Video Lecture Start Sequence

I have spent the past couple of days making the default start-up sequence for all of my videos (using Adobe Flash Professional CC... but also using Adobe Audition for the sound recording/editing, Adobe Premiere for the Video editing, Adobe After Effects for the "green screen" alpha channel effects, and Intewrite Video Capture to capture my pen/graphics in raw form to import into Premiere)

I am very happy with it all so far.

After logging on with the "colbysworld word of the day" there is a little "get ready" screen to remind the students to get out there supplies. Click "play" to preview/print notes.

The "get ready" screen that reminds students that
they need to have the notes/pencil in hand

After clicking <play> a screen appears that gives a preview of the notes that the student will be taking. The preview screen shows blue areas where the student will be adding notes. It also has a "download your notes" icon in the bottom/right corner that students can click on to open a new browser window that will display the correct .pdf file for the students to print.

Preview screen for the notes to be taken
(the notes are scrolling on the screen)

DOWNLOAD TIME: At first I thought that the ENTIRE set of videos would have to download BEFORE the Flash file would even open... which WOULD HAVE BEEN tough because that would mean that a student would be staring at a completely white square for up to a few minutes (time it takes for 20+ minute videos on a slow internet connection to download).... HOWEVER, that is not exactly the case.... The program will "play" up to the point where it needs to download a video... and THEN the screen will stop with whatever is on the screen while the video downloads...

This is actually pretty nice because NOW I can place an animated icon that gives the student the indication that SOMETHING (ie: a video download) is happening.... I created a mini-image of my colbysworld log with an animated satellite flying around it.

A little, animated icon that tells the student a video is loading

The first little video that will download is going to be the "colbysworld splash" video... This is a 24-second, animated snipped that shows me sketching the colbsworld logo in time-lapse, fast speed, and then other things are added and cheaply (meaning, I did it on the fly and not very professionally) animated... In the background my daughter is saying "colbysworld" in various ways.... I made a "sound mix" that gave it a sort of "rhythm".... I like it.

A scene from the 24-second, animated, "splash video"

The main program that is allowing me to do all of this is Adobe Flash Professional. It uses timelines in a similar way that Adobe Premier (video editor) does to control events on the screen. HOWEVER, it also uses ActionScript 3 for programming buttons and such. For example: I put VIDEO CUEs in the colbysworld splash video that tell the Flash program when to STOP the "video downloading" image and, later, when to START downloading the NEXT video to watch.

Adobe Flash Professional - Timeline for first part of interactive video play

Time used: 10 hours

PASSWORD PROTECTED! (nice)

Today I was able to figure out how to use Flash and ActionScript to make a simple password protection for my video lectures. (This was one reason I wanted to use Flash as a video player for my lectures.... because I can control who gets to view/use the videos.)

I can't explain ALL of the details. But here are the basics of how I am "forcing" students to follow certain steps to progress through the tutorials with "minimal cheating"

When a student opens up a video lecture they might get a screen like this:

Here the student is typing the word "football" as a password

Then they are asked to type in today's password. If they do this WRONG they will be given the following screen and the program will end.

Apparently "football" was not the correct choice.
(although, it COULD be someday)

Of course, if they have the current password (from their teacher) then they will have access to the lesson.




Here is an outline of how I am controlling access to all four types of programs:

(1) To log into a video lesson the student needs the current "daily password", which they can only, theoretically, get from their teacher. I am able to change this password as frequently as I wish and it will instantly affect every one of my video lessons. [REMEMBER - The video lesson gives the students the notes and initial learning to pass the quizzler.]

(2) To log into an interactive lesson the student then needs the four digits that they obtain by completing the video lessons for the specific unit. In other words, they need to do #1 above to gain access to the interactive lessons. [REMEMBER - The interactive lessons give students the guided practice to pass the quizzler.]

(3) In order to do the puzzler they need to obtain the two LETTERS that go with their log-in name. In other words, they need to complete #2 themselves (or, they can have someone log in with THEIR user name and have THEM complete the interactive lessons for them.... to give them their own two letters.) [REMEMBER - The puzzler gives the students the independent practice to pass the quizzler.]

(4) Finally, in order to do the quizzler the students will need to be able to do the same thing they do to log into the puzzler above PLUS they need a separate "daily password" that I type in for them as they are sitting down with me at a school computer terminal. [REMEMBER - The quizzler is where the student finally gets their GRADE.]


NOTE DIRECTLY RELATED: I also did a BUNCH of work on learning the basics of Adobe Premiere (video editing) and some After Effects tricks. I also figured out how I am going to save raw video captures of my screen and get them in the correct format into Adobe Premiere so that I can MAKE my video lectures.

I lost track of how much time I used in the past week... I'll just give a lowball guess.

Time: 10 hours

Software - Adobe Audition CC

Because I have been working heavily with SOUND the past couple of days I have gotten to know the Adobe Audition CC application a bit.... I am NOT an expert at it, but have some good working knowledge...

In the past I used either older, and more inexpensive sound-editing programs, OR I downloaded free TRIAL versions of sound-editing software.

It has been a PRIVLEDGE to be able to use the professional quality sound editing program of Adobe Audition CC that comes along with my Adobe Cloud subscription.

Screen Shot from Adobe Audition CC - A sound editing program

If you have used any sound-editing software you will be familiar with some of this program. It is basically TWO programs in one: A sound recorder/editor AND a Multi-Track sound editor.

The MAIN reason you will want to use a program like this (instead of simply using whatever sound-recorder came with your computer) is for SOUND QUALITY. Above you can see a sample of my daughter's first voice-over recording. What I did next was use an EFFECT (or, FILTER) on her entire file called "noise reduction". Basically you high light a section of the file that is just BACKGROUND noise, where no one is speaking, and the program analyses that sound to create a specialized filter that will reduce the specific frequencies of sound by the specific amounts to bring them down to near-zero. Then you run this filter on the file. It makes an AMAZING difference in the sound quality. Not only do you SEE the "quiet" sections of the sound wave go "flat", but you can HEAR the difference.

Two tips for making good quality sound: (1) get a nice microphone (garbage in equals garbage out. If you want nice sound you have to start at the source.) and (2) set your sound editing software file to a fairly HIGH quality so that your FILTERS will produce high quality effects. (see the image below for the setting that I used to record my daughter.) 32-bit depth was the key. When I tried working in 12-bit, which will probably be close to the final product itself, the sound-reduction filter caused my daughter's voice to be tinny and fake.

NOTE: The link that I have included to Adobe Audition shows some features of the newest edition of Audition, which is really neat. HOWEVER, the stuff that the guy is doing is WAYYYYY more complicated that I actually did with my daughter's voice over recording. Do not be dissuaded by the apparent complexity shown. (For example: To reduce background noise I did NOT use the color spectrum that he is showing. All I had to do was click-drag across the flat line in the wave form and select "capture noise print". Then I just selected the entire waveform and applied selected "Effect" and "Noise Reduction".)

Another advantage to using Adobe Audition is that IT WORKS SEAMLESSLY WITH ADOBE PREMIERE. This means that I will be able to open the video editor (Adobe Premiere) and the SOUND editor (Adobe Audition) at the same time.... allowing me to edit the sound tracks and the video simultaneously. (more on that on another day.... I have not really gotten into the new version of Adobe Premiere yet.... BUT I AM ABOUT TO START... TODAY....)

My Voice Over SECRET WEAPON

The past couple of days I have been working on VOICE OVER for my videos.

I am about to bring out my "secret weapon" when it comes to voice overs... My daughter.

She is only 12 years old but she has already had some experience, especially with working with her Girl Scout Troup, in doing PSAs (Public Service Announcements). The girls did a project earlier this year where then went to for several days to record some SWEET sounding announcements that were actually played over local radio stations. (We are lucky to have Modesto Sound Studio based at a nearby High School.)  I was blown away when she brought home a CD that they created.

So I put together a SCRIPT for my first video (it was four pages long, typed, and font 12). I found that my daughter is very capable at READING and ENUNCIATING the lines. Of course she has a cute little girl voice as well.

Her clear girl voice juxtaposed with Physics jargon may be just another great "hook" for my students. (I KNOW that my students get SOOOOOOOO tired of listening to ME talking all-of-the-time... So why not mix-it-up!?)

New Microphone - Blue Snowball iCE for USB

It is about time that I start to make some actual VIDEOS.

The two microphones that I am using are "ok", but they allow a bit too much background noise. Even after using filter software it is still apparent, and the voice comes out a bit "tinny" because of the filters.

I did some research and decided to purchase a Blue, Snowball iCE microphone.

This was chosen for the following reasons:
(a) Reasonable price
(b) Good sound quality for the price (HD, 42khz at 12 bits)
(c) Good reviews
(d) Had nothing extra. (You don't pay for stuff you don't need.. No software. No buttons/knobs etc)
(e) The Snowball iCE version (compared to the original, $100 Snowball) only has one microphone capsule inside. It is designed for high quality, simple, VOICE capture in MONO.

It was seventy bucks at Best Buy.

Cost: $70
Time: 2 hours

One Interactive Question - Under Four Hours

I have built up a small, but useful, stack of tools to put together various interactive questions.

As a result, my newest, multi-step question about a cat (below) took just under four hours to complete, from concept (hand-written notes) to end product. (The only new element was the diagram of the cat itself. Everything else was re-used from previous questions.)

This is the final screen of the problem.
(The previous screen had students write/solve the equations.)

My Flash programs are designed using ARRAYS to help me create new questions more easily. Instead of having to re-program every question I mostly just change the contents of various arrays that the program uses. Don't get me wrong. There are still things that have to be directly manipulated/programmed for each question. However, the brunt of the work is done using arrays.

A basic question works like this: There is an array of "draggers" (which are graphics or text elements that the student can click-and-drag around the screen.... The student manipulates these.). Then there is an array of "dots" (which are graphics elements that the students can drag objects TO. This is where they place the elements.)  For each sub-question I have a logic array of "Legitimate moves" which tells the program which "dots" the students may correctly place each "dragger" on to. There is also a logic array of "NON allowed moves" which tells the program what combinations students are NOT allowed to do.

Here is a photo of the page of notes used to create the cat question:

 

The sub-scenes are numbers on the left (There are four sub-scenes for this question.)

"draggers" are numbered in boxes. For example: along the left side of the page you can see the first downward arrow with "20N" next to it. That is "dragger item 1" in the array. It will be a graphic of a vector with two division sections on it, and it will point down. "Dragger item 2" will be an UPWARD graphic of the same vector.

"dots" are numbered in circles. "dot item 1" is almost always a trash can. (Most of my questions have extra "draggers" that the student will need to drag into he trash.) "dot item 2" is just the basic DOT (the pink dot in the center of the cat to which the students will drag the vectors to.)

The rest of the notes on the page are basically the logic information to plug into the "Legitimate moves" array and the "NON allowed moves" array. For example: "1,2, 20 newtons down" means that "dragger item 1" may be placed on "dot item 2" and when the student does this the words "20 newtons down" will be temporarily displayed in yellow nearby.


Time: 4 hours

AUTOMATION is TAKING OVER THE WORLD

How may automation be changing the world of education?

Even as early as ten years ago I recall walking in to Sears and heading over to the hardware department where there was a watch/key service counter on which was placed an array of key blanks. The man that worked at that counter had various jobs, one of which was to duplicate keys.

I handed him my house key and he looked it up in some catalogue, flipped through his available supply of key blanks, and then turned to me, holding one up, said "Yes, I have that one. I can make you copies of your key. It will be about ten minutes." Then I would walk around Sears a bit while the man worked diligently with his electric grinding tool, or whatever, and made me two duplicates of my house key.

Fast forward to today.

I happened to be walking through my local Lowe's and found this...

It is an automated key copying machine. Self-Service. A close up of the machinery will show you your key being duplicated WHILE you watch:

BENEFITS: (a) COST EFFECTIVE- This device requires NO SKILLED LABOR (other than the periodic maintenance required by the company that provides the machine.... Much like what occurs if the store owned a Soda Machine. Someone has to come in and resupply the machine, remove the cash, and make sure it remains in operating order.)  (b) It is QUICK, only a couple of minutes required to duplicate a key. (c) It supplies it's service ON DEMAND (you don't have to wait in line for someone else to be available to help you.) And (d) it is EASY TO USE OVER AGAIN if you need to.

LIMITATIONS: (a) It DOES NOT WORK ON EVERY KEY (since it has a limited supply of blanks as well as a limited tool-set.) (b) It doesn't make the BEST keys. The keys made with this device may be a bit "sticky" or "rough" and you may find that they do not work at all once you try them on your lock. These limitations can only be surpassed by having a skilled person and a wider variety of tools and supplies available.

Hopefully you can see how this might relate to EDUCATION (and, also, to my www.colbysworld.net project?)

Let's consider Depth Of Knowledge in education. (Here is a useful diagram).

In common core education there are four levels of depth of knowledge: Level 1 is the simplest (basic recall of facts). Then Level 2 (students begin applying the basic facts... skill). The higher Level 3 and Level 4 require more problem-solving, creative thinking, and in-depth applications.

What I am proposing to do with my "flipped classroom" is to AUTOMATE PART of my lessons... I want to use the computer to help students learn the Level 1 and some of the Level 2 concepts. Much like a key-duplicating machine which can effectively handle the more simple, pattern-based topics. The computer is SELF-SERVE, available 24 hours a day, and allows the student to learn on their own, bypassing that bottleneck that is the "classic" model of the teacher being the soul source of tutoring/learning for the student.

Obviously automation can not handle everything. But it just may free up the teacher, and valuable classroom time, allowing one to focus more on those elusive, Level 3 and Level 4 topics....