Alice's Genius Hour Blog

  I learned a lot about myself and the project while doing this genius hour project. First, I learned that I hate the sound of my voice in a recording. Actually, that’s not news to me, I always feel that when I hear my own voice in a recording. In terms of technology, I learned how to embed a video and how to upload a video onto YouTube. Also, I learned how to use Blogger and now it’s a tool that I can add to my pedagogical portfolio. I learned that I still get nervous when “public speaking” but am also gradually conquering that fear. I enjoyed finding evidence of my teaching that would be a good fit on my blog. It was handy that I already had a lot of screenshots from my lessons and also recorded classes that I could draw from. I also enjoyed trying the different themes on Blogger and deciding which one best suited my needs and preferences. My challenges were trying to make sure I had a variety of content, from text to pictures to video, and that none of the content was repetitive...

This week, I worked on my TED Talk. I was pretty set from the get-go to use PowerPoint and create a narrated slideshow, which I would then turn into a video. This is a very useful tool of PowerPoint that maybe not a lot of people know about or use. It’s a great way to combine the slideshow functions of PowerPoint with the voice recording feature of audio platforms. To be honest, I am relieved that we don’t have to give a presentation in person. I’ve never been a fan of presentations and would in fact say that public speaking is a fear of mine. However, my friend pointed out that teaching involves giving presentations every day, and that made me think, huh, that’s true. Thinking about it that way, that this TED Talk was just a form of teaching, made it easier for me. I invite you to try the record feature on PowerPoint yourself. If you need help, you can check out this article: Record a slide show with narration and slide timings on the Microsoft Support website. Also, you can watc...