Problems and Obstacles

I've completed the first of two videos. Whoever said never work with animals was correct. I decided to make the commitment to adding more media to the classroom, so I invested in a new camera. This will be important later. I charged the batteries, studied the shots I needed, and got ready to make my dogs movie stars. The problem was that this was Sunday afternoon, and it was hot. Peaches decided to be a diva and stood at the back door demanding to go back into the air condition. Rooney was more of a trooper. She embraced the opportunity to be an actress. Unfortunately, she was somewhat of an exhibitionist. She did the typical things that dogs do which shouldn't make it to video. Both of the dogs were restless, and it was difficult to get them to stand still long enough to get a shot. Mostly, I put food down to keep them in one place. I had the most difficulty with the noddy shot. I wanted to have one of my dogs sit then lay down. They know how to do this so it shouldn't have been a stretch. However, upon sitting they wanted to crawl toward me and that ruined the shot. I finally got Peaches to sit but that's all the shot is. I am concerned that my clips will not be long enough.

After gathering my shots, I went inside to start editing my video. Here I ran into an obstacle. My new camera recorded in Quick Time which was not compatible with Windows Movie Maker. I spent the next 30-40 minutes looking for a free converter. I thought I found one, but thankfully I read the reviews which exposed as a virus, spy ware, and spam filled depending on which review I read. I finally found Prism which would freely convert my files. My computer spent the next hour and a half converting the files. By that time I wasn't interested in editing a film. So I waited to work on it Monday afternoon.

The process of editing the film was straight forward, but time consuming. After finishing the video, I started putting the audio into the video. I had to spend some time looking at Atomic Learning and reading the Help feature to do this part. I had to play with the settings to get the narration right. I found the music to loop through the narration. It took time to get everything correct.

The thing I have learned the most from these production assignments is that they will always take considerably more time than I expect.

The Classroom of the Future

Before getting to the classroom of the future, we must first look at the classroom of the present. My classroom has three computers, but multiple places to add computers. I have in infocus projector, Microsoft Office software, and a document camera. There are other technology that I don't have in the classroom, but I do have access to at school. Next year I will be able to use SmartTablets. My students have cell phones and iPods at their disposal. My students are stuck with me -- the nontechnology native. My students have always had a computer at home. I remember my first computer a Commodore 64 hooked up to a black and white TV.

A suburban school like Allen will always have the newest technology. What will change in the future is the teacher that will implement the technology. The next few years will bring teachers that have internalized the use of technology. To these teachers technology is not is not something separate from everything else. These teachers will know how to make full use of the resources the school provides.

In the future teachers will know and understand how to harness technology. Students won't have to hide their cell phones and iPods, but will use them for class work. The internet will make communication easier, and teachers and students will be able to engage in dialogue to facilitate learning. In the future, more classes will make use of podcasts and video.

I can see a time when, at least at the high school level, classes are a hybrid of face to face meetings and distance learning. Think of the financial advantages of only attending class four days a week. The fifth day would be spent with video instruction and online learning. This could also eliminate bad weather days. When it is too icy to go to school, students would attend class through distance learning. This would take a great deal of planning, but schools must meet these challenges.

The increased use of distance learning will allow student to take a larger variety of classes. Teachers with special skills can teach classes even if only a handful of students in the school want to take the class. Distance learning will allow the class to be full by enrolling students from multiple schools.

Technology changes and grows so rapidly I can only imagine what gadgets and programs my classroom will have in a few years. I do know that technology use will engage students and make the best use of the educational system. Teachers invested in technology will create a learning environment that meets the students on their own level. The educational system will be better served by these teachers.

Last week I managed to get a week ahead on my assignments for both classes. My lead evaporated as I got bogged down on the audio, animation, and video. I have the audio & animation completed but the video is proving to be a challenge. I used my dogs as "actors" which was difficult. I have my camera shots, but my camera recorded them in QuickTime and I now have to convert the files. It never occurred to me that any camera, not made by Apple, would be incompatible with Windows Movie Maker. I think this the most frustrating thing about technology. There is so much to think about and take into consideration. If someone is not use to using the media, it is not necessarily natural to think about file types. So instead of working on my video tonight, I am waiting for the files to convert and working on my blog. This has put me behind where I want to be. I will be working over time this week to get everything finished.

It's easy once you know what you are doing

Once I figured out what I was doing, the animation and audio were not difficult tasks.
My first try with animation was not correct. However, I did get early practice with movie maker. My idea for what to animate was not the best either. I struggled with what to animate. English does not show processes like science or math. I settled on the short story "Harrison Bergeron." In this story people who excel at something are given handicaps to counter act their strength. Since Harrison is strong, he must carry around weights. His other gifts are also handicapped. He rebels against this. My animation showed the process of "handicapping" Harrison. To show this was not difficult, but it did take some time. I had to find the right image and size it correctly. I then had to create the text. Setting the timing on the animation took some time. With so many images on the screen, it was difficult to capture the image to set the animation. After doing this, I had to set the timer to change slides. Again, this was not difficult but I did have to practice & rehearse to get it just right. I am pleased with my final product.
The audio proved to be more frustrating and time consuming. Again, once I knew what & how to do it, it was very simple. I bought a microphone to use and downloaded Audacity and got started. My first problem was that the mic would not pick up my voice unless I spoke directly into it. This caused me to get feedback on the recording. I tried adjusting the settings, but nothing helped. I went forward even though the recording wasn't a very good quality. My next obstacle was converting it to an mp3 file. I sent 15 minutes or so searching for the program to encode the file. I wasn't satisfied with the product so I went to find another mic. The salesman assured me the mic would pick up within three feet. I went home to try it and had the same problems as before. However, this mic came with instructions for trouble shooting. The instructions suggested checking the mic volume settings. It was then that it occurred to me that I not only had to adjust not only the settings in Audacity but also through the control panel. I did this and played around with different settings. After about 15 minutes, I found the settings I wanted. With this done it took me less than 10 minutes to do the audio. My audio is a demonstration on how students can monitor their own reading. I can see doing more of these for my students. Many of my students only "call words" when they read. They don't know how to think about what they are reading, these demonstrations will help them.

More on Lesson Accelerators

I went back to atomic learning to look at other Lesson Accelerators. The first one I looked at was "Bibliography Boogie." This would be perfect for my students when they work on research papers. My students need repeated help with this aspect of their research papers. I did think that some parts of the lessons were below my students' abilities. For instance the step by step instructions on italicizing text would bore some of my students and cause them to lose interest. The demonstration for a website entry was especially helpful. It told the students how and where to find the information. Students struggle with website entries the most. I probably wouldn't use this in an inservice except to show what is available on Atomic Learning. I next looked at to word search. Word searches can be used as introductory assignments. They could include vocabulary from stories, characters, literary elements. I can see myself using word searches as motivational activities at the beginning of units. This would defiantly be something I would show in an inservice. One way to get other teachers excited about new technology would be to show them new things to do with technology they already understand.

For my first blog I will discuss the lesson accelerators from Atomic Learning. I am new to blogging so I looked at two lessons that covered blogging. They were helpful in explaining the different aspects of a blog. As one of the lessons explained, blogging is a great way to communicate to parents and students. Sure, we have other ways of communicating, but we need to meet our students where they are. Students are heavily invested in online communities, and blogs are a way to join the community. In an inservice I would need to get this point across to other teachers. The lesson did a search for educational blogs. Many were found. This could influence teachers. In an inservice I would want to do show teachers this search.