Embedded Task 3
My oh my.......On one occasion a student burst into his office. "Professor Stigler, I don't believe I deserve this F you've given me." To which Stigler replied, "I agree, but unfortunately it is the lowest grade the University will allow me to award."

It was very interesting looking at the various presentation tools, I tried using the virtual museums of Christy keeler's blog as well my simple show but did not enjoy. The former was a simplistic set up through the powerpoint program and the later was trying to charge me. I did not feel it was worth the money at this moment in time with so many fantastic free options, though I shall reconsider when I am rich and famous.
I stumbled onto the Powtoon site and was very excited  about its potential.
I could easily see an exercise as a group could be quite the experience for the students and could replace watching a prepared documentary by a TV station. Given some interesting facts and a few lines of inquiry this could be an elevator for the different levels of higher cognitive learning. Students could use the Powtoons to create documentary style virtual museums one section at a time as fun mini- documentaries and have this customised platform be the augmentation area of the SAMR model. I could deliver home work and assignments via the powtoons therefore stepping into the modification of the classic portage of assessments. The redefinition is the possibility of the students embedding it into their own blogs or the teachers for the public or for future reference and association.

I have tried a lot of different platforms this topic and I wanted to get competent at Audacity, but had too many issues with the microphone. I will have to purchase another that is more suitable, I just hope I have worked out the Hz settings with the choice of either 16 bit or 32 bit float. I have not found which is appropriate for my microphone and headset. I have had very little trouble previously with my mike working except the quality is not fantastic. GIMP is quite a helpful tool with resizing images and manipulating them (see below the space nebula scene) but I am content with the Powtoon review which shall be in my tool box front and centre.

Powtoon is a lot of fun but I need to spend time refining my work, time I feel I do not have at this second. I think students would love this application and it could really keep them focused with its cheeky look.  To show you some of the features I made a screencast-o-matic as I felt it would be helpful to use some of what I have learnt to share a little of what I am learning this week.






I found the embedding process easy until you get a warning from the HTML within the Blogger to which you simply hit the FIX option and it seems hunky dory. When Issues arise I like humor........
G: "If we do happen to step on a mine, Sir, what do we do?" EB: "Normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump 200 feet in the air and scatter oneself over a wide area." -- Somewhere in No Man's Land, BA4 






I also mucked around with this template below in Powtoon. A fair bit of fun.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night." -- Charlie Brown, _Peanuts_ [Charles Schulz]


I feel I have come miles since the first week, it really is about that tenacity to keep going that will make or break me. My wife was well ahead of me "computing wise" and has never heard of these programs and wants me to teach her. She loves the idea and so do my tiny little ones, my 4 year is constantly hiding in my office trying to see what I am doing while my son sneaks in when I am not in there to try to be an "ARTIST" with my assignments............to my horror, incredible duress and panic.
I look forward to expanding on this knowledge and hope it helps my mentors and students when I go on my embedded placement shortly.