PE3_iMovie

The iMovie 11 Essential Training course was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed the lessons and learned quite a bit. I am now more comfortable creating in iMovie. I have learned how to stabilize the video clips in the event section before moving them to the project section.  I like the fact that the exercises are in specific sections so you can go back and easily review that area.

Presently, I don’t have the materials to create a green screen but I do plan to experiment with that process in the near future. I hope a green sheet will work or perhaps a green canvas. I’ll be researching what would work best.

This is an iMovie that I created to promote an Open House.

Here is my certificate of completion for the iMovie 11 Essential Training, Yeah!

I enjoy creating in iMovie and will continue to work to master the program and create longer more in-depth professional videos. The learning continues!  

PE2_iMovie

My favorite exercises are #6 Working with Effects and #7 Working with Audio. My knowledge base was enhanced within these two areas. How to use varying effects to enhance your video and keep it looking professional. I especially liked the section on how to create green (blue) screen effects and how to correctly create a movie trailer.

Working with audio was very interesting. Especially how you can, not only adjust the levels for the audio but how you can replace audio on specific clips, how you can extract audio and even edit video clips to the beat of the music.

PE1_iMovie

I went to Lynda.com and took the beginner iMovie `11 Essential Training. The duration of  the training is 03:28:00. The way that the exercise files are organized made the time pass rather quickly. I was able to view the entire course over the course of two evenings. The author, Garrick Chow was excellent. He gave clear and precise instructions. 

Garrick covered everything from making sure you had the latest version of iMovie, how to import video from whatever source you used, all the way to how to finalize your project once it is completed. I was able to discover easier ways to manipulate, organize, and how to edit the video clips. He provided the same video files that he used in the exercises so that there is an opportunity to work along with him. He didn’t leave anything out, except perhaps how to add voice / audio to the movie trailers. Overall, I give it two thumbs up!

BP4_TypingWeb

One of the challenges that university students face is that many of them do not know how to type. This is one of the frustrations that they have when they learn they have to write research papers or reports. What we often get are papers filled with typing and other errors. It is my feeling that students need to know how to type and type correctly. If we want students to use computers and the Web 2.0 tools they need to know how to type. In searching through the Web 2.0 tools I found TypingWeb.com and I like it.

TypingWeb: http://www.typingweb.com/ is a free online typing tutor. On this site you can learn how to type by following lessons. The site contains beginners, intermediate, and advanced courses, as well as, specialty and premium lessons. You can keep up with the latest headline news as you practice your typing skills in the “News Headline Exercises” lesson. As you type the site tracks which keys you have problems with and there is a section where you can work to improve these keys. Once you have completed the lessons you can take the online test to receive a typing certificate that you can print out. The Typing Institute of America officially authorizes the certificates for TypingWeb.com

The TypingWeb Teacher Portal is also a free online account. The Teacher Portal allows you as a teacher to manage your students’ progress, track their lessons and you can report on your students all within this portal. You can add students and group them into classrooms. You can link students who are already had a TypingWeb account with your teacher portal. The Teacher Portal allows you to monitor the progress of each student and track that students’ individual improvement. Graphs can be created to show the levels of improvement in net speed, gross speed, and accuracy. You can run reports using the Score section of the portal and data can also be exported.

 

TypingWeb.com has a blog with links to social networking sites.

The site also has various games that help you improve your typing skills, accuracy, and speed. I only played a few of the games and I found them entertaining and useful. This website can be used by elementary as well as university students. Like other sites you can pay for upgrades if you like.

 I found this Web 2.0 tool to be very user friendly and it’s free. 

BP6_Link to another's Blog

Follow this link to my comment on Mike's Blog.

BP5_Link to another's Blog

Follow this link to my comment on Jennifer's blog.

BP3_iGoogleScreenShots