Gap- filling exercise

Hi everyone

I've decided to show you-at last- how the projector changed my professional life:)

I used to do gap- filling exercises with the learners, but they were ordinary worksheets. Because my students do nightshifts and come to the sessions half asleep, I tried something else, just to wake them up. I prepared gapped sentences (the topic was 'My day'), and printed out the words to be put in the gaps. Then, I displayed the exercise on the wall, using the projector, of course. The learners got a set of words each, and they stuck them on the wall with some Blue Tack. It worked really well, we all had fun and it helped the visual learners remember the sentence structure better.

Training with the Dream Team

Had a great training session today in the depths of the Forest of Dean. Here are the group learning about powerpoint, and Gill and I were playing with videos we had taken on our cameras, which included sound.
For Gill it was a presentation movie on sketchbooks/journals/notebooks and for me it was a video of using the embellisher machine. We both used the gorrilla pod to support the camera, however I think Gill had chosen the easier option to video. She could place the camera and the sketchbooks on a stable surface. I had chosen to video the embellisher machine working, and the only place I could put the gorilla pod and camera was tucked into the neckline of my T shirt! I am pleased with the results though.

Gill and I had both taken the videos before the training session ( read yesterday!) and were hoping to edit them with the software on the laptops. We quickly discovered though, that the software we had, would not do exactly what we wanted it to do. Quite frustrating. Movie maker has no editing facilities we could use. Ulead video was really quite difficult, not in the least intuitive. We could not split the video and work on sections ...... but we are hoping that investing in Pinnacle studio will solve the problem. Either that or we will have to video in small chunks... bit of a nuisance. So we hope to be able to share our edited videos with you at a later date.
We also discussed how we could share powerpoint presentations ... there must be a way....so watch this space. Hopefully one of the other trainees will share with you when they have a few moments free to blog.
Posted by Maggie
Nearly forgot to add.. Gill supplied some brilliant food..... really need to share the receipes Gill.....please?

Gorilla Pod

The gorilla pod has been very useful for me too this morning in preparing for training in Power Point. It enables us as the photographer to find the frame we wish for our video clips and photo shots, without having to ask for help from a friend.

Movie making

In preparation for our workshop later, I'm busy movie making! I am, however, having difficulty getting the focus right on the video function of the Cybershot, but haven't given up yet! as you can see, the gorillapod is proving useful and has been worth its weight in gold.

After shooting three or four video clips, I decided to get the manual out...

I've now changed the setting, by means of the button shown and BINGO! The video I'm recording is now crystal clear and the sound quality excellent. Of course, the file size is huge, but I'll copy it to a memory stick later and delete the "mistakes".

Why didn't I read the manual earlier?

PowerPoint and Movie Maker Training

Looking forward to the training at GL14 later - not least seeing all the images you have chosen to bring. I have produced a brief How To Guide on using both PowerPoint and Movie Maker to produce learning objects. These are available to all so if you're not involved in the training but would like a copy let me know and I will email them to you.

Lizzy - meant to add thanks for helping me with getting around flickr. Such a simple question - can't believe I couldn't work it out myself. Getting there slowly! sara

fantastic pics Lizzy

just taken a break and have been enjoying your latest flickr photos. They are fantastic! The group textile celebrating stitch techniques is gorgeous. Where are you going to exhibit it? Sara


Sara, I hope you don't mind my using my "Editor's Privilege" to add a reminder that a link to our Flickr group can be found at the top right hand side of this blog page. I quite agree that Lizzie's photographs are terrific and well worth having a look! Gill