Did you join Marcia MacMillan and I during our chat on CTV News Channel on essential school gear? Here's all the info and notes including my tips on buying a student laptop, using Gmail to place free phone calls, Wi-Fi Routers that are very easy to set up, flash drives shaped like keys so you never leave home without them, and why I think the iPod Touch is the ultimate portable device for study. [More]

I'll be working behind the counter today at McDonald's from noon until 1pm at the McCowan and Finch location to support the restaurant's largest national fundraiser. Across the country today celebrities, media organizations, Olympic athletes, musicians, and an army of volunteers will be supporting the "McHappy Day" program where a $1 from every Big Mac, McMuffin, and Happy Meal will be donated to local children's charities. If you're not into the food, that's cool, you can also text MCHAPPY to 30333 to make a $5 donation to the Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada. CTV is a proud supporter and you'll find a number of our staff helping out today so if you're in the area come on by. Anwar Knight will be broadcasting live from our McDonald's location, so you might even get on TV too. To find out about other notable individuals lending a hand across the country today you can check out the McDonald's facebook page or Twitter account. I'll be doing some "McTweeting" too today from my own Twitter account.  [More]

In support of my segment this morning Canada AM's Your Say Question asked "Will ebook readers make books obsolete?" As I write this the results are a landslide with 92% in the "No" category. This kind of feedback is always invaluable for me, there is no live audience and so I can't hear anyone laugh or gasp or cheer. I get far too many e-mails than I can ever possibly respond to, but I read them all and am always keen on the ones where people tell me their own views and experiences. Today's poll wasn't written by me, I had nothing to do with it and don't even know who did or I'd thank them, but it's the kind of question I get asked a lot and I thought I'd share what goes through my mind when I think about it. 

Starting this week Canada AM is introducing a new, regular feature where we will ask you to record and share videos on a particular topic. As this might lead many of you to share a video online for the very first time, our producers have asked me to help out by going over the basics and pointing out the easiest way to participate. 

We're asking you to upload your video to a trusted video-sharing community such as YouTube and then submit a link from your movie to us in an e-mail. This way your movie isn't being downloaded by anyone, our producers aren't having to download unknown and potentially dangerous files to their computers, and it makes it clear that your movie is meant for public consumption. We are, after all, a live, national television show. 

Throughout this month different parts of the country have been enjoying March Break and so our theme this week at Canada AM has been different ways to keep kids engaged and make valuable use of their time off. Here's an excellent example to share. During a thanksgiving break, Angela M. Sheehan created this video with her little sister Laura who provided the story and drawings while Angela assembled them into a stop-motion collage using iStopMotion With children's stories the delight is often in the detail and the mannerisms, something Angela captures wonderfully with title cards, speech bubbles, an animations that match the pattern of Laura's narration. Enjoy.

As Tim Burton invites us to take a trip down his 3D rabbit hole this week, it's the ideal moment to stop and admire Lewis Carroll's original stories. There are two incredible artifacts online you can enjoy. The first is Carroll's original handwritten and self-illustrated manuscript. Scanned and presented by the The British Library, the 1864 novel, titled "Alice's Adventures Under Ground by Charles Dodgson", is the very first recorded version of the story by Dodgson who invented the tale for three young girls on an earlier boat trip. He officially published it the following year and assumed the name Lewis Carroll that we all know so well.