This week has been a killer for me. We’ve had all of our Year 7 students working on an inquiry week project project called ‘We’re making history at Toorak’. They interviewed old girls from the school and canvassed archival material to collate information for their digital story presentation. The students used flip cameras to record their interviews and used Windows Moviemaker to put the stories together. To say we encountered technical difficulties is an understatement. We didn’t just encounter them, they hit us in tsunami like proportion. Flip video files didn’t work in Moviemaker, we had to convert them and then we encountered difficulties with that. It was a very long three days to say the least.
Nonetheless, the students continued to impress me. Despite the difficulties they forged on and found ways to work around their problems. They didn’t let adversity get in the way and did their level best to get a digital story happening. My own daughter was one of these students. Her group had no video files that were useable and Moviemaker just wasn’t working on their computers. They reverted to Photo Story and used Audacity to capture the audio file of their interview. I was so proud of her determination to come up with a result despite the fact that she was not well and really shouldn’t have been at school today. I saw a side of my child that I hadn’t anticipated; a determined young woman with a strong resolve to do the best she could for the sake of her group. I couldn’t have been more proud.
Next week I’m attending Learning 2.008. I fly out on Wednesday for Shanghai. Right now, I’m totally exhausted and don’t know how I’m going to do everything that needs being done by next Tuesday afternoon. Big weekend ahead I’m guessing.
Next Friday is ‘Talk like a Pirate Day’. Here in Australia it’s a fundraiser for cancer research. A couple of Library staff at my school are going to be running the event from our Library. Maybe I’ll get something going at the Learning 2.008 conference – nothing like a bit of pirate talk to forge productive working relationships! Take a look at the ‘I’m a pirate’ song to help you get into the swing of things.
Lucacept - intercepting the Web 
Jenny-
What an exciting time you have to look forward to in Shanghai! I look forward to your coverage of the conference.
I can’t think of pirates without thinking of my 3 year old’s favorite pirate song which you can find here.
I’m curious what file format does it use for video? Have an excellent time in Shanghai Jenny (which I know you will anyway). Make sure you get some rest this weekend.