The goal was to create a Moodle course site that incorporated a mobile supporting design. 

Using mobile devices, students have an opportunity to access course content almost anywhere, anytime; on the bus, at the gym, on the couch. Contrast this time and location freedom to a traditional lecture’s dictated schedule. I was curious to see if Moodle course elements could be designed for use by common mobile devices and provide access to the resources of a typical course site. Continue reading →

Increasingly, educators are experimenting with a “flipped” format for their courses. In a flipped classroom, the emphasis is shifted from a teacher-centred, to a student-centred approach. The material that was previously presented in lecture format is available online, and face-to-face class time is used for more interactive student-centred activities. Bergmann and Sams (2012) coined the phrase ‘flipped classroom’ for this teaching approach, also called inverse instruction methodology (IIM).  Recounting how the flipped classroom approach began, Bergmann & Sams (2012, p.5) asked this question:

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Advances in online and multimedia technology have been driven by many forces, like the seemingly insatiable demand for funny cat videos. While perhaps not the driving force, education is the beneficiary of many newly created opportunities.  A good example is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In 2017, many aspects of UDL can be easily addressed with online and multimedia technology that were difficult or impossible 50 years ago.

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look here for: Media Exemplar Collection for EDDL 5131

Look here for the Multimedia Enhanced Student Activity

I wanted to explore what kind of editing and effects were possible with Windows Live Movie Maker.
I started with a 02:30 Quick Time (.mov) video of my daughter at a piano recital (playing the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood) and started adding effects. I needed to split the video to apply multiple effects. The final video includes the following effects:
• Title with cinematic burst (simulated lens flare). Many font, colour and effect options
• Blur in from black transition
• Black and white, classic followed by cyan tone and sepia tone
• Edge detection: black and whitish, looks like a pencil drawing?
• Posterize, colourization looks sort of like a poster
• 3D ripple: funky swirl distortion
• Mirror horizontal, there’s also mirror vertical available
• Hue: cycles through colour spectrum
• Pixelate: classic digital age
• Spin: like the video is a postcard
• Warp: wave like distortion
• Fade out to black
• Credits: all kinds of fades, fonts, themes, and effects available
[youtube]https://youtu.be/B75LZPOyFqs[/youtube]

I added captions to each segment to identify the effect.
A threw in 30 seconds of the original Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) over the credits.
Lots of publish options, from HD to email size. I Saved in 960 x 720 format, which gave a 172 MB .wmv file. Took about 30 minutes to upload to YouTube.

See previous post on Flickr with an evaluation for use as a teaching tool 

Slideshow using images on Flickr account

Moon Phases

 It would be almost impossible to explain Moon phases without pictures or, at the very least, waving your hands around.Both the Earth and the Moon are half lit on the side facing the Sun. The Earth rotates once every 24 hours and the Moon orbits the Earth every 28 days. The Earth only faces the Moon 12 hours a day so we get 28 distinct moon phases. Here’s a picture that will help visualize what’s going on. 

Mouse over for captions
Keep in mind that the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth, like it was on a string. What you can also see from the graphic is:
• There is always a dark side of the Moon, as there is always a dark side of the Earth.
• There is a side of the Moon we never see, but it’s not always dark.
• How eclipses happen. A solar eclipse is the Moon’s shadow on the Earth and a lunar eclipse is the Earth’s shadow on the Moon.

We see moon phases because of the relative motion of the Earth and Moon and our perspective from the surface of the Earth. Changing the perspective is the easiest way to see what is happening. Here is a short narrated video that may help you to visualize the mechanics.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/f2G20Awi9-0[/youtube]

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I was saddened this week (Feb.15) to hear of the passing of long-time CBC broadcaster Stuart McLean. McLean created the weekly radio show “The Vinyl Café” in 1994 and continued until his diagnosis with cancer in 2015. There were also books and live performances based on the Vinyl Café characters. I always loved listening to the Vinyl Café and McLean leaves behind a legacy of recorded material that we can continue to enjoy, even now that he is gone. I have created a small compilation of Vinyl Café moments using Audacity.  I downloaded pieces from the Internet Archive and the CBC’s Vinyl Cafe library.

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