Video & Me

There are many web sites and software available to edit, publish and share video – some are readily accessible on your own computer. Mac users have iMovie and PC users have Windows Movie Maker. Both software are easy to use and have editing and publishing features. There are a lot of web sites that allow you to edit, store and share your movies. Most are free with an opportunity to upgrade your features for a price. Sites like Kaltura allow you to upload your video, store it on their site and embed a movie player on your web site or blog but do not provide an editing function. MotionBox, Shwup and JayCut are sites that allow you to edit your video, customize transitions or provide special effects in addition to storage and publishing options. 

I created a video about my granddaughter using Movie Maker and published it with Kaltura. I found Movie Maker to be very user-friendly and easy to use. The software allows you to be really creative by editing clips and being able to apply cool transitions and/or slide effects. Kaltura provides step-by-step instruction for uploading videos and publishing to your web site or blog. You can also send e-mail with a link to your video. I enjoyed the process and look forward to creating and sharing more videos!

VoiceThread

VoiceThread is an online resource for sharing photos and videos. What makes their service unique is that the site allows you to add an audio narration to your media presentation. The software is very user-friendly and allows you to share your “masterpiece” via e-mail or uploaded to your blog/wiki. Your media is stored on their web site so there are no downloads and you are able to access your “threads” from any computer via the Internet.

There are many valuable uses for this application. I used VoiceThread to create a slideshow of my grandson’s third birthday to share with family. A colleague created a presentation demonstrating the progress one of her students made in his reading skills over the course of the school year. VoiceThread is a very effective tool for sharing multimedia online and I encourage you to check out their web site for your personal or professional use.

Technology & Culture

Below are some interesting articles and reports that discuss the impact of technology on culture and vice versa.

Does technology change culture or culture change technology?

http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2006/07/10/does-technology-change-culture-or-culture-change-technology/

Cultures are very robust and change slowly. It’s typical for a new technology to be adapted within a culture and used to support existing patterns of behavior.

For example, she said that mobile phone manufacturers have developed popular phones for Muslim users that support their religious practices by (1) reminding them when it is time to pray, (2) orienting them towards Mecca and (3) disabling incoming calls for 20 minutes.

Culture, Society and Advanced Information Technology

http://www.cra.org/reports/aspects/aspects.pdf

Summary: The workshop found that recent breakthroughs in the speed, communications capability and storage capacity of digital information devices would have far-reaching and unforeseen effects on families, communities, institutions and democratic processes. To understand the social consequences of these breakthrough technologies, government, academic and corporate researchers need to build on the solid foundation that exists in studies of sociotechnical systems, media studies and online communication; in the social science study of computing; and in the social sciences generally.

To further this understanding, the workshop explored the implications of these new technologies for the education and careers of social scientists as well as for social science methods, funding, ethics and theory.

Technology and Culture

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1902836,00.html

Some argue that Twitter is a form of digital narcissism, the toy of the moment for an attention-deficit-disordered culture. But as Johnson notes, the Twitter platform is ultimately about an accretion of tweets, the way hundreds of thousands of pixels form a detailed and complex digital image. Twitter underscores Marshall McLuhan’s famous aphorism that the medium is the message–the idea that technological form shapes and determines the culture. McLuhan challenged the traditional notion that content–whether in print, in film or on television–is automatically more significant than the medium through which it is delivered. What we now accept is that the medium changes the nature of what, and how, we communicate. Twitter does that too.

What’s Out There?

Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as “the changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web.” I found a great site that houses links to many sites that provide tools, services, software and information related to Web 2.0. The site is Go 2 Web 2.0 and is very visual and user-friendly. It can seem overwhelming at first because by default it displays every site out there and there are a gazillion of them! You can focus your search by topic using the search dialog box or selecting from the tag cloud which is my preference. When you move your cursor over a site you get a brief description of the site, but if you click on it you get a more detailed description and link to the site below. Check it out!!

Technology & Me

Before last weekend, if you had asked me if I was technology savvy, I would have answered “yes.” I’ve taught computer applications to adults. A co-worker once “forced” me to repair my own CPU so that I wouldn’t be “afraid of the inside of my computer” and I’m not. I am not a hardware expert, but I’ve installed DVD/CD drives and replaced a hard drive or two because I crashed them (oh yeah, that’s another blog).

I’ve resumed my studies toward completing my Master’s in Education and after my first class in my emphasis – Technolgy, Curriculum and Instruction – I’ve realized that, yes, I can hold my own when it comes to software applications but I am not technology savvy. Now I know that being technology savvy means knowing how to use the computer and Internet to serve you and not become a servant to it. I’ve been introduced to wonderful concepts such as web 2.0 and social bookmarks as well as different online tools available to enhance instruction and collaboration like Skype and iChat. The fact that you are reading this blog is a testament to my excitement about the various technology I’ve been introduced to in class. I have never written a blog before! I knew what blogs were, but thought of them as a digital diary – people sharing their thoughts or family happenings. I’ve never been the type to keep a journal – never – and here I am sharing “me” with the world.

I am excited about my anticipated growth – intellectually and personally – from my studies and the dynamic implications that the use of technology has on the classroom experience and education. I look forward to learning and doing more with technology in developing curriculum, creating lesson plans and providing instruction that fosters an exciting and effective learning environment. I’ve only been introduced to the “tip of the iceberg” and I am eagerly looking forward to discovering the many layers beneath the surface.