Well, Well, Well, If you were wondering where I have been.. Here is my best answer: Writing my first book!.. and it is now published! you can see it at http://www.thefinalwar.net - I know, you may ask, what this have to do with technology? I have to tell you... a lot!
If I did not have my tech skills, I could not have published the Final War in a short time (although writing it took co-authors and me almost two years!).
When was time to publication, I found myself constantly editing. Each change in a published document cost extra money. Then I said. STOP. I can do this. And my adventure began. I have learned to use Dreamweaver to format the E-book version, use Calibre to transform it into Kindle version to be sell it in Amazon. I also have learned to use Adobe InDesign to prepare the interior of the book, Adobe Photoshop to review the cover design.
Don't think I did the production of my book alone! There was a team of book designers and artists working on it, but I was able to edit and direct them the way I wanted the book to look. I was involved in every single detail, color, pictures, size letter etc. You must see the cover, It looks beautiful!!!..
If you check it out, tell me what do you see, the cover has a secret message.
When my co-author saw the book physically, she said, now I feel what God felt when he said "This is good" (when he finished his world creation.) She was right! I have the same feeling!
Not only that, when I learned that a book trailer can can cost me 500-700 dollars...I decided to learn IMovie to prepare my own video book trailer-- you can check it out in the book website http://www.thefinalwar.net (click on presentations). Be sure have your volume on!
Now that I a back from Sabbatical, I am ready to teach new things and learn more new things, I am so excited! I want to re do all my lessons!...you will be part of this new wave of inspiration. Thank you.
Well I was very interested to read your latest post! I have a lot of friends involved in blogging and although I don’t like to write them myself, I love reading everyone else’s! War is a very interesting and sometimes controversial topic. The fact that you decided to write a whole book about it is amazing! I was also interested to see the book presentation. Some of the transitions reminded me of the website Prezi where you can create a Power Point presentation and it is displayed in a more unique way. Much like your video presentation. I don’t personally have a Mac to make an iMovie, however we do have them at the school I work at. I recently taped 53 fourth grade students in 45-60 second clips where they were reading about their “job” in colonial time. It was the first time I ever worked with iMovie but once I did a few videos, it was quite easy! I loved how your presentation was really just a Power Point, but much more engaging and exciting. That’s what technology can do! I can’t wait to see what more you have to offer us!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Tammy Trinchetto
Tammy
ReplyDeleteThis is great!...learning new things is very rewarding. Yes, you got it, I did it in powerpoint, and then put each slide as a picture in iMovie. I check out Prezi (Prezi.com). I love it, I saw someone presenting on it before. The only flaw of using it is that you must be connected in the Internet. You can Prezi your powerpoint slides as well.
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ReplyDeleteReading these comments makes me realize just how much I have to learn! I have always heard of programs like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and iMovie, but have never actually used any of them. It makes me think about all of the great lessons and activities I may be missing out on because I don’t know what these programs are even capable of. My only experiences have been with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SMART Notebook, and I am sure I am not even utilizing them to their full potential.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the introduction to our book, I’m hoping it will be able to help me apply all of these new ideas to my own teaching. I liked how each topic is separated into different levels, so even if I am advanced in one application but a beginner in another, the book will still have something to offer. I am interested to learn about all of these new possibilities, especially the ones involving presentations and videos. The idea of creating your own video clip or presentation to suit the unique needs of each class is very exciting to me. I can’t wait to actually put what I learn to use!
Lori, your comment really motivate me to be even more creative with the materials for this class. The key here is be "creative" and find what it works for you, your students, under time constraints!. Looking forward to see the products of this class.
ReplyDeleteProfessor, it is fascinating that you have been staying active in your field. It's wonderful that you have written a book based on your past and current experiences with technology. It is great that you took such a big step in your life and published a book. It's amazing that you can create a book using so many various forms of technology. I am very familiar with Power Point and Microsoft Excel in making speadsheets. Using these types of technologies require plenty of patience and tons of playing around with in order to acquire perfection. I have become very familiar in translating items into various languages such as Spanish and Greek for many assignments throughout teaching and in my courses. I am actually not familiar with Dreamwearer or Calibre, but I am looking forward into learning what they are. You seem to have invested so much time, energy, and money to your book. Now, you will be able to share all your knowledge and experiences with technology with the whole world!
ReplyDeleteThank you for showing us that there is so much that could be done with technology!
-Sophia Panagos-
Thank you Sophia!...Well the book is not about technology, is about War and Harmony!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the software use, You are right, being patient and perfectinist are important to build lessons that keep our students engaged with a class.
Wow you translating things in Spanish and Greek, that is just wonderful skills to have. Have you used google.translate.com, it is amazing, It can translate entire webpages for you to ANY language you want. I even built it into my website, if you click "portfolio" in my website http://www.internationalprofessor.com, my portfolio can be read it in any language! ~ thank you to technology!
Though I've used most of the applications Microsoft offers, I'm very happy that the textbook will be covering Publisher. Microsoft Publisher has always scared me. I used to once and had no idea what I was doing, even after a full session on how to use it. I'm hoping that the second time will be the charm and the textbook will be able to explain Publisher in a way I'll be able to understand.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your lasted post in your blog, I saw the world Adobe. That's another one that scares me. I can barely use Adobe Photoshop, and I have no idea what Adobe InDesign in. I would love to learn what that's all about. Looks like I'll have do some digging on Adobe. I had always thought that Adobe was only for art students, but this sounds interesting.
Ok, let me try this again. As you have heard from my emails, technology does not like me. I posted a comment on this blog last week, it showed to me that it posted, and when I came back to see if there was any response, my comment vanished. Technology has it in for me! I think it is amazing that you can make movies out of pictures you take. I would love to learn how to do this!! I have a son at home, and as the proud mom, I have thousands of pictures of him but they are all still hiding in my camera. I have seen my sister-in-law make these movies and they come out AMAZING. She put music to it and everything. All events that are on my camera are there for a reason, I would definitely love to sit down one day and make movies with them. There are so many advances in techology that I am eager to learn, I just need the technology to cooperate with me too.
ReplyDeleteThis presentation is about three causes to the Civil War. It is intended for high school history students. This presentation focuses on slavery, state rights and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Each section focuses on a quick lesson to learn the facts necessary to understand the possible cause to the war. Each section also holds a question and answer part to enhance the learning experience. Whats really cool about this presentation is it gives you a full interactive learning experience. Each picture is a link and it will bring you to that lesson which is followed by a question and answer.
ReplyDeleteHope you Enjoy!
http://www.slideshare.net/ajforu2c/civil-war-2014