BP8_RILS Reflection

Working in Educator Studion to post my RILS was very simple.  It only took a few minutes to fill the spaces with copy and paste and uploading in .pdf format my assessment.  The only thing that I didn't like was that I uploaded two attachments instead of one and I couldn't find a delete attachment button.  The "help" button was unavailable.  Aside from technical issues, Educator Studio is a good resource for students to post their projects, either RILS or Capstone.

BP7_Links to RILS comments

Follow this link to view my comments in Alyson's blog.

Follow this link to view my comments in Rebecca's blog.
Here's the link to her Educator Studio in case it's working.

ETC_Final Project

Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario

 Rodolfo Fernández

Overview:

The purpose of this Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario will be the introduction of a music creation/audio recording web 2.0 tool, in the Introduction to Computers class.  The use of the web 2.0 tool will introduce students to similar applications used in the course of their Associate Degree program.

Target Audience:

• Students in the first year of Recording Engineer associate degree.

Materials:

• Computer with broadband connection.
• FL Studio
• Garage Band

Objectives: At the end of this scenario, the learners will be able to:

• Create a musical piece using Soundation, FL Studio and Garage Band.
• Evaluate and compare the ease of use of Soundation with FL Studio and Garage Band.
• Discuss the application of the web 2.0 tool in class.
• Apply the use of these applications as recording engineers.

Procedure:

• Students will go to the Soundation webpage, http://www.soundation.com/ and create an account.
• Once students’ log in, they will proceed to create a musical piece as they do in FL Studio or Garage Band.  
• If the student has any questions or doubts, they will refer to the “How-to-section”.
• After they finish the musical piece, students will export it to the computer’s desktopin .wav file format

Students will review the Web 2.0 tool in class by:

• Discussing advantages and disadvantages of Soundation to similar program, like Garage Band or FL Studio.
• Use of ease of the web 2.0 tool (Soundation).
• What improvements can be done in Soundation
•  Remind students that they can take their finished jobs on a USB Flahs Drive and use it on other projects.

Web 2.0 Tool:

Soundation is a free online music creation tool.  Users can create music using an online loop library; also, audio editing and effects are features available in the application as exporting to the computer or the Internet.

 Social Participation/Social Learning:

Students will work on their musical creations during class hours for class grade, at the computer lab, during 4 class sessions.  Collaboration will occur by listening and recommend which loops are best to their musical pieces.  Once they finish they will listen to their final product before exporting the project in a .wav file in the computer’s desktop.

Making Connections:

To work efficiently on the project, students will learn how to use keyboard shortcuts, like cut, copy, and paste, select all, etc., since most audio recording/music creation tools used them.  By learning the shortcuts, students can work more efficiently on the programs that they will use throughout their course program.  After they learn how to use the keyboard, students will be introduced to web 2.0 tools, in this case Soundation

Create/Produce:

Students will create a 2-minute musical piece and export it in a .wav format. 

Assessment:

See the rubric below

RILS Rubric
	Excellent	Good	Average	Poor
Musical creation	Student create and edit an original 2 min. musical piece, using volume changes and effects and export it to .wav format	Student create and edit an original 2 min. musical piece and export it to a .wav format	Student only created 1 min. musical piece. No editing, volume changes or effects, but export it to a .wav format	Student did not create a musical piece.
Evaluation and comparison of Web 2.0 tool with other applications	Student made a deep evaluation on the use of the web 2.0 tool and detailed the difference to other applications	Student made a deep evaluation on the use of the web 2.0 tool, but made gave a general comparison to other applications	Student only evaluate on the web 2.0 tool, but did not gave any comparison to other applications	Student did not evaluate the web 2.0 tool, nor other applications
Discussion in class	Student presents the musical piece and gives a detailed explanation creation process in class	Student presents the musical piece in class and gives a general explanation creation process in class	Student presents the musical piece, but does not give an explanation of creation process in class.	Student did not present musical piece in class.
Applications	Student gave thoughtful suggestions and recommendations to classmates of the web 2.0 tool used in class	Student gave general suggestions and recommendations to classmates of the web 2.0 tool used in class.	Student gave general recommendations to classmates the web 2.0 tool used in class	No recommendations

Reflection:

Students:

Students will deliver a written reflection that describes their impression of learning about Web 2.0 Tools in class and what topics can be modified or eliminate in the Introduction to Computers course.

      Teacher:

The teacher will make a reflection based on students’ feedback.  This reflection will also include technical mishaps during the learning scenario and present them to professors and faculty director.

Press this link for my RILS in Educator Studio

PE5_Soundation

Mixing your audio tracks is one of the toughest moments in the music recording process.  Volume and balance are amongst the most important part of mixing.  Musical Instruments must be balanced in the right or left channels, for the listener to hear them and not get lost in the mix.  Rhythm guitars could get lost in the mix if they are not separate in the mix.  For this post I create a funky rhythm piece featuring bass, drums and two rhythm guitars.  When I finished, the track sounded like this:

If you have external speakers on your computer, you will hear that the guitar tracks are on the center, mix with the bass and drums.  Although you can hear them well, you can't distinguish the nuances or extra notes that each rhythm guitar has.  To balance the guitars, I turn the pan control to the left and to the right.

Once I placed the guitars on the left and right channels, the music track sounded like this:

To finish my mix I decided to add a fade in at the beginning of song (or melody, if you prefer).  I added de fade in the master channel so it won't interfered with my instruments.  To add a master channel, simply go to "view" and choose "Show Master Channel".  Once the master channel appears on the bottom left of your screen, press the black button where it says "Display off" and choose volume.  Click on the timeline and a line will appear.  Click on the yellow line and "dots" will show up on the yellow line, with this dots you can move them up or down to control the volume as you can see here:

If you are not satisfied with the fade effect, you can still work on it until is done the way you want it.  After finish with the fade, go to "File" and choose "Mixdown" and choose "save as .wav" or "Publish and share".  For my RILS project, my students will export to .wav, for them to keep as part of their portfolio that will deliver at the end of the semester.

Hope you enjoy this demonstration!!!!

PE4_Soundation

For my RILS project I chose Soundation as the Web 2.0 Tool that my students will use to create their musical pieces, using the free online sound library that comes in the application.  As I mentioned in my BP_3 Sondation post, this application is a "Garage Band" type of application that can be used to create, record and mix music or background sounds for video productions.

For this post I decided to not to use the drum tracks that are already in the application.  Soundation lets the user create their own drum tracks by adding an instrument channel to the interface.  This channel will be identified a blue color.

Once the track is created, a small window will appear on screen.  In this window, the user can modified the volume, pitch and time duration  of the drum sounds, like snare, bass drum, hi hat, etc.

                   

To create the drum tracks the user will double click in the timeline area and a small window with a piano keyboard on the left side will appear.  By clicking on the keys, the user will listen to the drum sounds and write the "notes" on the small window with a pencil icon that can be clicked on the top part of the window.

For this blog, I programmed a straight 4/4 beat that sounds like this:

After I finished with my drum track to add more, but instead of writing the notes, I've just copy and paste the track that I already made.  To add a little depth to the drum track, I added a reverb effect.  Reverb can be found on the top part of the instrument/audio channel on the left part of the screen.

Here's the final product.  For my next post, I'll show you a couple of techniques for a good mixdown with Soundation.  Enjoy!!!

BP4_Schoology

Saludos!!!!
In the last couple of weeks I've been listening to a couple of professors complaining about not accessing Facebook at the University, I asked myself "If this professors are so much into Facebook, why they can have the same attitude toward Blackboard?".  I found the answer in "Schoology".  Schoology is an online learning management system that I found while looking for Web 2.0 Tools.  The only requirement is register your name, email, course(s), and school/college/university that you are teaching at.  Yes, it's free!!!.  When you are in your main page, you'll see that it looks almost like Facebook.

You can add a photo to your profile and organize your course material in the folders available on Schoology, like assignments, tests, files/links and have a discussion board.  In the "test" category, professors can specify if the test is midterm or final.  Quizzes and tests can be a mix of categories like "true or false", "matching", multiple choice", "fill the blanks" and they can program how many minutes or hours the test will be available to the student, if the questions will appear in a random order, etc.    Other features are a gradebook, attendance list and a analytic feature that shows the teacher how many times the student enter the page, post on the discussion board, work on the assignments, etc.

Like Facebook, teachers can write updates on their webpage like announcements on holidays, quizzes, etc.  Teachers can use Schoology to have a complete online course or as a addition to their face-to-face class.

PE3_iMovie

Here's my movie!!!

I did this small of demo of my Tai Chi school called "Yin Yang Tao".  I used photos from our trip to China in 2006 and a couple of more photos from our Facebook page.  I'll be working more on iMovie, especially adding effects created on After Effects and Photoshop (I'll take the tutorials), and enhance the videos and presentation of my AR project.  Ooops!!!, I almost forgot my Lynda.com iMovie '11 certificate.

Ok, back to the video.  Although I did a simple slide show,  I worked more with the audio tracks using "add beat mark" command (you'll notice at :27 sec.).  This will be in our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/yinyangtao and our Blog, http://yinyangtao.blogspot.com/ 

Here's the video.  Hope you enjoy it

BP6_Cyndee's Communication Center

Follow this link of my comments on Cyndee's Blog.

BP5_My Journey....

Follow this link to my comments of Joe's Blog.  He talks about Prezi.

PE2_iMovie

Hello again!!!

As I promise you, I will tell you about the tricks that I've used in iMovie.  But first, a good way to develop a good video or product is to write it or draw a storyboard on a piece of paper.  Also, you can have a "mental picture" of what your productions will look, once is finished.  Rhythm is a very important factor, if you want your production to be entertaining and not boring with long shots, unless is necessary or justifiable.  At the end of this blog, yes, you've guessed it!!!, I'll give you the video hint of the day.

One of the good things that I've found in iMovie is that you can select the video format you will use on your video.  If you are in the Americas, you can use the 30 fps (frames per second) NTSC format, the 25 fps PAL format if you live in Europe or the 24 fps format if you are using a camera that can record in a Cinema, 35mm format.  Cool, isn't it!!!! Take that Windows Movie Maker!!!

Here's a cool trick in iMovie.  If you have a video in which you are on camera describing a process, but you need to put images on top of the video leaving the audio narrating the images that you put on the timeline, you'll delete the audio track since you are replacing the video track that has the audio narration. The simple solution is to record the audio on Garage Band and import it to iMovie and you don't want to go through that process when you already have the audio, right?  

First, select the clip that has the audio part that you need.  Go to the clip and single click on top of it.  Next, you'll go to "Clip" and select "Detach Audio"

Once you click "Detach Audio" a purple track will appear under the clip.  This will tell you that the audio is separate from the video track.  You can proceed to delete the video track and put the images on top of the purple audio track.  Neat, isn't it???  I used this procedure when I was working on my Action Plan video. Look at iMovie's Chapter 7 on Lynda.com to learn how to work with audio tracks.  Remember, all applications comes with a "help" tab, if you have doubts on how to use an application and you can't find the solution in the tutorial or on the Internet, please, but please, please referred to the "help" tab.  Believe me it's a life saver!!!!

Now, for my video hint of the day:

For a fast pace video (Fight sequence, car chasing, sports), keep your shots to a 3 to 4 seconds minimum.  It takes 2 seconds for the human eye to register an image. Is not the rule, but you'll notice that your videos will have rhythm and will be more pleasant to the viewer, unless your shot involves a pan (moving camera from left to right or vice versa) or a tilt (moving camera up or down), 

PE1_iMovie

Hello everybody!!!
As a video editor, I look at applications like iMovie or Windows Movie Makers as a simple video editors with cheap effects that don't resemble what professional programs like Avid, Premiere or Final Cut can do. They are only useful for homemade movies and that's it.  Boy, I was wrong with iMovie.  This application has a good back of tricks that can give the user a good run for his/her money.

Lynda. com developed a 3 hour tutorial that is broken into chapters.  People who have not any experience with non-linear editing applications can look at the tutorial from beginning to end.  Those people who have little or more experience with this type of applications can go to the chapter of interest.

Oh!!!, by the way, here's my daily video hint for this blog.

Non-linear video systems = you can edit footage in any order.  You can start with the end of the movie and finish with the beginning or start at the middle, go to the beginning and then to the end.  This is characteristic of Digital Video Editing.

Linear video systems = you edit the video in a chronological order.  From Beginning to End.  This is characteristic of analog video editing, like VHS, SVHS, Beta, 3/4" video.

For my next blog, I will guide you to the tricks that I've used in iMovie.

BP_3 Soundation

Hi there!!!
I will dedicate this post to my students at the Center of Cinematography and Television Sciences (CCAT in spanish).  Most of them are itching to work in a recording studio or to have their own, so they can begin producing their own music.  One of the tools that I found on the internet is the Web 2.0 tool called "Soundation".  This tool is an online version of Mac's "Garage Band", where the student or music aficionado can create their own tracks, by using a collection of loops that goes from different styles of music and instrument, to background noise for people who want "ambient sounds"(street sounds, alarm clocks, people chatting, etc.), for video productions. In the free version, is not possible to save the project online, but they can do a mixdown to the user's desktop.  If your student can't afford Garage Band or Frutti Loops, Soundation is a good solution.

To show you how cool is the application, I decided to create a small musical sample.  Once I open the application, I saw at my right hand of the screen the channels where I can control the volume and effects of the instruments/sounds, at the center is the main work area or "timeline; and at the left is the collection of loops/sounds that I will use for my musical sample.

I chose Indian tabla and other Indian instruments that I found in the loop collection. I drag the ones that I liked to the "timeline" and adjust the volume and level to my liking.  Since I didn't found any Sitar loops to go to the rhythm section I already created, I chose a blues sounding Dobro slide guitar and drag it to the timeline.

You will ask yourself "How this guy can mix a blues guitar with a Indian rhythm section?".  Soundation will notify that the track doesn't fit the tempo of the song and gives you the option to stretch the tracks' tempo or pitch.  I decided to stretch the pitch and viola!!! a sitar sounding guitar. For effect, I balance the frequencies of the guitar using the program's eq. and to add a little effect, I put a phaser sound.

Since I can't saved my musical track on the program, I chose to do a mixdown and save it as a .wav sound file on my computer's desktop. 

BP_2 iGoogle PLE

Hi there!!!
For this post, I'll share with you my experience working with my iGoogle home page.  When we enter the Internet, especially in our home page (Google, Yahoo, Excite, etc.), with look for our email first and then we go to the address bar and look for the pages that are relevant for us in our daily lives.  For our EMDT program, we've created a iGoogle home page.  In this home page we will add links and tools that will make our work more comfortable without the hassle of switching windows or going to the address bar.  For each Tab I created (Home, FSO/AR and Resources),  I put different themes to express the things that i like the most.

For my home page I have the Twitter gadget, which helps me in viewing and sending messages to my fellow classmates.  There is the Facebook gadget, which keeps me up to date in what my friends and family activities.  A box of links that contains direct links to FSO, APA webpage, my Full Sail email, the EMDT blog.  This gadget (box of links), is one of the most useful, because I can connect to the pages that I want to connect without going through the address bar or pressing shortcuts to reach those pages.  I also added a You tube gadget, an iGoogle Calendar a To Do list to remind me of my assignments; clock, weather gadget (we are finishing hurricane season, Thank God!!!) and a CNN gadget to keep me on track to what is happening in the world out there.  Finally, a Yin Yang/Dragon, that goes accordingly to my love for Martial Arts and Asian philosophy.

My FSO/AR tab has the necessary gadgets that I use for the EMDT Masters program and my Action Research project;

Two box of links that connects me to my iGoogle and Yahoo email, AR wordpress site, Lynda.com tutorials, among others.  The weather and To Do list, in case I'm staying in that tab for too long.  A Tolkien phrase gadget, kind of the "Thought of the day" tool, a movie trailer gadget, to see what movie is worth watch and finally a Gibson Les Paul theme.  One of my favorite guitars and one that I play the most.

The Resources tab is filled with two box of links gadgets, one for my ETC class (Blog, Web 2.0 tools links) and a Lynda.com tutorial links.  A Taijiquan gadget, for my improvement of this martial art, weather gadget and "El Nuevo Dia" gadget, which is one of the local newspapers in Puerto Rico and keeps me up to date of what is happening here.  A Fender Stratocaster theme adorns this tab.

You may ask why two guitar themes?  Simple!!!, I love guitars.  I consider myself a guitarist above everything I do.  Music is a big part of my life and what help me shape into the person that I am today.  Some of the links and gadgets that I added will change during the course of the program.  I like to have variety in my work area.

Hope you like it.  Keep in touch
See ya in my next post.

BP_1 Welcome to my blog

Hi there!!! and welcome to my blog.  My name is Rodolfo Fernandez.  I'm an Audiovisual Technician/Part-time Professor/Video Editor/Photographer/Sound Engineer/Martial Arts Instructor from San Juan, Puerto Rico.  In this blog, I will share my experiences in these areas that I worked and how I applied these experiences in my daily life.

"The Sword and the Book" is the title I chose, because the sword is considered as the "Gentleman's Weapons" in Martial Arts.  To wield the sword, the practitioner must show high values and great skill to use it and a focus point of transmitting qi (energy).  The Book is where we focus our learning energy.  To express our thoughts in a book, we must strive for a high skill in communicating or adapting our experiences in life and the willingness in learning from those experiences.