Module 10

Module 10

Fair Use

As a fledgling web-site designer I can see that most of my fair-use materials will be in Category 2 (Illustration or Example) and Category (Five) Launching a Discussion). Above is a Creative Commons image that  I think I'll use this on my website later. Usually to avoid music copyright issues I use the Scorefitter  feature in Pinnacle or Fayette County subscribes to a music site we can use for free, but I think I'm going to use more Creative Commons audio . As a member of the Kentucky Antique Phonograph Society, their Cylinder Recording Digitization project was especially interesting to me. Here's a clip.

Tahitian Field Recording

As per the wiki assignment my cropped photos/ commentary and avatar have been posted there.

Digital Video Assignment

My big computer where I had the video editing program installed fried so this assignment had to be done "in the cloud" as it where. I used xtranormal.com to generate original animation, animoto for a slide show of relevant images and the YouTube video editor. The YouTube Video editor is really just a system to "glue" videos together or add music. You can't make any cuts or change timing. Very bare bones. Here it is

The last time I posted this video in this blog, the blog froze and would not save, publish or preview so here I am rebuilding this post..

This video is in keeping with the Fair Use guidelines. It has original animation obtained through a licensed site. The music is provided by the sites. (xtranormal and animoto.) The images are from Google Images and Wikipedia. In another editing system it would have been easier to credit the sources, but they are being used for Illustration or Example (Category Two) and for Launching a Discussion (Category Five). Usually when I make a video for class I write in the credits that it is for classroom use only.

Recording/Audio

I don't know if the blog crash was the result of downloading Audacity and the LAME encoder or not, but I did manage to record myself doing an actor's warm-up. I can really see where this tool would be great for foreign language teachers. As there is no "insert MP3" button, I'm using a Dropbox URL link to post.
Acting Warm-up

Finally Web Rubric

This has been a very ambitious project that I can see myself working on for the next 6-8 months. As the site stands now I would give myself a "2" for graphics as most of the graphics on my site are clip art and not user-generated. For multi-media, I would give myself a "3" as I have generated the majority of the videos/slideshows etc. for the site.

I hope to take another equally challenging course with you in the future if possible, Dr. Peach. I never learn so much as I do under your tutelage. Thank you- Valerie Powell

Module 9

Module 9

Fun with Javascript

I haven't decided if  Javascript is simpler than HTML or not. All coding has been pure trial and error, but I entertain hopes of getting better eventually.

The assigned Java rollover activity should prove especially helpful to my drama website as I can incorporate before/afters for make-up and other special effects.. It took me a  a whole lot longer than it should have  to come up with code for this simple effect as I never could get the Quicktime demo to play.


More than the rollovers, I'm interested in incorporating slideshows into my site. Currently I do make a lot of slideshows, but I edit them in Pinnacle, post to YouTube and incorporate the link. This will be more direct for examples where narration is not required.The slideshow for this assignment is on the homepage of my website. http://theblesseddamozel.wix.com/desperatedramateach .

Finally after reading about a lot of different Java script applications, I chose to put a simple date box on this blog.

Professional Development

 As far as  RSS/ Social Media and podcasting in regards to my professional development, I have developed  a few favorites.

I've been following "MindShift" for a while now initially because I was looking for assistance with "flipping my classroom".  Mindshift posts related articles from a variety of sources on my Facebook thereby  working as an RSS/Social media combination. Over the five day period that I monitored the site I learned about electronic textbooks that can data mine student's study habits. (Nothing like your Chemistry book tattling to your teacher that you didn't read Chapter Six, right?), how schools are meeting the  technology costs necessary to implement the new Core Curriculum, why daydreaming is necessary, using technology to manage our increasingly larger classes. (I could have used this info last year when I had thirty-eight seventh graders in my first class of the day.) and how to learn a language in a couple of days.( The jury is out on that last one, but the App called MemRise is phenomenal. I use it every day now to help me keep my foreign language skills up. I understand you can modify  the app to incorporate any lesson where you need kids to memorize information. I know memorization is a skill that has fallen out of favor, but theater people still rely on it and I don't know how anyone picks up another language without memorizing a lot of vocabulary.

     Because I went so many years without a television (Ten years. It's a long story.)I was an early adopter of podcasts.  I still don't watch much television, but I love radio and I've always looked at podcasts as TIVO for Radio. Some  podcasts that I like download are  http://www.radiolab.org/, a very entertaining show on science. Last week's show was on Memory and Forgetting. (http://www.radiolab.org/2007/jun/07/?utm_source=local&utm_media=treatment&utm_campaign=daMost&utm_content=damostviewed)
     Another great  podcast is from This American Life. Last week's show was a repeat of a back -to-school episode on the inner life and perceptions of middle schoolers. Very insightful. Sometimes it's hard to put ourselves into our student's shoes and hearing these middle-schoolers honestly commenting on their experiences reminds me as a teacher of how difficult this time of life really is for my students.(http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/449/middle-school)
For more main stream educational podcasts, I find the education channel of podcasts.com has a mixed bag of resources though they do offer "Grammar Girl"