Week 11 - Of Photos and E-Books

This week we concentrated on the photo-editing task that we were given and also on an e-book we were to create.

Firstly, Pn. Foziah went around to check everyone's edited photos. To our horror, she rejected some of the photos and my friends had to do the task all over again. That was a wake up call. After lots of commenting, and re-editing, I managed to submit my before and after photos onto Photobucket. Everyone was required to do the same. We received the login ID as well as the password to the account. In Photobucket, we could see everyone else's work and some of them were really good.

Oh and another thing, our edited photos must have a theme (such as friendship, honesty, trust) and a copyright (our name or signature and the date).

In my opinion, I think Pn. Foziah stressed alot on our edited pictures as she wanted out pictures to come out and tell a story just like the saying, 'Pictures paint a thousand words'. Besides that, editing the photos will only make people more interested in them.

Next, Pn. Foziah introduced us to the e-book. An e-book is created through the Power Point software and includes sounds, animations and a storyline.

In pairs, we had to create an e-book that has pictures, animations, audio files and also a storyboard (theme, setting, characterization, etc).

Creating an e-book will be a fun process because I don't think that it will be that boring or taxing. It will definitely be fun inserting all the animations and pictures inside, looking for more ways to make the story interesting for children.

Cheerios~

*An Afternote*
My e-book is entitled "Jazzy's Trip to the Zoo" and after countless trial and errors, I managed to edit my photos to my best ability.

Week 10 - Audio Editing Madness!

We focused on completing the 3 tasks given to us for Module 3 - Audio Editing. Pn. Foziah went around the class to listen to everyone's audio files and gave comments on it.

First Task:
We had to create a ring tone from a song. I chose the song 'I Know You Want Me' by Pitbull. I liked the beginning of the song and that was the ring tome I created.
Pn. Foziah's comment: The chorus of a song is usually the best for creating a ring tone. This is because the chorus usually is the part of the song where the beat is more catchy and most people remember the chorus of the song better than the beginning.

I understood where she was coming from so I created a new ring tone based on the chorus of the song.

Second Task:
We had to merge two songs into one. Now, I thought that this was going to be tough but I think the tutorials on 'Audacity' helped me out a little. The songs I merged together were Rihanna's 'Umbrella' and Charlotte Church's 'Crazy Chick'.
Pn. Foziah's comments: The merging of the song is alright but I needed to ensure that the fading in and out as the file moves to the second song is smooth so as to not disrupt the flow of the song. My audio file was choppy as it transitioned into the second song

Third Task:
We were given the song 'Dua Insan' by Siti Nurhaliza and M. Nasir. Using 'Audacity', we had to remove all the background noises and clapping sounds to produce an audio file that only had the song.
Pn. Foziah's comments: This song was very choppy as I did not use the 'Fade In' and 'Fade Out' options so the song started and ended abruptly.

I thank Pn. Foziah for commenting on my work as she helped me ensure that I did the best I could for the task.

On a last note, we had to hand in our Module 3 at the end of the class together with our edited tasks.

Cheerios~

Week 9 - Module 2

This week, we received our module 2 even though Pn. Foziah was not around. This time around, the module was on Photo Editing Skills.

Soliloquy: Ohmaigod! this module is too thick! How can we finish it in the given time. Now module 1 was still bearable but this will be impossible!

Everyone was shocked to see how thick Module 2 was. This will definitely take up alot of our time. After browsing through it, we realized that most of the units were tutorials on Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Why do we need so many units on photo editing alone? Isn't it such an easy thing to do. I really thought Pn. Foziah was exaggerating on the tutorials she wanted us to complete.

But I know that she is doing this for us, so that we will be equipped with all the knowledge a teacher should have especially in this new-age world. Imagine the embarrassment I could go through if my pupils pointed out my mistakes when handling these software.

The module will teach us on how to remove certain images from a picture or even change the background of the picture altogether. This skill is definitely welcomed by me because most pictures are not suitable to be used in the classroom. By learning how to edit photos, I will be able to extract images that are deemed suitable or remove any unwanted images from the picture.

This module is looking fun already :)

Besides Adobe Photoshop CS3, the other software we were introduced to are:


• Adobe Photoshop













• ACDsee













• iPhoto












• Microsoft Paint













• Photbucket













• PhotoScape













• Triscape FXfoto













Oh and did I mention that the assignements that we were to submit after the Hari Raya Holidays have been postponed as Pn. Foziah was kind enough to give us more time to complete it :)

Cheerios~

Week 8 - Bye Module 1..er, hello Module 3?

This week, we had to submit Module 1. Lo, and behold, its next kin, Module 3 then appeared into our lives. *Sigh*

The good news is that it is not as thick as Module 1 and we could complete it during the holidays so it was not going to be so taxing like when we had to complete Module 1.

Module 3 is all about audio-editing and the main software that was to be used is 'Audacity'



'Audacity' is a free software downloadable from CNET.com and it has a myriad of options for editing your audio files. I am not familiar with this software so it took me awhile to get used to it and the different options available.

Let me backtrack a little here~~

Basically, Module 3 is about:
1) Changing the speed, pitch cut and joining audio files for better quality audio files.
2) Decreasing and increasing the music tempo.
3) Removing noise from the audio file, upgrading the quality of audio files.
4) Converting and encoding audio files
5) Changing the type of audio files from wav to mp3
6) Creating a minus one.
7) Combining two songs
8) Editing music and sound
9) Saving and uploading

After completing the module, there were 2 assignments that we needed to complete:
1) Collection of technological and non-technological teaching aids.
2) Compiling a 1-one hour lesson plan and 3-half hour lesson plans on the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in groups of 5. My group members are:


Maher


Sabrina


Adhwa


Dominic

Cheerios~

Week 7 - Bring it on Module 1!

I've said it before and I'll say it again..

~2 weeks is definitely not enough time to complete Module 1!~

So Pn. Foziah gave us the lesson today to complete our Module 1.

Can you imagine the 30-something of us frantically typing, printscreen-ing and saving our work?

It was eerily quiet in the class that day (well, that's an understatement but we were all trying our best to complete the module)

It was so kind of Pn. Foziah to take the trouble to look at our work as some of us were having trouble going through the software and she was ever ready to give us a hand.

I realized one thing: Some of the software I have never heard of (Zamzar, Abclit). So in a way, this module has opened my eyes to the fact that I can use other software to carry out my work and not just the normal ones we use everyday. There are more variety and many options to choose from.

At the end of the day, Pn. Foziah told us that we are to go to her office on Thursday to collect Module 3 which was on audio-editing.
*FAINTED*

Cheerios~