Reflecting On The Journey

One last reflection.  I'll spare you the litany of working through a project as I'm quite certain you are tired of hearing about that!  But, I do find myself thinking back to where we all were in August and how far we've all come.

The most significant piece that I am taking with me is the "wisdom of the crowd" and what a beautiful thing that is.  I've always been a proponent of the two heads are better than one thing, but social media takes this to a whole new level.  I'm thinking specifically about what we've all learned from each other and just how willing we were to engage in that sharing.  It's really a beautiful thing to observe and participate in.  I'm left wondering how many challenges we could overcome as a people if we were able to do that more consistently.

I will continue to use many of the programs we've learned about, especially reader as it feeds my somewhat weird interest in information.  I'm also toying with continuing this blog, although I may rename it.  I'm currently considering "How to Raise Your 12 Year Old Without Killing Him".  Really, I think there would be a huge audience, we'll have to see.  Seriously, though, I found blogging to be very cathartic and it renewed an interest in writing that had been dormant for some time.   For that I will forever be thankful.

I am currently trying to figure out my mobile strategy.  I do not have the correct devices, so I need to do some research and purchasing.  The fact that I'm even interested still amazes me!  But, with Research next semester, I find myself thinking it would be much more convenient to be able to access information more frequently, when and where I want.  I feel the need to be able to take advantage of any down time I have.  However, that could just be me justifying the purchase of an iPad.  I think I'm starting to buy my own argument!  The mobile strategy is important to figure out Twitter as well, which I failed miserably at this semester.

For now though, I wanted to thank you all for the journey.  It has been very enjoyable and a richer one because of our commitment to each other as a learning community. 

Mountains and Valleys - Preserverance Pays Off

As I put the final touches on my project, I find myself in a rather reflective mood.  Maybe it's the Holiday as well, who knows.

This project has had mountains and valleys for me, not hills, mountains!  It seems like every time I figured something out (a valley) a big, old, ugly mountain loomed in the distance.  For example, once I figured out how to publish my projects (valley), they were too large to fit on a reasonable number of discs (mountain).  Found a disc that would work (valley) then the darn things wouldn't work on the proprietary system in our office (mountain).  Burn discs as DVDs (valley), didn't work (mountain), burn again and it magically works (valley).  It's been this way through the entire project, step by step.

So, I'm trying to figure out what that all means.  Did I have a significant learning curve when I started this venture.  Sure did.  Sort of like those crazy folks who run a hundred miles up and down a mountain.  We all have our own sort of marathons, don't we?  Did I have to select such a large project?  Not really, but I have this over active achievement motive that I failed to manage.  I can justify it with statements like, "The design warranted blending both audio and video to enhance the learners ability to comprehend and, thus apply, the subject matter".  But, in all honesty, I really did not have to bite off a project with multiple segments (I think I remember mentioning ego in an earlier post . . .).  Hindsight is twenty/twenty.

All that being said, I'm very happy with the final product.  And, I'm very happy that the product is "final"!

It's Great When A Plan Comes Together

I found myself amazed this week, I mean utterly amazed at how things are starting to come together on the tech front.  I'm sure, Robin in her infinite design brilliance, knew exactly how this would play out, but I could not have predicted the change. Nor was I all that sure about going through it when I started this whole process.

No, I did not figure out how to insert music at the beginning of my training video. But, I have let it go realizing that we are better off with the content than the bells and whistles.  Thanks for all of your support!  What I did realize yesterday as I was finishing a paper for another class was that I was not experiencing the usual headaches that accompany the final formatting, etc.  To use Jeewan's words - Eureka!  Could it be that by playing around with different technologies and programs it actually enhanced my ability to work more confidently within the old standbys like Word? 

I do believe that is exactly what has happened.  Seriously, no challenges with the table of contents, my appendices are not messed up, I don't have any mysteriously blank pages at the end of my papers that I can not delete.  What a blessing!  Plus, you should have seen me whipping out some pretty cool graphics. 

Honestly, I could not be more pleased.  Most of you are probably getting a little bit of a chuckle (or a big one), which is great!  But, I'd not realized how much  impact this could make.  In addition, I was watching the Office the other day and Jim was using Audacity to edit the audio of a book.  The fact that I know that is incredible!  Thanks for coming along on the journey. 

Technology Takes This Round

I thought I was done blogging about my project, then I hit a snag.  I knew it was too good to be true.

I am stuck.  Is it too much to ask to add a little bit of music to the beginning of my Camtasia project?  Now, admitably, I should have thought about this in the original design, right?  But, I thought this was all about being able to easily edit and add great things.  Alas, in my infinite technological wisdom, I may be mistaken.  Or, just unable to complete a realtively simple task. 

I've tried to import a music clip, I've tried to import an audacity file (which I really like as I got it to fade out), I've tried to import both the audacity file and the project as new media.  I've unlinked the audio from the video.  I've searched online for help.  What I found did not work, or I did not do it correctly, which is a distinct possibility.  I even tried the old walk away for a while, had a brilliant idea, which did not work. 

I'm at the point where I am evaluating the need for music in my project.  While it is not necessary for the content, it sure sounds nice as it cuts off eight seconds of the other audio, or moves the audio so it does not sync up with the video.  And, selfishly, I want it to be as cool as possible as I want to use this as a potential prototype for other projects we could do at work.  So, at the heart of it, it might be an ego issue and I have to let it go.  I think I might try a life line, then make my final decision.  Frustrating.

First Draft Delivered - And Accepted

I just presented the rough draft of my project to my client.  Now, don't get too excited, I'm married to him, so he pretty much has to like what I do.  But, he really liked what I did!  Yea!  Better yet, he thinks it will make a real difference in our business!

I've created a new employee training tutorial for one of the most fundamental systems in our business.  Just in time, too, as we're experiencing major turnover and this is needed badly. Why, you may ask?  Because we don't have a solid piece of training that is not word of mouth or passed down from employee to employee.  So, guess what happens.  It does not take long for fundamental systems to get watered down when the starting point you have is the last person who did it.  Who knows if they did "it" the way "it" was intended to do. 

So, this is the first attempt to have something solid, written down and even jazzed up a bit for not only new employees, but all employees to review.  I'm really excited for Todd and for our business.  I think it is a great step in the right direction.  We were able to blend audio and video to create a multi-faceted experience for the learner. 

I have a few bugs to work out, like why in the world won't my transitions work?  But I am happy with the progress so far!  I'll try to share one of the segments once I have the guts to publish it and then figure out how to upload it to my blog . . .  I'm sure I have those directions somewhere!

Tech Challenged Rears It's Ugly Head - Part III (and final)

It is done, well, not really, but I have fifteen little Camtasia projects that just have to be published.  They all include a bit of audio and video  It is far from perfect, but I learned A LOT this weekend!  I'll summarize for you here:

1.  It is possible for someone who really had no idea any of this existed to do it.

2.  Pay attention when you are recording your audio. If you mess up or stumble, don't worry about it. Just stop, take a breath and start over.  But, leave enough room so that it is easy to edit.  Editing out little fumbles is very time consuming, challenging and extremely frustrating.  This dawned on me at about project ten.  I am not a rocket scientist . . .

3.  When you video, give yourself some time on the video before you start.  Again, it gives some room for editing.  Another lesson I learned after the video was done.  Somethings I'll just have to live with!  For some reason, if I tried to delete the first few seconds of a video I lost the picture.  Needless to say, a black screen with audio was not the look I was going for.

4.  After all my soapboxing about PowerPoint, I didn't follow my own advice in a couple of the projects.  Upon review, there is one that could really benefit from some more work . . .

5.  That being said, you may have to take it easy on yourself and remember that the learning is in the journey, not necessarily the final project.  Here's what I mean.  I've got a couple of places in my project that I wish I could make better.  But, no matter how hard I try, I just can't quite get it.  So, I thought about my audience (the folks that will actually use the program, not the grade for this class) and wondered how much they will focus on the couple of baubles in my recording.  Fact is, they won't so I'm going to leave them.

I'm pretty sure some of this would have been easier with fancier tools, but I accomplished this all with free programs and an old computer with Vista as the operating system, which sometimes makes things funky.  (Somebody told me that, so I'm using it as an excuse!)  Seriously, I think my system was smoking by the time I got everything completed. 

I feel pretty good about the progress I've made.  Barring some minor technical difficulties, I plan to have my SME review the projects, then should be able to publish them.  Which, I'm quite sure will have it's own list of snafus . . .  More to come!

Tech Challenged Rears It's Ugly Head - Part II

I do not mean to blog about this all weekend, but I feel that it might just make me move forward.  So, here's where I'm at.  I've downloaded the trial of Camtasia.  Then quickly proceeded to do pretty much everything else I can think of but get busy.  So, everyone who wrote in their blogs recently has comments, email is up to date (all addresses), I straightened up the house, put a load of laundry in and, oh yeah, had a snack.  I'm not sure there is anything else I can do. I suppose I could post to the wiki or Twitter, but let's be serious, I don't want to go overboard.  So, time to buck up and get busy. 

Wish me luck. 

Tech Challenged Rears It's Ugly Head

Okay, it’s time to come clean.  I’m confessing here in hopes that it will cause me to move forward.  I’ve been having a discussion with myself for the past couple of weeks.  You know, the type of discussion you have sometimes with the good, white angel on one shoulder, the bad, red guy on the other.  Well, the discussion has culminated in a significant amount of procrastination and I now find myself at a crossroads in which I will have to act if I have any hope of submitting my project in time (or early so I can do other things on Thanksgiving weekend, like eat pie).

So, here’s my dilemma.  I know what I’m going to do for my project, even have the pieces all done; the last thing is to pull it all together.  I could stick with what I know, the good old recorded PowerPoint show.  I speak as if I really know about it, right?  Truth is I’ve done a couple because of our class and now I think I’m an expert.  Not so much.  Or, here it is, I could download a trial of Camtasia and go all out, by this I mean try something new. 

I know for most people it’s no big deal.  I even know, from my experience over the past ten weeks, that it really isn’t all that big of a deal.  Why am I now feeling this hesitation?  Is it because I’m doing something “for real”, something that we are going to use in our business?  Maybe.  There is certainly a level of fear I have about it not working.  Here it is, we proudly present the training disc to a new team member, they put the CD in and nothing goes.  Yes, that thought has crossed my mind.  But really, is that possible.  Based on prior experience, yes. 

Or is it a little bit of resistance to the supposed frustration I’ll probably feel as I work with a new program outside the relative safety of our underground bunker of a computer lab with all of my new techy friend’s right next to me?  Probably.  I’ve got it; I’ll turn the furnace on high in my house, go down in the basement storage room and get busy.  You all need to be aware that I’ve loaded you into my speed dial. 

So, what’s the hang-up?  Now I’ve got myself all worked into a frenzy which is causing the procrastination to procrastinate.  I’ve made my decision.  To heck with the tried and true way.  I’m downloading Camtasia tonight and tomorrow will begin to put thing together.  Hopefully I don’t look like this when I send you a note about it this weekend. 

I know you are all turning your phones off . . .

PowerPoint - Back On the Soapbox

It's planning season at my workplace, the time of year where we focus not on finishing up the year we are in, but in laying the groundwork for the year that is to come.  And, it's the time of year we brush off that good old PowerPoint software and get down to business.  The business of putting all information we have to share onto a screen or a hundred and let the learning commence.  Or is that let the information dump commence, I get a bit lost in all the bullet points and different fonts.

So, I'm back on my soapbox of using PowerPoint effectively, or at least giving it a shot.  But, this time I'm armed with some sage advice and examples of what might be.  Maybe it really is time to get back to basics and remember what we learned long ago (well, long ago for me, for others, not so long ago).  Just because we can jazz our content up a bit, does not give us license to forget the basic rules of creating a good presentation.  Alexandru Comin reminds us of these in his recent blog, Simplicity in Presentations and Why It Matters.  Here are a few of his points that I will be sharing with the leadership I work with on Friday in hopes to spare some of their audience from what I fear is an over utilization of a very effective tool.

1.  Design is everything, not design in the color scheme you want to use, but design of your presentation which should be completed before you sit down at the computer.  Then add in the bells and whistles.
2.  Take the complex and make it simple.  Don't dumb it down for your audience, use your creativity to make your topic simple to understand.
3.  Remember the rule of three - focus on three main topics or pieces of the puzzle.
4.  Remember the visual sense.  It is the most powerful.  Be creative with pictures, font and color!  But, remember, this is the polish of your presentation, not the meat of it.
5.  De-clutter your presentation and each slide.  Only incorporate what really supports the message, if it doesn't, get rid of it.
6.  Remember your audience.  Truth is, we are not hard wired to learn a lot in a short period of time.  So, the reality is, no matter how good your PowerPoint is, the chances of them actually learning something are pretty low.  Now, the chances of you exciting them to spend more time and learn something are pretty good.  Focus on that, get them excited to pick up your topic after the meeting and dive in!

It's that time of year again, I'm hopeful that we can implement some of these suggestions into our planning meetings.  They really do help to develop a great backdrop for the presentation and support both the presenter and audience in creating a road map to effectively communicating and understanding a point and maybe even enjoying themselves a bit.