OPWL 523 – Week 2

Growing up I was always a tech nerd, I am an elder millennial, so my time with the internet began with AOL in middle school.  The minute I started working with computers I fell in love, I taught myself graphic design and used it to create personalized graphics in games. When things went wrong on our PC I found I had a knack for fixing them.  And I still remember changing all my Mom’s program icons and sounds to Jim Carry as a prank. Being in this early time and also a female, I was told the internet wouldn’t go anywhere….graphic design was filled with no jobs…so I moved on. 

Somehow I landed in teaching, and I brought with me my love for gaming, tech, and graphic design.  It served me well and I quickly became known as someone to go to for troubleshooting to innovative technology teaching practices.  For two years I advocated for the use of computers within the classroom in order to provide accessible learning to my neurodivergent students.  When the pandemic hit, I suddenly was thrown into the thick of it, walking some teachers through how to open their emails from home while also helping solve systematic problems like scheduling Teams chats.  

I started a Youtube channel to support the teachers in my district while we were home. I pushed out content quickly and efficiently because we didn’t have time to always plan and edit. TechSmith’s ‘Ultimate Guide to Easily Make Instructional Videos’ resonated with me on several levels.  

First, it was helpful to see the breakdown in different types of instructional videos, almost all I did during the pandemic were screencasts so teachers could follow along, however, I do have some microlearning videos I did for kids and I personally watch Presentation videos almost weekly.  

With my focus being teachers in my specific district with our specific tools, I really knew my audience which TechSmith lists as the #1 tip.  Being pressed for time, and the urgency strong, I was pressured into both not focusing on making sure it was perfect and worrying about my equipment.  I enjoyed making very short, to-the-point videos for busy teachers, and I quickly became recognized for it. 

TechSmith really does a great job of explaining the process for creating videos, it’s something I will keep to reference especially since I am currently taking a Storyboarding course. I am looking forward to doing a bit more work in overlaying audio and visuals, I never did this in my videos as I worked with screencast software like Screencastify. I am excited to start learning and working within Camtasia and finding out how I can use it to create professional videos.