6+Multimedia+Production

6 Multimedia Production

View my [|Commonly Confused Words] posters (book) at toondoo.com.

Listen to & watch my VoiceThread at [] Or view it as a PowerPoint

Watch my storybook movie - LONDON, ENGLAND: A Sentence Acrostic Poem

media type="file" key="EDTC Movie Maker Take II_0002.wmv" width="300" height="300"

Or the PowerPoint Version By following the YouTube link, you can also hear the British Anthem, "God Save the Queen".

As for the others, I have used both PowerPoint (for podcast and storybook) and VoiceThread for class projects and teaching presentations. However, the Windows Movie Maker was a new experience. With its variety of gadgets and buttons, this was a great project for a jumping off point. I think I’m hooked as I have other plans lined up. It reminded me of the book-maker programs I have considered for publishing options for trip/scrapbook collections and student work, but it remains accessible to multiple people and has no cost for publishing!
 * Awareness:** I enjoyed “playing” with the different tools and watching the assistance videos. I had used toondoo before; played with really, but had considered its usefulness in visually distinguishing between the words my Basic Comp students “Commonly Confused.”

PowerPoint is used and used, so I was comfortable making a preliminary “movie/storybook” in it. I tried to move items and integrate parts and features I had not used before, exploring different fade ins/outs to find the most effective for the feel of the project. VoiceThread, too, I was comfortable using. I have had positive feedback from students with teaching presentations from this program. (See Personal & Professional Application section) Windows Movie Maker was a different story. I began my project in it, attempting various ways of getting my photos into the waiting area. I grew frustrated, mainly because I couldn’t access the folders on my computer I needed. Once I found a way around that block, the download process was much smoother, easier, even, that integrating photos into PowerPoint, because there was no need for resizing like in PPT. I did grow frustrated trying to overlay the words. I was unable to figure out how to move or shift the phrases to specific parts of the images, so the focal points were not hidden. Additionally, I was unable to establish a way to change texts from word to word (i.e. highlighting one letter in the sentence) or slide to slide (i.e. using black font on one slide, white font on the next). It is the next part of my learning for that particular program.
 * Exploration and Filtration:** Toondoo is very accessible and mostly user-friendly. Its variety of scenes, characters, props, and drawing options make it useful for fun and/or educational purposes. It is (or can be) time-consuming.

PowerPoint is going to remain a often-used presentation format, so I thought my initial time spent organizing in it was well-used. Since Windows Movie Maker was the newest, most unfamiliar application to me, it had the steepest learning curve. As stated, once I gained access to the images I needed, the upload process proved much more accessible than its PPT counterpart. Additionally the two different views, that of Storyboard (more comfortable initially for organizing images) and that of the Timeline (great for lining up timings for fade-ins and fade-outs and the only way to overlay texts), was appealing to me as both a learner and as a teacher. In the beginning, I found myself switching back to the Storyboard format because of the familiarity and because of its organization ease for moving images as needed. As the project neared its current evolution, I used more of the Timeline feature because of just that – I could line up //when// I wanted words to overlap images or fade so the image itself was viewable.
 * Phase 3: Learning:** Because I was familiar with toondoo, I felt comfortable playing around with the options. I learned about the doodlepad feature and the image upload option. It reminded me of the new DSi photo feature my oldest son and his friend played with. The search feature on toondoo was a new tool for me too. It is handy, but I learned I had to be careful in my word choices. As “cap” and “hat” return different results, I had to put on my thinking //hat// to get the images I wanted for a number of words in addition to “cap” and “hat”. I worked with the bookmaker feature, combining the set of comics into a more user-friendly theme. I also had not published any previous toondoos except to email to friends. The publish feature was interesting, but the link on the WikiPages made the process much easier.

Again, PowerPoint continues to be the program of choice for most of my students’ projects. However, through my own uses, I can now better instruct them in more effective, more efficient ways of integrating components into their presentations. And the more tech-savvy students continue to do the same for me. VoiceThread was unfamiliar to most of my students, but through presentations I have created, several have come back to ask questions for its application and show me what they have gone on to create with the program. Windows Movie Maker may be my new vice. With thousands of vacation photos stored on hard drives and discs, waiting to be used, Movie Maker will be used to integrate those images with the memories they conjure for me, my husband, our children, and the friends with whom we have traveled. My husband is going to have to read the file management chapter so he can get the photos arranged…
 * Personal and Professional Application:** Toondoo is on my list for next school year’s teaching plans. For students who need more than just written explanations, toondoo provides a tangible, hands-on way for students to see/experience differences between words they misuse or confuse. It has been suggested for several middle school projects, as well as an acceptable use of computer time.