Lura's Blog - CCV - Multimedia Apps and Tools

Hey All! This week we experimented with making animation with Moovly . At first I was a bit intimidated by the assignment. The word animation, made me think of cartoons, and I'm not much of an artist. What we really did, was create an animated video clip. If you have ever made a PowerPoint Presentation, you can definitely navigate this webware. (We learned about this in a previous blog: Webware Blog ) The program is super easy to sign up for if you have Google, LinkedIn, or Facebook, and a simple sign up process if not. Once signed into your dashboard, you are given the option to create your own project from scratch, or use a template. There are plenty of free options available for pre-made templates. I opted to use the free stock images to create my own project from scratch. If given the option I would link my Google Drive and upload my own photos and videos and possibly even audio to really "create my own project". For the sake of learning the new program, I opted to st...

Welcome Back! This week we learned about Podcasting. A Podcast is actually a subscribe-able series of podcast episodes. A podcast episode is one singular audio file, but the key is that it is subscribe-able. All podcasts are audio files, but not all audio files are podcasts. (Source: What is a Podcast? ) I learned how to create an audio file with the program called Audacity . Audacity is very easy to use, and there is a lot of editing materials. To be honest, there are more options available on this free download than I have even been able to use or learn. I would recommend this software for anyone looking to get involved in creating and editing audio files and eventually those who are interested in podcasting. This was a fun assignment, but I had a hard time figuring out what I was going to talk about for 5-10 minutes. I ended up discussing some of my thoughts about Coronavirus. Here is a link to my first ever podcast Audacity Podcast : Covid Conversations and also a link to my E-por...

This week we all learned how to Screen Cast. I think the best use of this web tool is for creating a tutorial or a how-to video. The idea is literally the name, you learn how to cast your computer screen for other viewers to watch you operate the computer. Here is the video I created  about how to use PayPal. I ended up choosing Screencastify for my finished product, but not until after many failed attempts to record on a program I will not choose to use again. Screencasitify is a great program and easy to use, especially if you are a Google user! The tutorial videos lay out the use of the site really clearly, the extension is just part of your chrome web-browser so no major hard-drive storage required. The best part of this program is the ability to embed microphone, video-cam, the browser alone, or the entire desktop; there are many options for how to record what you want to do. I love the pause option as well! At first I really disliked this assignment, but I soon realized it w...

Hello All! My Google Site Link to my E-Portfolio :  https://sites.google.com/view/lura-pratson/home In order to replicate any of the material you will learn in this blog post, you must first have a Gmail account. Sign-up here for free! This week we learned how to create websites with  Google Sites . The best part of this all is that it is FREE! Yes, that is correct! Google offers many Apps  and  Webware  that offer Freeware  for users of all ages and experience levels. If you have never created a Google Site or an E-Portfolio, this YouTube Video ( click here ) makes the process a breeze. I will admit I watched this video after having set up my site, so that being said, the process can be easy, with or without pre-instruction, depending on your skill level. (Not sure of your skill level? Try building a site before watching the video, see what you can do before hitting a wall.) For those of you who may remember last week's blog , we learned how to create we...

  Web Design HTML and  Educational Tool Blog My Website  ( https://lurapratson.wixsite.com/lurapratson ) This week for class we were supposed to read several web-based texts and create a website with either Wix or Weebly. I google searched " Weebly vs Wix " primarily because Weebly was listed first and Wix second by the course instructions. I soon realized that Wix, if I were to take my website beyond class would be far easier to control and maintain. " Weebly is a drag and drop builder, but has more limits in its templates. In testing people found it less intuitive than Wix and more difficult to use because of this." ( Source ) Due to the limted templates (designs) and people finding it less intuitive (easy to use) than Wix, I decided to choose Wix to create my website. https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Web_design This site taught me that sometimes I don't realize how blessed I am to have grown up with the Internet. I remember in Kindergarten we were using "...

CCV - Multimedia Apps and Tools Blog #2 June 9-15 This week we learned about photo editing and manipulation. Please enjoy the slideshow of my work. All photos were taken by Lura Pratson. Or, if you prefer, find the Link directly to my video on YouTube HERE If anyone has ever used WeVideo, I would love some assistance with stopping the panorama photos from being cropped/distorted when using in a video. Thank you!

CCV - Multimedia Tools and Applications Week 2: June 2-8 Blog #1 Guiding Questions : How has the Long Tail, Cloud Computing, Social Media influenced my life? Why do I need to know about these things in my field?  Why has Karen chosen to use the cloud for our blogs? Cloud Computing Cloud computing has transformed e-commerce and is explained in the YouTube video " Cloud Computing Explained ". This video explains that hardware, like servers are becoming out-dated as cloud computing is instant, scale-able, and more financially responsible for web-based businesses. The reason cloud computing is becoming the norm, is because servers take up so much space, and are incredibly expensive to own and operate. Servers allow increased traffic flow to a particular website, as more traffic arrives, more servers are needed to maintain all users access. The cloud based server, does not require any physical hardware or space, it is accessible instantly. The instant, on-demand access of cloud-ba...