Academic Aesthetic Podcast 75

Click to listenMore from the Northeast Regional DEN Event … now with 100% better audio quality!

It’s after midnight, so it’s a little late in the day for podcasting (or early, depending on your perspective), but here I am. I was tempted to just whip out my phone and do another quick and dirty recording, but instead I decided to belay any fears that I was going to stick to the low quality format from Monday.

It’s taken a while for me to make my podcasts sound as good as they do, and while I know they still have room for improvement, I don’t really feel like taking a permanent step backward in quality.

Today was the last full day of the Northeast Regional DEN Event, so most of us spent our time working on our team projects. Not me, however. I was a small group co-leader along with Kristin (a great DEN member whose last name I won’t try to pronounce), and as such we didn’t have teams.

Instead, I gave technical assistance to a few teams while working on my own projects. Monday’s podcasts were just one of my activities, as I’ve also recorded a Mini Lesson or two that will find their way onto my website sooner or later.

My biggest project, however, was to summarize this week using video and still images. I’ll save my comments on that for a later date, since this event is about more than just me.

After dinner today, Will Richardson (yes, THE Will Richardson) gave a presentation to the DEN attendees. I was unable to see it due to a personal emergency, but I did manage to snag autographed copies of his book for my wife and myself. (I’m also pleased that he remembered me from MICCA).

I’ve already started reading Mr. Richardson’s book, and I must say that it fails to do what most books on educational technology do. Mainly, it doesn’t feel like I’m reading a VCR manual. It’s almost as if Will Richardson wrote the book for people to read, rather than just put it on their bookshelves to make themselves feel important. I’ll elaborate further once I’ve read through a few more chapters.

The grand finale of the evening was movie night. The team projects were presented to great and well deserved applause. Even though many of these teachers had never used iMovie or Movie Maker before, they were still able to produce informative and aesthetically pleasing presentations. I can only hope that the teachers that attended this conference are as eager to share their newfound skills with their coworkers in September as they are today. I can’t wait for them to show up online so I can link to them.

… I’ll have to bug Lance about that.

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Published by theartguy

Aaron Smith is a Media Arts & Technology Teacher who spends most of his time on computers. In his free time he plays video games, edits videos, and misses his wife dearly.