BP7_One_Minute_Commercial: Go!Animate

 Here's my one minute commerical I created through the iMovie Software from Apple. For the record, I created the song myself using the Electronic set of loops from GarageBand. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

BP6_Link Love 2

Click on this link to check out my comments on Tiffany Hansen's Blog: Elemental Learning.

BP5_Link Love 1

Check out a comment I made via this link to Derek's  blog: DerekGualandri's FIGHTING THE WAR ON IGNORANCE Blog Page.

BP4_Go!Animate (anmimate. . .animate. . .animate. . .)

Did you like the echo effect? Here I am again to share with you another Web.2.0 tool I found called Go! Animate. This is a wonderful tool to use in the classroom or in training sessions if you have content that you would like to give your students to use in a hands-on way. Go!Animate is a cartoon creating platform with templates and ways to create your own characters and scenarios while working in popular subjects or subjects you choose. Go!Animate also has a special platform for schools with teacher created content.
I created my own  for you to view by using the 4-step templates which included adding my own dialogue.




Opening Scene of The Birthday Talk

 Check out my Go!Animate cartoon here. The great thing about this program is that the possiblities are endless for students creating presentations of subjects and there are so many varieties of ways a cartoon can be created. As you make more videos and have them rated and shared, you earn points towards unlocking more characters and templates. A very handy feature is the ability to send our creations to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Email. Embed codes and URLs for your cartoons are available in your account. And the best news is: It's all free!! Check out my animation above and tell me what you think or tell me the ways you think this program could also be used in teaching/trainings. Happy Blogging!

PE3_iMovie: I Did It!!

PE2_iMovie: Puttin' on the Ritz!

Well, here I am again to show you a little more about what I've been up to with my new best friend Lynda (dot com, that is) and her lovely iMovie tutorials. I discovered while I was away that I although I can use the "e" shortcut to add content from the event library, I cannot, however, use my beloved shortcut to move photos from the iPhoto section that you can access from the right hand corner of the iMovie platform. You just have to use the good ol' drag and drop if you want to move your pics (unless I just haven't gotten to that part yet. . . Anyway, here's more of my commercial that I'm creating in iMovie:

As you can see, I've already added clips and text to my movie. In the next few shots I'll show you some special effects that I'm adding to give my movie flair:

I don't know if you can see the small icon under my editing section between a still frame  and some of my text, but that little gray square is an transition icon that gives a ripple effect. You can add different types of transitions between slides and frames to enhance your movie. Transitions are great for moving the audience's attention from one frame to another, and also gives the audience a diversion from just watching frame after frame. I like to mix text and pictures and video in my presentations.

PE1_iMovie: I LUV Lynda!!!

Hi everyone! It's now time for me to share what I've learned this week. My class has been focusing on practical experiences with the iMovie software by Apple. This post  is part of a three part series detailing what I gained out of my interactions with this software as well as my new favorite Web 2.0 tool  :0) Now before you go getting worried about my post, The Lynda I'm talking about is a part of the dot com family and is a lovely website dedicated to teaching and training people in a safe web environment about all things Web 2.0 and beyond. I met Lynda.com this month and I must say that I am in love! The site is totally organized in to categories of various program and software training videos that you can access with a Lynda.com membership. I have already learned so much from watching expert created content which in my opinion has been broken down in easy to understand and easy to absorb portions like this:

I already knew a little bit about creating videos with iMovie from some of my previous courses but what I really like about this training is that even from the introduction I began to learn tips and tricks about my video making that will cut my production time in half.  I had no earthly idea what certain buttons were for and I avoided them for fear of ruining my projects or creating a problem I couldn't undo. For example, I like the feature that allows me to have more workspace for editing by reversing the edit and events screens like this:

Notice the difference? I think this feature is awesome especially for longer video content that needs more room  for visible thumbnails or images or for more critical/detail editing. I definitely wish I had known about this feature two months ago!

Another thing I found in this iMovie tutorial is the feature dealing with adding clips to my editor section. I have been so frustrated with trying to drag and drop video clips from the events section to the editor that I almost gave up "filmmaking". I really like the highlight and "e" button shortcut som much that now I don't do it any other way. Here is where I started working on my commercial video focusing on a Web 2.0 tool I decided to try. The event doesn't match right now but I just wanted to demonstrate the amazing "e" shortcut that has totally changed the way I see iMovie. Just click on the little screenflow below and don't laugh at my dis-techability (Ok you can laugh if you want to):

 

Well, this is all for now but I will return to give you a little more of what Lynda.com has taught me about iMovie. Let me know what you think of what's happening while I learn to Make IT work 4 me.

BP2_Slidebomb Multimedia Presentation Creator

Well, this must be my unlucky day because I decided to take the road less traveled and choose a Web 2.0 tool that I could use with students that would be fun and easy. I'm still trying to decide whether Slidebomb is a real bomb or just highly sensitive to bandwidth needs. I have been having difficulty trying to use this program. I will still share with you what I've found. Here is the link to Slidebomb which is a video/slideshow creator that allows you to create and upload videos directly to YouTube-- www.slidebomb.com  .

Here's a pic of what it looks like:

This picture is a miracle because I was just discovered that I cannot use the Grab program in Leopard because screen shots are saved as .tiff instead of the necessary .jpg or .gif  file extensions. Now that I know this. . .



Here's my next screen shot of what you can do in Slidebomb:

You create your slideshow by making a title page for your SlideBomb and then uploading pictures, video clips, and links. You can add captions and titles and media under a certain space requirement. If you have the proper bandwidth you can really add media quickly and easily to create videos for You Tube or to embed on other sites.

The slide above is giving you an idea of what the slideshow looks like when completed and you can navigate from one slide to the  next and promote your slideshow.

I could really see this program being used in the classroom as an introductory program for students learning how to embed content as well creating presentations they can share with the teacher and classmates that is readily accessible to everyone.  I know I will need more practice to better see how YouTube is incorporated into this tool. If you've tried it give me a holler and let me know what you think about SlideBomb.

BP3_iGoogleScreenShots: You down with PLE's? Yeah, you know me!

PLE: Personal Learning Environment. That's one of the things we've been learning about this month. I'm about to find out how effective my iGoogle Home Page can be in facilitating my learning through this process. After my first week in this class, I know without a doubt that I need to get vested just a little bit more in technology if I'm going to actually work in it.  Here are some screen shots of my iGoogle Pages:

Here is my Full Sail Online "binder tab" page:

This tab is for my Collaborative Research "binder tab" page:



I've always used my iGoogle page for simpler tasks like the calendar or notes and email, however I believe that if I truly begin to use the iGoogle page as a "virtual" three ring binder then I believe that I will be able to more efficiently multitask especially now that I have so much more information to monitor. Let me know what you think of my pages.

BP1- Welcome to My Blog

My sons using their beloved iPad to practice writing/spelling.

Welcome to the Making IT Work for me Blog! This is my attempt at solidarity with my Emergent Technolgies in a Collaborative Cultures Class from Full Sail University. Whew! That was a mouthful. The pupose of this blog is to share my findings from the Wonderful World of Web 2.0. My goal is to grow with the technologies and tools I discover throughout my journey and my hope is that as you read and I post, we will all gain insights into the emerging opportunities our advancing technologies are affording in the 21st Century.

As I post from day to day and week to week, you will notice photos, images and various media for your enjoyment and information. Most (if not all) of the content will be original works/presentations by me. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below each post and also don't hesitate to follow me in that cute little box in the upper right hand corner of my site (it's really good for my "blog-esteem"). I look forward to sharing with you and hearing about your adventures in Web 2.0 world as well. Happy Blogging!