Our cat, Charm, is finally a "star" on the famous YouTube site! And it's actually related to writing! Check it out:
The video was recorded on a Kodak EasyShare camera and transferred to a PC--the file types were "Quick Time Movie." The editing was done, however, on a Mac laptop, using iMovie 2006 (I think). The video image was sharp on iMovie, but when compressed and uploaded to the U of MN's MediaMill, and then "processed" there, the image quality has decreased. Obviously, as soon as I get a second (or three hours), I'm going to look into improving the quality.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
American Literature to 1865: Literary Periods
First, check out this SlideRocket presentation:
I will ADD MORE commentary later.
I will ADD MORE commentary later.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
My First Podcast
There. It's done. Finished. I've finally done it. And who says that worrying and carrying on aren't useful?
This particular podcast is "Episode 2" (no, there's no "Episode 1" yet) from a podcast "show" which might be titled "American Literature to 1865." Oddly enough, this "show" also happens to be a course that I teach at Anoka Ramsey Community College. (But I won't get into educators as entertainers in this particular blog post.)
In this podcast, I talk about why we are reading some texts but not others; particularly, why we are not reading exploration narratives/reports by Spanish, French, Dutch, and other non-English writers, and why we are not reading the Native American Origin and Creation Stories.
So, without further ado, here are the various links created by the University of Minnesota's Media Mill:
Public Download URL
Public Playable URL
RSS2.0
This podcast was created on a PC using Audacity and LAME. The podsafe music by Mauricio Cuburu was found on PodsafeAudio.com. The mp3 file is stored on (hosted by) the U of MN's Media Mill, which also generated the RSS feed.
Thank you, thank you very much!
This particular podcast is "Episode 2" (no, there's no "Episode 1" yet) from a podcast "show" which might be titled "American Literature to 1865." Oddly enough, this "show" also happens to be a course that I teach at Anoka Ramsey Community College. (But I won't get into educators as entertainers in this particular blog post.)
In this podcast, I talk about why we are reading some texts but not others; particularly, why we are not reading exploration narratives/reports by Spanish, French, Dutch, and other non-English writers, and why we are not reading the Native American Origin and Creation Stories.
So, without further ado, here are the various links created by the University of Minnesota's Media Mill:
Public Download URL
Public Playable URL
RSS2.0
This podcast was created on a PC using Audacity and LAME. The podsafe music by Mauricio Cuburu was found on PodsafeAudio.com. The mp3 file is stored on (hosted by) the U of MN's Media Mill, which also generated the RSS feed.
Thank you, thank you very much!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Planning an "Interview" Podcast
As you discovered in my previous post, I'm a bit behind on these two podcasting assignments. But that's not to say I've been doing nothing. Hardly. I've been obsessing. I've been reading. I've been worrying. I've been reading. I've been frustrating. (Just ask my wife!)
And, as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm not only trying to figure out all the technology, but I've been trying to focus my attention and efforts on PC applications, rather than Mac applications. So, in this case, for an interview podcast, I've been focusing on Gizmo, rather than Skype, along with Camtasia Studio and Sound Tap.
I've read the U of MN's "position" on Skype, since I was warned about Skype ahead of time by my wife (a U of MN employee), and I was swayed by the arguments. I do not at all like the idea of Skype "using" my computer to "route" other people's "calls" while I'm online. I also do not like Skype because, currently, Skype offers no way to record conversations.
Thus, I've found a reference in the Hendron book (p. 86) about Camtasia Studio for recording Skype video -- if I decide I need to use Skype for video -- and I've found references in the Podcasting for Dummies book (pp. 71-72 and 95-99) about using Sound Tap to record "any" audio being played through the computer. And, Gizmo, a Skype competitor (?), seems to be similar to Skype but it has the capability to record audio. I still need to check into Gizmo about video capabilities.
But my planning for the interview podcast is nearly complete. I plan to interview a friend from graduate school who is also my "adjunct" colleague at my college and who teaches English at Irondale High School. He is currently using a PBWiki in his classes -- after talking to me about them, and, after actually learning from me about them -- and I'm going to talk to him about how it's going, how he's using it, how his students are responding to it, etc.
So, again, stay tuned! I hope to have that podcast up soon!
And, as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm not only trying to figure out all the technology, but I've been trying to focus my attention and efforts on PC applications, rather than Mac applications. So, in this case, for an interview podcast, I've been focusing on Gizmo, rather than Skype, along with Camtasia Studio and Sound Tap.
I've read the U of MN's "position" on Skype, since I was warned about Skype ahead of time by my wife (a U of MN employee), and I was swayed by the arguments. I do not at all like the idea of Skype "using" my computer to "route" other people's "calls" while I'm online. I also do not like Skype because, currently, Skype offers no way to record conversations.
Thus, I've found a reference in the Hendron book (p. 86) about Camtasia Studio for recording Skype video -- if I decide I need to use Skype for video -- and I've found references in the Podcasting for Dummies book (pp. 71-72 and 95-99) about using Sound Tap to record "any" audio being played through the computer. And, Gizmo, a Skype competitor (?), seems to be similar to Skype but it has the capability to record audio. I still need to check into Gizmo about video capabilities.
But my planning for the interview podcast is nearly complete. I plan to interview a friend from graduate school who is also my "adjunct" colleague at my college and who teaches English at Irondale High School. He is currently using a PBWiki in his classes -- after talking to me about them, and, after actually learning from me about them -- and I'm going to talk to him about how it's going, how he's using it, how his students are responding to it, etc.
So, again, stay tuned! I hope to have that podcast up soon!
Planning a "Solo" Podcast
Just when I thought I had a handle on the technology -- on Nings, on Blogs, on Wikis, on VoiceThread and digital storytelling, etc. -- along came the Podcast ... and BOOM ... I'm paralyzed with fear ... again!
I've spent the last week, and more, pouring through the Hendron and the Podcasting for Dummies books -- I've read the whole PFD (not .pdf) book now -- and I'm still tentative about actually sitting down and doing the podcast. My next task is to review the tutorials on the wiki, again, and the plan is to sit down on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, and record, and edit, and complete the ID3 info, and complete the show notes, and complete the FTP of the mp3 media file to the U of MN Media Mill, and finally generate the RSS 2.0 feed.
See, I have the process down now. It's just the bells-and-whistles of all the software to worry about. But it's not like I've done nothing. I experimented in class last week with the Mac's GarageBand. I definitely like GarageBand, but since my college only supports PCs and Windows, I'm focusing more on the software applications related to PCs, particularly Audacity.
And, I've already recorded two files on Audacity: a personal introduction for my classes, and a short story I wrote a few years ago -- which would actually work well as a 2-3 person "radio play," or whatever it might be called, if I scripted it that way.
Audacity does not have all the bells-and-whistles that GarageBand does, which might lead one to think it's easier, but it then requires other downloads for music and sound effects and whatnot. Maybe that's what's tripping me up?
But my preparation or planning for my "solo" podcast is done. It will be a monologue about the reasons why I do not currently spend very much time on Native American literature (or orature?) -- especially on the creation tales, the trickster tales, the ghost dances, the songs, and so forth -- in the American literature survey courses. It's a question I ask myself every semester, it's a question I wrestle with frequently, and it's a question sometimes (OK, rarely) asked by my students. So it will be a "talking through" of the rationale I use ... and perhaps the rationale I've heard from others.
So stay tuned! I hope to have a post on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, with at least two things: a link to the podcast itself, and, hopefully, an RSS feed to "subscribe" to the post ... and perhaps to future posts.
I've spent the last week, and more, pouring through the Hendron and the Podcasting for Dummies books -- I've read the whole PFD (not .pdf) book now -- and I'm still tentative about actually sitting down and doing the podcast. My next task is to review the tutorials on the wiki, again, and the plan is to sit down on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, and record, and edit, and complete the ID3 info, and complete the show notes, and complete the FTP of the mp3 media file to the U of MN Media Mill, and finally generate the RSS 2.0 feed.
See, I have the process down now. It's just the bells-and-whistles of all the software to worry about. But it's not like I've done nothing. I experimented in class last week with the Mac's GarageBand. I definitely like GarageBand, but since my college only supports PCs and Windows, I'm focusing more on the software applications related to PCs, particularly Audacity.
And, I've already recorded two files on Audacity: a personal introduction for my classes, and a short story I wrote a few years ago -- which would actually work well as a 2-3 person "radio play," or whatever it might be called, if I scripted it that way.
Audacity does not have all the bells-and-whistles that GarageBand does, which might lead one to think it's easier, but it then requires other downloads for music and sound effects and whatnot. Maybe that's what's tripping me up?
But my preparation or planning for my "solo" podcast is done. It will be a monologue about the reasons why I do not currently spend very much time on Native American literature (or orature?) -- especially on the creation tales, the trickster tales, the ghost dances, the songs, and so forth -- in the American literature survey courses. It's a question I ask myself every semester, it's a question I wrestle with frequently, and it's a question sometimes (OK, rarely) asked by my students. So it will be a "talking through" of the rationale I use ... and perhaps the rationale I've heard from others.
So stay tuned! I hope to have a post on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, with at least two things: a link to the podcast itself, and, hopefully, an RSS feed to "subscribe" to the post ... and perhaps to future posts.
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