When it all comes together....

Technology is often viewed as making our lives easier and helping to connect us in a whole new way.  Most times people associate technology with frustration, which can make my job as a technology consultant challenging.
Recently I was able to be a part of an experience that technology made an impact, connected people from across the country using 3 products.
This started with my sister telling me that my 5 year-old autistic nephew, Daniel did not want to go to school and it was greatly causing him some anxiety.  Unfortunately, they don't live close by about a 7 hour drive, so I often use Skype to talk and connect with them.  I asked her is she wanted me to make a video for Daniel and she said sure!
So, I used an app called Voxer.  Voxer kind of acts like a walkie talkie that records your message and allows people to listen to the message at their convenience.  I sent a message out to the great team of people I work with to see if they had any suggestions for my video.  They are amazing and had so many great suggestions, including video taping their kids on what they liked about Kindergarten.  They shared the short video clips with me through Google Drive, where I was able to download them on my iPad and put the clips together using iMovie.
The video turned out great and Daniel really liked the video.  It was just awesome to watch all of this come together in about 24 hours.  The technology made it slick and easy and it was used to communicate with people far away.

Camtasia Platform Switch

Camtasia is my favorite video editor.  I first learned about Camtasia when I was practicing a flipped classroom.  I got training when I attended FlipCon in Chicago using the PC version.  I love the playhead that allows you to select the clip area and the way you can make customized intros.  Two years ago, my PC decided to die.  Thankfully, my administration said, "What would you like?"  I have always been very pro PC, but my tech coach said, "Macs are better for video." So, I took her advise and took the plunge into the Mac world.

Now, Camtasia on a Mac is a bit different and took some getting used to.  But, I have enjoyed the ripple cut editing.  I've been using it for two years now and I just realized one of the biggest differences between the two different platforms.  When you export your video in the PC version, it asks you what kind of video you want to export, HD, mp4.  I had never realized that the Mac never asked me.  I've just been exporting and starting to notice that the video was slightly out-of-focus, or I was questioning whether or not I needed glasses!

That's because you have to set up the canvas to the ratio that you want when/before you edit the video.  Once you change the canvas size you have to resize any clips, annotations, or photos that make up your video to fit onto the new canvas. Ugh!  I've been working on many video products lately and never realized that I needed to change the canvas size, but I was noticing that the videos were not as crisp and clear as they originally were.  Thankfully, I have the original Camtasia files and I can resize my video pretty easily.

Lesson learned!