Thing 19

Wow! This was the "thing" that I was probably most excited about doing and it probably was the most frustrating. Since I knew that I would have to create a screencast, I immediately thought about showing something with Excel. I am constantly creating spreadsheets for things and more often helping teachers understand them. I have also tried to help teachers create their own spreadsheets or add their own formulas. My thought was to do a podcast to show how to write or change a formula in Excel. Of course, by the time I sat down to work on this, I decided that I really wanted to get practice using my recently purchased Flip Camera. So, I decided to create a video in which I could model Lattice Multiplication, one of many strategies we teach children (and one that often causes frustration for parents).

First, I decided that I would print out some questions that many parents (and some teachers) ask. Next I began video taping. I left the camera on each question for a few seconds and then began to try out problems while videotaping. I attempted to leave what I thought were appropriate times to explain the process while doing the screencast. I then uploaded all of the clips to ITunes and then imported them to IMovie. I'm not very familiar yet with IMovie, so I had to research how to put all the clips together so that it wasn't choppy. I then had to import the movie as a gpeg. to make it viewable for the screencast.

When beginning the screencast, I found that screenr was the easiest to use. I knew that I wouldn't be able to work from a script so I just jumped in and began narrating. It took me quite a few times to get things right. I was disappointed that there wasn't an opportunity to rewind the screencast and start from a particularly point. If I fumbled on a word, I had to start again. Finally, I was on a roll only to realize that you only have five minutes worth of video time. I realized that I had well over 6 minutes of video. I ended up going back into IMovie and condensing parts. I then had to import it to a gpeg again and start the process over. After a few more times, I was finally able to be happy with it. Uploading to Twitter was easy and from Twitter to my blog, even easier.

Even though it took forever and was frustrating, it was still a great experience. I will definitely use it again to screencast other strategies for my blog. I really believe that if these are available, parents will use them to help their children at home.

Of course, next time, I'll have someone else do my videotaping for me. The video is a little choppy, but not bad for a first try!