Crowded Wisdom

At some stage later this semester, when it comes time to write your reports, I need to think about giving you an assessment for your groupwork and teamwork skills.

One thing that I look at is how much and how often (and how well) you contribute to these electronic forums we use in class - the blogs, the comments, the wikis.  I do regularly read all of the stuff that happens in our virtual workspaces, and it’s given me a fairly good picture of who contributes and who doesn’t.

I thought I better remind you of this so that you all ensure you are regularly working as a member of the team.  Post stuff on your blog (sure, we do some school stuff there, but I encourage you to use it just to write about anything you like too), leave comments for your classmates, and make sure you actively add to the wiki.

As we launch in this next unit of work on making movies, here are a couple of things you need to be aware of…

• The Class Wiki - I’ve set up a wiki for every class member to document the video making process. The address is http://commtech.wikispaces.com/. Please use this site to gather together the various resources, collect ideas, write your scripts, etc. If you need help with using it, please ask!
• The due date for the finished videohas not been set yet, but it has to be completed before the Christmas break on Dec 22.
• If you plan to shoot footage off-site (ie, away from the school) you’ll need to have a plan regarding cameras. Unfortunately I cannot loan cameras out overnight to use away from the school. If you have (or can borrow) your own camera, that’s wonderful. If you’re really stuck, please come see me and we’ll try to work something out.
• If you need help with anything, just ask!

And remember, when it comes to making movies, it’s all about teamwork.

A few days ago, I published a list of who’s completed the Flash cartoon task. Despite the fact that it was due on a certain date (and I allowed a bit of flexibility for people who had been having some problems getting it completed on time) the fact remains that it is due and should have been submitted by now.

The current status of these projects is listed here… please check to see that I have yours listed as completed. (Whether you think it is or not…) This list is independent of whether you have emailed it to me or not!

Those that still owe me the Communications blog entry, please post that as soon as possible to your learnerblog space.

Those that still have not submitted the Flash cartoon, please post the SWF file only to Imageshack (www.imageshack.us - no registration required) and insert the URL to the Flash file in a new blog post. I will get it from there.

Those that have not done both, please see to them ASAP! See me if you are having difficulties. I want to get these marked and returned to you but do not want to start marking until everything is submitted from everyone.

Thanks!

The use of blogs as a way for me to communicate with you and for you to keep a portfolio of your work and to comment on each other’s stuff, etc, is not something I’ve done before. I can see advantages and disadvantages to doing it this way, but what do you think?

Can you please drop me a quick note in the comments below with your thoughts on the use of a blog as a tool for learning in this course. Is it good? Is it bad? What do you like? What would you change? You don’t have to be shy… tell me what you really think.

You might have noticed (or maybe not) that Learnerblogs has been upgraded. It now includes a few extra buttons when you write a post, and give you the tools to embed Flash and Director files, as well embed video feeds from YouTube, Google Videos and iFilm. This is great news!

The previous version of the Learnerblogs interface did not include these tools, nor did Learnerblogs even support the code to make it happen manually. Now it does, so make the most of it!

Here’s a quick sample…

[googlevideo]-7233445036972827652[/googlevideo]

Telling a story using pictures - or video - requires an understanding of the basic rules of visual language. Different shots, angles and approaches can be used to help tell the story, engage your audience and communicate your message.

Spend some time today looking through this introduction to video storytelling. Take some time to look through the sample movies and read the information that accompanies them. We will come together as a group later and discuss what we find.

http://www.atomiclearning.com/storytellingindex.shtml

Work through the different sections - Intro, Grammar, Shots, Rules and Examples.

Leave any thoughts you might have about these ideas in the comments section below.

Thanks to everyone who sent me their Flash files by the deadline I asked for. There is some wonderful work there…

I saw that some of them were not finished and I think that after all the work you’ve put into them so far you should finish them off. So, if yours is not complete, please take the extra time to complete it, add the music, and sound effects, etc, and resend it to me when it’s done.

Also, I’d like you to publish the finished product to Imageshack so we can link to it. You can upload the file as a Flash .swf file and it works great! No need to even create an account! Thanks Mac for this tip.

Once you’ve finished it and imported it into Imageshack, can you please post a link to the file both on your own blog and also in the comments below…

Here’s a sample… http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=alexjfb3.swf

We talked before about the implications that posting personal information online can have. I thought you might find the following news article of interest.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/15906184.htm

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments section..