Post 8

I actually already have used some video editing in my work. One of the 3-D modeling software packages that I teach my students is SketchUp. Sketchup has a feature that allows you to animate your 3-D model. The animation makes it appear as though a camera is flying around your object, viewing from different angles and zooming in and out. You can then export your animation as an avi file. I compiled several of my students' models into one video clip and posted the video to youtube. I think the students get a kick out of having some of their work posted on youtube, and it also gives their parents (or anybody else in the world) a chance to see what my students are working on in class. You too can see my students' work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNlnu9aoCEA

(I commented on Mrs. C's Blog)

Post 6 & 7

Well, my video is finally done. I did a mini movie-mashup. After watching several movie-mashups online, I thought the idea was hilarious, and I wanted to do one of my own. I was particularly inspired by one that I saw online where Sesame Street characters were overdubbed with audio from Scorsese movies like Goodfellas and Taxi Driver. I was always a fan of the Great Muppet Caper, and I thought it would easily mix with another heist movie - Ocean's Eleven. I took the audio from the Ocean's Eleven trailer and sliced and diced video from the Muppet Caper over it. I had to download and experiment with several different programs to rip the video from a DVD and then convert the file from VOB to avi. I found that a combination of DVDFab decrypter and DVD2avi worked best. (I ran into some problems using avisynth and virtualdub before I tried DVD2avi) At one point, after ripping and converting the Great Muppet Caper, I had completely fillied by hard drive (60 gig). I learned how to be more selective - ripping only the short parts of the movie that I wanted, rather than the entire thing. I think the project was pretty fun, and I am pretty pleased with the final result.

Post 5

What do graphic design and page layout have to do with contemporary literacy and learning? Hmmm...interesting question. I do know that my students are very technologically savvy. Many of them have myspace accounts, and even those who do not are at least frequent internet users. I would guess that my students read more from graphically designed page layouts (web pages, magazines, etc.) than from traditional books. I know from my own teaching experiece that instructional material that contains pictures can greatly aid student comprehension. I suppose the question becomes whether that is a good thing or not. Should the instructor use whatever material works best for student comprehension, or does an excessive use of pictures and diagrams lead to a sort of literary laziness? I do think that as technology becomes more commonplace, teachers will need to be more familiar with graphic design and page layout. Teacher websites are becoming more common as a way of communicating with both students and parents.

As for our weekly assignments...I have been working on a movie-mashup video editing project. My source material comes from DVDs, and I have found that in order to get the video into a format that is compatible with windows movie maker, I not only have to rip the DVD, but then convert it from a vob file to an avi file. The problem is, I end up with a HUGE avi file. My hard drive is literally full, which has made other computing tasks a bit difficult. I don't want to delete the file, because I already have a significant investment of time in the project. I am looking forward to finishing the video project as soon as possible so that I can delete the source file and get my hard drive back.

Post 4

How can I use newsletters professionally? Well, at the present time, I do not personally create newsletters, but our program does, in fact, have a monthly newsletter. One of our supervisors creates a monthly newsletter to promote the satellite programs at C-Tec. PR and marketing are important to a career & technical school becuase it can help recruitment and retention. Perhaps at some point in the future, after I have become proficient in desktop publishing, I could either assist in the creation of, or take over the responsibility for our montly newsletters.

I wanted to post a picture of my "contest" assignment. Unfortunately, I missed the contest deadline, so I wan't able to officially submit my image, but I thought I did a pretty good job, so I thought I could at least post it to my blog.