Editing

Ok I've spent the last four days working with video editing. It takes more time than I would have expected. We were experimenting with two different programs--windows movie maker and imovie on the mac. It appears that imovie allows more options and editing features but we had trouble uploading the video clip into this blogspot. We're going to try again today. We also tried uploading it to Youtube. That went more smoothly. I was also able to upload it from a flash drive from my computer into my blog. Not sure why that was. I did have trouble uploading one of my window movie maker videos, but figured that might have been due to the fact that I already had 5 videos in that blog. I was able to upload it to another blog entry. So I maybe had exceeded the space limit. Also note, that the uploading and processing of videos to this particular blog host takes a chunk of time. You are able to continue working with the text within the blog entry but can not close the window or publish until both pr0cesses are done. So that's just a little about what I learned over the last four days trying to edit my videos from the interview with Bhante Sahti.

Perception Photos

These are just a few of the photos we took at the zoo this past fall that are now part of my perception survey in my Interpersonal Communication class. Finally got that done today. When you look at each of these animals, what adjective comes to mind to describe it?

Photos courtesy of Deb Jacobson's Famous Photo Shop. But I took some of them too with her awesome camera.

PS I learned that when uploading pictures into a D2L question library you have to change the pixel size (not the image size) to 600 or under otherwise you get a MONSTROUS picture. It took a very long time to get this right and the files may still be a bit too big but at least you can see the whole picture on the screen now.

Mission Possible

Uff da! Making movies can take a very long time!!!! I thought it would be kind of cute to respond with a video to an email I received from Matt Fort. Why? Because he was asking me if I was willing to accept a nomination. However he used the phrase "accept this mission" and I thought he signed it Agent Phelps.

Now mind you I am not an old Mission Impossible fanatik. So I had to look up Agent Phelps online. I had to find a female character name and everything! My friend looked up the exact wording the the missions Phelps would receive. I had a general idea but would have missed alot of it.

So there I was with all this information and I was going to reply to his email with a boring old email but now that darn theme song kept running through my head. So my first thought was to try and type out the theme song using some word and spaces to capture the rhythm. But I couldn't figure out the right word and then couldn't figure out how to do the rhythm. It just wasn't coming together. I mean what was it supposed to look like? "bum...bum...bum bum bum...bum...bum bum..." And then what about the "do do doooo.....do do dooo....do do dooooo....do do" part? It just looks stupid!

So I decided I should find the music and just add that to the email. Well, I had the music on youtube, but didn't know how to edit it down from over 3 minutes in length. So as my friend searched music files, I started on a video.

This is only the second time I've worked with the video editing. Unfortunately, I have alot of hours of tape to work with and little in actual completed projects when it comes to videos. My first attempt at editing videos was the great feature "Hissy Cat" which can also be found on my blog sites. This however, was a new adventure because it was the first time I added and played around with audio. That was something else!

First we put it on a flash drive from her computer and then tried to play it on my computer. That seemed to work. I even dragged it into movie maker and it seemed to play from there. Cool! So I started my slides and brought in some photos. Everything seemed to be going well until I tried to move the music and my computer crashed!!! Apparently the audio file was not saved in a workable format. So after I decided I had to just shut down and reboot, I was able to log on and luckily the project was saved in draft form. Yeah! So I put the flash drive in again, saved it directly to "my music files" and then uploaded it into the movie maker program. Once it was there I could drag it into the audio line of the timeline/storyboard. Phew!!

Then I started playing with the lengths of the clips, moved the sound so it came in at the right time and everything ended at the right time, added a few transitional effects and picture effects and voila! I had another movie. Oh, and I found a site with free sound effects which I was also able to take advantage of for my final clip on the storyboard. Here's the site: http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/mechanical_sounds.html There are 10 different categories and probably hundreds of free sound clips they've put out for anyone to use (appropriately of course).

So take a look at my not so impossible mission movie:

I Catch My Breath with Bhante Sahti

I interviewed a Buddhist monk today for my Intercultural Communication class. He was very gracious to be willing to share with me some of his insight into the value of meditation. "Bhante" means teacher and although it was only a 20-25 minute interview I felt like I learned alot from him. It will be fun to have that video as a resource. After I edit the video I'll come back and past the clips here.

In the meantime here are a couple of notes:

"ama" - female teacher

"dana" - the practice of generosity or giving, not asking for provisions. This is a value Bhante Sahti practices and the way he is able to be provided for by his students who freely donate money after each session.

"What the Bleep Do We Know"-documentary or movie that Bhante Sahti recommended especially for college age students.

Bhante Sahti website: http://www.triplegem.org/

I used to give a meditation assignment to my Intercultural Communication class when it came to the chapter on cultural values. The United States is a doing culture and so it is very difficult for people to "take the time" to meditate because many feel they should be "using the time" to do other items on their "to do" list. He advised that first time meditators should go to a class where they can be fascilatated by a leader trained in meditation. That way they aren't picking up bad habits or thinking they're meditating if they're not.

He also commented on the fact that meditation has become commercialized and that there's alot of books out there that may be misleading.

All one really needs is to stop, listen, and go badk to their own breathing. I commented that I thought this was interesting as in US culture we have the phrase "I have to catch my breath"--we push ourselves going so hard trying to do so many things that we sometimes lose our breath and almost quite literally need to "catch" it.

Guess I have some more studying to do myself before I can better teach my students on the cultural practice of meditation. I think this video interview today is a great start.

Intro to Mass Communication and the Election

Interestingly I received my new Mass Communication textbook and started reviewing it on Election Day 2008--a day of historical significance that will long be remembered. In this day in age of technology and the influence of mass media in our digital age--this election takes on even more historical significance. And as a teacher I wanted to be on it. Especially since the new textbook is going to have a section on the campaign. The funny thing is that the textbook is already out and there's so much more to it. It's going to be incomplete--so it will be up to me to complete it. And it's going to take special care to do it in an appropriate manner that does not involve my political perspectives. But here's a few sites to consider:

Dixville Notch NH: First city to vote:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/obama-wins-dixville-notch_n_140790.html

Hollywood Declares Themselves video for You Tube Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPqw_lzHN70&ytsession=W4MDNVI3ibfUb1ILS4SE_hgHZQfmQwMFsgaGNjaG6Dh9reKg5fmWT5DjkLcmd_zd-ky7AOj2U0bjuVHy2qut70mgDuDhsmfUuzumCF737jg0z-sJCvBPzYZDnNfEsV8qxjc4GypoNXPBPSMmUQ2WN5UV_6R4z1rYIA8Se-Vv5npqabqfYRyG-GzTmwnC9IgOTyEGu3dfXGgGCWnjPiA5oYO45QjwVCyXHsgUZCD_VY8JdabEM4l5YjFjcdBf1oM-

Another Hollywood Declares Themselves video for You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olpCyDA4kYA&feature=related

Facebook resources:
BARACK OBAMA: Thousands of links--too numerous to know because results tag anything over 499 as just "over 500"
Over 500 groups, over 500 events, over 500 people, 45 page results and 77 facebook applications

JOHN MACCAIN: 29 total results
15 groups, 0 events, 13 people

Ann Nixon Cooper article and video:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_re_us/centenarian_voter_2

Record turnout:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_el_pr/voter_turnout

NYT Civil war finally over article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/opinion/05friedman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

taggalaxy

When I was at the D2L conference in Memphis this past summer, one cool site that was recommended was taggalaxy. Months later, I finally had a little more time to go in and play with it. It is a simple website that allows you to gather published pictures from the web with common tags.

When a person puts a photo onine they have the option to "tag" it which is like a key word or theme. It varies from a caption in that it is usually just one or two words whereas a caption might be a phrase, sentence or even paragraph. Typically you can mark your pictures with more than one tag. When someone else comes onto the web they can look for pictures with certain tags to help them narrow down all the options in order to help them find what he or she is really looking to find.

Taggalaxy allows you to put in the tag you are looking for but the matching pictures materialize into an interactive globe. You can turn and rotate the globe to see the pictures. You can also click on individual photos in order to get more information about it like the full caption. It's just an appealing way to gather and display world wide web photos. I think there's potential there for a couple of my classes.

A downside to this particular program is that I can't seem to find a way to save or export a created globe. So I don't know if I can guarantee that my students would see exactly the same globe if they created it on different computers at different times. It did seem to pull the picures in some form of sequential manner so maybe they would see many of the same pictures. But still I think it is a fun resource.

The website is: www.taggalaxy.com

Observing Colleaugues

I went to school to observe one of the new adjuncts in the speech department for whom I'm a mentor. It is not required that she have me do this and yet she asked me to sit in on her class. I think this shows great character in wanting to be a good instructor. Personally I think the hardest presentation to do is one in front of my colleagues. Then add on top of that the fact that I'm in her discipline and I think it would add even more pressure. The pressure was on for me too. Good teaching comes in many shapes and forms and I had to step outside of what I would do to anaylze how she was doing. I made some notes and we were able to talk right after her class. Overall, I think this was a great experience for both of us.