EDLD5363 Links

Week 1 Digital story

Week 2 Podcast

Week 2 Software Evaluation

Week 5 PSA No Replays in Life

Wiki/Portfolio EDLD5363

Final Reflections on 5363

I had really been looking forward to this challenging course, and it did not disappoint. I have learned a lot about 2.0 tools that were new to me, such as video editing software, DropBox, and Google documents. I learned how to use software that was already installed on my computer, namely Windows Movie Maker and QuickTime Player. I also taught myself how to PhotoShop for one of our projects, the digital story. The Google document was a very interesting tool to use. It was especially fun when one person was editing the document, then another would begin to edit at the same time. It was also the first time I used DropBox. Even though I am making great strides in my technology knowledge, I still find myself making dumb little mistakes. For instance, to get to DropBox, I kept going back to the original e-mail one of my partners sent out to invite us to use DropBox. Last night I realized that when I downloaded DropBox, an icon was added to my toolbar, so all I have to do is click on it, and I’m there. Just when you get full of yourself, your computer teaches you humility again. I think I still have a long way to go, technology-wise. I am really looking forward to the digital graphics course.
The best part about this course was not what I expected it to be. I expected the best part to be learning all of the new technology skills. Instead, the best part was working with the team. Everyone pulled together, did their part, and we turned out a pretty good product that makes us all really proud. We had logistical issues with different time zones and different Internet capabilities, not to mention different teaching and living schedules, but we worked as a very effective team. I’ve always preferred to do a project such as this alone, but I know it would not have been as good had I done it independently. The team effort also made the project enjoyable, rather than completely overwhelming.
One more really important thing I learned about making a video: use good lighting! As I read several weeks ago, “Nothing spoils a video shoot as much as poor lighting“ (Hendricks, n.d., Lighting, lighting, lighting, para. 1). I could have saved myself and others a lot of time and trouble if I had just waited for the best time and weather to film, instead of trying to force the issue by filming outside shots on a rainy day. No wonder big movies get behind schedule.


Hendricks, G. (n.d.) Guidelines for shooting quality video. Desk¬top-Video-Guide. Retrieved December 15, 2011 from http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/shoot-video.html

Web conference December 15, 2011

I have made it to most of the web conferences, but decided to write about the last one in the course, last night’s. Audio in the conferences is much improved; we are all learning that if we don’t turn on our webcams, the reception is much better. Dr. Abernathy says it has to do with bandwidth. I know that my friend Nicole has dial-up access to the Internet, and she says if her camera is on, she cannot hear at all, so that must be accurate. At any rate, last night’s conference was informative; I’m glad I went because I found out about the storyboard needing to be updated as well as the PSA pre-production document (I already knew about that one). I had attended the web conference the other night, so I knew we no longer had to do the Course Reflection Final Exam (We had also received an e-mail concerning this) because EPIC lost the questions for the assignment. (Yea, EPIC!) Not as many people were there, as there were some loading issues. Technology is not an exact science! This conference was sort of a winding down of the entire course-just checking to make sure what has to be turned in, checking the correct number of blog posts to make, what documents to upload into TK20. I will miss chatting to my friends, but I am going to enjoy my break. According to Dr. Abernathy, it’s the last one we have until next Christmas! Merry Christmas, everyone!

PSA

This project has been quite an enlightening experience. I have enjoyed working with my group. Everyone has been very conscientious about getting our project finished and wanting to turn in a quality piece of work. It requires a leap of faith to turn a portion of a project over to another person; as teachers we are used to being the person in charge, the person driving the action.
Learning how to actually make a video has been very exciting, and it gives you a greater appreciation of all of the work entailed in making a film or even a short music video. It also has portions of tedium (How many times do I actually have to view the video before I notice everything in each shot?), but in the end the attention to detail pays off. I also learned a lot about the actual filming process, the hard way; the day we filmed I was pushing to get it finished, and I filmed the outside scenes on a rainy, overcast day about dusk. I had gone to Baton Rouge for the day, and I just wanted to get it DONE. I was concerned that we wouldn’t have enough time to edit if I didn’t get the video into the Dropbox ASAP. (I want to emphasize that the pressure to get the filming finished so quickly was self-imposed; it did not come from my group partners.) I learned that there truly is no substitute for good lighting. I had read about this in week 3: “Nothing spoils a video shoot as much as poor lighting “ (Hendricks, n.d., Lighting, lighting, lighting, para. 1). I should have followed his instructions. Tim spent needless hours trying to lighten up the video, and in the end, the outside scenes had to be refilmed a week later anyway. The scenes filmed in the bright daylight were a thousand times better. I should have just been patient and waited for a day with good light. The process of having to refilm brought us down to the wire anyway. I feel badly about causing unnecessary work and pressure on my team. Patience is a virtue; I’ll work on it! Overall, I found the group experience to be very positive, and look forward to another group project. I hope my partners feel the same.

Hendricks, G. (n.d.) Guidelines for shooting quality video. Desk-top-Video-Guide. Retrieved December 15, 2011 from http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/shoot-video.html

Here is the link to our video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HsH-g6GCU0&context=C37634e5ADOEgsToPDskKfsQMfphFSmc8jyc0n71Ho

Podcast

This was a fun project, although kind of a hectic one. I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials before attempting mine. I also took many, many screen shots, so that I could edit out the ones I would not need or that were superfluous. I had my project all set up, then realized I could not insert the arrows I needed! It took me a couple of hours to figure out my dilemma: Open the clip in paint, use shapes to make arrows, cut and paste, and insert the clip back into the video. I was very proud of myself for figuring this out. Normally I would have spent several days fussing and wasting time trying the wrong things over and over again. I have discovered two very valuable resources during the projects of the last two weeks. First: YouTube. If you don’t know how to do something, go to Google, type in your question + YouTube, and boom, a video will appear instructing you in a solution to your problem. My second resource: The kid across the street. When I was making a digital story during week one, I had PhotoShopped a great picture of my house on fire. The use of PhotoShop was not required for the project, but I wanted that particular picture, and I had spent a lot of time on it. Probably not the best time to try a new skill that wasn't even required. After I had finally finished it, I could not figure out how to insert the darn picture into the digital story! I happened to ask the kid across the street about it, and it turns out he is a computer whiz. He suggested opening the photo in Paint, editing it, and then saving it as a PowerPoint slide, so I could insert it into the story. I remembered this from the week before, so I was able to add the arrows to my tutorial. I learned a lot from this project. It was kind of hectic at the end, because the original instructions said the tutorial had to be 2-3 minutes long, then we found out on Sunday night that it was actually only 2 minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds. Lots of last minute editing going on! I had to cut 15 seconds out. After all of the work, the rubric was incorrect anyway! Oh, well, like I said, I learned a lot. After the course is finished, I am going to revise my podcast and add the seconds back in. My mother says it goes too fast for her. What good is a video if it’s too fast for your mom?

Here is the link for the podcast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax8w0MQ64MY&context=C37634e5ADOEgsToPDskKfsQMfphFSmc8jyc0n71Ho

Web Conference November 20, 2011

Okay, this web conference really made my blood pressure rise. First, I had no audio at all during the entire conference, so that was REALLY frustrating. Not just cutting in and out, but NO audio whatsoever. (Now I know how the others felt when that happened to them in the past.) I found out it was my headphones, not the fault of my computer or anything else technical, which was a relief. Having to get new headphones is an annoyance, but not a major obstacle, such having the audio malfunction on the computer. So, I had to depend upon the questions others were asking, and the answers people were typing to those questions. Next blood pressure increase: We found out that the instructions in the assignment were not correct. Instead of our video being 2-3 minutes in length, it could not be over 2 minutes, 10 seconds long. Wow. I had already submitted my homework, so I had to go edit 15 seconds out of my video. I was able to accomplish that by shortening transition times and cutting a couple of slides that did not have any narration on them, so at least I did not have to rewrite my script. Several of my cohorts had to leave the conference so that they could go edit; they had some extensive work and rewrites to accomplish in order to turn their work in, although Dr. Abernathy did open up the EPIC homework site and extend the deadline to the next day. This week I am going to print out both the assignment and the overview as I usually do, but I am going to compare them both with a finetooth comb. I will have new headphones for the next web conference as well.

Web Conference November 15, 2011

This conference was quite different than others in the past because the audio was very good, and no one was getting bounced off. I found out this is because Dr. Abernathy is very strict about attendance in the web conference: only the allowed number of participants are permitted in, and no one is allowed in late. The correct number of people seems to help keep the feedback noise down tremendously. This conference was helpful to me because I am pretty confused about this week's assignment. The video seems like a huge project, and I am a little concerned about getting it finished. I feel like I am behind because I missed Sunday and Monday's web conferences. My cohorts always seem to ask the right questions, so a lot of my questions are answered before I can even ask them. Dr. Abernathy is very supportive, but I know I have my work cut out for me this week!