EDLD 5363: Reflections - Week I Web Conference and Evaluating Editing Software

I wasn’t able to attend the web conference on November 15th; however, I did read the web conference scripts. The web conference scripts serve as a medium to voice questions and concerns about assignments. After reading the scripts, I had a better understanding of assignment expectations.

This week’s assignment has been very engaging.  This quote, “Before you buy any video editing software, give the free stuff a try; you may find that it works for your project” (Siegchrist, n.d.), was the highlight of the assignment. I determined it is very important to evaluate software before using and purchasing.  When evaluating software there are certain criteria that should be determined before you download or purchase the software.  Your hardware and operating system should be compatible to the newly acquired software.  Another feature to consider would be ease of use or complexity of the software.  I prefer user-friendly software.  Although available support is very important to end-users who use free, trial or open source software, users should always search and review free online software tutorials.  Free or purchased software does not mean a user can do whatever they please with the software.  Take time to read the licensing agreements when installing software.  I have created video before but never edited someone else’s video.  This was an amusing and scary activity but I enjoyed it!  I plan to use editing software in the future to organize, combine, and add music or narration to some of my older videos.  The scary part of the activity was using the free converter website so I could obtain a link for my podcast. My computer seemed vulnerable when I searched for the file on my hard drive for uploading.  

I have always been aware and adhered to copyright and fair Use laws when using music and clips found on the Internet, however, I was not aware of Creative Commons Attribution Licenses.  I secured a Creative Commons Attributions Licenses for the podcast I created. YouTube allowed me to select the Creative Commons Attribution License for my edited video.  Creative Commons is very similar to the Fair Use law. The webmaster for the Creative Commons website defines “Creative Commons as a tool that gives everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to keep their copyright while allowing certain uses of their work which makes their creative, educational, and scientific content instantly more compatible with the full potential of the internet” (creativecommon.org, n.d.).  A Creative Commons License means you allow people to use your video or work, so long as they give you credit for your original work. A remix icon appears in the YouTube editor for others to use when you select to use a Creative Commons Attribution license.  According to the article, Copyright and Fair Use (Stanford University Libraries, 2010) “Fair Use is a law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the author of a creative work for specific educational purposes.”

References

Abernathy, K.  Multimedia video technology [DOC document]. Retrieved November 17, 2011, from Web Conference Scripts Online Web site: https://lamar.epiclms.net/Learn/Announcements.aspx

Creative Commons. (n.d.) Retrieved on November 23, 2011, from http://creativecommons.org/

Desktop-Video-Guide. (n.d.). Top 5 free video editing software programs. Retrieved on April
12, 2009, from http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/top-5-free-video-editing-softwarereview.Html

Siegchrist, G. (n.d.). Before you buy video editing software. About. Retrieved on November 21, 2011, from http://desktopvideo.about.com/od/editingsoftware/bb/ Buyeditsoftware.htm

Stanford University, Palo Alto, Library. (n.d.). Proposed educational guidelines on fair use.

Retrieved on April 6, 2009, from http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright

_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter7/7-c.html#

EDLD 5363: Reflections on using Photo Story

I thoroughly enjoyed using Photo Story 3. There are many benefits for using Photo Story in an educational setting.  It is free and user friendly. Learning how to navigate through the software was easy. Although I had to edit my presentation several times, it was simple and stress-free. Photo Story can be utilized by teachers to create chic presentations or by students to fulfill a required assignment.

My digital story is about the common denominator that my daughters and I share. We all or have been middle/junior high school teachers.  I plan to share this video with my daughters over the holidays. I will also show other teachers my video and explain to them how easy it was to create in Photo Story.  I hope it catches on as a new multimedia teaching tool.