How I feel about group projects!

I am pretty sure all of you have been assigned to complete a group project in school by now. How do you feel about group projects? I know the logic behind group projects is to learn to work on a team. But give me a break! All my team projects at work are so different than working with people I do not even know. In my BITE classes, obviously every student is a distance education student and lives across the entire state. So the only correspondence is via email. Going into a group project, no one knows each other's strengths and weaknesses. Some are good organizers, others good writers, and others can't seem to do anything! At least at work, we know each other and what we can each accomplish and tasks are assigned accordingly. Not so with group projects in BITE classes.

I am working on a group project this semester in another class and even though it is going pretty good, it is still very challenging to keep people on task and agree on some issues within the paper. At least when I work alone, I only have to answer to myself. That is why I really am enjoying this class. All the projects are personal creations of my own which allow me to express my creativity. I enjoy graphic design work, therefore, the projects in this class are enjoyable.

I hope everyone else is enjoying the class and doing well!

PPT Presentation on Honduras Mission Trip

I have just completed my PPT presentation assignment for BITE 5200. This was a fun project. I chose to chronicle my mission trip to Honduras. I had the privilege of visiting Honduras during the summer of 2008. A group from Princeton Baptist Church went to Tegucigalpa to work with local missionaries to complete the construction of a Sunday School building for a small village church. Doing this PPT presentation brought back many wonderful memories of my trip.

I believe anyone who has the opportunity to visit another country should seize that opportunity. Visiting another country helped me realize how blessed I am to live in the United States. The division between the rich and poor was much greater in Honduras. I learned that a middle class is basically non-existent but slowly emerging. There were so many squatters living in cardboard houses dotting the countryside. Even though the people our church worked with were very poor, they seemed very happy. I came to the conclusion that you never miss what you have never known!

Learning to use Camtasia

It is hard to believe this semester is passing so quickly! I have just completed my projects using SnagIt and Camtasia. I have used Camtasia in the past but I had never heard of SnagIt. It is really a neat program to learn. I thought it was fairly easy and I really liked the options available to change a picture.

Let me tell you my story using Camtasia. I also had a large group project due in one of my other classes this week so I thought I would use Camtasia to produce a really nice video with an image of myself along with voice narration. I created this nice powerpoint presentation and used Camtasia to add voice and video of myself. I completed the recording fairly quickly and easily. Then I spent the next two hours trying to produce my video as a .wmv file. I have never been so frustrated in all my life.

Finally, I emailed some of my group members and asked them if they knew much about Camtasia and immediately I received two responses. Boy, did I feel silly after realizing that I had not moved my recording to the timeline! Such a simple but very important step in producing my video. Then I was able to complete the project. After going through all of that earlier this week, this week's assignment using Camtasia in BITE 5200 was really easy.

As the semester progresses, I find myself busier and busier. There are so many projects due this semester. I am only taking two classes, but they still take a lot of my time. Now you know my adventures this week with Camtasia. I hope your experience with Camtasia has been much smoother.