Doing Something Nice

Today, while picking up some page tabs at Dollarama, I found myself in a rather cute situation. I proceeded to the line after finding my page tabs and of course stopping to pick up a Turtles chocolate Easter egg (yummm..to die for!). While waiting in line an older woman pulled her cart up behind me. She politely said, "Excuse me miss, you see, I have quite a bit of stuff here (only about two bags worth), and I was wondering if you would be so kind as to help me carry it out for me?" I replied with, "Oh of course! No problem at all." Then she continued by telling me how she just had a hip replacement and was recommended by the doctor not to lift anything heavy. After thanking me several times before I even did anything, we made our way out to the parking lot where I loaded her bags up for her. She thanked me again and said how kind I was and gave me a big hug.

It felt good to do something nice for a stranger. I hope that when I am old and need a hand that someone kind helps me out. Usually, being from a small town, when opportunities like this arise I know the person that I am helping. I am glad I could make a positive difference in this ladies day.

I challenge everyone to leave a comment telling one nice thing that they have done lately! :)

Weekly Photo

This was obviously not taken recently, but like lots of you, I am really anticipating being done school. I can't wait for the warm weather so I can bask in the sun like my little kitten is in this picture. The countdown has started for the last two weeks before classes are done. Then final time (booooo), and then SUMMER BREAK!

I hope this picture brings a little sunshine into every ones day!

Survey for Mentoring Class in Italy

This is a survey intended for my mentoring class in Italy. Please leave it for them to fill out, as I will create a seperate survey later to compare the results (one that Ecmp 355 students can fill out)

Thanks!

Games in Education

Tonight we had an interesting class about incorporating games in the class. Second Life seems like it will be a great classroom tool that will take over in schools in the near future. I enjoyed seeing the students work in creating Batoch. I have been there, and could recognize a lot of the things that students spent time building after their trip there. One thing that peaked my interest was when the teachers emphasized how the students who were often less successful in the regular classroom excelled extremely in the virtual environments. Maybe this is because these students are less “social” in terms of verbal in the classroom, but they succeed when they work on their own, during their own time, without having to talk to other people if they don’t want.

Sylvia Martinez talked about how there are so many games that are a waste of time. They are labeled educational, but often do not really teach students anything. She discussed how games can be useful in the classroom if they get kids to want to play them and challenge them. One site that she suggested, ironically, was Awful Games.com

There is a lot to think about when bringing games into the classroom, but after tonight I have some great starting points and ideas.

Final Project

I have finished my final project and submitted my three videos to Next Vista.org. I had a few challenges throughout the process and learned several things.

I decided to do a project that connected with a project I was doing for another class. In Education Aesthetics I was doing my personal arts project on photography. I had originally planned to just make a simple picture slideshow for that class but decided to incorporate an audio element to give myself more of a technological challenge. I posted my project plan for the three videos, which began with the idea of just being one video. After submitting this plan to Rushton at Next Vista.org he suggested to split it up into three (they like to keep all videos under 5 minutes). This was a good idea because it allowed me to not have to rush with my pictures and descriptions. It was a bit harder though of course making three videos rather than one. I wanted to keep things uniform so they were like a sequence. After the first one was complete, the other two went much smoother. I sent my first set of videos in for Rushton to look at. I had forgotten to include where I got the music (which originally I had just downloaded, but decided after to get it off of podsafeaudio.com after fixing up a few other things). He also suggested that I leave more space and pauses in my audio to give the viewer more time to enjoy the photos. So, after these few minor adjustments my videos are complete. I learned a lot about working for someone other than just myself. It was good to have Rushton there to give me tips in making my project better. If I wouldn’t have been working with him my final videos would not have been as successful without the changes he suggested. It was a learning experience to have to communicate about the planning process and ideas (I am used to just doing things my own way). I think it was a positive experience because I gained a more professional idea of how to create an educational video.

These How To Videos will help me in my future teaching career. If I ever get the opportunity to teach a photography class or even if I am doing a project using cameras or videos, these will be a great quick little intro to help students think about what they are putting in the frame. Not only will it be able to help me in the classroom, but once they are posted on Next Vista.org they will be accessible to other teachers and students around the world.

Weekly Photo

How to Basics for Audacity

First of all, download the program free from the Audacity site. Then once the set up is all complete (if you have troubles with this check out a tutorial video on youtube for some help with that). There are basic buttons on the top including the red circle (record), green arrow (play), blue lines (pause), square (stop), etc.



Once you have your mic hooked up, let lose with the record button pressing stop or pause when you are done or taking a break. To cut, make sure the I button is selected on the far left at the top and highlight the selected area you wish to cut. To increase the size of the audio track (in order to see more detail to make it easier to be precise in your cutting) use the magnification tool (left click on the track to increase and right to decrease). If you need to add a silence or a pause somewhere within your recording, an easy way to do this is to go to Generate at the top menu, and then click Silence… Make sure your courser is on the point where you want this silence on the audio track. Then, a pop up box will come up and ask you how long of a silence you want. Type in the desired time (in seconds) and then click generate.



Another way to have spaces between tracks of audio is to add a new audio track below the first one. To do this click Project on the top menu and go to the drop down of New Audio Track. Adding a new audio track is also handy when you want to have two or more tracks playing at once (background music, sound effects, etc.)



A few important effects that should be noted with basic recording include Amplify, Change Speed, Fade In and Fade Out. Play around with the rest, but these are the ones that I use the most when doing normal recordings. To add one of these effects, highlight the desired area (using the I tool) and then go to Effect at the top menu and select the effect you want. Another important tool is the <--> which allows you to slide your clips along the track.

I think that’s basically it for starting out. The more you play around with things the more you will learn, just like everything else. If I wasn’t clear about something and you have a question just let me know! Amber.blow8@gmail.com