Module 8: Final

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Here it is, my final video. This has been a very challenging project. If I could change one thing it would have been to use pro software like Adobe Premier. Microsoft's free software is great for throwing together a quick movie, but for a big production like this it was not nearly powerful enough. If it uploads (knock on wood) I'll be able to post it before 1am. Yay!

My final video includes pictures, music, a screen recording, voice overs, a PowerPoint animation, video downloaded from YouTube and actual real video of myself from the Flip camera. The software that I used was Windows Live Movie Maker, Screenr, Audacity, and MP4Cam2AVI. All of the media was public domain, Creative Commons, Fair Use or used with permission.

The multimedia principles that I tried to comply with most closely were coherence principle and sensory modalities principle. The coherence principle suggests that the multimedia should not have any extraneous information, so as not to increase cognitive load. Sensory modalities I thought was a good way to organize the presentation and keep it simple. For example, voice instead of text when showing pictures.Sometimes it would have been much easier to use text instead of creating audio, but it would have encouraged me to violate sensory modalities principle.

Module 7: The Intervention (Part II)

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Ok, here it is.  Getting the flow right is really hard. I hope that I don't have to redo parts I and II when working on part III. In this video I used PowerPoint to create an animation and recorded it with Screenr. That was new to me but actually worked pretty well. The hardest part was editing the audio to make it sound like the audio from my wife's laptop was actually coming out of her laptop. Anyway, the question I'd like to pose for this blog post is: Would you like to attend these workshops? If so, in person or on iMEET?

Module 7: Late :(

I'm having computer problems, including overheating and memory problems. Making videos is very taxing on my machine... Also, my mic just stopped working! I'm just uploading what I have at this point. The official blog post will come with the official video.

Removing background hum from voice recording in Audacity

Before:

After:

Audacity.sourceforge.net
Tutorial for noise removal with steps

Screencast for Scott (how to replace video with images in WMM)

 

This video is not part of any module. Just a screencast in response to something Scott asked me last weekend.

Module 6: The Problem (Part I)

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This video attempts to define the problem in my CE, that grad students are often busy and have limited time in their schedules to learn something new, but they have to confront the huge task of formatting a large document to precise specifications. I don't think that this video follows any research based guidelines, accept in that I tried my best to keep it simple and not introduce more information than is needed.

Credits in the final video will roll with the following:

• Photos of a mock training used with permission by the student employees and the STC coordinator.
• Stock photos of the family and the traffic are from Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
• Music used was a segment of the song "And Then We Take Them Down Again" by DoKashiteru, Creative Commons license (Digg CC Mixter)

My question to everyone is, if you recorded your voice, have you tried to remove background hums and white noise? I used Audacity to do this and it did wonders! If anyone is interested I'll make a screencast about getting and using the software.

Face-to-face (Saturday): Final Project Storyboard

• Part I: The problem
• Purpose: To introduce the audience to the root problem
• Images
• Still: Traffic; night sky; person at work; family at home
• Moving: Classroom workshop instructor
• Words
• Audio: "Students are busy people, especially graduate students who often split time between work, school, and family. Many university services cannot be taken advantage of without sacrificing valuable time. For this reason, new modes of instruction delivery that match students' lives are needed."
• Part II: Significance of the problem
• Purpose: To provide context for the research
• Images
• Moving: Screencast of document format requirements; screencast of formatting in Word, 
• Words
• Audio: "Graduate students have to format their documents to match a very strict requirements, something that is not easily accomplished without using Word's advanced formatting features. The workshops that are the subject of this research teach these skills to graduate students. Many students do not have the flexibility in their schedules to attend workshops that are offered in person.
• Part III: Conclusion
• Purpose: To describe the proposed intervention: webinar workshops
• Images
• Still: Student at home or work on computer watching workshop
• Moving: Video of in person training fades to video of student watching training on their computer
• Words
• Audio: "The intervention proposed for this research project is live, online and interactive workshops for graduate students. Being able to learn skills from home, work, or anywhere with an internet connection frees them to learn unhindered by geographical limitations. This intervention is technically possible and a part of the 21st century educational landscape, but is it effective? That is the question that this proposal seeks to answer."

Face-to-face (Friday): Video production test

Got it uploaded... Thanks for all the help, Scott!

Module 5: Reflection on "Silent Beats"

The subject of this post is the short "Silent Beats" by Jon Chu, which depicts the experiences of a teenager entering a convenience shop occupied by the owner and another woman. The topic of the film is how initial impressions can be deceiving.

While the subject, an African American youth, is approaching the entrance the shop owner is profiling him based on the information that he had. Against the bright backdrop all he could see is the silhouette of a person with a slanted baseball cap and baggy pants, and as he gets closer, that he is black. The shop owner imagines him in a mugshot, revealing his fear that he is going to commit some crime. As the boy walks through the doorway a low camera angle is used to elicit feelings of fear from the perspective of the shop owner. As he walks through the store to select his items, the shop owner stares at him like he intends for him to notice, as if to say "I know what you're up to, kid".

The film does not focus solely on the first impressions from the shop owner and other shopper, but also from the youth himself. He imagines the cartoonish stereotypes of Asians and the elderly. I think this goes to show that everyone's initial assumptions about others are often based on external sources of information (i.e. mass media, expressions of prejudice from other people, etc.) and can quite often be wrong. The shop owner illustrates this when the elderly woman steals a candy bar and the boy purchases water, an apple, and band-aids.

Module 5: Information for F2F

I'm using Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 for the remaining assignments.

I have been downloading videos with the Real browser plugin for Firefox.

Module 4: Coffee

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For this module I decided to record the process of making a pot of coffee. I used a Flip camera, MP4 to AVI converter, and Windows Movie Maker. I decided not to add any music or narration because I really like the sounds that you hear when making coffee. The camera shots I used were full shots and close-ups. The angles I used were high angles, eye-level angles, and one bird's eye angle.

Full shots were used mostly to show the subject (coffee pot?) and close-ups were used to show details, like the coffee brewing in the pot and the coffee beans being poured into the grinder. When I used the bird's eye angle I did so because it was the only way to show the coffee filling up the cup since it was opaque, plus I thought it would be neat. I had to use a floor lamp for lighting because I don't have a kitchen window in my apartment.

I guess it what I was aiming for was information acquisition, because the steps of brewing a pot of coffee. Most people probably already have a schema for how to brew a pot of coffee. This video just serves to demonstrate the steps ;)

Module 3: Understanding Microsoft Word Styles

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In this video I wanted to take what I learned in the handbook and apply it to something similar to what I might do for my final project. The video seeks to do one thing that I think is very important in my field, separate the rote from the meaningful learning. Later next week I will add a blog post with instructions for each of the skills and put a link to them as an annotation throughout the video, so the viewer can just click to view the rote instructions. 

This was a mistake that I was making in my instructional designs at my job. The rote instructions and the concept knowledge was presented together, unnecessarily increasing cognitive load. The moment I read that part of chapter one during my lunch break I had to stop and rethink the training completely. The new approach will be basically schema building. The rote instructions have to be left alone until learners completely understand the concepts. 

I identified my interests in applying multimedia in education simply because I want to do my job better. We are already applying multimedia to higher education, but now I'm able to approach it differently. This was possible because of the handbook, an excellent resource.

The tools used to create this video were: Screenr, YouTube, Windows Live Movie Maker, and Microsoft Word 2007. If using Screenr, it would be a good idea to add a "watch in HD" link because it is much easier to see in hi-def.

How to make a quick and easy screen recording without installing software...

I found a tool called Screenr that allows you to create quick screencasts and publish them directly to YouTube or download and edit them. The catch is that they can only be 5 minutes per screencast, so longer videos will have to done in parts. If you'd like to see an example of what the product might look like, see my blog post How to record directly to YouTube using your webcam or watch it in HD.

Signing up for Screenr:

1. Navigate to Screenr.com
2. On the upper right hand corner, there is a services you can "Sign in with". Click "g" to sign in with your Google account.
3. Login with your Google account and then authorize Screenr to work with your account
4. Choose a Screenr username then click "Complete registration"

Creating a screencast:

1. Go to Screenr.com and sign in with your Google account
2. In the upper right hand corner of the window, click "Record"
3. Once Java is detected you be given a screen recording box. Everything in that box will be captured. 
4. Follow the instructions on the the screen, but notice you can change your microphone settings and can set the recording size to a standard like 960x720 at the bottom
5. Click the red circle record button to start your screencast

Publishing your screencast:

1. After your finish recording, you will be redirected to the preview and publish page
2. Give your screencast a description
3. Click publish
4. For our class you probably want to publish to YouTube, which you can do simply and directly by clicking "Publish to YouTube" on the right hand side of the window
5. Type in your YouTube username and password and click "Publish"

There you go, you have published a screencast to YouTube! You can also download the file as a .mp4 and edit it using iMovie or Movie Maker. Please let me know if you have any questions.

How to record directly to YouTube using your webcam

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Module 2: Video Reflection

Things I mentioned

Easily record your webcam: www.youtube.com/my_webcam

Download Real player: www.real.com

Easily convert most filetypes: www.mediaconverter.org

Module 2: Final Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery

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This project was more difficult and took me a couple of hours Monday night. The topic was easy to select, because I knew that I wanted to do something recent in science and technology. The first thing to come to mind was the shuttle launch in February. The sights and sounds evoke a lot of nostalgia for me, making the process quite enjoyable.

The original video from the PBS NewsHour YouTube channel was a little over 10 minutes. I downloaded the video using the RealPlayer Firefox plugin. Movie Maker allowed me to edit without needing to covert. I basically trimmed about 8 minutes of excess and kept highlights of events in the launch. The only problem that I had was using Movie Maker to add captions. It was difficult to get the timing just right. Next time I'll try the YouTube captioning/annotating features, since it may be more efficient. I can imagine teachers using similar editing techniques to trim down speeches, interviews, etc.. Especially in the case of history teachers.

Module 1: Our New Orleans Honeymoon, June 2009

To create this video I used Windows Live Movie Maker. Creating it took about an hour in total including upload time. I have to say that the software was very easy to use. I tried creating a video on an older version of Movie Maker and the new version is a huge improvement.

The one thing that I think I did wrong was I uploaded the "recommended" video size which seemed to be much higher than necessary for a project such as this. The upload took so long that I ended up canceling it and going with the lower quality image. That would be my one word of caution to everyone, go with a file size that's appropriate for a the project. I might want to go with a larger resolution if I were creating a software demonstration, for example. But for a slideshow 960 x 720 is just fine :)