Comments on: Thinking About an STC Proposal to Submit http://idratherbewriting.com/2008/09/17/thinking-about-an-stc-proposal-to-submit/ The Latest Trends in Technical Communication Sat, 26 May 2012 05:09:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Harry Miller http://idratherbewriting.com/2008/09/17/thinking-about-an-stc-proposal-to-submit/comment-page-1/#comment-134557 Harry Miller Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:25:38 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=1976#comment-134557 Thanks, Tom! I use Camtasia for screen capture and Adobe Premiere Pro for all the editing and effects, like the black&white, the animation, and the superimposed video. I also use Adobe Audition for some audio editing, and also for the music and sound effects. Harry Millers last blog post..<a href="http://www.harrymillermedia.com/index.php?post_id=376703" rel="nofollow">Engagement Through Episodic Story: Part 3 of 3</a> Thanks, Tom! I use Camtasia for screen capture and Adobe Premiere Pro for all the editing and effects, like the black&white, the animation, and the superimposed video. I also use Adobe Audition for some audio editing, and also for the music and sound effects.

Harry Millers last blog post..Engagement Through Episodic Story: Part 3 of 3

]]> By: Tom http://idratherbewriting.com/2008/09/17/thinking-about-an-stc-proposal-to-submit/comment-page-1/#comment-134554 Tom Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:55:35 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=1976#comment-134554 Harry, those instructional videos are amazing and incredibly entertaining. I just spent the last half hour watching them when I should have been working. Awesome work. What video editing tools are you using? I love the one where it fades to black and and white and the guy appears in the back of the room. I also like the latest one you posted. Very impressive. Keep it up. Harry, those instructional videos are amazing and incredibly entertaining. I just spent the last half hour watching them when I should have been working. Awesome work.

What video editing tools are you using? I love the one where it fades to black and and white and the guy appears in the back of the room. I also like the latest one you posted. Very impressive. Keep it up.

]]> By: Harry Miller http://idratherbewriting.com/2008/09/17/thinking-about-an-stc-proposal-to-submit/comment-page-1/#comment-134553 Harry Miller Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:01:27 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=1976#comment-134553 Sure, you can see the videos I've doing on my "portfolio" blog: http://www.harrymillermedia.com/ A little about my thinking behind the unusual style--many (possibly most) screencasts are based on the teacher/student paradigm, where an authority presents information for the edification of the learner. That's great for reference material; perfect, actually, if I'm in the middle of a project and I need an answer to a problem before I can move forward. But sometimes people like to collect information they don't need right away, especially about the tools/techniques they work with for a living, in case some day they encounter a problem and they remember having seen a related solution. For example, people love cooking shows and home improvement shows, even if they aren't going to cook or remodel that same way. So I'm experimenting with instructional video as an entertainment channel. But to this point, I haven't seen much in the way of results--few people comment on the blog, though at the last developer conference someone recognized me and said he loved the videos and pointed his classes to them. :-) They don't seem to get a lot of views, though so far I haven't done very much to advertise them. Harry Millers last blog post..<a href="http://www.harrymillermedia.com/index.php?post_id=376703" rel="nofollow">Engagement Through Episodic Story: Part 3 of 3</a> Sure, you can see the videos I’ve doing on my “portfolio” blog:
http://www.harrymillermedia.com/

A little about my thinking behind the unusual style–many (possibly most) screencasts are based on the teacher/student paradigm, where an authority presents information for the edification of the learner. That’s great for reference material; perfect, actually, if I’m in the middle of a project and I need an answer to a problem before I can move forward.
But sometimes people like to collect information they don’t need right away, especially about the tools/techniques they work with for a living, in case some day they encounter a problem and they remember having seen a related solution. For example, people love cooking shows and home improvement shows, even if they aren’t going to cook or remodel that same way.
So I’m experimenting with instructional video as an entertainment channel. But to this point, I haven’t seen much in the way of results–few people comment on the blog, though at the last developer conference someone recognized me and said he loved the videos and pointed his classes to them. :-) They don’t seem to get a lot of views, though so far I haven’t done very much to advertise them.

Harry Millers last blog post..Engagement Through Episodic Story: Part 3 of 3

]]> By: Tom http://idratherbewriting.com/2008/09/17/thinking-about-an-stc-proposal-to-submit/comment-page-1/#comment-134527 Tom Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:26:38 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=1976#comment-134527 @ Harry, thanks so much for pointing me in the direction of Mayer's research. It's interesting to read about the cognitive overload theory. Also, thanks for the feedback on my possible presentation. What you say has a lot of merit. I'll have to think more about this. You've done a lot with multimedia. Can you point me to the links of the recent work you've done? I remember seeing you post the links on Twitter, and I checked them out briefly. Now I'd like to really dive into them. @ Harry, thanks so much for pointing me in the direction of Mayer’s research. It’s interesting to read about the cognitive overload theory. Also, thanks for the feedback on my possible presentation. What you say has a lot of merit. I’ll have to think more about this.

You’ve done a lot with multimedia. Can you point me to the links of the recent work you’ve done? I remember seeing you post the links on Twitter, and I checked them out briefly. Now I’d like to really dive into them.

]]> By: Harry Miller http://idratherbewriting.com/2008/09/17/thinking-about-an-stc-proposal-to-submit/comment-page-1/#comment-134509 Harry Miller Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:03:20 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=1976#comment-134509 The audio part of video presentations is very important, but I wonder if it's enough to get people to attend the talk? What about expanding it a bit to "Engaging Your Audience Through Multimedia"? For screencasts, that would be primarily through presentation style and voice--staying energetic, not going off on tangents, and such. Plus, it includes analysing your audience and presenting just enough for their expected knowledge and the amount of time they're likely to devote to getting the answer (novice=more time, expert=needs instant answer). About voice-based vs. caption-based tutorials--Richard E. Mayer has done some good summaries of the study reports, for example in his book "Multimedia Learning". I'm sure there are others who have done it too. What I got from it was basically: There are two types of memory: working memory and long-term memory. We can hold about seven chunks of information in working memory, and if something new comes along, it replaces a chunk, which is either stored in long-term memory (rarely, unless special steps are taken) or else lost. However, there are two channels of memory: the visual channel and the auditory channel. Each channel gathers information separately, which doubles the possible input and reduces overload in either channel. If you present captions over pictures, it's all visual input and it leads more quickly to cognitive overload. Harry Millers last blog post..<a href="http://www.harrymillermedia.com/index.php?post_id=376703" rel="nofollow">Engagement Through Episodic Story: Part 3 of 3</a> The audio part of video presentations is very important, but I wonder if it’s enough to get people to attend the talk? What about expanding it a bit to “Engaging Your Audience Through Multimedia”? For screencasts, that would be primarily through presentation style and voice–staying energetic, not going off on tangents, and such. Plus, it includes analysing your audience and presenting just enough for their expected knowledge and the amount of time they’re likely to devote to getting the answer (novice=more time, expert=needs instant answer).
About voice-based vs. caption-based tutorials–Richard E. Mayer has done some good summaries of the study reports, for example in his book “Multimedia Learning”. I’m sure there are others who have done it too. What I got from it was basically:
There are two types of memory: working memory and long-term memory. We can hold about seven chunks of information in working memory, and if something new comes along, it replaces a chunk, which is either stored in long-term memory (rarely, unless special steps are taken) or else lost. However, there are two channels of memory: the visual channel and the auditory channel. Each channel gathers information separately, which doubles the possible input and reduces overload in either channel. If you present captions over pictures, it’s all visual input and it leads more quickly to cognitive overload.

Harry Millers last blog post..Engagement Through Episodic Story: Part 3 of 3

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