Apprehensions about Video

Video is the one element of the multimedia class that I am most apprehensive about trying. I don't own a video camera and I think my family's camera is pretty ancient, so I will be borrowing a camera from a friend or colleague. I am just nervous about getting the shots correct and then putting the footage into Moviemaker. I'm sure it will be a great learning experience, but I am really nervous.

Making things harder than they need to be

I tell my students often they are over analyzing what is being asked of them, and making things harder than they need to be. I found myself a victim of the same mentality recently. For our audio file assignment, I recorded myself giving a tutorial in Excel using Camtasia. Then, I produced the recoring in Camtasia and kept trying to make into a Moviemaker file. Turns out, I didn't need the extra step. Camtasia produces the video and audio file all on its own, and makes it a wmv file that can be read by Windows Media Player. I had to laugh at myself for making things harder than they needed to be. :)

Website Group Presentation

I was pleasantly surprised during our presentation. I expected to be incredibly nervous to present in front of a class of my peers, but thankfully, I was not. The presentation went pretty well, except I didn't have some of the answers that I should have about google sites. I plan to research and find the answers to the questions posed during our presentation.

My group member, Lindsey, is incredibly knowledegable about websites - she did a great job presenting! Caroline made a video for us to use during our presentation - she did a great job too! I had an awesome group.

Audio Files to help Differentiate Instruction

Being able to record what's happening on-screen as well as record narration is a great way for me to differentiate instruction in my BCIS class. I can record the task on-screen, and narrate what is happening. This will provide students with a step-by-step guide on how to complete various activities. And, if the student feels I've covered the material too quickly in class, they can simply watch it again at their own pace. I am really excited to record audio and on-screen activities with Camtasia.

Creating a Website with WYSIWYGs

Working with my group to present our topic, creating websites, has been a great learning experience. I started the group thinking that making a website was going to be extremely difficult. To my surprise, WYSIWYGs, make creating a website just a point and click away.

I've learned how to use iWeb & Google sites for making websites. And, I've learned about other website creation applications. Some of the applications are free to dowload and use, while others can cost up to $300 and requires coding knowledge.

This group project has been an awesome learning experience so far.

Working with Audio

I think working with audio will be a bit easier than working with the animation program, Alice. I have some experience with audio in PowerPoint presentations and I've also had some training on how to record my voice for tutorials. I think audio can be a great way to jazz up and call attention to important things within a presentation.

Working with Animation

I had never worked with animation outside of PowerPoint until NOW. The computer science guru at my school introduced me to ALICE. It is an animation application that is free to download and use. For the most part, it is very user friendly and doesn't require any knowledge of coding.

However, I first had to create the animation in Alice and save it. Then, I had to download a free trial of Camtasia to capture the animation. After I captured the animation in Camtasia from Alice I had to run the animation through Camtasia or "produce it" so that the file was readable by Windows Moviemaker. Finally, I had upload the file to Moviemaker and finish the "movie" there.

Wow! What a lengthy process! I hope this journey gets easier . . .

Atomic Learning Module: Searching the Web

This week I was able to use the Atomic Learning Modules; Searching the Web- Intro & Advanced. I was surprised to find out that my Web surfing skills and knowledge about the Web were pretty poor. I consider myself a proficient Web surfer. But, after working through several of the modules, I realized that I knew very little about the Web that I was using. I found the tutorials incredibly informative.

Introduction

My name is Kristen and this is my first try at blogging. I am a graduate student at SMU and part of my degree program is the Master Technology Teacher certification. I am in the second course for this certification. Part of the class requirement is to start a blog. I will be documenting my progress with integrating technology into my classroom this semester. I'm a bit nervous, but very hopeful!