Me.Com

Where to begin?  After looking at all of the sample resources we could use to create our final online presence, and also exploring my Wilkes classmates' sites, I was excited to start creating on About.me.  I thought this service looked very sleek and professional, as well as user-friendly, and I wasn't so intimated about putting "me" out there anymore.  I have to admit, I am never comfortable focusing on myself; I just don't feel I am interesting enough to rate a specific site all about me and my accomplishments.  However, I do see the value in "getting my name out there" as a professional and, this was a final assignment, after all.

About.me was very easy to use, and had many options for design.  I admit I am a perfectionist, and must have spent what many people would consider a crazy amount of time on just selecting the color for my name, then the right font and size, and then starting the process all over again with the next line. After many hours of getting it all "just right," including adding my Wilkes Blog, I wanted to link the new Twitter account I began for my Film Class as a part of an earlier Internet Tools For Teaching project.  After that, everything went wrong.  Throw-the-computer-out-the-window wrong! After adding the Twitter feed, all of my previous edits were gone!  So, I went through the arduous task of getting it right again, the program said my "changes were saved" and then -- poof!  Some new edits were there, others disappeared once more.

I spent another two hours having the same thing happen to me: fixing then losing, and fixing and losing again.  The worst part was, I spelled Media wrong in my headline when I was first entering my information (I began by using the About.me app on my iPad so that I could report here if the app made updating easy) and though I went back and fixed it, numerous times, it kept defaulting back to the incorrect spelling.  It's one thing to have a font you didn't pick or a bad color (visitors will just think you have no design flair), but to spell an easy word - one in your title, no less - wrong, well, just didn't speak good for someone who is advertising she is a teacher.

Just when I thought maybe, just maybe all of the changes took hold, I started to go to the About.me home page to look for a place to notify the developer of my issues (I learned to do this from this class! :)    when alas, my edits once again were gone. I was beyond frustrated at this point.  It took me back to the early days of video editing when software programs were very unstable and on several occasions my projects would be "done," only to have the software crash and everything lost.  When this would happen to my students during the iMovie HD time in Apple's history, I could feel their pain but could only help by letting them discuss their frustration and then allowing them more time to complete their project.

I have fixed my About.me page one last time (in fact, I refuse to close the program from this point forward) and took a photo of my page.  You will find the photo included in my Blog post below, and I ask that if you ever visit my About profile to learn more about me -- or to grade my work (hint, hint) -- and I come off as a bad-spelling, tacky-in-design-taste somewhat professional, you will remember how it all could have looked from the picture.

I don't know what you will get when you click this...

What My Online Portfolio SHOULD Look Like.

OMG, I Was Live!

I began the week by researching various broadcasting services and found that ustream.com seemed to be the most straightforward site to use.  I figured since the assignment emphasized the need to do a few tests, I asked my mother to check out a practice broadcast on Wednesday.  She did, and all seemed to work well.  I planned the formal webcast to happen Saturday morning, and felt pretty prepared for the process.  Since the topic was open, I figured instead of doing something “teacher-y,” I would do something more challenging for me: cooking!  I asked my husband if he would show me how to make something live (he is quite a cook!), and we decided since we were celebrating my mom’s and aunt’s birthday this weekend, we would show the audience the secrets to his Funny Bone cake – not only does he make this for our family celebrations, people often ask him to make it for their personal celebrations, too. 

As Saturday morning approached (airtime was 8:30 am), I called and emailed those few people I wanted to attend.  I really wasn’t very comfortable putting myself out there on the web, but thinking about the assignment directions, I felt I had to “step out of my comfort zone” in order to fully complete the assignment. So, I did it: I advertised through my Facebook account!  Ok, I’ll be honest, I didn’t create an “event,” or announce it to all of my friends, (I have former students on there who graduated thinking I was cool!), but I did invite a large number of people.  Once I hit “send” on my invitation, the nerves began to spread quickly.  All morning I ran around the house announcing how much time was left until airtime!  The plan was to set up my laptop in the kitchen for the show.  This was a bad mistake, as I had practiced on my desktop in the living room.  The problems began to mount quickly: Java files had to be updated, the onboard camera could not be read, the volume levels were poor, and nothing I tried seemed to fix any problem. 

With twenty minutes left now until broadcast time, I completely disconnected our main computer, carted it into the kitchen, and began setup once again.  By this point, the wireless wasn’t connecting, the professional camera I wanted to use couldn’t be read, and a lot of confectioners sugar got spilled on the ground in the craziness of both me getting the technology prepared and my husband getting his cake in order.  I called my mom once more to do a last test.  She gave me the OK, and by 8:30 exactly, we were going live.  It was pretty scary to see the viewer numbers rising!  This meant we had to deliver.  Fortunately for me, my husband is never at a loss for words, so I could try some things like get a poll going (and occasionally sink into the corner).  Our show ended up running for almost 18 minutes.  In the end, we received a lot of accolades through Facebook, and I found that most people prefer chocolate as their birthday cake-of-choice. 

I did try to record the broadcast, but I am not sure where the recording went.  If all else fails, I will try to contact ustream support.  I have to admit, I now love the idea of live webcasts!  I am not sure I want to be the one in front of the camera, but I really enjoyed preparing for “the shoot!”  I already want to look into how to use professional cameras vs. the onboard one, and how I could incorporate multiple shots, B Roll footage and titles while the broadcast is happening.  I could definitely see me using this in my upper level media classes, only with the students as the hosts.  In the meantime, my family wants to get a group cooking show going for the future.  

Check out my Facebook page to see what viewers had to say:

https://www.facebook.com/kelli.cauffman

Attending a Live Webinar

I attended a “What The Tech” webcast on Tuesday, February 26^th from 4 to 5 pm.  The show was hosted by two tech experts, Andrew Zaviere and Paul Thorett.  The look of the show was quite professional, and the producers obviously had access to high quality broadcast equipment. However, while it both looked and sounded interesting, I think it would have made a better audio podcast vs. a video webcast.  The main shot was mostly of Mr. Zaviere behind an overhead microphone, much like you’d see in a radio studio.  The camera would occasionally change to the second host, but for the most part stayed on Andrew.  Except for the very few times they showed you a computer screen, you could have easily learned what the show intended through just the audio portion.  The discussion mostly revolved around basic tech innovations and their benefits and/or limitations: tablets, Roku, Linux, Windows 8 and multi-touch screen environments.  What would have been missed, though, without the video portion was the ability to post comments live and have an ongoing discussion about what the hosts were talking about.

Webcasts have come a long way since I attended my first one.  I would absolutely participate in one in the future – in fact, I will be attending a National Academy Foundation webcast in two weeks.  I believe students would learn a great deal by participating in online broadcasts; teachers can teach them concepts, but how authentic would their learning be if they could also hear from the experts!  I have a group of Freshman right now who are completely addicted to designing video games.  I believe it would be greatly beneficial to them to find a webcast that shows them tricks & tips to successful designing, as well as how current designers got their start.  I am also thinking of designing an assignment for my Film Production students, much like our main assignment this week, which would have them producing their own webcast.  I could either have them plan to teach a production concept to a beginner digital media student, or leave the topic open according to their interests.

Social Networking for Lesson Planning

Ever since the first week of our “Internet Tools For Teaching” class, I have found the topics and assignments to be quite timely with my teaching.  This was exactly the case for this week.  The current lesson we are on in my senior-level Film Production Class is to create a “Foodie Video.”  The driving question of the lesson is: “How Can A Series of Tight/Close Shots Be Put Together To Tell A Story?”  The final project is for each student production team to film and edit the process of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Using “The Pancake” video as a model (http://youtu.be/HsFzpKUXcOs), teams had to follow specific shooting guidelines during the production process, while incorporating their own creative bent at the same time.   Part of the official assignment is below:

Production Team Challenge #1

“Create A Foodie Video”

Whoever thought making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could make for an Oscar award-winning performance?  Using “The Pancake” video as a model, you and your production team will film the steps to make a sandwich, starting with gathering the ingredients to plating the final masterpiece.  To successfully accomplish this task, you must adhere to the following criteria:

1. Teams will work collaboratively, with all members participating in the production
2. Only the ingredients provided to you can be used*
3. No less than 30 different shots/angles shall be taken
4. FINAL shots selected will be approximately 3-4 seconds each**
5. No faces may be shown – hands are ok
6. Product labels cannot be shown in their entirety
7. Final (edited) videos will run approximately 2 minutes
8. Audio will be worked on in post-production

Teams will work through the pre-production & production process together – from deciding the actual steps to be filmed to determining camera angles to who will be operating the camera and making the sandwich, 20% of the final grade will be based on successful collaboration.  Spend time talking through the process BEFORE the cameras start to roll; a well-planned production ensures a quality film.

As the teams were editing this week (this was now the third week of production), I wanted them to be able to examine the model video one more time and reflect on what they might add or change before they finalized their own films.  This was not a step I had planned on in my original lesson.  However, by doing this, I felt it would help to add to the realism of their film if they could again reference a professional.  I thought a collaborative way to accomplish this might be through an online class discussion.  While I have seen this kind of interaction happen through Moodle and our school’s portal environment (and, of course, my Wilkes’ classes, too), I wanted to be able to develop a group using a web tool.  One of our technology teachers recommended Google Groups, and though he had not established one himself, he heard that it was a pretty straightforward program.  I did find it to be relatively easy to develop, though we are still working through the kinks in class.  Click here to access the group.  There are still a number of students that need to participate, they are just still waiting for my invite to go through before they can sign in (some invites went smoothly, others seem to be lost).  One interesting note: before I gave my students the group address, I put it through goo.gl to make it easier for them to find. (got to love learning about new web 2.0 tools!)

Social Immersion Challenge

I found it ironic that one of this week’s assignments could be to try a 365-day photo challenge.  I first read about these over the December break and decided that as an amateur photographer, I was going to attempt one myself.  The goal for me was to capture a highlight of my day so that I could see first hand all that was good in my life.  My intentions lasted about four days; not that I do not have all sorts of positives going for me but I started to miss days because I was either busy, or just plain forgot.  Of course, once I skipped a day, I felt I completely invalidated the project.  To take a picture and backdate it seemed liked cheating to me. 

When I read about this assignment, I was excited to think that since I had to do it, I would.  However, it was only Day 3 and already I was struggling.  The first day was to decide on a site to use (I chose 356Project), then figure out how to link it to my blog, and finally, using the theme of last week’s projects to use cell phones only, how to get what I captured on my phone to upload properly.  Each step had its own set backs, and though ultimately I figured it all out, it still took a fair amount of time, which reminded me why I don’t always follow through with exploring a web tool I had been curious about: unless I needed it immediately, it could wait until I had “free time.”   Days two and three put me at school until late (meetings & parent teacher conferences), and I found myself struggling to take a photo and then make sure it loaded properly to 365Project – I found out that pictures might be sent to the site (for the most part), but you have to log back in to accept them into your project.  Eventually I got the hang of the entire process, and found that I became more disciplined as the week went on.

To save my sanity, I decided my subjects would be my dogs as opposed to trying to come up with some extraordinary topic and then worrying that my pictures weren’t actually capturing what I was trying for.  If I were to take on a true 365-day challenge, I would select a deeper topic, one that I could develop more as the days went on.  Overall, I think this type of project is a great idea, and I would like to use this at the start of my classes with my freshman and senior media students, so that they can document their most important semesters in their high school career.

Social Immersion Challenge ~ 365 Project

Social Immersion Challenge by Kelli Cauffman · 365 Project