I completed the revisions on my first video, what might loosely be called a digital “story”:
It’s quite hokey and oh so UN-original, but it was fun to do and a good learning experience. It’s about five minutes long, although the final 1:30 of that is an extended credits, mostly because I have a voice-love for Chrissie Hynde, and I wanted to include a bit more of the phrase repetitions in Mystery Achievement than is probably necessary, which, of course, set off the copyright and fair use widget. But this video is practice and playing and of absolutely no value to anyone but me; however, if it needs to be pulled, I’ll pull it. All in all, I spent more time doing it than I should have (but I tend to be obsessive), and there remain a thousand things that I’d like to do to it, but it really is time to call a halt so that I can move on to some other applications.
To be honest, I started out not much interested in “story,” because (I justify to myself) I’m more interested in using videos (or screencasts) as tools in my courses. But I do want to use videos more effectively. I want to expand my repertoire and offer students a variety of pathways into the material and into our learning environment. On the surface, this means that I’m much more interested in process and delivery, but, as I’ve said before, ET MOOC has given me permission to explore and practice.
And I’m (re)discovering that telling a “story” has its value, and this experience has helped me see that lessons or activities or short learning opportunities should not be clinical instructions, not just a one-way delivery of content, but, instead, should guide the learner in the same ways that a good story guides the listener/reader. On some level, I’m sure that I knew this (know this), but I probably should be reminded of this regularly (I tend to be a bit slow).
So, in planning this video, I started with a beginning and an ending, and then tried to figure out how to get from one to the other. And that was the hard part. To save myself some time, I used a common conceit (“How do I start?”), then filled it in with my own ideas. Finding the right clips and right audio was a big part of the fun, and a big time-waster, and I know that there were other better, more perfect, pieces that I could have blended, but, alas, we all have to make choices in order to finish.
Another goal for creating this video was to learn/practice some techniques: transitioning from scene to scene, trimming audio and video, as well as splitting audio and video, using multiple tracks to blend, adding my own video and my own audio, incorporating screen captures, as well as PPT slides. In fact, I probably was too dependent on PPT to create the textual slides and the collages. I’m not really sure what software might be better, although I imagine that I could use Photoshop or Fireworks more fully (I’ve created sample animated GIFs in Fireworks and plan to post some this weekend).
This really was the first complete video that I built using Camtasia exclusively. I found it well worth the price, although I now need to justify this expense further by using it more often. I can’t let my participation in a MOOC be my only opportunity to use it.
Also, this is the first time that I’ve shot my own video (I used my iPad). I finally got to use a microphone that I’ve had sitting in the office for a year. And these actions are a major step for me. I’ve resisted doing video mostly because I can’t bring myself to put my big mug on the screen and talk. It just feels too much like the same old sage on the stage baloney. It’s one reason why I refuse to watch any more TED Talks. Great ideas, great thinkers, but too often it’s just one person blathering at me for 30-40-50 minutes. I’m too hyperactive to sit still for that long (always a running joke in our family is that the children too often had to tell the parent to sit still).
So, my long-term goals include
- creating more videos
- blending video, audio, and text more seamlessly
- telling better “stories” with my learning materials
- expanding my use of multimedia into my every day
I’ll continue to push things out there, plan for my every day, and develop my skills.