Final days….

This is my last post in my reflective blog.  In the past few days, we have started to say goodbye to fellow classmates and wishing good luck for the future.  The last year has been a lot of hard work, sometimes I even wondered if this is for me at all.  I enjoyed so much on the course though meeting new people, gaining knowledge in software tools, improved writing skills, design and of manuals and guides, critiquing text and graphics to name but a few.  I thank the lecturers for all their help and continuous feedback.  I look forward to working on my final project over the coming weeks with Ann as my supervisor.  I met with her this morning and in this short space of time, I got great support and guidance.  To my fellow classmates it has been a pleasure meeting you all and thanks for all your help over the past few months.  Finally, I am near the end of the course and I am glad I decided to do this Masters.   Goodbye fellow bloggers..

ePortfolio_Weebly

My ePortfolio is finally underway still a lot to work on over the next few days to meet the 9pm deadline on Friday.  The CV preparation took sometime over the last few days and I hope it does reflect the person that I am.  The last time I had to work on a CV was 18 years ago so by doing this assignment I would hope that I would have that near perfect CV for a potential employer.  The artefacts I am still unsure what to include and what to leave out.  I am trying to include an artefact that each of my lecturers assessed.  I want to have a good overall scope of artefacts to present.

Overall, I hope to show my performance and the progress that I have made in this MA in Technical Communications and E-learning.

Screencasting

Tom Johnson from http://idratherbewriting.com/ wrote a blog post in March 2010, ‘’Fixing Fumbled Sentences’’.

One of his first suggestions is to create a natural narration and not relying solely on a script.  In the following, he offers some useful tips I hope to bring to my Camtasia Screencast.  If we are going to use the natural flow of speech, we need to allow for fumbling of sentences and other errors.

Record in 1024x768px Resolution

Set your monitor’s resolution to 1024x768px and record the full screen. If you do this, the screen recording will be the same each time. If you need to re-record part of the screen, your recording will match the previous screen’s position exactly — each time.
Keep the Microphone the Same Distance Each Time
Maintaining a consistent distance between your mouth and the microphone is critical for achieving a consistent sound. If you have the mic at varying distances when you record, it will be difficult to reproduce the sentences that you fumbled and splice them in seamlessly. Set your mic the same distance and you avoid these problems.
Write Out a Script or Outline Beforehand
Although, Johnson does suggest not using a script never the less to have a script written out helps prepare for the “unscripted” delivery. Knowing what you are going to say is important to a coherent delivery.
Hit the Pause and Resume Key Often
Most recording software has a pause and resume key. In Camtasia, it is F9.   Johnson will present a paragraph, pause and rehearse the next paragraph before resuming.  This reduces mistakes.
Fix Errors Immediately After the Recording
After the full recording go back and fix any mistakes.  This is imperative to produce a seamless screencast.
Match the Tone of the Fumbled Sentence By Repeating the Previous Sentences
When you are recording the fumbled sentence to wait and repeat the previous sentences to grasp tone and rhythm.  The sound will be unbroken.
Repeat Entire Sentences Rather Than Fragments
Restart entire sentence from beginning to end.  Avoid repeating only a selection of the sentence.
Try Not to Narrate While Dragging the Mouse
Do not narrate while also using the mouse.

Plain English

One of my first books I purchased at the start of this course is ‘’Plain English’’ so many of us think we have a good grasp of writing English.  Ernest Hemingway once said, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

I may not be a master of the craft but I try to improve in the craft of writing and the following guidelines help me along the way.

1. Identify the purpose at the beginning: What do I want my reader to do or understand after they finish reading?
2. Write clearly and concisely: Remove excess words or sometimes known as redundancy. Wordiness endangers your meaning – precise words convey it. Keep sentences short. For example – I shall continue to remain here. A better substitute for these words – I shall remain here.
3. Cut out big words – Use short words and short sentences. “Anything that makes a text hard to read and understand, such as unnecessarily long words or complicated fonts, will lower readers’ evaluations of the text and its author.”

Daniel M. Oppenheimer, Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly, Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology 2005

4.  Use the active voice – All of our lecture material requests the use of the active voice. I can hope that going forward all writings that I do will reflect this.

5.  Use bullets, subheads and white space to help readers quickly scan the main points. I like to break up content with bullets to organise important points.

6.  Avoid jargon – over use of technical and semi-technical words.

I keep these guidelines near to me as I start my interview report.

Screencast…TW5212

Today, our lecture gave us guidance to our screencast interview. We have a few options of software from Captivate, Camtasia to explain everything an app at €2.65. We are producing a short 10-15 min screencast of our interview. Prior to the lecture, I was debating whether to use Captivate or Camtasia as the tool to present the screencast. Yvonne presented another option of the app “explain everything”. I am now looking at this option of this app with a whiteboard type screen that allows users to record audio and video, write, and move objects recording in real-time.  If this makes it easy for kids hey I can work this too.

Final weeks

Lectures resume this week after our Easter break last week.  Reality has struck only a few weeks away to the end of assignments and on-campus classes.  It seems like only a few weeks ago I wrote my application for this programme.  I cannot spend too long reflecting as over the coming months there will be time to do this.  For now, my focus is on the e-portfolio assignment.  I started looking over my assignments and I am working on picking my finest pieces.  After all this is my selling tool that, I will use to assist in getting a job in this industry.  I want to pick the artefacts that best represent my skills and highlight my individual and team accomplishments here at UL.

MadCap Flare

There was annoyance went Framemaker and eventually when we commanded this tool we were glad to move on.  That was semester 1 now comes MadCap Flare in semester 2.  A few from the class today attended the lab in college to make a start on this assignment.   I left confident that if I can manage to assemble my e-book in a word document and then import to MadCap Flare in the labs.   I hope this works!  I still have some time to work on the software and get more familiar with capabilities and output.

http://www.madcapsoftware.com/articles/CommunicatorArticle2014PP.aspx

Dreamweaver

A pleasant surprise in comparison to other tools we muddled through in the last few weeks.  Our team for this project decided to take hands on approach.  We are currently working together on the lab sheets as one-person reads out the instruction another team member is working on the interface.  Any hurdle we meet, we work together through the step.  Sometimes I put my hand up to this out of frustration if I cannot work through a step I will skip in order to move swiftly along to the end.  We all get to see the working method on screen and I have to say we all came away saying that was an ok piece of software to work with.

Interview with an expert in our field

My interview with an expert took place last Friday morning.  There was 50 minutes of recording and my interviewee got through 40 questions during this time.  I spent time revising and refining these questions to suit the interviewee over the previous weeks.  I breathed a sigh of relief that it went all ok when it was over.   Since I had a lecture to rush off to in the afternoon, it took me until Saturday to review my notes and go over the recording.  I got all the relevant information required for the report in our assignment.    It will be important to start compiling this data as soon as possible whilst fresh on paper, audio and partly in my head.  My interviewee is open to further questioning in relation to the area of software development and programming.

TW5212: Trends in Communication

In our lecture last Friday we discussed future trends and issues for professional and Technical Communication.  Dr. Cleary went into the lecture in greater detail covering the following areas content trends, workplace trends, hardware and software trends and education trends.  The best way to become more familiar with trends is talk to the expert.  We are conducting interviews over the coming weeks with experts in the field.  This will give us an opportunity to explore the developments in Technical Communication and E-learning.  My interviewee is a lecturer in Computer Science  has industry experience as a software and web developer.   In the following few days I plan putting my questions together and scheduling this interview.