Let's just take a moment to breathe. In with the fresh air, out with the frustrating video making air. Good. Feel better now? I can say that I do feel better, and am in the process of making some final small edits to my video. I think, for me, the most frustrating parts have been getting the correct pictures, the sound to line up, the audio to not be too overbearing, the lack of feedback I have received, so all in all, the whole process. In fact, I am not sure why everyone clam's up when it's time to give me feedback? I would say it's my perpetual bad-breath, but it's an online course. Or perhaps, I have already critiqued it for them? Whatever.
Can we talk for a moment about the power point and executive summary? OMCheese! First, I was able to complete the summary-yay, I thought, this is a cinch. Then came the dreaded power point. What. A. Nightmare. Firstly, my home computer doesn't have the Microsoft Suite, so no way was I going to pay for a free trial! After a few moments of hyperventilating panic, I realized I brought home my work computer and NVUSD has already shelled out the dough for the whole enchilada. Thanks tax dollars! Anyway, off I go to download a template- and now I loathe it. Nay, despise it's layout. It is so not working for me, so I try another one and another one and another one. Until I realize that I am going to have to pick something. So, I did, and although it is completely bland and boring, it should do the trick for a first draft. But wait, there's more! Where in the holy coffee gods is the share button?!? Oh that's right, it's a giant MIcrosoft money conspiracy. After a quick google search on how to convert a ppt to a google slide, I think we may have a link. For now.
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Ever feel like you are the one holding the rest of the group back? Yeah, I've gotten pretty comfortable with that feeling during this entire experience. Now, don't get me wrong, my classmates and instructors have been encouraging, helpful, and supportive. But, I can't help but feel rather, well, primitive in my attempts to navigate technology.
Thus, goes the tale of my journey to create a video "brand". Yikes. On my best day, my ideas are, at best, tolerable, I cannot imagine trying to "sell" them to others. This doesn't mean I can't or haven't learned anything, it's just that marketing is not my strong suit. So, how did making the video go, you ask? A journey filled with many stops and starts, interruptions, re-do's and final touches. I agonized over which picture to use on each slide, which music, and finally the script. I pre-wrote the script so that I could narrate easily. However, my beloved dog, Maya, was suffering from a severe case of the barks that day. It seemed that every squirrel, cat and leaf in the neighborhood needed to hear her voice, loudly and frequently. I gave her a filled Kong treat and all was quiet- then Adobe Spark crashed in Google. Alright, take 10 or 20, I lost count. Anyway, I was able to reload in Microsoft and all seemed to work well. That is, until I realized my mic was not close enough to my face and I sounded distant. Ugh. By now, the cats thought I had gone crazy repeating the same sentences over and over again, they retreated to the safety of a bedroom as to not hear the speel again. So I recorded again, and I think I have a rough draft of what is needed for the next class. I feel like I may have a light grip on Adobe Spark, and am living in dread that I will have to try and puzzle out a different medium. If anyone sees me muttering the same narrative over and over, it's probably because I have to redo the audio. Or maybe the cats were correct. The saga of the video journey begins:
It was a temperate day when I sat down to begin the task of working on my storyboard. I had to come up with a compelling story around PrBL and the matching visuals. But how? How can one tell the story of PrBL in 3-6 short frames? I am but a tech-phobic of the Napa-Shire. Or: In a dining room, far, far away from the classroom, a young-ish, but weary, Jedi sat down to tell the story of the harrowing path of PrBL against it's arch-enemy: Darth Boredom. In case you have not noticed, the narrative of the video is truly what matters most, not necessarily the flashy pictures or slides. After reading the content about writing our story, it became clear that what we said was more important than how we visually showed it. In truth, I found it much easier to write my short sentences, than to find google pictures that I might be able to momentarily live with in a frame. I am still not sold on the pictures that I have chosen- I need to play around some more with movie maker sites in order to see what I really like. Because, this is going to hopefully, be a resource for other teachers, I want to spend some time getting the right pictures, sound and feel. |