Wednesday, April 26, 2006

 

RCADE Workshop II: DVD Studio Pro

On Wednesday, April 19th, I attended a Fairfield University's RCADE Workshop where I learned how to use Apple's DVD Studio Pro software.

My instructor, Casey Timmeny, took the class through a step by step analysis of the software. DVD Studio Pro allows you to create a personal DVD from home movies and pictures. It allows you to create individual chapters and menus just like a professional movie DVD right from your home computer.

The software allows you to make slideshows for your pictures. It allows you to take home movies and burn them onto DVD. So whether you have old pictures, home movies, wedding, birthday or anniversary media, it can be made into a DVD right in your house.

Mr. Timmeny was very impressive in his knowledge and wherewithall in terms of handling the software. He obviosuly was very computer savy, but exercised termendous patience when dealing with no so savy students, such as myself. He graduated from Fairfield in 1999 and has worked for the MSG Network and Martha Stewart's television. He returned to the Fairfield Media Center in 2001 as a broadcast mediator.

If not for anything, I found this workshop to be very interesting in terms of how easy it was. I feel very confident that I can make my own DVD if I wanted to right in the computer lab. It was very simple once it was explained to me. Overall, it was an informative experience.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Gralnick


For the upcoming ENW350 Digital Writing class at Fairfield University, Jeff Gralnick will be the guest lecturer in the hopes of sharing his wealth of knowledge of digital media with the class.

Gralnick is the special Special Consultant for Internet and New Technology at NBC News. Previously an employee of both ABC and CBS news, he now works primarily for NBC news and NBCnews.com. With over 47 years of experience in the news business, his insights and wisdom will help shine some light on both print and internet news questions the students may have. He has seen everythiing from the first man space flight to being a special reporter for the Vietnam war. Hopefully, a class full of college students should not be too hard to handle.

With regards to potential questions, I have some that I believe will not only help me, but the class as well.

A. Can you describe how your work day now differs from your initial years of working for a news source with regards to the use of technology?

B. Is NBC news ahead of behind of the curve with regards to technology?

C. Has technology brought about any negative effects on professional journalism?

D. What is the most important technological innovation, in your opinion, for journalism?

 

Wiki What?

The facsination with the website known as Wikipedia has swept across America. This site is a free encyclopedia which not only dispenses valuable information, but also allows any user to edit each web page and add any additional information.

This site is a unique and innovative one for its use web design that is interactive the world over. Any person with access to the internet has the chance to view and edit what millions of other can view and edit also. The true innovation is the ability for any user to participate in providing information to the site.

My favorite Wikipedia page was the page about Australia. Here, you can get an entire history of the political, social, and geographical of the country. It is amazing how much information about a relatively simple country has been compiled. There is text describing the rich history. There are images of the flag, the topography and the geography. There are sidebars with information regarding capitals, territories, populations, and governments. It is very informative.

Randomly, my girlfriend and I were talking and somehow the topic of how cheese was made arose. We had no idea of what the cheese making process entailed so I put wikipedia to the test. Alas, the cheese mystery was solved!

In terms of editing an actual page on Wikipedia, I went with what I know best and that is baseball. I played in the "sandbox" which is an practice editing page and I wrote about the New York Mets, my favorite team. In the interesting facts section, I included how many time the Mets have been no-hit and by which pitchers. It was really great to add my knowledge to a public site and being able to share information about a topic I love.

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