I can't believe it's almost over!!!

Hi,
I have spent the past week analyzing my double entry journal! I can't believe how fast this semester has gone, and that it is almost over! Just wanted to wish everyone good luck tying up all of your loose ends!! :o)

Google Sketchup

One of my friends showed me this site and its really fun to play around in. http://sketchup.google.com/ It is yet another free website/program by google. They are having a competition to sketch your campus using this program. From what i can tell it is very similar to a CAD program but its free which is very awesome!!

Quick Question

I am just double checking with everyone. Our double-entry journal is to be emailed to Michelle by this Saturday???? Is it okay if we do not have the completion of our video documented and reflected? I have almost everything documented but I am still putting the final touches on the actual video. Is everybody else going to be finished with their video before they send in their journals?

Fan Fiction

Has anyone used fan fiction b 4?
I loaded my story in to my account, but not sure if it is uploaded to fan fiction. can anyone assist me in uploading it?
thanks

Saving help

Hi Everyone,
Ok, so my movie is too big for the DVD. Has anyone had this problem? What have you done? Michele said that u had to change the resolution. Not sure how to do that. I'm using I-photo. On another note I was successful at uploading it onto you tube. :)
thanks

Comic Life

I was bored...so I fooled around in comic life

Portable Hard Drive

Hi all,

Can anyone recommend a portable hard drive? I use a pc and don't have one but thought it would be a good idea to buy one to put all my project stuff on along with some other files, music, and more. Thanks!

Question

Hi Everyone-
Quick question pertaining to all these piracy issues. I started feeling guilty about using the 'free' version of limewire to download music so I downloaded the paid version (about $35 for the year -not bad). This makes it completely legal right? I am no longer doing anything wrong right?
Lauren

Article on Alice.Org and Computer Programming

I found this great article that talks about how Alice is being used with middle schools and high schools to get students more interested in computers. There was a study done that showed that this program improved grades of students in computer classes and made them want to take additional courses in this area. Think about the benefits of utilizing a program like this into other subject areas. Children can use this as a form of digital storytelling as well as computer programming.
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20060222/Feature1.asp

can't convert

Hi all -
I have been trying to convert a short video clip that ends in .swf. My usual vixy is eternally busy, naevius only converts to .avi (I need .mov) and zamzar can't convert .swf files. Does anyone have any ideas about how I can get this tiny clip into my iMovie? Thanks!

Censorship Frustration

Due to lack of classroom space in my school (which has just added an addition this year), we do not have a computer lab. Instead, we have a laptop cart that comes into the classrooms once a week for 45 minutes. It worked out that my class had computer time on Wed this week (which was a half day). I decided to allow the children to play some Thanksgiving Day games on "Black Dog Loves Holidays" (a website for kids) since our time was cut down to only 20 minutes. After we logged onto the internet and located the site...IT WAS BLOCKED!!! It was quite frustrating to find that the website was blocked under the category "Young Children"...even though the site is FOR YOUNG CHILDREN! It reminded me of the readings in the book about censorship and teaching children about using the internet safely. After wasting more than 5 minutes we had to opt for something else on the computer. Now although this was the frustrating it was not even the tip of the iceberg. While the children were shutting down, one of my 6 year-old students asked for assistantce. When I went over to help, there was a pop-up asking "Are You Dateable?" with a guy and a girl kissing! I was so enfuriated that the school has such an elaborate block on the internet that I can't log onto MSU's homepage or a child's website but yet we can have pop-ups asking are you dateable. It reminded of me of the time that a colleague typed in Harcourt, our Math series and a whole bunch of "Hardcore" websites popped-up. So I ask what is the point on having this block when the students can't access so many wonderful sites but yet still have have things pop-up that we "fear" and put the filter on for in the first place?

zamzar.com

I was just converting youtube videos for one of my lessons next week and I found a website that converts really easily. www.zamzar.com Just in case any one was interested. Wow- I can't believe I am converting youtube videos for my students - good for me! :)

Wild, Wild Web

I just finished reading an article called Wild, Wild Web and it was about how the Internet is affecting daytime soaps' storytelling. It was interesting to read about both the positive and negative views of the Internet. Some believe that it has a positive affect on daytime soaps, allowing producers to read the opinions of viewers on blogs and message boards. The Internet also provides the opportunity to watch missed episodes and the opportunity to showcase additional material and draw in some of those people who spend more time online than watching TV. However, there is also a negative side as well. The producers found that people enjoy talking about how much they enjoy the show, actors, etc. but bad news travels much faster and louder than good news, so it's much more common to see criticism of the shows, which in turn "turns off" viewers. Also, there are sites that provide story spoilers, which tell you about events that are going to happen in the show. As a Days of Our Lives Fan, I often find myself online reading these story spoilers and then not worrying about watching the episode on TV because I already knew what was going to happen. I thought it was interesting to read about the opinions of the producers and vice presidents of daytime TV because you really never think about how the Internet is affecting them. Ratings continually decrease and we wonder if it has anything to do with the Internet. As I finished reading this article, one question remained in my head - Has daytime been able to keep up with the times or has the Internet altered soap storytelling?

Short Video

Hey guys! I would love some feedback on this video I created for my final project for my group dynamics class.
It is supposed to be a funny little summary on the stuff we learned on group communication. Thought it might also be a good example of a classroom project for y'all.

Might take a min for the video to load but here is the website:

Click Here To Watch Video

Movie storm: Free software formaking movies

I know most of you are close to finishing your movie project, but if you're thinking of continuing your own movie-making beyond this course or working with kids to make movies, I thought you might be interested in this software that's recently become available.

Movie Storm is a stand-alone package--you don't need to film in SL or inside a game, but can script and create your characters and settings entirely within the program. It comes highly recommended by Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram, authors of Machinima for Dummies.

NJCCCS?

Hey everyone
just want to make sure I got this right. are we discussing the NJCCCS 3.5? and are we discussing it in relation from k-12?
any thoughts?
thanks!

An Exciting Idea!

I just finished reading the article Digikids: cool dudes and the new writing by Guy Merchant. I was interested in reading this article because it explored ways of beginning to understand new textual practices and putting them to use in the classroom. I continuously find myself thinking of ways to incorporate these new technologies into my classroom practices. I teach first grade and I tend to use the computer to teach the basics to the children - typing skills, how to use the printer, etc. I found it difficult to think of new innovative ways to use the computer with such young children. However after reading this article, an idea came to mind. In the past years, my students have had pen pals with other first grade children in New Jersey. I would have the children write "sloppy copies" in which I would then edit and the children would rewrite. What about if I use email for pen pal writing??? Well the same issues came to my head that were addressed in the article. When we write emails, we tend to make language choices that we would typically not make if we were writing on paper. (for example the use of the lower case i, incorrect punctuation, etc) The writing style becomes more informal. A lot of questions came to mind. Would I allow the students to use this informal writing or would I have them type the email first and then edit it with them? Would I have them write it out on paper first and then apply all the corrections when the type out their email? I am really excited about this new idea but was wondering if anyone has ever used email writing in their classroom, especially with younger students? How would you go about this?

Mets Video on You Tube

Hello Everyone!

Well..it took a while, but I finally uploaded my video to youtube. I tried uploading it directly to this blog, but I think it was too big. In any case, after much trial and error, the link is listed below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw79yDVD8UU

Nothing too fancy, just a lot of "mucking around."

Fan Fic

I have been thinking about using fanfiction in my classroom (if we ever get computers). Therefore, I have been reading up on teachers who have used it in their classroom. I just learned that fanfiction.net requires that all users be at least 13 years old. I had no idea! I need to double check, but I believe all my students are 13. Just thought it was a good thing to know for anyone considering using it in their classrooms. If this is a known fact that I was oblivious to since I am new to all of this, I apologize :)

Pampered Chef

Hello Everyone -
I just thought I would use this blog to advertise my new home business :) I am now a Pampered Chef Consultant so anyone interested in having a Catalog or Cooking Show please let me know. I am doing only catalog shows until the end of the semester and then I will do Cooking Shows. It's great for the holidays: buying gifts, products to help cook for the holidays, and lots of free products for you! Hope you don't mind that I used the blog to advertise :)

Vidoe Installation

I saw Candice Breitz "Mother + Father" last spring at the Scottsdale Contemporary Art Museum and hadn't thought about again until watching some of the youtube videos which take clips of movies with a spin on them like The Wizard of OZ Deleted Scene. You can see a bit of her projects on her website http://www.candicebreitz.net/

Seatubes for MAC

if your using a MAC download the program Seatubes, it makes it easy to batch and download you tube videos to you Mac as FLV files, you simply have to drag the video URL

creating an avatar

Not sure if its already been posted BUT using photobucket.com  u can create an avatar    you have to register first,  Its rather cool, you can save it than add it to your movie

Online Publishing

This article is posted on Yahoo's home page today about how Marvel Comics has begun to publish some of their older comics online in the hopes of getting young kids interested in them. It is still a pretty limited endeavor but it connects with our discussion in class on Saturday.

Sim City Societies

Hi,
For those of you who are still fans of Sims, after mucking around for the past three months, I was just reading that Sim City Societies is due to release on 11/13. Here is a link that describes the game:
http://simcity.ea.com/about.php?languageCode=1
Here is a link that shows you where you can pre-order the game:
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product_id=647063

improving audio quality?

i've been finishing up my bridget jones/pride & prejudice remix movie trailer. there are still some issues with the sound quality. i tried grabbing the audio off the FRAPs version--that was really lousy. then i tried using a microphone to record the audio. that improved the quality a little...i've heard the soundtrack so many times, i practically know it by heart. listening to it the first time, however, people might have a hard time understanding it.

anybody have any other suggestions for improving the sound quality???

Interview in Second Life

My friend emailed me this.....Wall Street Journal titled “A Job Interview You Don’t Have to Show Up For.” Apparently some big companies are experimenting with holding interviews in Second Life!! Personally, I think it’s a bit silly - but I guess I can see the merits if the job is for a programmer or tech savvy person.
But on Second Life, job seekers who are less tech-savvy are finding they can wind up shooting themselves in their virtual feet. When they start, some people have a hard time designing and controlling their avatars. Stephan Dowler, 37, a chef in Frederick, Md., went through an online training course offered by TMP before the recruitment event.
“I spent six hours working on the character and figuring out how to get around,” says Mr. Dowler, who applied for a job as an executive chef at Sodexho.
He named his avatar Estephan Dollinger. “I gave him a big nose and brown eyes like me,” he says. But he couldn’t figure out how to dress the avatar in a suit for the interview, so Estephan showed up wearing jeans and a pullover.
Mr. Dowler didn’t have any major technical problems, although during the job interview, he couldn’t figure out how to manipulate the avatar to sit in the chair — so he sat it on top instead. (Others at the event began floating in the air while doing their interviews.) It sometimes became confusing when different Sodexho employees asked him questions at the same time, he says.
I guess if you’re interviewing for Google and you can’t get your avatar to stay on the ground you might not be cut out for the job … but I still think you should see and talk to people in person - even if it is just for their second interview

Save & convert YouTube videos

The site is great, it converts Document, Image, Music and Video Formats! and html files.......give it a try:)

http://www.zamzar.com/

A Quicker Way to Convert You Tube Videos!

I know some people were still experiencing trouble converting their You Tube videos onto Windows Movie Maker. I experienced the same problem when I used Vixy.net and Divx Player. Often, an error occurred and the server was busy. I decided to search for a video converter on google.com. I found Naevius Youtube Codec Converter and it was awesome. It is very quick and extremely easy to use! I would definitely try it out!

Splitting Audio Clips with Windows Movie Maker

Hello everyone!

I have finally finished a little "Tribute to the Mets" movie that I have been working on. My husband and I are Mets fans and after a very disappointing end to the season, I made this little tribute to lift our spirits for next year--it is nothing fancy. My biggest obstacle was figuring out how to split the audio clip so that I could have the chorus playing by the end of the movie. It took me FOREVER to figure it out! Here's how you do it:

For Windows Movie Maker

1. You play the audio clip from the collections board
2. Pause it where you want to split it and and hit "split" from the clip drop down menu
3. A new audio icon will appear with the track number and a little (2) or other number on the collections board --I am calling it a collections board but I am not sure if that is what it really is...it is basically that board with all the pictures, audio, and video that you have imported for the project.

In any case, I am still struggling to upload this movie, but I figured in the meantime, I could share this audio tip with others.

Looking for a transmedia idea?

This is one of my favourite blogs--PostSecret. Each postcard can sometimes tell a story that spans an entire lifetime, or at least a goodly chunk of it, and each always invokes large narratives about people's lives. Some of the images and texts are a little confronting at times, and this site has been known to make people laugh. And cry. But it's always worth reading. the idea of this site might also add an interesting dimension to your movie project to have one of your characters create a post card to send in to the blog....

Copyright Law and Fashion

Hello everyone! Below is the link to the article I mentioned in class today about fashion designs and copyright laws. I thought it was pretty interesting.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/22/why-knockoffs-are-go.html

Importing audio into Movie Maker

Regarding a question about how I imported audio into my movie maker.
Well here goes! It is rather complicated.
1. I have the music saved in playlist in my windows media player.
2. I started to play the song in WMP.
3. Once playing press the file button on top.
4. Then save as "give it a name"
5. I saved; in my music folder, in my documents.
6. Then open Windows Movie Maker and import the audio clip.
(note this only works if the music doesn't have any blocks on it)

Hope this helps. Good luck!

assessment criteria for the movie and the transmedia companion piece (only)

Here's what we came up with in class--feel free to make additions or suggestions in the comments to build a final checklist for using to assess your movie and companion piece (but not your written texts that accompany all this).

• Two artifacts are submitted: a movie narrative and a companion, transmedia piece


• There is a logical connection between the two transmedia items (i.e., one clearly builds upon or extends the narrative established by the other); at the same time, each is also stand-alone


• The story line in the main movie is clear and is readily interpreted by viewers


• The main movie includes multiple edits, moving images, still images as appropriate, music, transitions as appropriate, title/opening, credits, video effects perhaps


• The final movie includes clever remixing (e.g., pulling disparate concepts or images together, repurposing, generating new meanings using juxtaposition)


• Quality of synching; the match between images and sounds is finely tuned


• The medium suits the purpose (e.g., was the music appropriate? were the images appropriate to the meaning to be conveyed, etc.)


• The "affordances" (resources) used were appropriate (i.e., the choices you made in terms of what you used to convey your narrative, such as no gratuitous uses of animation generated by an application)

If You Have the Chance to Catch It: NUMB3RS Ch.2 Now

My mother just called me and said she was watching a show called NUMB3RS (I believe it's a crime drama) on Ch. 2. She mentioned that they used the term "New Literacies" and were talking about how people are learning through internet, various technology medias and video games. Thought if anyone got this and was near a TV they may caych some of it. It's amazing...I feel like since I started taking this class, SL, internet games, etc. Have been all over the television.

Question about movie making in MTV Virtual Worlds

I have a question for anyone who has been playing around in MTV's Virtual Worlds. I have been recording video in this program but I cannot figure out (if I can) how to get rid of the word bubbles that come out of everybody's mouth. I know that you have to hold down the Control button during recording to get rid of the control panel at the bottom but it is no such luck with the bubbles. I find they can be distracting when playing back the video clips. I welcome any suggestions. Thanks so much!!!

I Can't Import Music

Hi all. I have been trying to import music into movie maker with no success. It always says the file format is not a supported file format. I've tried Cd's I own, Cd's I've burned, what do I do? Is there some conversion I need to do? What format do they need to be in? Any help would be great.

Two cool things I read today

An interview with William Gibson--the man who coined the term "cyberspace", and one of my favourite scifi writers. I especially liked this bit:

One of the things our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real, the virtual from the real. In the future, that will become literally impossible.

And, this piece about life as a game.

Anyone yet feeling that reality and their virtual/digital life is starting to blur?

My First Movie Upload!

I guess you could say that I was a little embarrassed to post this video to the blog, but I decided to anyway. Yes it is true, I am a Britney Spears fan. By no means do I agree with the way she lives her life, but I do enjoy listening to her music and reading next move. I decided to create a movie that portrays the ups and downs of her career. There is still definitely room for improvement but I gave it my best shot! Enjoy!

Piracy

I just finished reading Chapters 4 and 5 of Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity and hooked. I may not have the time today but I definetly want to read the rest of the book. Time to time as I've copied pictures off the internet or now as I download video clips I have considered is this legal. In reading the chapters I can agree that much of what people do in terms of file sharing isn't legal but historical many of the media sharing of the past wasn't legal at the time but laws changed to keep up with advances. I agree with Lessig that we need to find a balance and I also agree that though much of the sharing isn't legal it isn't always harmful. I myself never used Napster but my brother did and he would play a song or two for me of a band I never heard and then I would buy the CD. Most recently I received an Ipod as a gift and a friend will send me a song and more often than not I will then buy the song or album on itunes so the sharing has benefited the record labels and the artist. I'm still buying music even when I can get it for free. Don't you?

Lessig had a good point about book sales and libraries. You can always borrow a book for free but just take a look around in the past few years at the spread of Barnes and Nobles and Borders and you'd have to agree that just because people can get something for free doesn't me they also won't buy it.

I'd have to point out too that though music, words, images and so forth are an individual's creative property i would think as an artist your purpose would go beyond your bank balance. Don't uou want to share your thoughts and ideas not always sell them. Or maybe I'm being too idealistic?

SIMS Machinima

This is my first attempt to upload a vidoe to the blog, hope it works. I stumbled upon thjs awhile ago and had two thoughts, wow how neat and people have way too much time on their hands.

Google Maps at Gas Stations

I was watching the news this morning and heard that google will be putting screens on new gas pumps. If you get lost, you can stop there, and use google maps to help you get to where you need to go. I thought this was a cool idea. The article I found online found a few glitches in their system, but as anything goes, I am sure they will perfect it over time. Here is the link:http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9812772-7.html?tag=nefd.only

Radiohead's New Album

Did anyone hear about Radiohead's new album? They are letting their fans decide whether or not to pay for it. If fans decide to pay they determine how much the album is worth, and give accordingly.
I thought this idea directly connected to the piracy article we have to read, specifically to the Type A file sharers described. These are people who download instead of purchase. It is almost as though Radiohead has set up a trap for those types of sharers. One would think that most would download the album for free but according to http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/10/estimates-radio.html, the average person gave about $5, and Radiohead has sold over $10 million dollars worth of albums. However, 62% of people globally that have downloaded the album, did it for free.
It seems risky for the band financially, but by selling the album from their site they have elimintated using a record company, and they get all of the revenue coming in from record sales. Here's an interesting article that links this issue to piracy:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/ebusiness/2007/10/16/radiohead-download-piracy-tech-internet-cx_ag_1016techradiohead.html
and here is the Radiohead site if you want to download the album....http://www.inrainbows.com/.

Technology in the classroom report

I got my issue of the NCTE Inbox and it is dedicated to the role of technology in the classroom in the 21st century. Here is a link to a report that calls for policymakers to develop technology in the classroom. Here is another link to NCTE's policy research brief on new literacies. It is so interesting to me to read about these things now with contextual knowledge and practical experience. I find myself trying to think of ways I can incorporate what I am learning into my classroom.

The Movies

Ok, so Larry got me intrigued in the game "The Movies" and I just started playing with it today. This game has totally sucked me in and is very user friendly! I really suggest you guys try it out if you can. I've made two movies in my new studio and it has really been fun. I really think this game has some serious potential as an educational tool as well as a cool machinima tool!

Vlogs

I was looking around online and stumbled on this website about Vlogging, video blogging. Its pretty interesting to think about, i don't think i would be comfortable videotaping myself everyday and telling people what i think. I'm just getting use to blogging.

http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/07/27/vlog.html

More on Second Life...

Found this article about a robot controlled avatar that is being used for psychological research. I think this raises some interesting issues about the ethical use of the program. The research is focusing on the way in which people respond to invasion of their personal space online in comparison with real life. It is all very interesting, but as with a lot of info I am learning about second life, there is something a little off putting about the whole thing.
Click Here

Virtual Reality and Mental Health Treatment

This morning on Good Morning America there was a segment on research being done at Duke University that employs virtual reality to treat crack cocaine addiction. The university is also studying the use of VR to treat other disorders too. This is pretty amazing to me.

Interesting Article

Here is an interesting article that I found today.
Has some interesting quotes from the SIMS creator on video games.

Check it out!

D2 here.

Mom and I went to a workshop (thing) today for the class (which I got to go to), and made a couple clips using some stuff we brought (including 4 colors of play-dough), and created claymation, whiteboard animation, stop-motion animation, and playmobileation. Sometimes you can see ur hands, especially the ones we were working quickly.

The second part is at the Red Hawk diner for lunch, just basically taking condiments (which came out pretty badly) and repetitive pictures of each other.

It's pretty self explanitory.

It's just been uploaded. It was fun to try all these new ways to create movie, some of which had a (loose, but nevertheless, present) plot. The hardest part was moving them only a little bit without knocking the characters over.

If anyone else does this and is having trouble uploading it with correct timing, we used 9 frames for each clip, which was fast for some and slow for others, but evened out.

--D2

MTV Virtual World's Contest

If anyone is interested, MTV is having a virtual music video contest. You have to choose one of the five new songs they have and create it in MTV's Virtual Worlds. If you don't want to join the contest you can later vote on your favorite video. Here's the link if anyone is interested.http://content.vmtv.com/mtv_central/videocontest.html

Better Late than Never!!!!

I was finally able to download a youtube video and put it into our Movie! I consider this a success, so I wanted to share it!
Michelle - I turned off the firewall settings, I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but it is finally working for me! Thank you!! :o)

Blogs in pro sports

While watching the Celtics-Wizards game tonight the announcers spoke about NBA players having personal blogs and issues around them. In one blog a star player for the Utah jazz noted that he wanted to be traded and was unhappy. Another player used the blog to "trash talk" his opponents. The website is http://www.nba.com/blog/

It's interesting to see these athletes that are making millions a year have a blog for the fans, its an easy fun way for them to stay connected when they are on the road all the time. I was playing around on the site for a while and read some pretty cool stuff..

Avatar: The Last Airbender

I was just channel surfing and came upon this TV show on Nickelodeon, Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is an animated show for kids witha machinima look. The website has videos, games, and a message board the kids can access. Has anyone seen this show or heard any of their students talk about it?
Here's the link to the NICK site.