Thursday, March 7, 2013

Project Update and Spring Break Plans


Project Update:
Our team has decided to create a single instructional video on the topic of eye-contact during speech giving in order to assess how long the process of creating a video takes. Although we are still in the process of conducting interviews, we believe we have enough information to begin creating the single video. Because it may be difficult to sync narration with what is happening on-screen, our group has decided to film a person lecturing on the topic while giving visual examples of what to do and what not to do. We have reserved a flip camera from the Education Technology Services office and will begin filming tomorrow!

Plans for Spring Break:
There are several internships that I plan to apply for during spring break. Many of these require knowledge and experience with specific design technologies. Therefore, I also plan on taking several Lynda courses to gain the necessary skills. Here is a list of some of the technologies I hope to become more versed in over break. (AdobePremiere, Audacity, Camtasia, Dreamweaver, Javascript, Photoshop, Fireworks, Prezi, Keynote). I may be biting off more than I can chew but my goal is only to become more familiar with these technologies. Wish me luck!

-Scott

4 comments:

  1. Hi Scott,
    I enjoyed reading your blog. I am curious that whether your group is going to create an instruction entirely using video? Or is it only for the topic of eye contact during public speaking? If not, what platform did you choose?

    I have a similar plan for the spring break. I'm going to prepare for an application package and send it out by the end of the break. It's a good idea you have there to gain some technology skills. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Nearly all of our instruction, I believe, will be in video form. However, we are planning to include different elements in some videos. For example, some may have a text overlay, narration, animation, etc.

    I hope you have a nice spring break! Good luck with your application package!

    -Scott

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  3. Greetings, Scott! I hope your spring break was both relaxing and productive, although you set out quite an ambitious week for yourself!

    So how did your video test go? I hope all went well. This sounds like a great approach to take. I am finding that each of the tasks required for this project take much longer than anticipated. In addition to the challenge of creating strong content, the lack of familiarity with the technology adds an additional layer of complexity (and at times frustration!) to the process. In spite of the occasional setbacks, I have learned a lot in the process and have enjoyed the challenge.

    I am also interested in learning more about some of the software titles that you mentioned. Lynda.com is a fantastic resource. I must admit though, that I am not at all familiar with Camtasia and many others you mention I am only vaguely familiar with. Have you worked much with InDesign? It seems to have some valuable applications and is just one more bit of software I hope to become more familiar with.

    Our design team had initially considered using Audacity for our audio recording and we still might end up going that route. As you mentioned, syncing audio can be a real challenge when working with Captivate so we have decided to try recording narration directly into Captivate. Preliminary tests revealed that the audio quality was acceptable so we are hopeful that we will be able to proceed this way to avoid the issue of syncing.

    I wish you all the best with your internship applications as well as your ongoing design project. Have a great week!

    -Kipp

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  4. Hi Kipp,

    Thanks for the message! The video tests went well. They mostly served as dry-runs so we can better prepare for the real thing.

    I actually have not worked with InDesign yet. I learned about the software while taking an Informatics class as an elective. Many of the students in the class use that software instead of Powerpoint for presentations.

    I hope you have a great rest of the semester. The break was nice but I think you’d agree that it feels pretty good being back to work as well!

    -Scott

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