IRLS 571 Assignment --

Hello World!

In this last of the 4 installments of my homework for IRLS 571 I will talk about what changes that I would suggest for this class next time.

There are not many changes that I would make to the course. I will admit I had some trouble finding all the reading assignments for some classes as the readings were in different places. I might suggest that you go by class date, and then put all the stuff for each date in the one spot, and then upload the power point slides when they are ready.

Along those same lines maybe have all the PDF's under a heading called assignments at the bottom of the class either ahead of time or add them as you give them out in class.

Otherwise I don't have much more to say. I liked how you mixed up the history and the computer assignments and also that you made videos for us to watch at home. That was very helpful for me, as I could re-watch the videos as much as I needed to.

WHY I AM NOT DOING A YOU-TUBE VIDEO --

So I really had my heart set on uploading a You Tube Video to the internet for this assignment. let me tell you about my issues.

Size really does matter!

I thought that creating a video and uploading it to You tube would actually be quite simple. I asked around a bit at OSCR and they assured me that yes, it would be simple. My laptop comes with a built-camera, so I thought (mistakenly) that I was set.

I will admit that I was just playing around with the camera and it is strange to watch yourself and try not to look at your goofy-self, but into the camera. I did a few "test" runs and then went for it. My first video was not too bad only 5 minutes and 1.3 gb. (my flash drive is only 1G)Then I went and set up my You Tube account and it found out that the site would only let you upload a video less than 100 mb! WOW.( and I also did not realize that it could take between 1-5 minutes to upload EACH mb! (and that was with high-speed!) It was here that I was beginning to realize that It might not be so easy to make this thing.

OK Rounds 2-4 were trying to get all the information that you wanted us to include in the assignment down into the smallest amount time. I worked it to just over 3 minutes, and also cut down on the pixels on the camera. Still my best was 250 Mb with my laptop.

Then I tried to call OSCR and the person said that I should come into the lab or the Zone at the library and they had a camera that I could use etc... because it was really simple to make a vblog in the OSCR multimedia areas. So now off to the library...

The Zone is now packed with people completing their last of the semester stuff, but so am I, right! So I tuck in to a computer (Mac) that the OSCR person recommends and give it a go. I tried not to talk too loud, but there was so much noise that the speaker was going in and out. I gave it 3 tries and some test spots of 1 minute, and I did manage to make an OK 3.5 minute video (and finally small enough at only 29.4 mb!!!) but each time I watched it, the speakers would give out during some part of the presentation, and the whole thing would go silent.

I have one more option up my sleeve for a You Tube video and I am planning to try it tomorrow, but I wanted to have this Blog done just in case!

Yikes a picture, I almost forgot! As you can see, Delaina and I have just started this blog over the winter holidays and are using it to communicate with our friends around the country. In the beginning we were going to update it once a week (yeah so optimistic!), and now it is more like once a month, but I still like having it and the best part is adding the pictures to the posts. So here is my inspirational You Tube vloger in the hopes that I join the ranks soon!