Podcasting Made Easy, Part IV: Video

My introduction to video came in 2001 with an early edition of Final Cut.  I had to work on two different computers as the file sizes – at 14 GB – were too large to use on just one Mac.  This was so much better than using two VCR’s to create the high-light tape for our college team.  That’s right, I was at a UC school and we were using two VCR’s to create the high-light tape for our final awards dinner … not any more. This idea stuck with me as I began to incorporate video content into my podcasts – I needed to provide video of good quality to make my episodes interesting to watch.

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Podcasting Made Easy, Part III : The Interview

For one of my first podcasts, I called upon Phil Boyte who lived up in the foothills two hours from where I live.  He agreed and I offered to drive up and meet him.  We sat and spoke for a bit, and it became clear I did not have a vision of what I wanted the subjects of my podcasts to be.  I had ideas, and most of the time I left that idea choosing process up to the person I was interviewing.  However, with that much choice, my subjects would often get lost and be unsure of a topic.  I lost a few interviews that way, especially from people who are not used to be recorded.  Phil and I eventually did a great podcast on ideas you can use for the first days/week of school – but it took a little time to get there.  I began to learn – thanks to my conversation with Phil – that I needed to get dialed in to the content I was looking for in the podcast.

Podcasting Made Easy, Part I: Getting Started

Since I discovered the world of podcasting on iTunes I knew that is where I wanted to be.  How cool would it be to publish a daily, weekly, monthly anything that people would download and listen to on the web? Instantly there were problems, as people may download anything, they usually only do that once if it’s terrible.  Technology? I didn’t know much, someone once told me about Garageband, and aside from a blog on MacWorld Magazine I knew nothing about it.  Thanks to some help from a few experienced educators, one Director of Curriculum and Instruction, I had the tools and stumbling blocks to create my first podcast.

Video on the iPad and iPhone

Film, and a technology, has only been around for about one hundred years, it is still relatively young.  Conversely, story telling, has been around for thousands of years and been the backbone of society and culture throughout that time.  Film takes story telling to another level and gives people a medium to share their interests, ideas and passions.  I recently had a chance to do a lot of work on my iPad as well as my iPhone to record and process video on a mobile platform.  My goal is to find what I can use personally and what I can teach my students to make them better story tellers using film.

Cruise Control

I’m a cruise control driver.  With a forty-five minute drive, I like to get on the freeway, set my speed and go.  It’s a these time my mind tends to wander, I can prepare for the day on the way to work or reflect on my day as I drive home.  It’s a great time for me to decompress, relax, or get ready for what lies ahead.  However, I’m often impeded as I have to share the road with many other drivers.  The most frustrating, the drivers in the passing lane who are not passing anyone.  Remember, I’m using my cruise control, so I’m not speeding up or slowing down, slamming on brakes or randomly accelerating.  So, when I begin to come up on a car that does not yield, and I’m forced to slow down, or in some cases go around, I get a little frustrated as I have to engage my brake.  I feel the same way about education.  When I get in my room I can teach some amazing things and am able to go a long way to motivate and inspire my students.  Unfortunately, bureaucracy and outdated policy are often my roadblocks on the passing lane to properly prepare my students for the world beyond high school.

The Tech Savvy Generation

I recently did a lesson on research projects with my Junior AP English class, Language and Composition.  With AP, the school perception that these are the cream of the crop intelligent students who know all their is to know about reading, writing or anything else.  At the end of the presentation, I had up a QR image (Quick Read) which the kids could scan with their phone and it would take them to a website at Cornell University that has video and link on how to conduct research.  I remember thinking, as I planned this project, how hip am I to use this technology where kids can use their phones to access additional information by scanning my whiteboard.  As the moment approached, my giddyness almost uncontrollable, I had one student out of twenty-nine who took out her phone and knew what I was doing.  Next class, zero.  So, out of sixty students, with my brilliant interactive scheme, pretty much all of my students had no idea about the technology i was using.  Conclusion, I need to teach kids the tech skills they will need to compete, learn, share and collaborate in this world.

If I Only Had a Brain

The sweater was a light green argyle, nice color, great for spring.  It was made from a light material, very fine cotton, perfect for warmer weather, but not too warm, and it wreaked of my personal style elegance.  I got a coupon in my email, forty percent off one item.  I went to the website and ordered my perfect sweater.  It arrived, I opened the box, the sweater had  a hole.  Rather than wait the five to ten business days to send it back and wait for the return, I drove one hour to Banana Republic to make an exchange.  Thankfully, they had what I wanted in my size, beautiful.  I went to exchange it, the clerk looked at me and said, “That will be $22.43.” I looked back at him, “It’s the same sweater,” I said, somewhat confused, “it’s just an exchange.” “I know,” said the clerk, “but it’s ringing up at a different price.  The difference is $22.43.”  That’s when it hit me, more heavily in my classroom, work, or anywhere else in my life at that point.  Thinking is hard.

The Next Big Thing

Just a few days ago I heard my daughter banging her hair brush on a metal bowl on our kitchen island.  After a bit I was annoyed, so when I looked down to see what she was doing and tell her to stop I noticed she had stopped hitting the bowl and slowly started hitting the island – which is made of wood – instead.  Then she started hitting the bowl again, then up to the glass casserole dishes, then back to the island and back to the bowl.  She looked up to me smiling as if to say, “look what I figured out.” For me it was amazing as I got to see a real life education lab right in front of me; my daughter, testing out a theory, finding a solution and feeling proud of her discovery.