Swissmiss has post on THEBLOG WEEMADE, a blog dedicated to showcasing kids artwork.
Meh.
It’s missing something….
…maybe it’s missing some Maddox flavor: I am better than your kids, parts 1 & 2.
This image has some serious explaining to do:

I would seriously be crapping my pants if I had a big-busted, Viking-looking teacher that looked like that. Check out those HEELS!!!!!

Bryan has posted some fresh photos, go check em out.
*note: each thumbnail on the homepage represents an entire collection of images.

So the second project I’ve assigned to my interactive design class at Rutgers Newark is to design a widget (like the ones on your iPhone and Dashboard).
The strategy behind the widget is to create something that would help them with their day-to-day college schedules. It’s a widget and not a website, so they have to focus on one or two (maximum) functions. Widgets are all about distallation, both visually and informationally.
The widget could delivery information specific to the student, or it could be something all the students of Rutgers could use.
The students should not limit themselves to what they think is possible. They should start out like this:
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a widget that let me see…. [insert functionality]
It’s going to be a really fun project. I wish I had time to build a widget too. 🙂

One of the design directors I work with was looking for Gravur by the type boutique lineto.
We ended up getting into a discussion about some great rounded, san serif typefaces that work great on monitors.
Here are a few:

Gravur

FS Albert


Vag Rounded

GE Inspira

Educators have a lot of power.
I somewhat understood this when I started teaching at Rutgers University in the fall semester of 2007, but I didn’t have that Eureka! moment until I started this spring semester for 2008.
The class I’m tag-team teaching along with Professor Brenda McManus is Interactive Design. The first project is get into teams of 2 and audit a website (from a pre-selected list we created). They have to break down the site through the scope, strategy, skeleton, and surface (based on James Jesse Garrett’s Elements of Human Experience) and then make a presentation to the class on their research.
I told the students they have many options on how they can present – Powerpoint, JPGs, PDFs – whatever form they feel most comfortable with and which is most appropriate.
While keeping things open to the class I strongly recommended they all open GMail accounts. I explained that using their Google accounts allowed them to not only collaborate with each other remotely (remember how crazy college schedules can be), but it also had Google Presentation – an alternative to Microsoft Powerpoint. I told them that this was how Brenda and I collaborated when we were developing class assignments.
It was at this moment that not only realized the power of a good educator – but also how collaborative paradigms are completely changing AND how I could effectively sway students away from Microsoft products and services. I feel the need to move the students away from Microsoft products, not because I don’t like Microsoft – but because Microsoft does not make well-designed software and products. Google Docs is a better alternative.
Prior to that moment I took things like Google Docs and Basecamp and all the other web-based applications for granted.
Prior to that moment I was talking the talk, but not walking much walk.
I guess I didn’t know the ledge.

Where ever you may work, I hope you don’t have to deal with either of these 2 Words of the Day:
boondoogle – A Boondoggle is a North American term referring to the performance of useless or trivial tasks whilst appearing to be doing something important. (Google definition)
kludge – Pronounced “klooj.” With computers, a term used to describe a piece of hardware or software that basically operates properly but whose construction or design is severely lacking in elegance or logical efficiency. (Google definition)

Some great reading:
So You Want to Be an Interaction Designer 2006 – I’ve never read an article that describes what I do, my skillset and personality type like this. Kinda creepy at first (Found via StyleGala).
So You Want To Be An Interaction Designer – the article from which the above was built on.

Newsvine – “We believe in turning news into conversation, and every page on Newsvine.com is designed to do precisely that.”
Gawker – New York-centric News
Overheard in New York – What New Yorkers are saying
The Superficial – so I like the occasional tabloid news. Sue me.
Engadget – because I love gadgets.
Pitchfork – because I love music, and this site educates me on stuff I’ve never heard of.
Newstoday – great design news, inspirational sites and a solid job board (If you take 2 minutes to make an account, you can get rid of that annoying ding-ding-dong jingle).
The Onion – sometimes fake news reveals more truth than the real stuff. Just the title of this article had me dying.