In the past the web conferences have been a critical part of my course work. I have found them to be insightful and stress relieving. In this course, however, I have had quite a different feeling. Until tonight, I have not been able to get into the web conferences even though I have signed in well before the scheduled start time. This week it may have been partially due to the fact that I was in east Egypt which is just west of nobody-ever-goes-there Texas with my parents for the Thanksgiving holiday. To say that their internet service is slow would be giving it a little to much credit. I believe it is one step about dial-up but it is a very small step.
Tonight, I signed into the the conference two hours early and just kept the window open on my laptop. I figured that one way or another I was getting in tonight. And I guess it was worth the wait because did get some of my questions answered before we lost Dr. Abernathy.
For some reason this week's assignment has been a very confusing for me. I was glade to have at least one other person say the same thing.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
EDLD 5363 ET8036 Week 2 Assignment – Video Editing Software
In the Desktop-Video Guide this week it said that creating a digital video is really simple if you break it down into five steps: Buying equipment, shooting, capturing, editing and sharing. I have to laugh at the fact that they think it is simple probably because they’ve done it a million times.
Buying equipment is probably the hardest thing I can think of. Even when I do the research, talk to the sales people and seek the advice of those who seem to know; I still I end up with something that I paid way too much for and doesn’t do what I expected it to do. And capturing? What’s capturing? Never even heard that phrase until this week!
I can now handle editing. With Movie Maker it’s pretty easy. Time consuming, but easy. I had an old film strip from 1975 that had the cassette tape that beeps to tell you when to change the slide. About 8 years ago, I took digital pictures of each slide and turned it into a PowerPoint show. Unfortunately, the beeps could still be heard at times and it created havoc in the classroom when I had to try to explain to the natives how filmstrips used to work. This week, I put the PowerPoint into Movie Maker and after a great deal of effort, and about 2 hours, I had a 14 minute Windows Media Video (.wmv) with no beeps. Unfortunately, a few important words are missing too. I suppose that means that step two will be to add those words back in.
I have several projects that I want to tackle now and can't wait to get started.
Desktop-Video-Guide. (n.d.). The various stages of creating a digital video. Retrieved on November 24, 2011, from http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/video-creation.html
Buying equipment is probably the hardest thing I can think of. Even when I do the research, talk to the sales people and seek the advice of those who seem to know; I still I end up with something that I paid way too much for and doesn’t do what I expected it to do. And capturing? What’s capturing? Never even heard that phrase until this week!
I can now handle editing. With Movie Maker it’s pretty easy. Time consuming, but easy. I had an old film strip from 1975 that had the cassette tape that beeps to tell you when to change the slide. About 8 years ago, I took digital pictures of each slide and turned it into a PowerPoint show. Unfortunately, the beeps could still be heard at times and it created havoc in the classroom when I had to try to explain to the natives how filmstrips used to work. This week, I put the PowerPoint into Movie Maker and after a great deal of effort, and about 2 hours, I had a 14 minute Windows Media Video (.wmv) with no beeps. Unfortunately, a few important words are missing too. I suppose that means that step two will be to add those words back in.
I have several projects that I want to tackle now and can't wait to get started.
Desktop-Video-Guide. (n.d.). The various stages of creating a digital video. Retrieved on November 24, 2011, from http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/video-creation.html
Sunday, November 20, 2011
EDLD 5363 ET8036 Week 1 Assignment – Digital Story Reflection
Creating this digital story was much more time consuming than I had anticipated. My first idea was to do a story of how we got my daughter, Kate, when she was eight. I wrote the script but then changed my mind. It might have tugged at the heart strings but I wanted something with more energy.
Then I decided to do my story on my two brothers, Steven and Danny. They both died within the last 10 years and I thought it would be a nice tribute to them. But there was too much good stuff to narrow down to anywhere close to two minutes. In order to do either one of them justice, I knew I had to let one go. My daughter made it easy. She said, “Do Uncle Steve, you liked him best.” Ouch. But it was true. In the end, he was the one I was closest too.
From there it should have gotten easier but it didn’t. The pictures I have of Steve were scanned in 2002 and the quality wasn't very good. I wish I had enough time to get the originals from my parents’ house, the quality of the story would have been much better. While I’m at their house over Thanksgiving, I'm going to start scanning in all the old family photos. Then I will redo the story so that it does justice to my brother.
The last issue was how to end it. I had to have an upbeat ending. Steven wouldn’t have it any other way. So, I decided that the music and the stories I told must be fun right down to the last one.
I wish I didn’t sound so nasal and I wish I could have made it longer (Grrrr!); but, all in all, I’m pleased with the outcome. I hope you will be too http://youtu.be/3GBSpH_seHE
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