Week 4 - Video

Below is the video I created about the need for rethinking homework.

PE-Week 4-Pt 3

As I continue working on my school webpage I realized the table layout is just not working for me. I realized this after I created a new title for the page using Photoshop. I was a little disappointed because I could not find anything on Lynda about using text in Photoshop. As I analyzed the appearance of my original title, I thought that it was too plain, which is why I needed to redesign the title. I figured an image would add some life to it, but I am not a fan of the image I used. It is a picture of my school, but I do not think it adds the “life” I was in search of. I may try to get some pictures of the kids and try to piece them in spaces to the left and right of the word wildcat.

Initially, I thought the words word bland, but I created the words again, but in a different color and created a 3D effect by putting one behind the other. It is not perfect, but I think it looks much better than with what I started. I am starting to realize that even though I am using Dreamweaver to create the site I am in need of a decent amount of knowledge of the other Adobe products to make it look better.

Up next in my quest to create the perfect website…figuring out how to create placeholders for text and images, but that is for another blog post.

PE-Week 4-2

Spry Menu Widget for Dreamweaver

The second part of the website I learned about was the Spry Menu Widget, which enables the user to create a menu bar for the website. Fortunately, Lynda has a video that gave me the steps to follow to customize my Menu Bar. My prior experiences with Dreamweaver had me creating a menu using Flash, but now it is Spry. I am not sure what Spry is, but I must say it was fairly easy to create and change. Once have completed the other pages I will be able to connect all the pages to this menu.

My primary issue now is the color scheme…I had initially thought I could use the school colors for the website, but the more I see the colors in action the less I like the site. I wonder if Lynda has a video for understanding website color.

Some issues I am having now is my extreme dislike for the title section, which I created using Photoshop. I am thinking I should use an actual picture with the title included. I guess that is another personal experience to create.

PE-Week 4-1

All I can say is WOW!

I have been using Adobe Dreamweaver for a number of years to create websites, but have always used the template and “cheated” my way through. However, using the Lynda and the tutorials I have begun the process of actually learning how to use Dreamweaver. For this part of my personal experience, I have begun the process of understanding the purpose and functionality of Cascading Style Sheets or CSS. The ability to control fonts and layout of the webpage is very important when creating the initial page because it will act as a template for all the other pages.

The purpose of this website is to create a place for my 7^th grade students to upload the content of The Wildcat Swag, our virtual student newspaper. My original layout was created using iWeb, which was good, but it did not allow me the control I, and my students need to fully customize the website. I am hoping that as I learn more about Dreamweaver I will be able to create an awesome page…and stop using generic templates!

The picture is where my page stands now…go easy on me…for the first time I am starting at square one. Of course, there will be more text added to this...I was just happy that I was able to control the font and background.

PE_3 - Hoppala Augmentation

Over the summer I learned about Augmented Reality, which may be the next big thing in commercial applications. For example, a real estate company could create an augmentation that marks every house for sale within an area and when people drive by a message would be sent to their phone giving the details of the property...at least in theory.

In my education world, I am going to attempt to use this application on a field trip during the students' two mile hike. when they approach a certain area, a message will be sent to them assigning them an activity to complete. The scenario has them working as secret environmental agents who are investigating reports of pollution in the area. The messages are clues delivers by other secret agents. The augmentation I am working on is located at http://augmentation.hoppala.eu/editor?l=f6591d44f26755522dc06a2cb8e5a958.

I am hoping this works...if it does...then we have created an awesome activity...if it fails then the kids still enjoy a great walk through the wilds of Lakeland with an experience they will never forget.

PE_2 - iMovie

For this personal experience I chose to work with iMovie. I have done quite a bit with video, iMovie has frustrated me so much I have almost shelved it to use Adobe Premiere, but I refuse to be frustrated. I know, that the only way to become comfortable with software is to use it, which I did.

I am currently in North Carolina enjoying the crisp Fall weather and the LEAF Festival in Asheville. Because I am here, my students are with a substitute in Lakeland, Florida so I decided to create a video message letting the students know what their assignment will be while I am gone. I am uploading it here and adding it to my Viddler account, which is where my students will view this video.

PE_1 - Flash

Since I received the delivery of the Adobe CS5 software I have been chomping at the bit to complete some sort of activity with Flash. The last time I used Flash was quite some time ago...I think it was Flash MX back when it first came out and was not very good at it then. I guess some things do not change. If I had to rate my ability I would sat that I know just about enough to get myself into trouble. Now for a description of the project I completed.

My school is beginning of preparing for our SACS accreditation process and one of the parts my committee is working with is our school mission statement, which our Superintendent wanted to have rewritten. We completed this task, which resulted in the shrinking of our Mission statement from 42 words to 7. Our team wanted to put this new statement into a multimedia format, which after everyone else declined...I volunteered. I figured that simple words flying on the screen would be easy to complete in Flash.

I managed to get the words to fly in and even added my voice to the animation. I was pretty happy with myself. Until I saw the final version, which had a portion of it not following the script. No big deal, I thought, I can go back and fix it later. My back was against the wall because I need to have something to show the committee so I sent it out. Unfortunately, no one could open the file. So I had to run around campus showing each individual the Flash animation. In the end, I used iMovie and its titles to create a new version that could be played by everyone. In my opinion, the Flash animation was better or maybe the version inside my head was better. I have included Quicktime video of the Flash animation I created. You can see in the video that something wen awry in the exporting process...just not sure what.