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Project 4 Process

My inspiration for this project was my desire to help teachers integrate technology into their classrooms. This video is instructional in nature, focused on using the application, SMART Notebook, which accompanies the use of a SMART Board. The audience I am aiming at includes any teachers who have access to these tools.

To begin the process, I found an image of a whiteboard with Expo markers in the Creative Commons, specifically on Pixabay. The image was free to use without attribution. I cropped the image and removed a reflection with the tools in Adobe Photoshop CC. I saved the blank whiteboard image and another copy of the image with title text (Hipster font). I used different versions of this image as an anchor throughout my video.

Another asset I used was found on the Free Stock Music site through Creative Commons. For the background music in my introduction and conclusion, I used On and On by Nicolai Heidlas, giving attribution at the end of my video. I layered narration over the music as well as used narration to accompany my screen casts.

For the next phase of my project, I created several separate screen recordings using Camtasia, SMART Notebook and Google Chrome. The screen recordings are the main substance of the tutorial video. I showed examples of how the SMART Notebook application could be used, demonstrated how to use specific tools (grouping and locking), and showed how to access the sharing site, SMART Exchange.

Using Camtasia, I created a link to direct the viewer to the SMART Exchange website, so they could toggle back and forth between that and the instructional video. Unfortunately, the link is not active in the Youtube production of the video. The link is active if viewed through the TechSmith Screencast site, which I have embedded above.

Additionally, using Camtasia, I used several tools and features to enhance the content of my video and make it more engaging for viewers. For example, one section of my video showed me making formatting changes to text, which was not the main focus of the video. However, I mentioned it in the narration and I wanted to show the entire process. To accommodate these desires, yet keep my video moving at an engaging pace, I sped up the video portion using the “Clip Speed” tool.

The following additional tools were used throughout the video:

· call outs

· transition (wipe right)

· audio fade in/out

· title text fly-in behavior

· blur (to cover my username)

· zoom

· shapes with text layered on top

I am in the process of adding closed captioning to the video to make it accessible to more people. I appreciate any feedback you can give to help me improve my project!