I joined another reading challenge...

So I worked on making a list of books for the first reading challenge I signed up for this year, and added Turn of the Screw by Henry James.  Then I found the Gothic Reading Challenge, so I put the two together and decided to join this challenge as well. That means in addition to the 6 or so books I'm reading for the "Books I Should Have Read..." challenge, I'll also be reading 5 books with gothic elements in them. But, with a list of 45 (and counting) books I'd like to read in the next year, I can squeeze them all in.
As for my 5 books, I'm open to suggestions beyond Turn of the Screw.  The only other one that comes to mind right now is Jane Eyre, which would fit both challenges because I didn't read all of it when I was supposed to read it in college.

Books I should have read in school, but didn't challenge

Tonight I signed up for the Books I Should Have Read in School, but Didn't Challenge on Dana Huff's blog, Much Madness is Divinest Sense.  Dana is a fellow high school English teacher in Georgia whose blog I've followed for a few months.  She has transitioned her blog into a more focus literature blog lately, and I'm excited to have the challenge to finally get around to reading the books I should have read by now, especially since I'm an English teacher.  So, now all I have to do is pick my books (suggestions are now being accepted in the comments).

For more information about the Challenge, check out Dana's blog.

ETC Final Movie

For my final video in my ETC course this month, I created a movie to introduce the big idea of apathy to my students for when we begin out Challenge Based Learning project later this fall. You can view the video below.

Week 4 Reading

Okay, so I made an interesting discovery this week while reading: one of my resources that I thought would apply as I skimmed it while creating my resource list does not, in fact, fit the scope of my research project.  It was an interesting read about perceptions of e-learning in secondary education, but it does not touch on engagement in the same way that I'm looking to improve in my classroom.  So, this one is going to be sent back out there for someone else to try to use in their research, but in the mean time, I'll talk about it since I read it.

Journell, W. (2010). Perceptions of e-learning in secondary education: A viable alternative to classroom instruction or a way to bypass engaged learning? Educational Media International, 47(1), 69-81. Retrieved from ERIC database.


In this study, the author conducted interviews with an secondary instructor of an e-learning course, and 11 of the 13 students who took the class.  Overall, all interviews conveyed similar views, with the larges difference being on the part of the instructor in regards to his perception of students.

The most interesting thing I read was the instructor’s preference of the classroom over and e-learning context.  His point was not about the lack of learning in comparison; rather, he said that the social development aspect of the classroom is better for students in the classroom rather than online.

As I thought about my e-learning in this program, I see that I’ve not struggled socially. This may be a result of my age being above that of the students in the study, meaning I have fully functioning social skills, or it could be that there is such an emphasis on the social aspect in the first few months of this program, which makes it easier to transition.  Overall, it was an interesting, but somewhat useless for my AR project, read.

ETC Week 4 Practical Experience - Flash (Part 3)

So here at the end, the information again gets confusing, and then gets semi pointless.  Adding the animations is fun, but if I hadn't had access to the exercise files from Lynda.com, I wouldn't have been able to learn figure out how to make the symbols to be able to add the animations to them.  The information on how to publish the Flash movies was semi-useless to me at this point because it didn't provide information on how to get the published file on the web, but I'm sure I can find a tutorial for that on the web.

Overall, I learned some fun things about Flash, but I'm also still very confused.

Chapter 5 - Adding Interactivity (8 min, 54 sec - 2 sections)

-       In order to control the timeline, like having the animation stop at a certain point, or add interactivity to an animation, you need to use ActionScript.

o   ActionScript 3.0 is Flash's native programing language

o   ActionScript code can be placed in two places

§  In frames on the timeline

§  In external files

o   Actions must be place on a layer if they are to go in frames on the timeline, so its best for them to have their own so they don't get confused with the animations you have.

o   There are many codes that can be used.

-       So adding interactivity can be very confusing, so like I said in the last post, you need to watch the tutorial because I'm not in the position yet to explain it.

o   I don't know how the code works, but here's a screen cap of what it looks like. (Wow, my head feels like it might explode.)

Chapter 6 - Publishing and Exporting (1 min, 51 sec - 1 sections)

-       Ok, all this chapter taught me is that there is an easy way to create the files required for publishing by clicking File>Publish.  Other than that, I have no clue how to actually put it up on the web.

ETC Week 4 Practical Experience - Flash (Part 2)

Wow, so this second section was a little more intense that I originally thought.  I flew through Chapter 3, but Chapter 4 had me rewatching sections to make sure I was completing every step correctly.  Creating animations is too difficult for me to explain, but it's fun.  If you want to learn how to do it, watch the tutorial, because I will when I try it out in the future.

Chapter 3 - Working with Multimedia (6 min, 58 sec - 3 sections)

-       When importing media into Flash, you have the option to import it to the library or directly to the stage and add it to the library.

-       When importing sound, you have the option to choose the type of compression used and the bit rate of the compression.

o   ADPCM & RAW: Good for short sounds because there is no compression applied

o   Speech: This compression format is optimized for voice over recordings.

o   MP3: a common music compression format

-       Any compression applied to the sound file in Flash will not effect the original file on the computer because the compression is not applied until the final Flash file is exported.

-       When importing video into Flash, it must be in one of the acceptable video formats (.FLV, .F4V, or .MP4)

o   If the video is not in one of these formats, use the Adobe Media Encoder (which ships with Flash) to convert it.

o   Once the file is converted, import it by clicking File>Import>Import Video.

Chapter 4 - Creating Animations (17 min, 39 sec - 6 sections)

-       Most ways of create animations in Flash involve "tweens," which is short for "in between"

o   when creating tweens, you specify the start and end points of the animation, and Flash fills in everything in between

-       Three types of tweens:

1.     Shape - morph animations

2.     Motion - allow you to animate symbols and apply spacial animation effects

3.     Armature or Bone tweens - first you create a bone system for the animation

-       Creating a shape tween can be difficult if you don't know the steps.

o   I learned the steps, but it can be confusing. 

o   The biggest tip I learned is that you need to use the F5 & F6 keys. 

§  If you don't have function keys turned on through your keyboard settings, you have to hit the "fn" key at the same time or you'll keep dimming or brightening your keyboard back light.

-       Motion tweens are the most common animations used in Flash.

o   Motion tweens are easy to create, as long as you are working with symbols.

o   The motion editor gives you the opportunity to create other effects to go along with the motion tween, such as blur or glow.

o   There are many motion presets that can be used, and you can also create your own by right clicking or command clicking on the layer on the timeline and then selection "Save as Motion Preset…"

-       The Armature or Bone tween is by far the easiest to create, if you have your symbols on the stage.

o   You have to use the Bone tool to create the bone system for the animation, but after that is created, you drag the pieces to create the animation.

ETC Week 4 Practical Experience - Flash (Part 1)

A Flash Icon by Javier found on iconfinder.com

Okay, so I've chosen to take the Flash CS4 Professional Getting Started tutorial from Lynda.com.  Starting out, I know very little about Flash other than that most videos, gadgets and sights on the Internet run on Flash, and that Steve Jobs hates it and won't run it on iPods, iPhones, and iPads.

There are six chapters to the tutorial, so I'll be blogging my thoughts, frustrations and successes after the 2nd, 4th and 6th chapters.  The full duration of the course is 49 minutes, which excites me because I won't have to sit through long chapters, but it worries me that I won't learn as much as I'd like.  Todd Perkins, the course author, promises that I'll learn all I need to know about flash, but we'll see how this pans out once we cross the finish line.

Okay, here I go.

Chapter 1 - Getting to Know Flash (8 min, 12 sec - 5 sections)

Flash file types and purposes.

 - Flash File (.FLA): the main Flash working file

 - Flash Movie (.SWF): Flash content viewed in the Flash Player

 - Video (.FLV, .F4V, .MP4): Video file types supported by the Flash Player

 - ActionScript File (.AS): Contains ActionScript Code

 - XFL Files (.XFL): Can be opened by Flash

(Right now I don't know what any of this means, but I'm hoping I'll figure it out before this is finished.)

Most common Flash file I'll be creating is a Flash File (ActionScript 3.0).

parts of the flash interface:

 - the stage: the main working area in flash

 - timeline: organizes content in to layers and frames

 - panels: Contains easy access to the file properties and the library, which stores the assets used in the file.

 - the toolbar: enables you to create and manipulate artwork.

Users have the ability to utilize one of 5 workspace preset by Flash, or modify and save a custom workspace.

Chapter 2 - Creating Art (6 min, 3 sec - 3 sections)

 - I learned some of the basic tools for creating art.

 - Learned how to create shapes with the object merge turned on and off

 - learned how to turn are piece of art work into a symbol and then edit the symbol.

So I know some basic drawing tools now.  They are similar to tools in other drawing programs, but I also found that they don't necessarily function in the same way their counterparts in other programs.  I'm assuming that I'll feel more prepared as the course continues.