Wednesday, July 16, 2008

I Encounter Vygotsky and it's not pretty

Tuesday
July 15, 2008
12:40:48 PM

Beginning
Sandy here. Ellen serving cookies with her Mom.
Headphones and microphones.
HAVE TO DO MY HOMEWORK! pOst!

PhotoStory3
free
sequential and linear
many built in editing features
takes you with directions step by step
driven by image
you record per image for narration
music plays continuously across images
wiDoWS OnLY pooh

To Do A Project FIle Mgmt.
A folder for the project
Then subfolders
audio
images
script versions
final folder (perhaps)

She then demonstrates PS3.
It would be really easy to navigate PS3. (Compared to iMovie.)

Because I am using iMovie, I kind of half listen during her explanation while I work on finding town band photos in my iPhoto and move them into the media/visual section of A Great Movie in preparation for making Friday's ds. I'm not happy with the photos. I took screen snapshots using SnapZpro of pictures Ann has on Shutterfly

and they come out pretty grainy. I'm realizing what a treasure the work of her long hours on ShutterFly represent. She's got tons of Williston Town Band pictures taken from over the years she's been going with Cianya in tow. It took me way too long a time to find my photos in my iPhoto.

When Sandy finishes her explanation of webCT, I go to work next to NJ. He's a young computer science major talking this course to learn more about ds and to polish his iMovie skills. After watching him for 3 seconds, I conclude I can learn a lot from this guy. He's a whiz at editing and I know I'm going to be in one of those situations where I'm going to working on the right question to ask so we can get more or less on the same level. (Read Vygotsky/ZPD/scaffolding/etc.)

I try to import the mp3 file of the S&S into GBand unsuccessfully. Then I try to import it into iMovie, unsuccessfully again. My mood begins to drop as I experience this inability as a "sting." I shift to I tunes and listen to maybe 15 different versions of S&S, finally purchasing three: one by Vladimir Horowitz, mostly for the fun of it -- he misses on a few of his bass punctuations and if I'm hearing it right, the rendition is muddy, but interesting; a version by the Marine Band; and another version by an Army Field Band. I'm looking for a slower tempo, martial sounding, with absolutely clear attacks and sprightly woodwinds. I choose not to purchase Bernstein's NY Philharmonic's version -- he races through it and it annoys me so much, I don't listen enough to tell whether he slows it down when he gets to the piccolo refrain. If I were to take bets, I'd say, "Yes" he does.

I then start to look at my pictures and seek a little help from NJ around some of the editing techniques he's using. He's very helpful. There are a couple of little sliders that split images - I only vaguely understand their function and am going to have to practice. I kind of give him the head nod, yep yep version of "I understand not really" when he's going through that. He knows I think because he ends telling me, "You know, you just have to mess around and practice with all of it. That's what I did. (How many times have I said that to a student!) He also gives me some good advice about not using music I really like because I'll hate it when I'm done with the editing and hearing it over and over like a 1000 times. He's doing something with his cat. It's zippy and funny and quite professional already and the dude is just playing around!

This is all pretty interesting. As I work independently, my mood starts to drop as I get more frustrated with the distance I have to go to really make iMovie work for me. Photostory appears to be a whole lot easier. I'm going to have to dig into this on my own more than I thought. I don't want to be a pain to this guy (my issue, not his) and I'm already behind in my reading assignments. Perhaps I'm experiencing what it is to be a student again, one who is a slower learner, one who doesn't like being perceived as the slower learner, and one who is seeing a huge learning curve to ascend before me, before Friday. This is probably good for me but I leave class discouraged and vowing to work at "just playing around" tonight. Ann will be our and I'll have the house to myself, well me and Kuma anyway. That can be fun and better paced for me - if I choose to get out of this mud mind and make it okay for myself. Interesting stuff here for a guy who's been in the business for a long time and thinks he knows what it is to be a student. Evidently, I think I'm a student from a position of total control of the conditions of my studenting. I'm not here and it's quite a different positioning. I'm not particularly happy with my reaction.

Sandy goes over webCT.
Storyboarding. Go to the lesson.
Do the process. Map the organization.
Then go to iMovie.

I go to my office after class ends to download a bunch of storyboards but admit to myself that I really need to get away from this for a while. Go for a run, even. I leave without even hooking up my iBook.

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