In the Cloud and on the Ground » Heidi Trotta

So Out Of Date!

Heidi Trotta — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:12:21 +0000

My blog is so out of date … apologies. So much online course development, teaching part-time and picking up web work here and there. Not enough time. Will return shortly!

Audio Tutorials and Tools

Heidi Trotta — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:15:59 +0000

I came across this blog entry on recording audio. It has tons of tutorials on working with audio, free web based tools and creative commons audio sites. This is the best collection I have seen so far on the topic for elearning:

http://www.articulate.com/blog/50-tutorials-to-help-you-achieve-e-learning-awesomeness/

Interactive Online Characters

Heidi Trotta — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:21:34 +0000

A challenge in co-teaching ORLD 5055 – Staff Development and Training has been to have students explore other possibilities than Powerpoint for training. This year I decided to infuse the course with examples of other choices, especially with content where students had questions or did not do well. This week I created a little movie on FAQ’s students had regarding their Organizational paper assignment. Below is my attempt using a free online tool called xtranormal found at http://www.xtranormal.com/ . Even though this tool is very simplistic, it can still be effective. I love animated characters and the research has shown that people identify with them. I would love to have the opportunity to try something more sophisticated such as Code Baby.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6661709/

(for some reason it is not embedding into my blog post correctly)

Prezi for Education

Heidi Trotta — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:12:41 +0000

I’m working on gathering resources for our TLTC Summer Series day Stand Out in a Crowd – Effective Presentations to be held on June 30 and I came across this example of a Prezi created by Paul Hill. It is the best example of a Prezi I have seen that demonstrates how Prezi can be used for elearning or the face-2-face classroom.

Thoughts on using Prezi as a teaching tool on Prezi

Crazy Talk

Heidi Trotta — Thu, 20 May 2010 05:06:20 +0000

This is an introduction to ORLD 5055 – Staff Development and Training I made this evening using Crazy Talk and an image of my Second Life avatar. Our challenge in this course at Teacher’s College has been to get students to try different, more creative approaches for their final project, a training module. This semester I thought I would use a variety of tools to cover areas in the course that students struggle with the hopes they will take a risk when it comes to producing their project. My Crazy Talk is a little rough around the edges however the course starts tomorrow and I wanted it to be available.

Fast Tube by Casper

All Fired Up

Heidi Trotta — Sat, 15 May 2010 23:24:01 +0000

Since I returned from the Savannah School of Art and Design story and the user experience have been on my mind. I have always known how important these concepts are in design and communication but they live and breath it there. What an amazing place and an inspiration to me personally. Typography, image, interaction are so very important but they are only the supporting actors. This week I explored some terrific elearning modules and graphics and I really looked at them in a whole different way … evaluating the story and interactive element. Could I identify it .. .what did it say?

There are so many design blogs out there but I came across http://mocoloco.com/art/ today. The horizontal scrolling is fresh and engaging. The difference from the norm encouranges exploration. It stuck me that we never see anything similar in an educational context. Wouldn’t this be an amazing way to present content?

Best Example of eLearning

Heidi Trotta — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:59:47 +0000

eLearning Example

Tom Kuhlmann published a post on how to make effective “Flash” elearning tutorials using PowerPoint. I have to say this is the best elearning tutorial I have seen so far.

The blog entry can be found here.

The tutorial can be found here …

Illustrator Tutorials

Heidi Trotta — Wed, 05 May 2010 16:16:39 +0000

Vectips

I follow the Rapid eLearning Blog by Tom Kuhlmann who runs the community for Articulate. What I enjoy about his blog is the tutorials and resources he offers regarding developing elearning tutorials that are graphically pleasing. He shared this resource for Illustrator tutorials I want to remember.

Vectips

Share What You Know

Heidi Trotta — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:13:10 +0000

This video was so well done … I want to remember to use it in a presention. The user experience enhances and supports the message so well. This was done by a BYU student who won the Sparky People Choice Awards.

Clueless Discovery from Aaron Ludwig on Vimeo.

First Twitter Design

Heidi Trotta — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 03:38:44 +0000

Design for Twitter

Here is our first Twitter Design for my dear friend at Para L’ elle in Mendham, a small women’s boutique. Her Twitter icon is from her business card. Her main design element to the far left is made from a stamp (purchased at Michaels Crafts) that was then brought into Illustrator and altered in color. The bags from her store are brown with blue writing so I used a brown background and then scanned in this beautiful marbled paper I had made a number of years ago. Using Photoshop, I added some blue to the background. I like this version but my Illustrator skills are sure rusty!