Class Reflection 2-22-12

Video Editor from Hell


During my many years in front of the computer, I've never seen such a poor video editor until today. After being instructed to familiarize ourselves with the Youtube Editor during this week's DTSE lesson, Sari and I spent the rest of class filming and attempting to edit our video. The process couldn't have been more difficult.

We saw the warning signs of coming frustration when we saw the small amount of tutorials. The video tutorials were also very outdated. I had to relearn many of the functions when I got to the Youtube video editor. While the layout of the editor seemed pleasing to the eye, the frustration was lurking beneath it all. Importing and combining the videos were simple, changing the length of each clip was challenging. The old layout had small arrows to accurately lengthen and shorten each clip. The new layout relied on the users mouse movements. I found that this was more challenging because of my shaky hands.

Since my partner and I could not finish the editing process in class, I decided to include the final piece (the music) at home. But in order to save our work, we had to publish the video. This was a grave mistake. After taking a break for the day, I picked up the editing process the next morning. I perused through the long list of music tracks until coming across one that was suitable for the video. The importing of the track was simple. I had to click and drag the music to an area located underneath the clip section. But, I couldn't find any tools that would shorten or lengthen the music track. Thinking that I missed something in the tutorial video, I went back to the instructions in hopes of finding any steps on editing music tracks. Several tutorials later, I was stumped. I disappointingly allowed the track to play throughout the whole video. Much of the dialogue in the video was muffled by the background music. I vowed never to use this editor again.

Epic Physics Simulation


For my unit on Kinetic and Potential energy, I will be using a simple pendulum for the video demonstration. Before viewing the video, the simple pendulum simulation will give students an idea of how the mass on the tip of the pendulum reacts to various changes in speed, length of tether, and in different locations (ie Moon, Jupiter, and Planet X).

The option to see the reaction of the pendulum in different environments make this simulation epic. Also, the comprehensiveness of the simulation adds to the "wow" factor. You can see a definite quality in the animation and layout. On the top right corner, the buttons used to alter mass and length seems like something found in a music studio. Also, the ruler found on the right corner of the simulation allows the user to move it all over the viewing area.

It is difficult to find any shortcomings in this great simulation. I've never found such a comprehensive simulation. The main page is loaded with teaching materials and different translations for the simulations. Users can also download or embed it into a different website with ease. It is truly fun to use and very helpful as well. I hope you enjoy it as I have.




 

Youtube Video Editor Exercise 02-22-12

Class Reflection 02-15-12

With a previous lecture about wikis in a Journalism class, this week's lesson wasn't completely new to me. But, the lesson only added to a growing list of tech tools I can apply to my classroom. I forgot how simple it was to maintain and edit a wiki. Just like adding a blogger post, the tools provided for each posting was simple as well. So, it was easy to adjust and publish my first wiki page. Unlike blogger.com, it was disappointing to see that there was a limited amount of theme options in the settings section (not without a fee).

Publishing my teaching philosophy page for this week's assignment made me rethink and adjust my old teaching philosophy. Creating the wiki also made me feel official and more like an actual teacher than a student teacher. The ordered list requirement facilitated the viewing and understanding of my wiki post as well. While I haven't made big changes to the page, I started on making a personalized banner for my wiki homepage.

Stay tuned for more updates on my Wiki!

WebQuest Posting

My WebQuest document was first embedded as a PDF using ScribdDTSE_WebQuest_2012

Since Scribd converted all files to PDF, I found another nifty embedding online tool called Docstoc to upload my .DOCX file. DTSE_WebQuest_2012

Class Reflection 02-08-12

This week's lesson reminded me of how much I didn't know about Google Docs and Microsoft Office. It also told me to be curious about the software and Google services that I use on a day-to-day basis. While I couldn't remember all the tutorials taught by each student in the class, it all came back to me with a brief self-refresher course at home.

Out of all the tools discussed in class, the forms tool and the bibliography tool were the ones I found most useful. I felt my tech savvy meter increase very slightly. Then all the past situations where these types of tools would have been useful, came rushing back to me. I got the same reaction after learning the bibliography lesson. All the term papers of my past could have been completed quickly, and with greater ease with such a knowledge.

To keep the trend of being more tech-curious I found a great website to share with my classmates. I found addictivetips.com to have a plethora of daily tutorials for both the Mac and PC user. The site contained tutorials like "Read Google Reader Feeds in Full Form" and "Convert Youtube Videos to MP3 Audio On Any Device". Most tutorials contained easy step-by-step instructions as well as clear images to follow along for the visual learner.

Check it out!

Reflection Video Cast