All about school

Category: EdTech (page 2 of 2)

Jesse Miller

I found todays guest speaker, Jesse Miller, very interesting. Technology is obviously a growing thing in our lives which is exactly what this class is all about and it was cool to get a professionals view on whats going on. Jesse had a lot of cool facts like how Captcha’s help self driving cars develop or how privacy rights are not as private as everyone might think, especially in terms of social media apps.

Jesse spoke about all the growing issues related to consent, privacy, and security and at the end of the day, most resolution comes from being mature. Using common sense to navigate through the internet and social media is what his suggestion was but that seems to be getting harder and harder for people. For me i would say that i have been pretty smart in terms of posting safe content online but of course there are some acceptions. Not to call anyone out but i know of people who post pictures of their students on instagram and who knows, maybe they didnt get consent and even though its a harmless, cute picture, that students identity has just been compromised.

Learning through using the internet and technology is ever evolving and while it is interesting to see, it is something as teachers that we always have to be aware of. We will see the evolution first hand whether its technology the students are using on their own or its technology we can use to aid our teaching. I really hope to incorporate technology into my teaching because i truly think that it can be beneficial to learning but at the same time i will have to be very adamant on keeping up with safety and privacy guidelines.

I hope to learn more on this topic throughout this class and i know that i will.

 

First Test

So I went to Langley over the weekend and I decided that it would be the perfect chance to test out some of the new settings I found. Ive mentioned in my last posts that ive had trouble with overexposure but I have had trouble with underexposure too and I hardly ever try to film things in the dark just because I know it wont even work. Since we took the 7:00am ferry it was still fairly dark on the way over so I used the new settings I found to set the exposure really low and this is what I got. I was pretty impressed honestly. I dont think anything would have been visible if i didnt find this setting change so im pretty happy.

Ferry

 

My Camera

I own a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera and it is what I have been Using to shoot videos. It works fairly well honestly. The sound I get from it is good, the picture is clean for the most part and its really easy use. A couple downsides I have noticed while using it is that it does not work very well on bright days or with bright things, it just looks washed out and overexposed and it doesnt focus very well sometimes. I have never played around with the settings for the video on the camera and frankly I have never even looked at the manual before this. I don’t have the physical manual but I found one online here: https://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manuals/kie88335f7869dfuejdl=-cww2/D3100_EN.pdf

This is what i found:

  • The first thing I found is that you can change the focus mode for taking video. I have had it on Single Servo AF which is used for stationary objects and people only which would make sense of that fact that I had been having focussing issues. Theres 3 focus modes available on this model:

Single Servo AF – Auto Focus for stationary objects and people

Full-time Servo AF – Auto focus for moving objects and people

Manual – Manual focus

  • The second thing I found that could help me with my overexposure problem is using the AE-L/AF-L button to lock the exposure to stop it from fluctuating
  • But the third thing I found is the most exciting and honestly it’s kind of embarrassing that I haven’t found this before but there is a way to change the exposure compensation (+-5.0) which completely fixes my overexposure problem

I am very very excited to try out the new features I’ve found and i hope that my findings will clear up all the problems Iv’e had in the past. I am also  currently questioning myself as to why Iv’e never thought to look at the manual before.

 

 

 

Im trying!

In todays class I had a quick conversation with Val about my free inquiry and I am feeling much better about the whole project. I mentioned my general idea for it and we both started brainstorming more specific directions I could take it. A couple we discussed were based around, cameras used, editing tools, pros/what they use, and maybe even friends that I can talk to about videography as a whole. Anyways, I’m feeling way more confident in how this project is going to go and excited to get started.

Free Inquiry: Videography

Videography really interests me and so that is why i think i am going to dig deeper into the medium for my free inquiry project. I have a (pretty basic) DSLR camera but it takes  decent video and prior to this class i have made three, one minute videos consisting of a mashup of clips set to music. The videos are from surf trips, camping trips, and just fun times with friends and i honestly find them so much fun and so rewarding to make. Not only does it give me satisfaction to create something that i think is cool, it also makes me so happy to see the reaction of my friends when they see a video featuring themselves. These videos that i have made are fairly easy to shoot and really easy to edit but with this free inquiry project i thought it would be the perfect chance to maybe start doing some tougher things. With the camera i have i am going try to start making some more complex and technically demanding videos. I haven’t really explored my camera too much in terms of its video capabilities so for the first week i think thats a fitting place to start. This week i will explore the user manual of my camera and see what exactly i am working with. Later this week, i will post more information on my camera and its capabilities.