Creating a video

As I continue to explore the use of technology in classroom I am confronted with obstacles that become time consuming and hinders progresss. In an effort to integrate technology in the class I have created an assignment for students to make a webisode of calculating surface area and volume of a cylindrical container. At first students and I were very excited about this new endeavour. However, as we continue to use the technological devices that are available to us such as the school camera and the laptops we realized that it was as easy as we had thought. (In fact it would have been easy if we had the most up to date hardware and software available)Some problems the student encountered with the acer laptops was that once they recorded their videos and uploaded it there was no volume. Seems like the sound cards in some of the laptops were defective. After some investigation one of the students used a headphone to see if the volume would work. It worked with the headphones and then when the head phone was removed then the laptops speakers started to work. (That was weird, I thought and so did the students) Other issues making our videos resulted from the cameras we had available. The images weren't sharp and when students zoomed in on their written work instead of the video becomming clearer it became more distorted and elligible. Also, when zooming in on the speaker or an object the person voice gets distorted. I must admit that students observed enthusiasm at creating the videos have drastically reduced to the complications they are experiencing. It has also led me to question whether I should be trying to incorporate more creating learning videos because of the amount of time it takes to capture, edit, and publish footage of their learning. Considering how much of the curriculum content I should be covering over the limited time that I have to do it. Today all the students should have been completing their final cut and by the end of the time, not one group was finished. Though this may seem like a rant it is not. I am just journaling my observations and experiences in the process of creating 21st century learner in the 21st century classroom. Journery Educationa Technology ....... To Be Continued!