Brian Abeling   
Pekin District 108   
Pekin, Illinois  

Skills 
The best technological skills that I learned during this course were those during the orientation that focused on using Adobe Premiere to digitize video clips.  In a short amount of time, we learned not only how to capture the clips, but we also learned keys steps towards capturing better clips.  In addition, we covered optimizing the videos for smaller file size. 

During C & I 335, Premiere was perhaps the most important program that I learned to use.  I have used it before, but never to extent that I can now.  During this course, I also had opportunities to practice some skills that I already had experience in.  Those included web page creation, Word, and PowerPoint.  I am extremely comfortable with the Office package, most Adobe programs, HyperStudio, and Netscape and feel that I can easily integrate those tools into my current work. 

The most immediate tool that I  need to learn to enhance my curent work is Perl.  There are thousands of interactive Perl scripts already available on the web.  Many of them can be used by our district to collect, manipulate, and analyze information through a web interface with only slight modifications.  I don't feel that I need to become a master programmer of Perl.  However, if could learn some of the basics, I would be able to make small modifications to the many available scripts.  For example, one of the current scripts that we are working on is for our on-line staff directory and with only a few modifications, it would better meet our needs. 
 

Communications 
The most important communications tool that I learned during this class was O'Reillys Webboard.  At first, I ran into a few glitches with getting in, but since then everything has been fine.  I am so impressed with it organization and ease of use that I have convinced our district to purchase the system for our districts needs.  It was purchased at the end of June and we are scheduled to have the install done by July 15th for testing.  We will be using the webboards for one main purpose, to allow teachers to share and discuss exemplary lesson plans. 

Since we are purchasing the webboards, that obviously tells you that I am very comfortable with implementing this technology into my current work environment.  One of the new skills that I look forward to is running and administering the district webboards.  I am anxious to see the various security features for the boards and set up a system that will allow our teachers to colloborate on lesson plans. 
 

Multimedia 
I have produced digital videos for my webpages before, but during this class I had a chance to expand my experience in this area.  I learned a lot of new Adobe Premiere tricks while experimenting with how to produce the instructional video clips for my final project.  In addition, I also experimented with HyperCam, Lotus ScreenCam, and Microsoft Camcorder while working on my final project.  To my surprise, the shareware (HyperCam) was the one best suited to meet my needs. 

I feel really comfortable using any of the above multimedia/video programs in my current work. In fact, I will be using HyperCam to create the instructional videos for the on-line resources incorporated in my final project.  I will also be using Adobe Premiere and the miroVideo DC 30+ video board to export these same videos out to VHS tape for distribution to those who do not have T-1 access.  However, the export of the videos to VHS is the area that I need to focus on for futher learning.  In several test runs, the exporting to VHS had several glitches. 
 
 

Legalities, special needs, and issues 

Internet filtering and censorship 
I am very interested in keeping up to date on the two current court cases related Internet censorship and public libraries.  In one case (Loundon, VA) a public library is being sued for censorship by including filtering software on all machines.  The other (Livermore, CA) is a public library that is being sued for not providing filtering on the Internet.  At first glance, it seems that you can be sued whether you filter or not.  However, the important lesson here is to provide users a choice.  Adults may want filtering software to protect them from unwanted material, then again they may choose not to use the filtering.  Since much of my job entails working with our business partners, I feel that being up to date on these cases will help us prepare for any possible moves in the future related to filtering the Internet. 

Special Needs 
Through our studies of web page accessibilities I learned about various web development strategies that can prohibit others from viewing your web pages.  Accessibility problems can arise when using tables, background colors, small font sizes, graphics, and graphics without ALT tags.  All of these problems can be solved and with the help of Bobby 2.0, users can easily spot these accessibility  problems.

Another tool that I liked was Dr. HTML.  Although it doesn't analyze your pages for accessibilitiy problems for screen readers and other devices for the disabled, it does an excellent job of analyzing your page to spot problem graphics that are slowing down your pages download time.  It provides a detailed list of all graphics on your page and specific information on their format and qualities.  It also color codes your graphics into three areas: the graphics that are of responsible download time, those graphics that need some minor adjustmenst, and those that need immediate attention. 
 
 

Evaluation 

Since I'm not in a classroom position, I would like to broaden the focus of the evaluation of my project.  Instead of just evaluating student activities, I will need additional assessment information.  At this time, I am really interested in developing instruments and tools that will help me answer the following questions...
 

• Do teacher/classroom web sites increase communication with parents/community?
• What roadblocks exist that prohibit classroom web sites from being better communication tools with parents/comunity?
• What strategies do teachers use to integrate their classroom web site into the classroom activities?
• Do these strategies have a positive impact on student achievement?