Video search - Day 1

Day 1: 28 October 2008

When we were instructed to search for "an online video that you could use in an existing class", I thought it was going to be easy! At least we don't have to capture our own video demonstrating or presenting some topic, unless we're "ambitious".

As I was checking the URLs of recommended sites, slowly the thought of "Oh, it's not gonna be that easy" seeped through my mind. Even after a whole day trying to access the site, it was to no avail. Sigh...

I went through the reading materials, and the familiar words of "Camtasia" and "screen capture" kept on popping up. I used Camtasia before... a lot! I used it back when I was a consultant/trainer in a QS firm, but I never tried capturing my voice alongwith the screen-video capture. (For a stingy, IT firm under the umbrella of construction industry, hardware such as microphone is a wish you never get, even if you justify wisely on the reason to get it.)

So I thought I could just dig up my portable harddisk (a.k.a. my "life") to get some soft copies of the demo videos I used to do back then. Again, it's to no avail. Sigh...

Then I remembered that I saved the URLs of online Flash tutorial videos somewhere in my notebook, those that I used for my Multimedia Programming lab classes. I have an FLV Downloader software that I could use to download the videos (at this point of time, I forgot that I didn't really have to download any videos, just tag it!). Quite unsure why, but none of the "grabs" worked. Sigh...

OK, back to Camtasia case. "Looks like I have to record a video on screen; maybe I can create a video to introduce the Flash interface!" I quickly went back to the Wiki on webcasting, scrolled down to get to the hyperlink of Camtasia, downloaded it, installed it, and straight away using it... this time, with audio (of my own voice!). Looks like 'previous life' experience helped a lot, in adapting to new software instantly.

By the time I got the video captured, played it once, I thought, "Err... Do I need a webcast hosting site now? Register for new account again? Aaahhh..." All the sites like YouTube, Blip, etc. started popping up in my head, something that I wish to avoid mainly due to the bad network infrastructure. Sigh...

I called it a day and continued my 'exploration' today.

Motivation starts reducing by this week,
- Sha @ Teaching and Learning
29 Oct 2008