Well, I'm still wrestling...

Well, I've learned an awful lot about video this week, in an effort to get my tutorial to work on my website. Still a no go, dang it all. But the process has been terrific because I've learned all kinds of things that I can use in other places. My favorite of the week is compressing AVI files to Mpeg4 format. I'm really glad to know that. And in some cases I'll be able to use a zip file to send a PowerPoint and have the videos travel with it, it just wasn't an application I could use on the website. So I'm still chewing on this because I'd really like to be able to load this tutorial on a school server and make it available for teachers. If you have any ideas, I'm all ears.

Looking over our classmates websites yesterday was terrific. Some were amazing. Nicole Gunn did an especially great job - professional quality. I know it will be tremendously useful to VSU nursing students. How great is that? John did a great site, too. I'm really impressed with the both of them, and proud of them, too. Top notch work.

10,000,000 ways to not get a ppt to work...

This weeks word is frustration. It is the feeling you get when you cannot get the videos to work in a ppt that you've prepared for a tutorial and loaded onto a website. AAAARRRGH! I feel like Charlie Brown when Lucy kept pulling the football out from under him.

I've tried everything I and the countless other people I have asked can think of, and -no go. I'm at my wits end. I've tried saving it as a slide show, packaging it as a CD and trying to load it that way (can't load a folder), burning it to a CD (doesn't pick up the slides and puts the videos in the wrong order), a zip file. I'm about to tear my hair out. I'll keep at it...

Reflection is good...

This week's assignment was the caption, and as I reflected on my work in this class over the semester, I'm just so proud of what I've accomplished. I know it's just a very simple website, but the most valuable part of the process is what you don't see. I really learned how to zero in on a need and how to design material to fill that need. That's huge for me. It was especially satisfying that I had designed a tutorial for teachers, as well as a research activity that children can participate in independently, so it doesn't require valuable classroom time to build skills. I think that's a great idea - kind of like the AR program for reading, but this is for research. I can't wait to see how it flies in a real school!

This has been one of my favorite classes, because I learned to much about effective design, of not only curriculum, but a website. I love getting every aesthetic and component just right, so it was a lot of fun.

This could drive a person nuts!

Okay, I've got the assignment tucked in nice and neat, but I can't get the additional tutorial I've posted to work. Drat! I think it is because it is a PowerPoint and I have some videos inserted on each page. The ppt comes through but not the video. I can't seem to package that. Drat!

Well, this week's assignment did go well. I'm getting to where I can add and edit pages lickety split. That's a nice feeling! Now if I could just get my ppt to work. Drat!

Back to it...wish me luck...

Busy, busy...

This has been a huge assigment. To fulfill the requirements of the assignment, I created my student activity within the first week of the alloted time. But because my website is a teacher resource, a student activity wasn't really appropriate for the site. Plus, at the beginning of the semester I asked a librarian friend if there was something useful I could create for her. She requested a tutorial for her teachers on how to effectively use the Destiny OPAC system, so I've been working on that as my "real" activity - although it doesn't really fit the requirements of the assignment. It's a tutorial for adults, not an activity for students.

What's especially interesting about how this is all coming together, is I've recently been learning about some video tools in another class that I've been able to utilize for this tutorial. Handy coincidence! Although I realize it's not up to Hollywood standards, I'm pretty proud of my first attempt at combining tools to create something that will be of real use to a faculty. I did it! And I learned a ton of useful info in the process. Hurrah!

Sticky Stuff

Copyright laws are tricky for me, and murky, too. Although the articles in this assignment defined the laws more clearly than any I have encountered before, I still am a little uncertain about my do's and don'ts. I hate to avoid material because I'm afraid of using it, but I also don't want to open my county up to a lawsuit. And often it seems you would not have the months I imagine it would take to get permission. I'll be in the media center, so this is really important to me, especially with the collaborative push. I'll be looking to my district office and fellow librarians for advice and direction quite a bit...

I love Big6!

This is such a terrific tool, and I'm so glad we spent the week exploring it. It is one of my main topics on my webpage, and so again I was glad to have the extra time to really look at what some teachers are doing to utilize its powerful, yet simple process. It is amazing how very young students can grasp the Super 3 version, and how it can be successfully impletmented with special needs students, as well. And what a confidence builder. When someone who is just beginning to explore the world can do it in this simple and logical framework, the sky's the limit. I wish I would have been taught this process, and I'm going to make sure each of my four children tap into this. It's fantastic! Thanks for a great class topic!