ECOMP 6016 Recording Voice and Music Video

So, I had big plans for this video. My problem ran into the fact that I couldn't find one program that would do everything I wanted without sacrificing something. Photostory wouldn't let me edit music or record across slides, and it was laborious trying to get one picture of each step I was discussing when SmartRecorder or Jing could do it so smoothly. But then we ran into the quality issue when putting video into a video editing program. I tried all sorts of programs: MovieMaker, Pinnacle, Jing, ScreenCorder, PhotoStory, etc. Trying to get good quality and still be able to make it a comprehensive instructional video without trimming the script down to almost nothing.

Yodio - Billy Goats Gruff Yodio by torrylynn

Task 052 Torry's Jing Tutorial Video

My tutorial is about how to create a button/logo in Cooltext.com. I use this site in class with my 8th Graders as we learn some html.
Click this link to view the tutorial.
In case the above link doesn't work the URL is: http://www.screencast.com/t/4X0uGB9gj00.

ECOMP 6016 Before & After Images

What do you see? Look again. What a little photoshopping can do for perception.
Original photo by Petr Kratochvil.

ECOMP 6016 Poster Task 017

Well, another class requesting I post to my blog. Ha! It seems like I only have time to post when I'm taking a class. I wonder if after I am done with my masters if I will find time to make any comments.
For this assignment, I chose to do a background washout picture of my daughter as they announced her name and she ran through a line up of her teammates at the beginning of her volleyball match. I wrote about teamwork because so many young people in our school system are dropping out of sports for various silly reasons like: it's too hard, the coach doesn't like me, or I won't get to play as much as "so and so". It's all about them! It seems like the concept of being part of a team has disappeared. My daughter got very disgusted with her very best friend because she quit the vb squad her senior year after starting for 3 consecutive years with out any thought to her team and the consequences of her actions. Then she spent the rest of the vb season watching and wishing she was playing! Argh!
I took the picture of my daughter's teammates lying on the ground with them forming a huddle over me. You can't see their faces for a reason. I hope everyone gets the symbolism there.
I thought it turned out very well. Enjoy.

Final Project Completion

Well, I've decided to call it quits on my web site redesign. First, I decided what colors I wanted in the background, then I had to design some sort of a banner. I used Adobe Photoshop to create my logo and buttons. I created a couple of different template web pages in order to redo some of the pages on the site. Then I started redoing pages. I had to change the template a couple of times as I started because I forgot something the first time. But by the time I had redone 2 pages, I had the templates the way I wanted and then it was easy to transfer information. Twice I had to redo a whole page of links because I forgot to move the template to the page instead of vice versa, but oh well, live and learn. Then I spent several days making instructional videos. I really don't like listening to myself, but not much I can do about that. At least I don't have to look at myself too. I discovered I probably say "like" too much, and I'm not referring to how girls, like, say, like. Get it?
The pages you should look at are, of course, the 1st page, my student web pages, 7th grade motivational movies, my 8th grade commercials, Mr. Haiman's and Mr. Cotant's Page, and updated a bunch of the links. Some links were deleted, and some were rearranged.
Here is the link again: http://137.86.166.16/Schools/tmswebs/Welcome.htm

Class Review

In this class, ECOMP 6008, I felt going in that I had a pretty good background of a lot of what we were doing. However, I know that you can always learn new stuff, and I was excited to see where this class would take me. I gained a greater understanding of search engines and advanced features, wikis, and blogging. All of which will become part of my classes this year. My biggest problem will be finding time to fit in new stuff. I only have students for 12 weeks, and only 41 minute periods. I also have to stuff in keyboarding! Ewwww.
I still feel I have some more learning to do about Wikis and so that is on my list of things to do in the next week or so. I want students to be able to add to one wiki, but I want to be able to determine who adds what. I'm not real clear on whether each student creates their own wiki or their own account within the wiki I create? Anyone want to take a jab at clearing that up for me?
I love the del.icio.us account. It's so handy. I think my students are really going to enjoy this one. I'm pretty sure I'll offer an inservice training for staff on it sometime this fall. I can't imagine anyone not wanting to have access to all their links from anywhere. And, I'll probably be inservicing our teachers on wikis as well.
Ahh, heck, while I was talking about wikis, I realized that I had not made a link on my website to the wiki my group worked on together about student and parent internet safety. That is definitely going on and will be referred to the very first day of class.
I really enjoyed my final project. It gave me a chance to do something that I have been meaning to do for some time. In fact, this class gave me time to look and do a lot of stuff on my "I'll get to it" list. It definitely deepened my level of knowledge.
And last, but not least, I enjoyed blogging, chatting, and working with professionals on all these projects. Your insights were always interesting, and several of you gave me "Ah Ha" moments. Good luck to all of you in your new year.

Final Project

I am very excited about my final project. I was asked to build a website for the Torrington Middle School about 7 years ago. So, I did. It took up massive amounts of time. Sometimes I had an elective with students that helped me out. Some years, I was on my own. Then 3 years ago, quite a few teachers were hinting that they would like to have their own web pages, but did not want to learn HTML, Frontpage, or Dreamweaver. So our school district bought School Fusion. I have to say, it is kind of nice not to have to keep everybody's pages up to date. However, I did not totally do away with the TMS site, because for some things it was just easier to post that way, because of rights issues on School Fusion as well as what they support. I have not had a lot of time to keep it updated. It's not bad, but it needs some work done on it. So, I am excited to have this opportunity to do that. I am going to work mostly on links from page to page, as well as some of the colors and designs, plus, I have an instructional video page, but only have one video. I would like to add a few more, especially stuff I get asked a lot. so, here's the link. If you don't look at it today, you might not notice the changes, as I have already started doing recordings, and will probably start working on a navigational bar and some colors today. I'll let you know when I am done and you can compare the two.

http://137.86.166.16/Schools/tmswebs/Welcome.htm