Post date: Mar 24, 2020 4:3:52 AM
i hate making asynchronous videos, because i don't have a fancy iPod or tablet and cannot screen-cast like how others can do. (i don't see how i should pay for work supplies.)
in contrast, a live webcast is essentially just like a normal lecture, but where it's hard to see if the students are following ..
.. on the other hand, it means that you can go at your own speed and abuse the students.
(there's an automatic recording anyway, right? they can rewind!)
i have an old webcam and i don't have a chalkboard or whiteboard at home. making a makeshift document camera took a frustratingly longer time than i had planned, tweaking angles and checking resolution relative to camera height.
i run linux, which means that all the audio/video parameters [1] and codecs are available and figuring out which works best is a headache. (yes, i am an eternal n00b.)
i'm embarrassed to share how long i spent measuring video resolution (e.g. 640x360 vs 320x240 vs 432x240) relative to file size.
...
so today was a loss, not a win. i guess it's a learning curve of some kind. it's just that i hate not being good at my job.
my fiancee pointed out to me that these are extenuating circumstances: "reasonable people will understand that you're doing your best and it's not going to be as good as being physically face-to-face."
then she gave me a hug;
i hugged back.
it's been a sh-tty day.
...
[1] probably all of my students have high-speed internet at their residence .. but still: there's the likely possibility that they are staying with family, and if younger K-12 relatives need to use the internet and their parents need to use the internet, then that throttles bandwidth.