PE6 Flash

Flash can create some pretty amazing motion and even 3D graphics.  Honestly though, I haven’t figured out exactly how I can incorporate this into my training.  There is one very important use that I have for Flash that I can see right away: convert video files into Flash files.  I use my favorite Web 2.0 tool, Udutu, for a lot of training, but it freezes when you try to upload anything except a flash file to it.

So now that I feel like I have a basic understanding of how to use Flash, I wanted to experiment with converting files.  While I grasped how to create the animations pretty quickly, I had a much harder time with this part.  I did a little more research and watched a few more tutorials on file types and it all started to become a little clearer.

I was so excited when I saw this screen!  It finally had successfully imported!

The most common Flash file types are .fla and .swf.  The .fla files are files for working within Flash and the .swf files are the “output” file, or what you would post to a website or put in other media.  I looked up Udutu’s Guide to Getting Started, and sure enough, it said it took .swf files!

Then I had to figure out how to get a video file into Flash in order to change it into a .swf file.  I found a tutorial that said that Flash took just about every kind of video and photo file type out there, but when I tried to import an iMovie file, it kept telling me that I needed to convert it with Adobe Media Encoder.  I couldn’t figure out how to do this, but finally after trying several file formats, I got lucky and was able to import a .mov file.

This is my .swf file in Udutu

I immediately turned around and exported this test file into a .swf file and was able to successfully upload it into Udutu.  I will need to work on getting faster and better quality images out of this, but at least I have a start now!

PE5 Flash

I’ve watched many more tutorials now, and I think I have a clear idea of what Flash really is: Photoshop but animated!  When I first started researching Flash I kept thinking about how similar I remember Photoshop being.  Then it occurred to me that they are sister programs as part of the Adobe suite and it would make sense to make many of the buttons and formatting similar so that a user can easily transition between the two.  I even learned that you can edit a graphic in Photoshop, right while you are in the middle of animating it in Flash! 

I’ve learned that in order to do any animation in Flash, you have to drag your graphic into your “Library” and convert it to a “Symbol.”  One of the tutorials said that the symbol can then be animated with ActionScript, which I am realizing now is the programming language that Adobe uses for animation.  I didn’t realize that before, I thought it was another program!

Once your graphic is in symbol format, you can pretty much do anything, from basic movement, to adding blur effects, to even adjusting the transparency of the graphic (the Alpha I learned its called).  Some of the motion presets you can use are flying onto the screen, bouncing, smoking, pulsing, and zooming around the screen.  You can create your own presets as well if you need to use the same motion again and again.

That purple diagonal line means I made my tree branch move!

The motion effect is called a “Tween” effect, which I think is a really funny name.  Isn’t that also the new marketing lingo for pre-adolescent aged children?  Well, in Flash, its called Tween because it causes a graphic to move beTWEEN two parts of the screen.  I think someone who made Flash has a sense of humor.

I’m still working on figuring out importing and exporting video files.  I’m going to work on that and the next blog will track that progress.

PE4 Flash

Flash is a lot different from what I expected.  I’ve heard of Flash but I really thought it was a type of video viewer, like a Quicktime player, or perhaps a program to convert videos to some kind of internet-uploadable files.  I was only seeing a very small part of what Flash is actually capable of!

Flash is an application to create animated graphics or short movies.  It seems to be particularly good for web applications because it creates smaller file sizes that will load more easily and not have so much time lost for buffering video.  In this era of 5-second attention spans, that’s incredibly important!

I’m watching the basic tutorials and learning how to create layers.  A long time ago, I had a class on Photoshop and from what I can remember, the layer thing seems to be about the same.  In order to have the most control over your graphics and effects, you want to create them on different layers.  You can lock and unlock layers to be able to edit.

I’m also beginning to experiment with the “Deco” tool.  It lets you create quick graphics of trees, vines, fire, flowers, flames, smoke, and lightening.  You can even easily create animated flames and smoke here.  Flash automatically creates a timeline for you that shows when and for how long the graphics appear and move.

I haven’t tried this yet, but the tutorials say that you can import pictures and video with pretty much any kind of file.  I am really interested in this feature because I do online training videos through Udutu, a Web 2.0 tool.  Udutu requires that its video files need to be uploaded as Flash files, and I’ve always had to call on the editors at Full Sail to convert my videos for me.  Perhaps once I learn how to import video and export Flash files, I can work much more quickly right from my laptop!

I’m going to learn more about this, and what else I can do with Flash.  Stay tuned: more blogs to follow, and check out my Deco tool fire and smoke test video below!

PE3 WordPress

Now that I have researched the WordPress Web tool, I want to think a little more about how I would actually implement it at work.  I work in Admissions at Full Sail University, and my department has grown considerably over the last few years to keep up with the growth of the entertainment industry.  My goal is to create an online forum for my team to bond with each other.

I think that before I actually implement this, I would definitely need to pay to customize the layout and appearance.  While I like the look of the blog aesthetically, there is a lot of unused space on the sides and the toolbar at the bottom is a little jumbled looking.  I suppose I can get to fixing that if I can get approval to actually employ this idea.

I would like the key areas of focus for this blog to be personal updates, industry and company updates, and tips.  I want the content of the blog to be largely user-driven with my role being more of a moderator.

For personal updates, I can share upcoming birthdays, parties, babies and marriage news.  I can encourage the reps to upload pictures to share with each other.  We’ve also got many musicians and artists on staff that I would encourage to share their band updates with the team.  Its always fun to discover the hidden talents of your co-workers!

For the industry and company update portion of the blog, I would like to share special events that are happening at Full Sail, such as concerts or guest speakers.  Additionally I would like to post any Admissions updates such as degree or policy changes.  Currently, we email updates to the team and have meetings, and while that is good, I think it would be even better to reinforce the news with links on a blog.  Additionally there is a Full Sail Blog account for all the online programs that I would want to link to this area of the blog.

The last section of the site, I want to be tips that they share with each other.  Full Sail has a lot of reps that have worked in the industry for decades and have a wealth of knowledge.  It would be great for them to be able to share that with some of our newer reps.  My idea is that I can post a thought, and then request tips and feedback.  For example, I could post “When talking to High School students, what do you recommend they do to get ready for an entertainment career?”  The reps might answer with anything from recommending students read Rolling Stone, to recommending that students practice reading music.  It would be fantastic to hear them share with each other!

Full Sail Website, News Section

I’m going to continue to brainstorm ideas for this company blog idea to take flight, and if you have any thoughts, please leave a comment for me. 

PE2 WordPress

It is extremely easy to set up a WordPress account!  I’ve created an account under my name that I am going to use as a test before I create my actual company blog.  Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Set up for the blog literally only takes a few minutes.  After clicking on the “Sign up now” button, getting a blog is as easy as entering a username, password, email address, and picking your privacy settings.  I’ve clicked on keeping my blog private for now.

Once logged in, clicking on “My Account” takes you to the place where you can edit all kinds of things.  “The Dashboard” has all the basics: how to post, the comments that you’ve had on your posts, drafts of your posts, and even stats on your blog.

I’m most interested in the tab on “Upgrades.”  Here, once you’ve already created an account, is where you can finally find the prices for extra features.  You can add a domain for a one time fee of $17 or upgrade to VideoPress, which will allow you to upload, store, and share videos for $59.97 per year.  You can also get space upgrades to store media, and the price there depends on how much extra storage you need.  For $29.97 per year you can ensure that your side has no ads.  Those all sound like great features and the price is reasonable, but they are not quite what I’m seeking.

At the far right of this tab, I came across just what I want: Unlimited Private Users for $29.97 per year!  That’s a great price, and I’m sure that I can pitch that number to my boss and get a good answer.  But wait, there’s more!  There’s also the upgrade option to customize your blog’s appearance beyond the general themes that are available.  This is only $14.97, and I’m sure that if my department is going to go for something like this site, they would want it to have company branding.  I will keep these two options in mind.

Here's the current look of my blog

Moving on with my settings, I wanted to choose a basic theme and layout for my blog.  Knowing that my company colors are orange and gray, I did a custom search for themes that included orange in them.  I came across a very elegant looking theme called Vostok that I’ll go with for now.  Until I can get that customized feature working for me, this will work quite well.

Now I’ve got my theme, I want to add some widgets.  For now, it looks like a “blogroll” or a list of common links will be great, because I can post links to other sites that have industry and company updates.  I also enabled comments from here and set the page to show up to 10 recent comments.  There’s a lot more widget options, but I don’t think many are relevant for what I’m trying to accomplish right now. 

I think now that I am fully set up and ready to start blogging!  My next post here will be about how I plan to implement my WordPress blog at work.

PE1 WordPress

I’ve chosen WordPress to research because I think it could be very helpful to have an online blogging community within my office.  In the last few years our department has grown to about 65 employees and with this many people, its hard to maintain the close family feeling that we’ve always had.  I want an easy and convenient way for our staff to share news, thoughts, and tips with each other, without taking the time for a giant meeting.

I started my research by watching lots of tutorials on Lynda.com.  There was a lot of good information, and the tutorials were not nearly as dry as I expected.  I learned a whole bunch, but I will share with you only the ones that were the most interesting to me.

First off, I learned how to manage the settings of the blog.  The Privacy feature was particularly interesting to me because I need to make sure to keep company information confidential.  I was disappointed to find out that when an account is marked private, only 35 users will be able to access the blog.  I can upgrade my account and be able to have an unlimited number of users, but nowhere in the tutorials does it say how much the upgrade costs.

For the appearance of the blog, the theme seems fairly easy to change, there are lots of themes available that you can search based on colors, columns, and even widgets.  It’s also very easy to upload an image for your “Gravatar,” which is WordPress’s lingo for the blog avatar.  I was surprised to find out in the tutorials that its possible to upload pretty much anything for your Gravatar and can then rate it G, PG, R, or even X.  I certainly have no intention of having an X rated Gravatar, but I thought it was odd that anyone would really want that!

I also now feel comfortable with how to add links, audio, video, and widgets.  It seems like WordPress really tries to make it easy for the user!  My next blog post is going to be my discovery process as I sign up for and learn additional features for my WordPress blog.

BP11_OMM_WordPress

Here's some information on a great Blogging site, WordPress.

BP10_Comment to Bruchetta

Follow this link to my comments on Bruchetta's blog.  She is researching a "sweet" search engine, that allows for censored searching for children.

BP9_Comment to Mary-Ann

Follow this link to my comments on Mary-Ann's blog.  She discovered a great new tool for entrepreneurs.

BP8_WordPress

I would like to create a sense of online community at my workplace, a forum for my co-workers to share their thoughts and tips with each other.  I chose WordPress this week to investigate because I believe that it may be a great option to help me accomplish this.

I don’t know much about blogging, so I read through the site’s “From Zero to Hero” section.  It was incredibly helpful and taught me how to create and maximize my blog’s potential.

WordPress gives you the option to make your content available from Search engines or from searches on the WordPress site, which has a community of 317,215 bloggers.  On the other hand, you can opt to run a private blog if you are someone like me and need to keep company information confidential.

Once the account is created, the site takes you to your dashboard, your back end controls to your blog, where you can easily update your information.  Your profile, privacy rating, and general settings can be tweaked with a few clicks.  You can even upload and crop a picture to run as the avatar for your blog.

Now this is really where it gets interesting: there is a ton of help available to create the most interesting and marketable blog possible.  The help section goes on to give you advice so that you can choose a strong focus for your blog, which will keep an audience coming back for more info.  Some popular themes are “photoblogs” or “petblogs.”

Additionally, the customized look and design of your blog needs to be consistent with the focus of your blog.  Just like websites, it needs to both look good and be user-friendly.  WordPress gives its bloggers the option to activate Widgets such as a search button or a link to Twitter, RSS, or Facebook feeds.  You can even add a list of your favorite links into your blog using a widget.

Available resources like Plinky.com to help generate unique ideas for blog topics or help with picking a compelling blog post title.

It’s easy to insert links, photos, audio, and if you upgrade your account, you can even add videos.  To get the most exposure possible to the online community, you can tag your blog with any relevant keywords.  Adding polls to your blog is one of the easiest ways to solicit feedback from your visitors.  Its easy to create and customize your blog on WordPress.




Photo References:

Cats vs. Dogs, Dennard, Susuan, 14 September 2010, http://sdennard.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/cats-versus-dogs/

Smiley face written in the sky during the inauguration of Governor Bob Martinez,
published by the State Library and Archives of Florida, 1987, http://www.flickr.com/photos/floridamemory/3328074451/

BP7_OMM_VoiceThread

Here is my video review of Vimeo

BP6_Comment to Melissa

Melissa found and researched a tool called Edmodo, a great tool for sharing assignments.  Follow this link for my comments on Melissa's blog.

BP5_Comment to Mary-Ann

Mary-Ann found a great tool for online meetings.  Follow this link to my comments on Mary-Ann's blog.

BP4_Vimeo

As part of my job as a corporate trainer, I often hold “Continuing Education” sessions with my team.  While much of the team is usually able to attend, we have one group of “remote” reps who are not based out of Orlando.  Also, there is always a section of the group that is either out sick or on vacation.  I videotape our training sessions and have been posting them on our work server, but the server is running out of space.  I need another option.

That’s where Vimeo can come in to help.  I chose this site to research because it gives the option to upload and even store videos, and to keep those videos private.  The interface of the site is easy to use, so even team members who are not internet savvy should find navigating the site very simple.

Within my own “Your Videos” page, I can sort through any videos I have uploaded, easily sorting by newest, oldest, most liked, or even most commented to name a few.   Uploading is easy, with a simple confirmation of my email address, I can get started in no time.  There are several links on several different pages that will take me to the upload page, as well a s toolbar in the top right that will take me to the upload page. 

Another important element of the site is the ability for social participation.  There is a comment section for each video.  When I post a video, I want to keep track of who has viewed the video to make sure that my whole team has gotten the information.  I plan on requiring my team members to comment on the video so that I know they have watched it.  That they have a voice will also help them feel active in their own training.

As a unpaid user, I can upload a weekly limit of 500 MB and one HD video.  This resets every Friday.  I think that this will suit my purposes at work, but I do have the option of upgrading to Vimeo Plus for unlimited HD uploading and 5 GB a week limit.  It also gives me the option of original file storage and downloading, which may come in handy when I’ve built up a sizable video library and begin to run out of storage.  Recently, I purchased a large external hard drive to store my training videos at work, but when that fills up, I’ll think about the Plus option before I buy another hard drive.  The Vimeo Plus option has an annual fee of $59.95 a year or $9.95 per month, which is very reasonable for what it is offering, and cheaper than a hard drive.

Vimeo’s user-friendly site is easy to navigate.  On the chance that you do have any questions, help is only a few clicks away in the Vimeo Help Center.  There are “Community Directors and Managers” available to chat on AIM, as well as a host of tutorial videos to solve a wide range of common problems.

Vimeo started as a way for professional filmmakers to share their projects, and then turned into a open forum for all sorts of people who wanted to share videos.  That’s perfect for me!

BP3_Diigo Group

I just created created my Diigo account.  I unfortunately don't have any bookmarks or critical friends just yet because I've got a late start on my Action Research Project.  As soon as I start getting those things figured out, I'll be sure to update this post and my Diigo account.

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

iGoogle Home

iGoogle FSO

iGoogle AR/CBL

iGoogle ETC

BP1_Google Reader

In this blog, I am compiling several news feeds to sites that are relevant to my mission: to motivate and inspire.  I hope that through researching these sites and staying current, I will discover new ways to connect with my trainees.

As the trainer for the Admissions team at Full Sail, it is very important that I stay up to date with the latest technology.  Full Sail is one of the most technologically advanced institutions in the world, and I hope to be able to understand and stay on top of new media trends.  I chose CNN Technology News, to help me accomplish this, knowing that CNN is a trusted and reliable source.  Their feed includes everything from reviews on the latest Apple products to articles on video games as art.

Full Sail University from the sky!

My next site, I chose for two reasons.  First, I work for the largest film school in the United States, so its pretty important that I stay up to date on any film industry news.  Second, knowing fun facts about movies is a great way to relate to my training class.  Having knowledge of their interests helps build our relationship so that they feel comfortable coming to me with questions.  I chose Movie News, http://www.comingsoon.net/, to help me accomplish this.

Next, I chose a site that will help me understand more about sales.  While college admissions is not sales, I think that there are some valuable lessons on customer service that I can gain from researching sales.  I chose the site, Sales Training Advice, http://www.salestrainingadvice.com/, for this.  With names of articles like "Your Buyer Is Smarter Than You" and "Emptying Your Sales Trash," this site offers the potential for great information with a fun twist.

Recently, I've become very interested in incorporating games into my training.  In the beginning, I would do a review of everything we had covered so far, with a list of questions and asking random people around the room.  While I think it was helpful, it wasn't the most interesting way to review.

Since then, I've incorporated either a Monopoly or Jeopardy game as a review.  I use Monopoly for smaller groups and I found Jeopardy works for the larger groups.  With these two games, the amount of information the trainees retained literally doubled!  It gave them something to look forward to throughout the week, and the fake money was enough of an incentive to want to win.  I would like to incorporate more games into my training and hope to discover some new ideas by following The Games Learning Society, at http://www.gameslearningsociety.org/.

Maybe I can add Bingo to my training next!

My last feed that I chose to follow is the Department of Education, http://www.ed.gov/.  There are many changes on the horizon for higher education and my goal is to stay as updated as possible.  By keeping up-to-date with law changes that can affect students' lives, I can be a valuable resource for my new hires and current employees who work directly with our incoming students.


I look forward to sharing what I have learned as I research and dig deeper into all of these sites.  Thank you for taking this journey with me!  Have a wonderful day!

Maia


Colleen Francis, (2010, July 14).  Retrieved from http://www.salestrainingadvice.com/2010/07/emptying-your-sales-trash-by-colleen-francis.html

Hunter, Mark, (2010, Aug 8).  Retrieved from http://www.salestrainingadvice.com/2010/08/your-buyer-is-smarter-than-you-by-mark-hunter.html

Welcome to My Blog!

My cat, Mr. Boots.  Just wanted to share this picture because cats always make me smile!

Hello friends,

Thank you so much for following my blog!  I have never blogged before and would hardly consider myself "internet savvy" so this whole thing is quite an adventure!

I am a corporate trainer, and in this blog I hope to share my thoughts as I explore how to motivate and inspire my new hires and existing employees.

Thank you again,
Maia