EDLD 5363 Week 5 Blog Post on PSA

Week 5 --PSA projectOur team was effective in the pre-production stage of our project by quickly brainstorming ideas about what our PSA topic would be. We also signed up for jobs and set due dates for each part of the production project. We each determined who would take on the responsibility that we felt our skills would be most effective. 

During the production phase, we continued to communicate via Google+ to ensure we were meeting our deadlines and fulfilling our tasks.  The shot and editing selection was largely handled by our teammate Robert since he had the most experience with using Adobe Premier.  He mentioned that the editing selection changed various times since the limit was 60 seconds, and we had plenty of footage between all of the video clips we provided to him. To keep the video consistent, we had to eliminate or reduce some of the footage. Robert did his best to keep as much footage as he could. Now I realize what some editors must go through and what the actors and videographers feel when their work does not get included in a movie.

We agreed that the web delivery formatting decisions would be to upload on to YouTube since it was the easiest. Additionally, YouTube is the most commonly used free video hosting site and most videos are readily accessible within seconds, whereas other hosting sites such as TeacherTube requires at least a 24-hour waiting period before it could be viewed. 

Our final PSA is a project I am proud to say I was a part of and I know we put a lot of work into the video. We did encounter some problems. For example, we had some problems using Audacity for several reasons-it was difficult to install the LAME encoder and use in order to export to the MP3 format.  It became a multi-step problem to solve, and in the end the audio quality was lacking.  We learned that the proper equipment is a must in order to achieve optimal sound.  One teammate mentioned that Sonar would have been a better choice. It still could use some improvement as far as the ending. I feel that it was sped up towards the end to be able to fit in the credits and creative commons slides. Including the slides with the copyright attributions took up more of the 60 seconds but we made sure we gave credit to everyone who put in the hard work to create the parts that we used in the video. From the background music and sound effects, to the video that gave us the topic idea and all the little people who were in our video, we made sure to give credit where credit was due. In the end our creative commons slide helped ensure we will get credit too.

EDLD 5363_Reflection on Week 5 Web Conference

For our Week 5 web conference, I was found out that we did not have to do discussion boards for Weeks 4 & 5.  However, I had already posted my quotes for these weeks.  I was so glad to know from Dr. Abernathy that we do not have a final exam reflection paper due since it seemed to disappear from EPIC.  This was of great concern to me because I could not find any questions listed in the document. It only showed the rubric.  These errors have occurred before in other courses, and it can be extremely frustrating when I am trying to complete my assignments and cannot find the necessary information to complete my work.  I am glad that Dr. Abernathy informed us of the error and stated we did not have to do it.  

I was very surprised by the following in the web conference.  A student asked a question about how to do our week 5 blog post requirement and what do we submit because he/she couldn’t find a Word document that we type on and submit.  I was surprised that Dr. Abernathy posted on the chat “Someone help her know how to turn in the link to the reflections on web conferences in week 5!” Another student from a different section did help the student by explaining, “go to edit your blog and click on each one, copy your link and paste into your epic assignment for all web reflections.”

EDLD 5363_Reflection on PSA Pre-Production for Week 4

I have truly enjoyed working with my group on our PSA production. Through one of my team members, I learned about Google +.  I have never heard of it nor used it prior to this project.  Using Google + has helped make the collaboration a lot more fun and entertaining, because we have been able to use the “hangouts” to do live video chats to get to know each other.  Additionally, we have been collaborating via Google docs, Google +, emails and text and have all shared some great ideas about the PSA.  Each of us has taken on different roles and tasks we felt we could accomplish, although we are all working together as a team.  Throughout the pre-production process, the team members have thought about other ideas to use in the PSA that I feel have been awesome, and I believe that our PSA will turn out great.