Friday July 13

This is the last day of class and we had to finish editing. I went over the titling with the groups that wanted to use it and it worked out. There were many different little problems that were just bugs in the program that we had to work out. The good thing is that the students never gave up. They were really excited to work with video it was new to them. All five groups finished their projects and were happy with what they learned. One of the workers at the CRP, Geny, asked if we had time to teach it another week to a different group. Unfortunately, we leave on Thursday and the class was as condensed as it was.

Geny told us that most of the teachers work three shifts; 7-11am, 1-4pm, and 7-10pm. Right now they are having their break between school years. To have teachers willing to take these courses and be excited about them during their break is fortunate.

All in all the class went well. I created a CD with all the course material with the editing software and other software reviews for them to copy. Geny said the content will add to other exsisting courses such as working a still camera and Photoshop.

If I could do it over again I would have done more in-class examples. The day I used the camera connected to the projector they came more alive. I would have also given them more home assignments composing pictures. I didn't realize that all of them had cameras. The class worked in the week time frame, but most of the students said they were afraid they would forget how to use Cinelerra. I told them to focus more on the video techniques because software changes, composition will stay the same. Also, more time would be beneficial to help them understand and retain the knowledge they acquired. Not being familiar with Linux or its programs took some time. Also trying to figure out how to create projects using digital cameras and not video cameras was challenging. Digital cameras come out in all different file formats. I also didn't have a situation where I could demonstrate the program using a projector. I think being able to do that first would make the transition easier.

I felt the class went well. Only three students didn't receive their endorsement and that was because they missed more than one class period. Lindsay and I sat with Geny and we reviewed how the class went and she was very positive about the results. I feel that this would be a good place to implement instructional design and create courses to help public education teachers learn technology. It is really needed.