JALT Presentation materials - arrrgg!

Doreen and I have been cranking on pulling materials together for our JALT presentation this weekend in Shizuoka. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll all go through well enough. There's a sizable list of things that can potentially go wrong.

• The song doesn't play back in the presentation
  
• Presentation CD's come out as coasters
• My projector dies
• Computer problems, etc.

I'm staying positive though. We still have time to get things together. I'm quite happy with my automated Flash-based Captivate Walk-through of all the later steps for putting together a Karaoke Project using PowerPoint.

No example?

I didn't finish an example for my 5th year computer class! I should have provided them with an accurate example of what I am expecting from them so they had something to use as a point of reference. I don't want them copying the example, but they deserve something more to look at than me trying to pass off a PowerPoint presentation for their Flash project.

I'm going to have to figure a way to make tutorials for them so that they can complete certain tasks. It's very difficult to make handouts since the Ss are using a localized version of Flash MX while I'm using an English version of Flash MX 2004. It's all very confusing.

How much do they understand?

I had a difficult time with my 4th year students understanding the assignment for the day. The didn't seem to understand what it was they were supposed to do, nor how to complete some of the initial steps.

I had shown them multiple examples of PowerPoint presentations that featured "new vocabulary" slides.

1. They knew about finding the lyrics,
2. they knew that there were words in their songs they didn't understand,
3. they knew how to find the meanings of these words online,
4. they knew how to make new PowerPoint documents,
5. but they didn't know how to take one of the words in their lyrics and copy and paste that word along with its meaning in Japanese into the PowerPoint document.

I had to go around to most of the Ss individually to show them what it was exacly I wanted. I should have been more clear about the process. I think next class I'm going to have to do a tutorial about assembling a Karaoke project. I should have done that today.

Problems with the Computer Lab Audio

I just found out that I can't play certain audio file types on the laptops in rm117. I tried to play a PowerPoint with a WMA encoded at 960kbps and didn't get any sound out. It must have to do with the version of Windows Media Player. I'll have to check on that later, not that I'll be able to update the versions on those computers.

I also noticed that I have to be careful about which images I choose for my class blogs since not all will appear on those laptops (see example).


Note: next year, have the guys make their own (laminated) mouse pads; I hope the guys remember to bring their headphones in tomorrow!

I just needed to keep things straight

I pulled this blog together so I can try to organize and log some of my ideas and follies with teaching here at Kanazawa Technical College. I'm realizing that using a blog is a fantastic way to organize materials for in-class use. You'll still need to find another resource for file-sharing, but perhaps this can be accomplished through your school's LAN.

For the academic year which began in 2005, I have two first year, two second year, a fourth year computer, and a fifth year computer class.

Please leave any comments or suggestions. I look forward to a killer year!