annie's blog

assignment 11d-linked courses evaluation

2008-12-13T19:09:00.001-06:00

Yes, these linked courses have been most beneficial. The growing trend is to link two separate areas of instruction to enhance and solidify student success. I plan to incorporate either Picasa or Photostory into my classroom instruction next semester. Since I do not consider myself a “tech” person, even I am impressed with the technology skills I developed while creating the digital photos/storytelling. The relationship between the digital course and children’s literature cultivated the connection between the two courses. I think about ways to apply the information learned from each other. The connection of technical skills to content area knowledge expects one to be meticulous; nothing can be an oversight in creating your story. This could be an example of constant reinforcement in the subject area. Yes, I would be interested in enrolling in another linked course and would highly recommend it to other students. Generally speaking, we were given great flexibility to develop and polish our story from the linked classes. Although I prefer one-to-one instruction, partially online instruction would be acceptable.

assignment 11c-create a CD/DVD-final project

2008-12-07T22:15:00.002-06:00

As I mentioned earlier in the course blog, my project is not completed. The program used to create the CD is Roxio by Sonic Solutions on a Dell Latitude D820 laptop using Windows Media Video. After opening the software, select
1. Data
2. Data Disc
3. Add Data
4. The file photostory3final.oralstorytelling_1.wmv
5. Push the red button
6. After successful burning, the cd ejected by itself

Always, after closing the Roxio program, there is a message "Runtime error" "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library." However, it does not affect the CD so I assume it is a problem with the software itself. After loading the CD back into the player, the CD did not play immediately after selecting "what to open the program with." In order for the CD to play, I had to do it manually by selecting the CD in its drive from "My computer. " I was able to do it.

final project software/hardware materials

2008-11-29T15:01:00.004-06:00

The components I have used to create my final project are:

Photostory3
Google Images
Scanner (other sources i.e. books, magazines)
Audacity
Storyboard Template 1
Microsoft Word (script)

At this time, I do not plan to use any video uploading for my project.

atsui-script for oral storytelling

2008-11-23T00:27:00.003-06:00

I've completed about 75% of my script and storyboard, so I'm posting what I have. Next week, I will have to scan pictures from books for Ali Baba and Sinbad. I could not find too many still images on Google. After that, I will complete the rest of my script and storyboard. Attached is a rough draft of the script. I will submit the storyboard on another blog. When both are completed, I will repost them.

Also, I have added images and worked on some of the narration in Photostory3 for my final project. Music will be included later. I may have to delete some images or shorten some of the narration. Just timing this by itself took almost 4 minutes. Any suggestions?

Script (rough draft)
The Storyteller's Creed I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.
- Robert Fulghum

(Not sure whether to add this quote or not).

Image 1
Introduction

Image 2
Young and old are fascinated by adventure stories, especially children. Many envision themselves as heroes or heroines of the day. Oral storytelling is the ladder to taking the first step towards a magical experience. A combination of poets and musicians, many storytellers brought and traveled with their tales to exciting places and returned with many more exotic tales to their homeland. Many folktales, myths, legends, and fables all have morals or teachings embedded in their stories. Although, there are cultural differences in many societies, storytelling’s presence in traditional societies were strong.

Image 3
Earliest storytelling can be found in the Westcar Papyrus, a document about Khufu (Cheops), a cruel Egyptian leader and builder of the Great Pyramids (Giza). Each of these tales is being told at the court of Khufu by his sons.

Image 4
Written on twelve tablets, the oldest written cuneiform (wedged shape) epic tale is Gilgamesh, a tale about the two thirds god and one third human Sumerian hero king of Uruk and his friendship with Enkidu, a half man/half beast being.

Image 5
In the Tanglewood country setting, the children-Sweet Fern, Cowslip, Dandelion, Squash Blossom, Primrose, Periwinkle, and others gathered around Eustace. As they assembled in the dell, Shadow Brook, the children were anticipating one of his famous stories. He acquired a reputation as being great storyteller. After getting all comfy, Eustace begins his story of The Golden Touch.

Image 6
"There once lived a very rich king called Midas who believed that nothing was more precious than gold."

Image 7
He was granted one wish by one of the gods because of his kindness to one of the satyrs. With his wish being granted, everything he touches turned to gold-his food, his flowers, his pets.

Image 8
Trying to give his daughter, Marygold, a morning hug and kiss, King Midas accidentally turns her into a statue of gold.

Image 9
Feeling cursed, he wishes to have everything back to normal. His heart still full of compassion, others help him regain his previous stature. King Midas learned his lesson.

Image 10
Relaxing by the fireplace, Eustace tells another story because Primrose’s parents want to listen to his narrative about The Three Golden Apples.

Image 11
The eleventh labor of Hercules has him searching for three golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides. Inquiring about the road to Hesperides, Hercules encounters three maidens who becomes concern for his life. They warned him of the hundred headed dragon who guarded the garden; fifty heads guarded while the other fifty slept.

Image 12
The maidens tell him to look for the Old Man of the Sea who will give him directions to Hesperides. Hold tightly onto him for he can transform into any creature.

Image 13
Atlas offers to get the golden apples for Hercules if he holds up the sky for him. Hercules trades places with Atlas. On his return, Atlas refused to return to his previous position. Finally outwitting him, Hercules takes the three apples and returns to his cousin.

Image 14
While trekking up the hillside with the children, Eustace stops to let them rest and tell a third story after his little wards begin to weary. He narrates The Miraculous Pitcher.

Image 15
Philemon and his wife, Baucis is a good and kindhearted couple sharing their food and shelter with anyone in need. They watch travelers pass by their home.

Image 16
Two travelers who were heckled by the villagers and their dogs came upon the road to Philemon and Baucis’ home. The couple greeted them with open arms and offered them shelter.

Image 17
The strangers are touched by the generosity bestowed by Philemon and Baucis. Sharing their meager meal with the strangers, the elderly couple is surprised by the continuous abundance of food---the empty pitcher of milk kept pouring out sweet milk, the former crusty bread was moist, the honey sweet and the grapes were juicy.

Image 18
The love between Philemon and Baucis was so strong, that both asked to be together even in death. Their wish granted by the strangers who were gods in disguise, the couple dies together and are reunited as trees in front of their lovely home. Philemon turned into an oak tree and Baucis a linden tree. Both of their branches are entwined among each other showing their endearing love.

Image 19
After Eustace finish the story, he and the children return down the hill to go home.

Image 20
This map indicates the range of where the Arabian Night stories originated in the Islamic empire.

Image 21
Paralleling with Hawthorne’s Wonder Book for Boys and Girls is 1001 Arabian Nights, another initial framing story narrated by Scheherazade, wife of Sultan Shahryar. Due to Sultan’s Shahryar’s first wife’s infidelity, the sultan has vowed to kill every woman he marries after the wedding night. Scheherazade, daughter of the Shah’s Wazir, marries the Sultan, but devises a plan to stop this ruthless killing of women in their country. She begins by telling the story of Aladdin…

Image 22
Aladdin speaks with a magician who recruits him to retrieve an oil lamp from a cave in the desert.

Image 23
Aladdin stares at the trap door opening in the desert and slowly begins his descent…

Image 24
Magic lamp and genie

Image 25
Meets and marries Princess Badroulboudour

Image 26

Image 27

altsui-audio editing-2nd try

2008-11-18T20:52:00.003-06:00

I was able to upload my audio on SoundUpload tonight. Here is the link:

http://www.soundupload.com/audio/uipkwqxu7k9i5vkb

This evening, I tried to convert my audio file from wmv to mp3. I downloaded LAME, converted my file to mp3, upload it on boomp3 and it did not work. The processing worked fine, but when I tried to listen to it after uploading it, no music/narration heard.

assignment 9-audio editing

2008-11-17T00:53:00.003-06:00

I downloaded my wmv file to SoundUpload twice, but did not receive the link in my email. Tried to download the LAME encoder to convert the wmv file to mp3 without success. Saved the file by exporting it as a mp3 file, but the LAME file could not be found, so I may be doing something wrong. I have also put the file on my flashdrive to bring to class.

assignment 7-outline

2008-10-25T22:40:00.000-05:00

Topic: Oral Storytelling

Origins
Storytelling
A. Wonder Book for Boys & Girls
Narrator: Eustace Bright
The Golden Touch
Three Golden Apples
Miraculous Pitcher

B. 1001 Arabian Nights
Narrator: Scheherazade
Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves
History or 7 Voyages of Sinbad
Aladdin and the Magic Lamp

I am going to try and note the history/purpose of oral storytelling-teaches a lesson/moral, develop imagination, preserve memories, and pure entertainment by trying to add images that will connect to this. That may sound a little far fetched, so I am open to suggestions on how I should go about this. Maybe, that part will just have to be narration. While researching 1001 Arabian Nights, I came upon many stories within stories. Additional stories may be included after I experiment with narration, music, and other effects. I will also work on a script this week.

Engines of Ingenuity-Frankenstein

2008-10-14T20:27:00.000-05:00

Growing up, horror movies for me were these imaginative characters such as Dracula played by Bela Lugosi or Wolfman played by Lon Chaney. We did not have the special effects available as in today's movies. Sometimes, the movie presentations were serious or comedies such as "Abbot and Castello Meets Frankenstein," "Frankenstein" starring Gene Wilder and Madeline Kahn (very effective since the movie was in black and white) or one of Bob Hope's movies. Back then, these characters played on our creative minds. It was always a battle between good and evil. Books itself were read for enjoyment and fantasizing a little. Also, Halloween is almost here and just perusing the list of ingenuities made me select Frankenstein #1337.

The story was written by Mary Shelley whose parents were the writers, William Godwin and Mary Wollencraft. It is a mixture of Gothic and romanticism influence. The Industrial Revolution brought changes from a manual labor economy towards machine based. In an era of post Industrial Revolution, Victor Frankenstein is fascinated with creating a "man brought to life" by the use of electricity. He experiments and becomes obsessed with creating a man (or similar to one) through this use of science searching for the "elixer of life." His purpose was to make things better for humans; same as in "The Modern Prometheus."

annietsui-narration and music-assignment5

2008-10-12T22:53:00.001-05:00

Working on the narration was quite a disaster for me. I used a microphone described as a "blackjack." After successful testing with the volume using the Sound Hardware Test Wizard, I thought it would be easy. I spoke into the microphone and saw the meter registering my recording. Unfortunately, I could not hear my voice during the preview so I redid the narration several times. Later, I discovered that the narration recorded, but could hear it very faintly on the laptop. Tried to go into the settings to correct the volume, but it did not change. If the picture did not move for quite a few seconds, those were the frames where I tried to add narration, but could not be heard during preview.

Also, I could not figure out how to use background color with the picture on it, but did eventually. It is reflected in my first frame only. Selecting the transition feature in customizing motion is a time consuming process if you select transitions for each picture. Good thing, I remembered the comment about overdoing the transition function. I chose just a few to begin with, adding or deleting as I went. Using transition on the frames caused the pictures to be slightly blurry during the viewing.

Another question I have is getting the complete frame to fit into the slide. I increased the pixels based on what was recommended, but it did not cover the whole frame during the preview. The music was louder than my narration, so I had to lower the volume and resave. I used music already in the program, but will try to find other music by downloading it (if I can).

Some of the six tales I used do not have a frame leading into it. Right now, one may tell one story and go into another one without a separation. I did not like the original introduction to those and am trying to find a different one for them. I plan to add a separate picture from the tales after the last frame. So, it may seem a little confusing.

My total time for the video was about three minutes after adding and deleting. Since this is really a rough, rough draft, I will have to go and revise my entire photostory/video as I practice using these features more. It is not the quality expected.

annie tsui-assignment 4-upload video

2008-10-08T18:18:00.000-05:00

This is just a rough draft. I know it needs work on text colors and I am going to try to work on the motion...have some ideas, but will need to experiment. I found an old microphone in the house. Should work OK.

before and after

2008-10-05T12:39:00.000-05:00

My first picture is the moon on September 14, our Mid-Autumn Festival. From Dr. Robin's suggestion, I cropped the picture and realized the effect presented is definitely much better. I changed the size from W326 H435 to W126 H113. After, I edited some of the other features, you also noticed the image being clearer and more distinctive than the original. The exposure was changed from 0% to 84%, the contrast from 0% to just 1% (this was best left alone), and the saturation from 100% to 140%. In saturation, less saturation (129%) led to a darker background with less clouds while more than 140% saturation led to a yellowish tint appearance of the moon. The hue at 50% showed the moon to be more distinctive as well. Sharpness varied; if the percent moved from 0 to 40, the picture has a grain or sand background effect to it. After 71%, the moon becomes blurry. I left it at the original setting of 4%.

My second picture is of a tree where I try to catch the sunlight shining through it. I went through each option and selected some and left some alone. The following features were used. Colors were enhanced greatly as you can see the difference from the before and after photo. Tilt was not used. The exposure was decreased from 4% to -29%, contrast increased from 1% to 44%, the saturation from 100% to 179%, and hue from 0% to 11%. The saturation effect brought out vivid colors compared to the dullness of my original. On the sharpness, I increased the percent from 0 to 49. From the range 0% to 49%, the picture looks fine, less than 0% or more than 49%, the picture becomes distorted or stifled. Overall, my concern about this photo is the sun peering through the tree. I not sure the image or reflection is what it should be. Any suggestions?

Question-I tried to add text to my picture (either on or around it) with the words "before" and "after," but could not figure it out. Do we do this before we upload our picture or is there a way you can edit it while in your blog? I tried doing it while in the blog, but was not successful. Also, what about the editing the location of your picture in the blog. I used the selection of none, right, center, or left offered initially when we begin to upload, but I actually uploaded the tree first and moon second. I thought the tree photos would be first, but when I uploaded the moon photos, those took precedence over the other. So, do I assume, you work from bottom up when uploading the order of your photos?

3 more pictures

2008-09-18T16:00:00.000-05:00

Since I just learned how to collage pictures, I did these 3 the same way. Most of my pictures were taken this past weekend. Gentle touch of nature reflects simplicity and enjoyment. The photo was taken near my front door. The plant is on a small stand and faces a window. I open the blinds each morning and rotate the plant around every few days to allow the whole plant to catch the sunshine. Yes, a flash was used since it is indoors.

Morning before Hurricane Ike arrives... was taken Friday morning about 6:40a. I just wanted to look at the cloud movement and rustling tree branches. Of course, it was difficult to catch tree branch movements. No flash was used. I took several outdoor shots at different angles and got views that I did not want to include in the picture. I assume if I developed them, I would have to crop it.

Mid-Autumn Festival is an annual celebration in our Chinese culture. According to our lunar calendar, the official date is August 15. In Chinese history, the explanation of the moon at its brightest on this one night of the year arose from a love story between Houyi the Archer and Chang'e. This year, the date happened to fall on September 14. I went outside during the times of approximately 9:30p, 10:30p, and 11:20p. This picture is the one from 10:30p. Although one cannot see a big bright moon, I saw how the clouds were slowly going across at 9:30p and 10:30p. Even though the moon is just a little speck, a closeup of the picture will reveal the moon and its clouds. By 11:20p, the clouds had completely covered the moon again. However, I was still able to see the moon on this special day.

Collage creation

2008-09-18T13:24:00.000-05:00

Does anybody recognize any of these comedy shows? I typed text under the collage after creation, but it did not show. Anyone know what I did wrong? Wow, I cannot believe I was able to do this! This is a great program and I had so much fun doing it. It is really easy (that's what I say now, I don't know about later on). I read the directions for Picasa3 about two times, slowly going step by step and writing down information each time I selected a new tab. When I transferred the pictures from my flash drive to Desktop, I lost the picture of Andy Griffith twice and could not understand why. I went back and looked at each picture. Except for 1 bitmap and 1 gif, the remaining 8 were jpegs. Andy Griffith's picture is a gif and would not transferred. Perplexed, I was not sure what to do, but figured it out. I exported the picture and change the file format from gif to jpeg. I explored the different tabs in Picasa3 as I created the collage ---the settings, grid spacing, background options, page format. After the picture was completed, I also experimented with the basic fixes, tuning, and effects tab. I added a glow to my collage from the effects tab. Once I logged into the blogger site, I was given an option of the collage's setting ---none, left, center, right and the size of small, medium, and large. I chose large, but would have liked to learn how to make it a little larger. If I select "Edit Html," I am afraid the pictures in the collage will be distorted as I try to make it larger. Any suggestions as to how the picture can be increased in size without being too distorted?