Web Conference Experience

I found attending the web conferences helps me to put a face with the names of the other students in my class.  It is also a good way to receive information on upcoming assignments. 

The web conference is a valuable way to get clarification on assignments.  Attending the web conference allows you the opportunity to ask questions about methods of completing the assignment.  In a recent web conference one of the attendees mentioned they had problems uploading to YouTube in a certain format. Students gave their experience with uploading files. This collaboration is a great help to everyone who attends the web conference.

Sometimes students on the web conferences are further along in the assignment and they are asking questions you may come across later in the assignment. The web conferences are a great way to get and give information.

Movie Editing Software Evaluation

Before this course, I did not need to look at video editing software.  Last week I learned about Photo Story 3.  The Digital Personal Story peaked my interest in doing other stories with my family photographs. This week I looked at Windows Live Movie Maker and VideoPad Video Editor.

I chose to review VideoPad Video Editor from NCH Software.  I found this software to be a little more sophisticated than Windows Live Movie Maker.  Windows Live Movie Maker required you to record the narration into a sound file and then add it to the story.  In VideoPad Video Editor you can narrate the story while you are watching the video clip.  It was also easy to edit the narration when you finished recording. The software was user friendly when editing sound tracks, effects, and transitions.

VideoPad Video Editor makes it easier to work with the various options for your movie clip than Windows Live Movie Maker.  Some of the options include clipping, importing other clips, capturing video, adding subtitles, and splitting.  When the movie is saved you may choose .qvi, .wmv, .asf, .mpg, .3gp, .mp4, .mov, .flv .swf, or .rm as the file extension.

In the future, I would like to make tutorial movies for the students in my class who are having a hard time with various concepts.  It would also be a great way for the parents to access the information from home and learn what we are doing in our class.

EDLD 5363 Digital Story Reflection

This week we made a Personal Digital Story in EDLD 5363. I thought it was going to be easy to do. No, it wasn’t as easy as I thought. First I had to decide what to use for the storyline. It was a tossup between our summer adventure and the trips shared with my sisters. I decided to use the story about Craig’s and my adventure this past summer. The time spent together was priceless.

Then I had to decide what program to use to make the digital story. I chose to use Photo Story 3. It was relatively easy to use, but it was time consuming.

After deciding what to use for the story, I had to decide what part of the trip I wanted to focus on in the story. I decided to focus on the historical parts of the trip. As I sat down to actually write the story I found myself writing and rewriting the story. Finally, I uploaded the story for my partner to read. Then I had to decide which pictures to use. That was the easy part of the assignment.

The hard part of the assignment was trying to make the voice over work with each picture. It took a lot longer than I anticipated putting everything together. After getting the talking and pictures together I had to decide which music I wanted in the background. I listened to a lot of different types of music before I could decide. Finally I decided on Latin (Brazil) music.

The movie turned out much better than I thought it would. I am very pleased with it. The next story I write should go much quicker since I know how to make the movies now.

I hope you enjoy my digital story.  Craig and Ruth's Summer Adventure