Hi there, and welcome to the Writing Program Blog! Here, you’ll find updates on Writing Program events, professional development tools, classroom resources, information on how to use technology for teaching, and more. In the right sidebar (below recent tweets and posts) you’ll find some blog keywords that may be helpful in navigating the blog. And below that you can enter your email address to get a quick update every time we post something new.
Please let us know if there is anything you would like to see on the blog, and happy reading!
Like to add a video project to your syllabus? Not sure about having students edit their videos? Not even sure where to get a camera? No worries! With our sport cameras which you can check out from STV 133 and the Windows Live Movie Maker software already installed on the computers in the STV 250 suite, you are ready to lead your students into quick and easy video projects. The video below offers a quick guide to getting started:
Below I’ve included the basic outline for the video above – feel free to share this with you students so they can see one approach to organizing a video. Or for the printer-friendly version, see Video Podcasting for Students: Your Quick How-To Guide!
Yes, these are just the notes I used for making the video podcast. But they offer a quick reminder of what you’ve seen. Plus, you can let your students see that video-making doesn’t need to take forever.
Part 1: Equipment Check-Out – STV 133
Considering a video project for your Fall Syllabus? We have the tools for you!
Video of one of the cameras.
Show how to turn on, turn off, and open USB.
Show an example of shooting a video and then plugging in USB.
Part 2: Downloading Your Video
Using Camstudio to record this.
Recommend that students save all their work to a thumb drive. Video files tend to be large, so students should use thumb drives with at least a gigabyte. The Student Temp Drive may also work, but only as a temporary solution.
Create a single folder on the drive for your Windows Live Movie Maker file. This folder should also contain your video files. If you move these files to different folders, your Movie Maker file will lose access to the video files, so keep them all together.
Reminder: All movie files MUST be on the thumb drive BEFORE you start using Movie Maker.
Part 3: Editing Your Video
Open Movie Maker
Simply drag-and-drop video clips into Movie Maker
Hit “Save Project” to save your Movie Maker file (you should still do this often…)
Hit “Save Movie” to export your edited film. (“Recommended for this project” works well, but watch your file size).
If you missed the “using audio technology in the writing classroom” Tech Time, check out this resource about using podcasts in the writing classroom. And keep your eyes peeled for the first Writing Program Podcast Series recording coming soon!
It’s a common question: “How do I teach my students to use a technology that I don’t fully understand myself?” Or, more common still: “I use that technology all the time, but I just don’t feel comfortable teaching it.” So here are some of the issues that arise with teaching technology, and some tips for addressing them.
Thank you to everyone to attended the Town Hall meeting on Friday! We had a great discussion, and we hope that the question-and-answer format helped everyone get a better idea of how next year’s assessment will work.
If you have additional questions or suggestions, please fill out our Town Hall Assessment Questions form via GoogleDocs.
On Friday, March 29 @ 4p.m. in STV 133, there will be a special “town hall” meeting for all WP instructors. The topic of discussion will be the upcoming fall 2013 ENG 145 & 145.13 assessment, as well as the spring 2014 ENG 101 assessment.
For those who cannot attend in person, Ryan will set up a Google Hangout session. Please contact him at for more information: Ryan Edel.
As the Tech Coordinator, the biggest complaint I receive from teachers is “my students don’t know how to…” Many instructors have said that they’re afraid to introduce new technologies because they’re afraid they wouldn’t be able to teach their students how to use them. “I can use GoogleDocs,” one might say, “but I’m afraid I couldn’t teach my students.”
In situations like this, it really helps to send your students to the world’s ultimate index of knowledge: Google.
