morning I'm watching live streaming coverage of the hostage crisis currently taking place in a cafe in Sydney, Australia.  The hostage taker allegedly has Islamic ties, and has placed a flag with Islamic symbols in the windows of the cafe.

If you reg take the #373 bus b/w Coogee/MartinPl, wear religious attire, & don’t feel safe alone: I’ll ride with you. @ me for schedule
— Sir Tessa (@sirtessa) December 15, 2014

The reason I'm mentioning this situation is because of the way that social media has been used to assist Sydney commuters feel safe as they try to make their way home.  One Twitter user, known as @sirtessa, posted the tweet shown above, offering to ride with Sydney commuters so they could feel safe on their way home.  This tweet took off on social media, and the hashtag #IllRideWithYou has emerged as a worldwide effort to offer support to Australian Muslims.

#IllRideWithYou: Australians show solidarity with Muslims amid the Sydney siege http://t.co/5hFgbIp2C3 pic.twitter.com/czDCx7OdM4
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 15, 2014

The situation is ongoing, but it's simply amazing how the power of social media can be used to further shine a positive light on a terrible situation.

Tech Tidbit video: SoundTrap

This week's Tech Tidbit video spotlights SoundTrap, a Web2.0 site that allows you to create, mix, and download your own original music tracks.

You can use SoundTrap to create original music for video projects, background music for dances, school news broadcasts, and much more!

Orion launches! (Finally!)

NASA was finally able to launch the Orion test flight from Cape Canaveral on Friday morning, Dec. 5th, after multiple delays. It will orbit Earth twice before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean after a 4 1/2 hour flight.  This test flight is the first step in the process of planning NASA's eventual journey to Mars.



Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

Please donate to this Donor's Choose project!

I would like to encourage those who are sympathetic to the cause of helping teachers acquire new technology to donate to this Donor's Choose project that was launched by a colleague of mine in Wake County schools.  She is only a little more than $300 away from reaching her goal, and she has around 20 days or so left to reach it!

I would hate to have her miss out on acquiring this laptop and iPad mini when she is so close to reaching her goal!  Can you help her out?  Pretty please???

Tech Tidbit: ContextU.com

This week's Tech Tidbit video spotlights the American History research site ContextU, which is currently in beta test mode, and features 4 study units to this point, "American Revolution", "The New Nation", "Causes of the Civil War", and "The American Civil War".

Each unit has four main features: Timeline, Map, Cause & Effect, and Groups.  The Timeline feature allows the user to see a timeline of important events in that era of time, as well as important people in history who were alive during that time, as well as events that were happening around the world during that time in history.  The Map feature displays markers on a map that display where important events in that era took place.  The Cause & Effect feature organizes people and events into factors that contributed to that era of history, as well as results of what happened during that time.  Finally, the Groups features lists important people and events in the order that they happened in a streamlined view.

ContextU.com is in beta test mode, which means that additional features will be added as time goes on.  Regular users of this site might want to bookmark the site and return frequently to see what has been updated and made available.