If you use a Mac it is now really easy to make your own custom widgets. Dashcode (beta- so no promises) is a neat little WYSIWYG that makes widget construction quick and easy. You can make all of the default widgets above or make your own from scratch.
It’s free to download once you join the Apple Developer’s Connection (which is free but requires you to give some information). Not a bad deal.
Educationally, it’d be a fun way to do a number of things.
- An easy intro to RSS for staff and/or students but with you in control
- Countdown timers for Spring Break, exams etc.
- An upcoming events widget for your school with sports, meetings etc.
- A staffdev feed of recommended articles and posts
I realize these are all things you could do easily other ways (and in some cases with greater ease and flexibility). The thing is widgets will often succeed where you would fail utterly with a less “cool” or “fun” option. Our school has widget mania so I’m going to try to tap in.
If you’d like a widget for BionicTeaching’s rss feed click here. Yeah, I know it’s probably useless for the majority of you but like I said- It’s all about the widgets baby.
Oh, crumb!:
I’m not sure when I’ll be able to upgrade, otherwise, I’d be so excited about this. Thanks for the heads up though.
Pam