Social networking Blog # 7

From a course Google+ meeting I gleaned that this post is a review or reflection of some of the Web 2.0 items we've been experimenting with, as well as our insights into social media thus far.  For the prezi assignment week, I was going to create one about Web 2.0 items until I was shocked by the plethora of existing ones from the prezi  "Explore" option.  Not only were there many, but also they were beyond my newbie skills.  In particular, Chris Dell (Director K-12 Mathematics and Technology, Redding, CA) took me through a fascinating Web 2.0 prezi journey: Technology in the Classroom and & the Web (Part 1).  He shares YouTube clips of the 21st Century Learner, he lists numerous Web 2.0 options, and asks questions:  "How can I use [these] tools to better my life, my work or the life and work of my teachers?"  His prezi is an overview and assignment for colleagues.  

While I found our course text by Will Richardson Blogs,Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms and his invitation to explore, learn, and possibly teach with social media tools overwhelming, this one prezi listed yet more Web 2.0 options - should I be surprised by now?  No.  Also, while Richardson's tone is one of excitement and possibility, Chris Dell's tone was a little different - get with the program or get left behind!  Dell suggests that educators need to become digital natives or they will not meet the needs of 21st Century learners.  While fear and pressure tactics were probably not his main goal, perhaps it will be the result for apprehensive computer users.  Those of us interested in using Web 2.0 in our educational tool box will have to be sensitive to possible hesitancy if not defensive responses from those we interact with: students less so, but adults for sure.  


A good article about how to approach educators in beginning this professional development journey was twittered out by Gordon Powell, "Schools Must Help Educators Transform "PD" into Personal Discovery: a Five-Step Process for Using Online Learning Networks" by Rob Mancabelli (District Administration (DA) web site)

Despite the seemingly exhaustive list of Dell's social media descriptions, I did value his internet thematic groupings and links.  I will go back to this prezi to explore more options such as Flip the Classroom, TubeChop, graphic organizers such as bubbl.us, www.gliffy.com, www.mywebspiration.com, Rubric Maker , and more, and more, and more... In fact, it took me an hour to get through Dell's site as I kept clicking on links and learning about more Web 2.0 choices.  Characteristically great resources then "had" to be added to the SD83 teacher-librarian wiki as hopefully helpful one-stop shopping and learning for my peers: in particular Free Technololgy for Teachers a blog written by Richard Byrne, and 100 Tools for Learning 2010 a fantastic easy visual overview of popular Web 2.0 items.  Part two of Dell's writings I will also look at in the near future, but before that I wanted to sample another's perspective.

Thus, from that amazing info source, I thought I'd try one more Web 2.0 prezi - and again a plethora of options.  Audrey van de Sandt's  "The Toolbox - Useful Software for Education" copy of Prezi "Bumper List of 165 useful software for education" (@mattewensRSCW) was possibly a large power point at one time, uploaded into prezi.  In any case, because I had been working on "social presentations," her section on "Writing/Presentation/Collaboration" was luring, but also beyond my time and energy level to explore each listing: Open Office, PageFlip-Flap, LiveLoop, TypeWithMe, Scivener, Scribus, PrimaryPad, joliprint, TypingTest.com, WordWeb, Titanpad, LiveBinder, timeglider (interactive timelines), Zoho Show, Empressr, slideshare, and issuu - oh my!  At this point I was so glad I hadn't attempted a prezi on the behomoth topic of Web 2.0. and realized I must pay more attention to credible tech blogs, twitter feeds, and educational articles about solid educational Web 2.0 products in order to weed through the expansive and dynamic choices. 

At this point I felt paradoxically far from being a confident digital native (vs digital immigrant), but also had to chuckle about how in some contexts I appeared tech savvy.  



Above I mention tapping into "credible" experts to make educated choices and plans for using Web 2.0 in education.  "Credibility" resonated with me as I read the "criticism" section and in particular the social impact of Web 2.0 in Wikipedia (a source I've come to appreciate and respect since taking this LIBE 477 course):

     "Web 2.0's social impact, critics such as Andrew Keen argue that Web 2.0 has created a cult of digital        narcissism and amateurism, which undermines the notion of expertise by allowing anybody, anywhere to share and place undue value upon their own opinions about any subject and post any kind of content, regardless of their particular talents, knowledge, credentials, biases or possible hidden agendas. Keen's 2007 book, Cult of the Amateur, argues that the core assumption of Web 2.0, that all opinions and user-generated content are equally valuable and relevant, is misguided. Additionally, Sunday Times reviewer John Flintoff has characterized Web 2.0 as "creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity: uninformed political commentary, unseemly home videos, embarrassingly amateurish music, unreadable poems, essays and novels... [and that Wikipedia is full of] mistakes, half truths and misunderstandings".^[59] Michael Gorman, former president of the American Library Association has been vocal about his opposition to Web 2.0 due to the lack of expertise that it outwardly claims, though he believes that there is hope for the future.^[60]

"The task before us is to extend into the digital world the virtues of authenticity, expertise, and scholarly apparatus that have evolved over the 500 years of print, virtues often absent in the manuscript age that preceded print".

Andrew Keen, John Flintoff, and Michael Gorman make valid points about the amateur and even incorrect writing on the internet.  The Ancient Egypt prezis I explored are a case in point.  It also reminded me of the inexperienced research and critical thinking skills "my" high school students had when booked into the library and they went out searching on the big world wide web.  More often than not, they would end up on web sites created by other students who had created these assumed "cool" end product publishing mediums.  These projects/writings often came across in bird unit style: cut and paste writings, which lacked synthesis, clarity and credibility.  Overall these found student web sites added to plagiarism cycling along with the process of watering down information. 

And yet is it wrong to give amateurs a public writing space?  No.  In fact, potentials for "real audiences" are what excites me and presses me to continue on with learning these tools and inviting nervous educational computer users to try Web 2.0 in their teachings.  I believe young, inexperienced writers will be motivated to improve their writing for genuine "other" audiences rather than traditionally for the solitary teacher.  

 As Chris Kennedy, Superindent North Vancouver, stated at the 2012, BCTLA conference he is writing more now than ever and is motivated to write well so that others want to read his thoughts.  


More intriguing thoughts about futuristic Web 3.0 and 4.0 came from wikipedia as well as a couple of links from Chris Dell's prezi: Stephen Wang, a Catholic Priest Diocese of Westminster, England and the elusive writer Misthaven who discusses his realization that Web 3.0 has already started, and that futuristic Web 4.0 and the potential for artificial intelligence may come with dangerous downsides.   

Misthaven

Web 1.0 

Stephen Wang describes Web 1.0 as the following: "The first generation of internet technology. You call up pages of text and images with incredible speed and facility. It’s no different from strolling through a library, only much quicker. The operative verb is I LOOK. I look at pages on the screen just as I look at pages in a book. All content is provided for you – it’s a form of publishing. It may be updated in a way that is impossible when a solid book is sitting on your shelf, but you can’t change the content yourself." ("Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0: What does it all mean and where is it all going?" September 25, 2012 by Stephen Wang).

Web 2.0 

Web 2.0 I've discussed above, and similar to Web 1.0 but the difference being "I participate." Wang states "You don’t just look at the pages, you alter them. You write your own blog; you comment on someone else’s article in the comment boxes; you edit an entry on Wikipedia. And then, by extension, with basically the same technology, you share your thoughts on a social networking site, which means you are commenting not on a static site, but on something that is itself in flux. You have moved from action to interaction; from connection to interconnection."   

Web 3.0 

Misthaven describes Web 3.0 as "The accepted notion is that Web 3.0 will be more interactive than its predecessors. That is because it will learn about users and tailor searches and content to their interests. StumbleUpon is an example of a website using Web 3.0 technology. By utilizing a simple feature of rating whether users like or dislike a webpage, StumbleUpon is able to learn user patterns and bring about more relevant searches that the user will be more likely to enjoy."

Web 4.0 

Web 4.0 catapults me back to my Star Trek days and the Sciborgs - half human, half machine/computer.  Wang hyothesizes a "seamless integration of the real and the virtual, the personal/biological and the digital" ... "I AM this world and this world is me."  While Wang describes what Web 4.0 may look like, Misthaven goes further warning us of potential power struggles with futuristic robots.  Just how intelligent will artificial intelligence become and what will the pros and cons of that "advancement" be?  " If advanced web technology can solve minor problems like computer glitches on its own, how long is it before the inevitable happens, and they attempt to "solve" the problem of humanity altogether?" (Misthaven)


Source: http://misthaven.hubpages.com/hub/Web-20--Facebook--Web-30--StumbleUpon--Web-40--Skynet#

The technological ball is rolling and appears to be gaining surprising speed.  Can it ever be stopped?  I'm not sure.  But certainly we need to devote some critical thinking towards how we let it shape the future so our entertaining sci fi films such as Total Recall, eXistenZ, and the Matrix do not come to fruition!

I couldn't seem to close off this post until I looked at Chris Dell's Part 2, "Technology in the Classroom & on the Web (Part 2)"  what further questions, and invitations does he propose?  Dells' first main visual is by JB Nesbitt "A Vision of K-12 Students Today" (4:09).  Now five years old, this YouTube clip again discusses the needs of 21st Century learners and how there is a disconnect between private use of the internet and educational experiences.  Nesbitt argues that many students are gaming and participating in Web 2.0 products a great deal in their personal lives and they want this experience to carry over into their educational experience.  

She offers stats of how little teachers are using Web 2.0 items in comparison to the young people they teach which she claims consume it daily: "76% of my teachers have never used wikis, blogs, podcasts ...digital story telling," etc.  Students go on to claim they want teachers to "teach them to think; to create, to analyze, to evaluate, to apply ... engage us."  I argue that we as educators are already doing those things, but Web 2.0 in particular assists with the creativity component as well as collaboration.

The next YouTube clip titled "A Vision of 21st Century Teachers" (Feb. 28th, 2010) has eighteen teachers "speak out" about tech integration into their teaching.   Take a look at it; many of my LIBE 477 peers have begun a similar journey.

Dell, Nesbitt, and these eighteen teachers are obviously advocators for technology, and make a compelling argument for its educational use.  But there is always two sides to the coin.  One response to Nesbitt's YouTube clip points out "It's funny, what I noticed was that the kids spend so much time with their electronics, that they don't use their imaginations, use their critical thinking or even know how to communicate in person. There is no face to face conversations any more or even phone conversations. Technology is great but not when kids seem permanently hooked up to their electronic umbilical cords"  

And so the debate ensues.   

Overall, I'm excited about Web 2.0 resources and its potential for collaboration and creativity.  While I thought I would progress slowly with my educational peers to teach them about these internet possibilities our administrator recently shared with us a YouTube link from our district Superintendent: "Changing Education Paradigms" (11:41) by Sir Ken Robinson ("world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award. For more information on Sir Ken's work visit: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com [Oct 14th, 2010]).  I then realized that the invitation (or potentially perceived by some as pressure) for technology literacy may be upon us sooner than later. Our district leaders are interested in divergent thinking, creativity, multiple intelligences and how best to engage and teach our 21st century learners.  A few Wifi pilots have started across the district and this spring more schools including my elementary school (4 zones which includes the library - yahoo!) will have wifi access too.  Bring your own technology (BYOT) I believe will soon be a reality for our district.


So where from here?  Well that segues into our last assignment, so I'll leave those thoughts until then.  Post away below if you'd like to begin that dialog now.

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LIBE 477 Readings for #7 Post - Richardson: Chapter 6; Recommended: Berger & Trexler: Chapter 7

Web 2.0 Presentation - Prezi Pour Moi

Through Prezi's own "Explore" and a wikipedia search I found a plethora of social media presentation tools to learn about (possibly even a little overwhelming, but one product at a time ... right?! ).  The prezi examples that I looked at about Web 2.0 resources, I'm saving for the LIBE 477 "Social Presentations" post as they capture a variety of examples of what's out there and what it may look like to use this online software in education.

Thus, I left the "Web 2.0" and "Social Presentations" as keyword searches in Prezi and moved onto "Ancient Egypt" as I wanted to create an inquiry based project for the yearly grade 7 social studies learning theme.  I believe I found mostly student examples as the difference in quality between the Web 2.0 prezis and the Ancient Egypt ones was vastly different.  Nevertheless, I was also impressed with what I assume to be early attempts at prezis by students; it was great to see them trying this software out.  Eight-four pages of results!

Albeit, while visually dynamic compared to an old fashioned hard copy poster or essay, the information wrung of stereotypical project structure.  David V. Loertscher would describe this output information representative of traditional "bird units" = background + worksheet + locate information + cut and clip + report (vii).  He writes: Why is a "bird" unit generally disaster?

          When the majority of research in the library or computer lab is merely the cutting and clipping of           information into some sort of report, little learning takes place.  In the age of technology, students can easily cut and paste megabytes of information from the Internet or electronic sources and turn them in as a report [or prezi].  Obviously, time in the library or computer lab is underused and little progress toward educational achievement is made.  In fact, assignments like these encourage plagiarism (vii).

What to do instead?  Loertscher claims simply redesign activities so learners "must THINK ABOUT and analyze the information they collect ... thus increasing learning and achievement.  Hence my "Ancient Egypt Inquiry" ... attempt.  Before more discussion on the prezi project, more about the student examples:

Student Prezi Examples

1.   "Ancient Egypt: A General Overview of the Culture and Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt" by Samantha Moore on 11 October 2012. http://prezi.com/00hd0exvjqoy/ancient-egypt/
Ardent Librarian Overview: a stereotypical research project covering a wide range of topics: Gov., culture (dress, hair, makeup), housing, entertainment, food), Knowledge (hieroglyphs, medicine, astronomy  math, papyrus, surveying, art and architecture), Religion (mummification, & sacred animals), the Nile, and the Hyksos people.  Overall, the prezi was text driven with few pictures, no multimedia, no quotes, no citations (plagiarized thus?).  I'm assuming the writer was a beginner at prezis.   Despite the lack of visuals and multimedia, however, as a "teacher reader" of numerous "Ancient Egypt" type writings, this "end product" prezi was so much more interesting to read and navigate than an old fashioned posters or essays!  Hmmm.  Samantha has done two other prezis: "The Wife of Bath," and the other "Open Me" doesn't seem to have content.  Question, if we as educators list examples such as Samantha's do I become responsible to check out "all" of her prezi's for appropriate student viewing?  That could be an impossible task.

2.  Ancient Egypt: Ancient Civilization by Timothy Steinson on 03 October 2012.

Ardent Librarian Overview: Tim does a little more multimedia with a YouTube clip about how the Sphinx was made ("We'll only watch a little of this [very long video clip; you decide when you're done]), and more pictures overall.  He seems to invest more time with the bells and whistles than content, but you can tell he did some reading and synthesis.  He does a closing frame of References - sadly something we teacher-librarians see all too often - Google and wikipedia.  While his two citations are an attempt, it's completely incomplete and inaccurate   This prezi is Tim's only one thus far: a beginner no doubt, but a start to some social presentation skills.

Concluding Statements About My Ancien Egypt Student Prezi Perusals
To me, both of these ring of "playing with new virtual toys"  rather than deep thinking and learning.  As "WE" learn new social media tools, I invite us to also look at our project designs and see if we can improve them and move away from what Dr. David Loertscher calls the "Bird Units" and more into inquiry based learning, and following the BCTLA "Points of Inquiry."  Nevertheless, while I say those words, I have yet to design and experience one!  Thus, next I'm off to create a prezi for inquiry learning about Ancient Egypt ...  

Guided Inquiry Examples

• Guided Inquiry: guided Inquiry and the School Library by National Library of New Zealand.  Scroll down to the "Whaling Example of Guided Inquiry" (Powerpoint).
• Cordova Bay, Victoria, Inquiry Learning Projects, Wikis K-5

Alrighty, the above were some guiding examples, along with David Loertscher's "Unit 34: Mayan Mysteries" (132).  I also wanted to finally force myself to use the Points of Inquiry Model endorsed by the BC Teacher-Librarian Association (BCTLA) - I've been sadly procrastinating on getting familiar with that large, but important document.  The exercise was a valued learning curve for me.  While I achieved my goal of a social media presentation that will be better received than a hard copy print out, I'm still going to bore students to tears!  I'm still struggling with how much information do we provide about the "Project To Do" list, as well as listing criteria for educators, students, and parents to read so they know the curriculum we aim to cover.

How does one visually jazz up "analyze the concept of civilization as it applies to selected ancient cultures"?  Ugh.  This question is one I look forward to discussing through social media: this blog, wikis, Google+ professional learning networks ... I know there is an answer, but I don't have it quite yet :)

Thus I invite you to peruse my Inquiry based prezi; it's too text driven; it lacks visuals, but it's a fantastic movement beyond "Bird Units" and into more visually and intellectually engaging learning - it fits with William Kist's "new literacies classrooms" ... "it is the questions that are important rather than the tools we use to explore these questions (8).  It is the visual literacies that we also must develop (25).

I AGREE.  And yet, yeesh, even above is too text driven after reading the likes of William Kist.  BUT, I forgive myself for being a product of the traditional learning system I learned and was teacher-trained through. Like in AA, I will realize and claim my teaching foibles and move forward - little by little.  My social media peers will help be stay on track!

I invite your feedback; many minds make light work

Ancient Egyptian Inquiry on Prezi

In Closing

Prezi is a powerful social presentation tool.  I will definitely use it again in the near future.  That it is restricted to 13 year-olds and older for accounts is simply sad, as I think grade four and up would love this software.  Until that changes, I will perhaps use it as a carrot (as I do Edmodo) as a cool presentation tool one can look forward to as he/she proceeds to grade seven.  The creative commons type prezi share which is "Explore" will be a "go to" resource for presenting students with visually appealing background information for Inquiry Learning.  Most enjoyable experience - time consuming [I've said those words b4 I know]), but powerful.

Wiki Worlds - SD83 Professional Learning Commons Wiki

Wordle: WIKI wonderful creative fun confusing challenging collaborative "Learning Commons" potential control giving sharing public private exciting rich "THANK YOU"

Addendum - Labour of Love in days and years to come




Starting my first wiki - most enjoyable experience ... ahh the potential.  I created a PB wiki for my local teacher-librarian association.  As Jenn mentioned we had tried two years ago with wikispaces, but despite the keen interest, it didn't take off.  I remember logging into my account two days after the overview at our t-l meeting, but I couldn't figure out how to get started or edit; thus, it quickly fell down my priority list, as well as for others

Nevertheless, looking back at this wiki, perhaps this wikispaces could still be used in conjunction with the one I set up.  The district T-L had smartly started with the simple theme of picture book lessons.  She gave examples of two picture books and learning outcomes for each, along with supplies, and activities to coincide with the book:

By clicking on one of the books, it opens up the lesson plan for that book.  The visuals make this template/format inviting to explore:

While the above wiki is a great starting place for lesson plans associated with books, the PB Wiki I started has a larger scope.   Not only do I want to include lesson plans related back to books, but also for larger curricular units: for example the Medieval Unit often done by our middle school.  Further, I wanted a gathering and storing place for networking and Web 2.0 sources.  In addition,  I tried to organize a great deal of conceptual thought around Gordon Powell's framework of Library Administration - teaching is just one of our multitudinous roles.  And organizing this complex learning context is challenging.

Overall, I've created a skeleton template for what I hope will be a meeting place, organizational tool, storage place, and professional development medium.  While fleshing out the skeleton seems behemoth, if my colleagues buy into the concept, then hopefully we share this task together.  While I tried to organize a great deal of conceptual thought around Gordon Powell's framework of Library Administration, I imagine this framework with change and evolve as the dialog begins. I look forward to that process, but I also sense that in the wiki journey my negotiation, as well as compromising skills will be honed.  As the creator of the wiki, I know I will have to let go of the initial control I start off with in design and organization of the wiki - a process which "power" people (Restitution Model) may struggle with.  In any case, that journey will model for all of us what we may begin asking our students to embark on.  Just looking at the differences and goals of the district t-T-ls wiki and the wiki I created are quite different, yet also similar.

In my wiki creation journey for LIBE 477, once again, I got so caught up in perusing and reading various educational wikis and blogs: Cordova Bay, Ekdal's, Heather Daly's that I got behind in creating my own writings/projects!  Nevertheless, here are some of my observations and ponderings.

Viewing Vs Editing Capabilities
In looking at Jean Prevost's wikis - Library Wikis, and Techtools4learning, I can only view the pages.  In the Library wikis the edit windows are visible, but when I click on the "edit" tab, it gives me the option to request edit permissions rather than being able to directly edit.  I like that feature - must learn how to invite my specific SD83 T-L group, and then add the request feature for other users.  My wiki is presently public and open to all to edit.  I thought I would start there for the ease of course peer access and because I don't think my site will go viral any time soon (tee hee).  Thus, I invite my LIBE 477 peers to delve in and see what resources, information, and design ideas you can suggest or simply jump in and change.

Future Dead Links?
Back to the behemoth size that some of these wikis can become, it reminded me of the high school library web page I used to run and the hundreds of links I had in there.  Dead links can easily become an issue for large sites.  While web sites can add a feature (I understand) to have the site's links trolled checking for dead links, without this feature it can become an onerous task to keep a website "current."  What about for wikis?  As I was adding in all of those links, the same issue of future dead links concerned me.


In Closing

The PB Wiki I created I hope will become the start of a learning commons for my t-l colleagues, which will then expand into hopefully other wikis for T-L schools, and thus optimistically across the district.  I only know of one teacher using a wiki with her physics 12 class at the Enderby high school; I'm sure there are more across the district, but they aren't known about yet - wouldn't it be great if we were collating these wikis and perhaps expanding contributors/editors.   I hope to talk to Moira Ekdahl to see how she coordinates her district professional learning commons - just how does one organize/channel all of those voices?  Will that busy professional have time to talk to me?

Tis time. I invite you to peruse my first ever wiki ...

Professional Learning Commons Wiki, SD83, North Okanagan Shuswap Teacher-Librarian Association

Wordle for Ardent Librarian Blog - because it's been fun to play with Wordle and Tagxedo.
 
I'm a learnin!  But why oh why are the two wordle attempts so blurry?

Witch Goes Shopping Podcast by the Ardent Librarian

Witch Goes Shopping Podcast a video by Ardent Librarian on Flickr.

Alrighty, I had to delete my video from my previously posted attempt because it no longer worked; thus, does this mean these files are not stand alone files once they're on the blog? If so, then I don't get long term storage space from flickr? Ok brain dead; must give up. Probably making errors.

Podcasting 101 - But Don't Follow My Lead!

Doing the audio for my first ever podcast was so easy with Audacity and my Plantronics head set (I read a poem).  I searched the Audacity forum and wiki and quickly learned some start up basics and away I went.  Adding the music ... was more of a challenge.  Adding images ... even more challenging!  Aaron assures me the first podcast is always the hardest - I'll repeat those words when I'm brave enough to do another dear optimist - I'm thinking I should get my nine and thirteen year old to do one right away, so my skills don't fade out of short term memory, and I don't lose my bravery!  

Music Step
At freeplaymusic.com I found a couple of great clips, but after registering (Sound familiar? For this account I'm from Afghanistan as Canada didn't take for some reason!), and selecting the ones I wanted, they wouldn't download to my computer.  I read the help feature, but my computer won't respond to the download click - urgh (sound familiar?!).  Thus, I sent a tech help submission and we'll see what I get (closing night comment - can't remember how to get back to the site to see if an answer - too tuckered to try).  I then tried CCMixter.org (Richardson: 119).  The homepage option for "Instrumental Music for Film and Video" seemed hopeful, but searches for "spooky" and "Halloween" gave few results in comparison to Freeplay.  Nevertheless, one appeared hopeful, so I'm just trying to download that, but I stopped the download twice as it appears to enlarge to full screen and play the music while it downloads.  I have 2:57 to type here before the download is complete ... definitely "industrial" spooky!  Not a fan of this download process.  Potentially very time consuming for longer pieces, especially if you just want to use short parts. I THOUGHT IT MAY NOT BE WORKING!  Nope no download came through.  What the heck am I doing wrong?  I'm closing off for tonight ...

Well, I couldn't quite bring myself to "close" that window (took me awhile to find a file I wanted so I couldn't click out of it despite the time - sound familiar?!); thus, I went back one more time and reread the instructions in the download window (slow to be smart move) and saw "To download: Control-click on title and select ‘Save Link As...’" I was only left clicking so was doing it wrong.  I copied and pasted the embed code below (listed above the download screen), as I'm thinking that may come in handy!  Time for sleep.  Back at her ... later.

Combining Audio (Poem) with the Music Track
While Audio file importing to Audacity was straight forward, using the "envelop tool" to fade the music out so you could actually here me recite the poem, and to place my audio track to coincide with my music track took some fiddle time: more Audacity help assisted me (Audacity Forum).  The Audacity wiki I found warned me that the steps to do the former would take about an hour - gulp.   Success, but humbling.

Inserting Images
I searched YouTube as I love the combined auditory instructions with the visuals (Aaron & others can I "Google" for screenr publications too?).  I tried Tony Vincent's "Add Images to Audacity's Audio".  He made importing Powerpoint images look so easy that I thought I would try that process.  "Newbie" naivety completely hung me for awhile.  For the life of me I couldn't get my converted (more Audacity wiki reading) mp3 or wave file for my Audacity podcast to load into Movie Maker.  Two forum posts later, and no response, I resorted to our course saviour - Monsieur Aaron Mueller.  He graciously let me know that I had to add some visuals into Movie Maker first before I could import music files (Oh my Miss Newbie).  In fact, our kind leader created a trouble shooting screenr for me.  I was well on my way once again until I wanted to import those PowerPoint slides - again error message from Movie Maker that it didn't support the PowerPoint files I was trying to import - growl.

Google results listed me a few options; I'll paste the one I chose (& it worked) by Moyea - a company that wants to sell us converter software for $50 but they also kindly showed me how to do the conversion without their "easy to use" software:
Converting Power Point file into Images 
[You] cannot import a PowerPoint file into Windows Movie Maker directly, for Windows Movie Maker's supported input files are video, picture, audio or music, so we have to figure this out with some special methods.

1, Save each slide in PowerPoint presentation to picture. 
Open PowerPoint file, go to File->Save as, on the "Save as type" option, and we choose the picture formats. There are 6 picture formats you can choose: *.gif, *.jpg, *png, *tif, *bmp, *emf. Any one format would be ok. Then click "Save". A prompt will pop up, we choose "Every slide". Seconds later, a hint pops up "Each slide in your presentation has been saved as a separate file in the folder: ***".
Open the folder, you can find all the exported pictures.
Run Windows Movie Maker, you can import all the pictures and edit them, then generate a beautiful video.
The disadvantage of this method is that it cannot keep the audios and animations in original PowerPoint presentation. To avoid this, I'll show you the second method.

2, Convert PowerPoint presentation to video file.
Don't make fuss about this topic. All we need is this professional tool: Moyea PPT to video Converter. It can convert PowerPoint to almost all popular video formats like WMV, MPEG, AVI, etc. It retains the structure of original PowerPoint, keeps all delicately designed elements in PowerPoint.
You have to do only three steps: 
1, Import PowerPoint presentation
2, Choose output file format
3, start conversion.
A few minutes later, the converted video comes on earth. 
Now, you can import the video to Windows Movie Maker and edit it.

Source: http://www.dvd-ppt-slideshow.com/ppt-to-dvd-tips/import-powerpoint-to-windows-movie-maker.html


I converted my five slides to images and learned that I could convert them all at once or individually: handy knowledge when I went back and created a few more slides and then imported them individually.

My next issue was too few slides for all of my audio - oh my!  Thus I simply copied more of the lyrics slide and added in some credit slides.  I also wanted to add in a pdf image I had scanned from the book I got my poem out of.   Growl - movie maker would not accept pdf files.  Thank goodness for Google and kind people who share.  While Adobe Pro wanted approx. $6/month to subscribe for such services, I found this converter site that did the job - simply & for free  http://www.convertpdftoimage.com/.  Success my first Podcast completed - after way too many hours, however.  Now the upload to flickr step

Note - Tony Vincent from the YouTube tutorial above further suggested more Audacity tutorials from Arizona k123 Center: Offering Quality Professional Development for Educator's (search for Audacity; note the results take time to load; I haven't viewed the three results yet).

Uploading to flickr is still not a fluid process when Windows Live wants to get involved, but I got it uploaded.  When I play the video in Flickr, however, the end part is cut off - size limits?  I'm confused.

A search reveals the following Flickr upload limits:
"Free account holders can upload 2 videos a month. If you’re a pro member, your account has unlimited bandwidth and storage space which includes video content.  But! Individual video files must be smaller than 150MB in size for free members and 500MB for Pro members (more because Pro members can upload HD video)." (http://www.flickr.com/help/video/)

My podcast size is 10.9 KB (11,242 bytes), and 2:39.43 in length but I have my two other Parkview Library videos in my Flickr account, so perhaps I'm at my limit.  Thus, I deleted my original Parkview one and kept the edited version on it; I don't think I need to keep it stored on Flickr to be able to play it on my blog - correct?   I deleted my original podcast from Flickr, edited it in Movie Maker (cut slides out) to make it supposedly smaller but no go - the time is obviously related to the music - go figure.  Thus, I guess I would have to go back and edit the music track in Audacity and I simply AIN'T PUTTING MORE TIME INTO THIS ATTEMPT.  I just know I'll be faster next time!

source: http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&safe=active&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=3kGcmhAJgpnRSM:&imgrefurl=http://www.mediafuturist.com/2009/05/audioboo-yet-another-way-to-podcast-and-share-thoughts-now-via-the-iphone.html&docid=UN4ZPf7wKAOeEM&imgurl=http://gerdleonhard.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c59be53ef0115709e98d8970b-320wi&w=300&h=200&ei=XZ-YUNO7GajqigLnoICICw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=429&sig=112323561956103538059&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=203&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:0,i:110&tx=101&ty=54

(ouch - do I use tinyurl to make that source link smaller?  I made the image a live link, but suggestions how to cite this source?)

Experienced Aaron invited me to just to audio with Audioboo & not do images for this assignment, but I had a vision of future poetry projects with sound tracks and images, so I was determined to figure it out.  Kinda did, but now, yup, I'm even more behind.  Is there a silver lining to stubbornness?  Goodnight All.

Tutorials I Used

"How to Embed a Podcast Into Blogger" (Note- doesn't give step by step of how to actually record using Audacity, but great for downloading, and exporting steps)
Audacity Forum
feedback@audacityteam.org
Other one "How to Create a Podcast with Blogger" (YouTube)
Audacity for Teachers - Installation and Basic Editing (from Audacity Wiki)


Must try Bibnet ... soon.  S.

Witch Goes Shopping Podcast

Witch Goes Shopping Podcast a video by Ardent Librarian on Flickr.

My first podcast! The end part is cut off, however! Just 1:30 play time - ahhhh!