Gold Star Awards

I would like to give Gold Stars to several people' accomplishments (as per our teacher's recommnedation =P)

Denys Drozdyuk is getting one for his awesome video for our video assignment. I think his video was very interesting. He used repetition and image editing to create a story and make his video creative. Props!
Here is a link to the webpage: https://files.nyu.edu/dd1301/public/movie.html

The Team Green: Physical Theater Group gets a Gold Star for their awesome website. It really looks professional and not choppy and raw like beginning ones. I think the use of tables really makes it looks refined and professional. The colors as well as the location of the items are very appropriate and interesting.
This is a link to the webpage:
https://files.nyu.edu/mg166/public/pt.html

Allyn Bard Rathus also uses tables in an interesting way to sort out her links. She also uses different colors to enhance the links on the bottom.
Link to her website: https://files.nyu.edu/abr227/public/

Group Project Reflection

When we started this project, I wanted to make the theme something that would be an assignment for our students to do using technology. We opted for a more narcissistic route, showcasing our artistic endeavors as well as our teaching experiences instead. While doing the movie for the project, it struck me that an awesome project that parallels this one would be to have the students do the same thing. Students would be assigned to make an "All About Me" presentation. Students can use the knowledge from their technology class (if they have one) or if they don't, then we can use class time to learn how to make the video (this is an important skill to know). Students will prepare a movie about themselves as a way to start the year and to get to know the people in the class. The teacher can also share the movie as part of the assignment.

This can lead to other lessons about the self and also provide ideas/inspirational material for later dance-making activities.

Students can also use these tools for an end unit/year portfolio to showcase their work, similiar to a reel. I think that this will be motivating and engaging for students while teaching them important skills that they can use outside of the classroom. So exciting!

Update

As of the last post, I figured out a lot of things about navigating the interface (is that the appropriate word??). The way I figured out is looking at other blogs and trying to match what I saw by exploring and trying new things. Everything requires time! I have to be more patient. I recently read Outliers by Maxwell Gladwell, and he discussed the fact that what separates people who are "genius" with others isn't necessarily that those people are born exceptional. Many outside factors influence them from when and where they are born to their family circumstances. The other important factor was TIME. The successful people practiced their craft A LOT. The other factor discussed was persistence. The difference between successful people and 'unsuccessful' people was the fact that they kept trying and trying, going past their struggles rather than giving up. By the time you solve the problem, you have given it a lot of thought and learned a lot in the process.

This has been the theme of the semester, and the time span of my adventures in NY. Pushing past the struggle: finding the positive from the negative. It has been quite a learning experience.

Blogging

Blogging makes me anxious.

I think it's funny that we are assigned to post our own and comment on our colleagues' blogs, but on the other hand I would not be so inclined to post at all. There is something frustrating about the blogging experience. Perhaps it's the fact that whatever you post has the possibility of being read by millions of people leaving you completely exposed, open for criticism and scrutiny. Also, my recurring mental block makes it hard to find the right words to write.

I am unfamiliar with navigating the interface. I do not find it particularly user-friendly. It reminds me of a recurring dream where I need to dial an emergency number and every time I try to dial it something malfunctions on my phone and I cannot dial it successfully. It is the same with blogging right now. I do not understand why I click on something and it does not send me to where I want it to go!!!

Despite my adverse feelings about blogging because of my neophyte stage, I am glad that we are "forced" to have a blog as part of Tech Resources. I have been meaning to write a blog for a while, but I did not know how to start. Adding on to the Blackboard post, I think that implementing a Blog in some fashion would be useful for teachers for their classes. I am also thankful that I found the 'edit' option, so it's not that scary =)

Blackboard

Blackboard is a convenient way to consolidate all of the class information in one place online. Teachers can put assignments and other information for the class. Both students and teachers can communicate with each other via discussion boards as well as email. Students can submit assignments electronically. Students also have a place to store assignments until they are ready to be submitted. Blackboard is like a virtual Assignment Notebook for classes.

There are a few main problems with Blackboard. To be completely dependent on Blackboard is unsafe because it is often temperamental. Teachers need to be understanding about these problems and need to have backup plans for presenting information about the class. This cannot be the sole way to communicate and give information to students.

Also, the Albert system that is part of Blackboard is not very user-friendly. I remember using the Banner system at U of Illinois, and it was easy to use and navigate. Albert makes you fill out the same tabs when you need to go back and change information. It is time consuming and unnecessary to do this every time. You cannot always hit the back button. And if you hit the wrong button you need to exit out of Blackboard completely and login all over again. I understand that this is due to privacy issues, but there could be a better way to do it.

Browsers!

I was having a lot of problems getting my movie and music to play as soon as the page went up (I wrote the code so that the music would play instantly). It was very frustrating because I did not understand what the problem was. The music would play as a download when you clicked on the link. The movie would play from the Youtube site that I embedded into the page. But both pages would not adhere to the code that I had written or the pages.

As per our blog suggested assignment for this week, which was to see how other browsers display the webpages, I went on Internet Explorer (I had been using Firefox) to view my webpage. Lo and behold, the music started playing right away, which is how I had written the code for the page. However, the marquee code that I used made the whole page scroll. It turns out that Firefox forgave the fact that I did not close the code but IE did not. So I fixed it. The movie showed up and could be played as well! Which was exciting news because it could actually work. However, it's a bit disturbing because there isn't a consistency. But this is a great lesson to learn and to be aware to check how your website opens with various browsers.

I went on Safari and the music page worked, same as with IE, but the video could not play because it did not have the appropriate plug-ins!

There is so much to consider when making a website!! Not only does the code have to be written with no errors, but even when the code is written right, then one must make sure that the different browser options present the page in the way it was meant to be seen. This has been a good lesson!

First

Woohoo! My first post ever in the Blogosphere. I have been wondering what it would be like to write a blog and it's everything I imagined it to be and more =) I so appreciate the fact that I am taking this class. My goal is to continue to learn and venture into this technological world and be more in tune with what is out there. It moves really fast and I only hope that I can catch up. I am really amazed at the fact that I have produced something that can be seen on the internet basically from scratch! I never imagined doing something like that and have such an appreciation now for people who do this sort of thing for a living.

Currently I am working with Windows Movie Maker. It is really a fun little tool. I am frustrated, though, because I cannot get it to post on the webpage. However, thanks to Youtube, it can at least be viewed.