Week 4 Reading

I read an article this week that turned out to be quite the amazing find. It details a study conducted in southern Africa regarding the implementation of software to facilitate changes in curriculum development.

Exemplary materials, such as teacher guides, have been found to be especially useful

during the initial phases of curriculum implementation. Van den Akker (1998)

summarizes three main advantages offered by exemplary materials:

• Clearer understanding of how to translate curriculum ideas into classroom

practice

• Concrete foothold for execution of lessons that resemble the original

intentions of the designers

• Stimulation of reflection on one’s own role with the eventual possibility

of adjusting one’s own attitude toward the innovation.

(McKenney, S., 2005, p. 170)

Talk about a powerful argument for this type of teacher training. I'm holding on tightly to this article.

PE_6 Adobe Premiere Pro, pt. 3

Final installment...

I spent a good chunk of time editing footage with Adobe Premiere Pro this afternoon. This software definitely falls under the category of very deep tool set. Like most of the Adobe suite of software, it can be learned in a day but takes a lifetime to master.

Since I’ll be shooting quite a bit of hi-def footage over the next few months for a couple of big projects at school, I’ll hopefully become proficient at manipulating the clips pretty quickly. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but iMovie and Final Cut Express do not come loaded with the codec to handle hi-def files saved to a P2 card.

Using my experience with other video editing software I can import and trim clips, insert transitions and render final versions with little effort. Now I need to spend some time learning the tools and tricks that will add an extra level of polish.

No time like the present.

PE_5 Adobe Premiere Pro, pt. 2

Lynda.com to the rescue!

If you have not yet activated your lynda.com account and paid a visit to the site, do it now. I went looking for help adjusting audio clips and found five hours with of video lessons. The archive is very well organized. Main headings toggle open and closed with lists of subtopics. Any clip can be bookmarked for easy access later on. I found the search function to be most helpful. Since I am just learning how to use this software, I don't always know where to begin looking for answers to my specific questions. Search, and ye shall receive.

I'll end this post with a screen shot of Premiere Pro. There is a lot going on at once. CLip library on the left, timeline editor across the bottom and two mini screens for previewing individual clips or the entire project across the top.

FV_I have seen the future...

This video is in response to my AR problem statement:


How open and willing are teachers to enhancing their current math curriculum with outside sources, and what are the most efficient and effective methods to convey those sources?

PE_4 Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

I've chosen to focus on Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 this week. My practical experience with this tool is immediate. I'm working on a marketing video at school and have been shooting footage with a new hi-def camera. The resulting files are in a codec that is not compatible with iMovie or Final Cut Express, but is readable with Premiere Pro. Fortunately, very fortunately in fact, the Launch Box package includes Premiere Pro.


The Premiere Pro interface and workflow is very similar to Final Cut Express, so the learning curve is not as steep as I expected. This week I've been playing with some test footage just to become more comfortable. Monday the real work begins.


I'll be back with more thoughts this evening...

Week 3 Reading

This week I picked my way in and out of three books about user interfaces. Ranging from the conceptual to the practical, these volumes cover just about all I need to begin prototyping a new interface I am creating for my school.

When reading technical publications I always start with the forward or introduction before diving into the nuts and bolts of the text. I like to know where the author is coming from philosophically before the heavy information takes over.

I’ll share a passage from the opening pages of each book that helped inform my purchases, and ultimately my buy-in to the authors take on GUI design.

From About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design:

Interaction design has also shown its power as a marketing tool, communicating with great clarity and specificity about exactly whom will be using the product and why. Getting to the root of customer motivations is manna for marketers… (Cooper, 2007, p. xxiii)

From Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software:

User experience is, as the name suggests, the experience a user has when interacting with software. Just as is the case with music, a software product’s UX falls somewhere along a range between subjectively good and subjectively bad. (Anderson, McRee & Wilson, 2010, p. 4)

From Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design:

But it’s still not easy to design good interfaces. Let’s say you’re not a trained or self-taught interface designer. If you just use the UI toolkits the way they should be used, and if you follow the various style guides or imitate existing applications, you can probably create a mediocre but passable interface. (Tidwell, 2005, p. xi)

BP_12 OMM issuu.com

issuu.com


Simply brilliant online publishing.