Phew - Digital Story posted!

Using PowerPoint for Digital Stories

Today, I felt I earned a 'win'.  I posted a final assignment onto my course wiki.  This was a project I was excited about and having a fun time creating.  Along the way, I learned some tech lessons about how 'to' and how 'not to' integrate technology programs.  I tried to keep my frustration under 'check' and reminded myself of some good advice I was given a while back regarding technology.  I was once told by a wise tech-savvy friend to slow down and think about what I want to do.  Rather than jumping in, becoming agitated, and giving up.  Great advice!  In the end, here is what I learned. 

I chose to use PowerPoint because of the interactive and animated features it can incorporate.  PowerPoint allows you to incorporate unique transitions and animate text boxes and images.  You can record audio within PowerPoint, but I chose to use audacity to allow me to edit the sound and clip where needed.  After creating the slides and importing my audio, including music and sound effects, I recorded the PowerPoint in play mode using Camtasia.  Camtasia is a fun program and allows you to capture screencasts of whatever is being viewed on the screen.  You can download a 30 day free trial and it is well worth it! One nice feature is that when it's downloaded, you have the option to also install buttons directly accessible in PowerPoint.  I was able to publish straight to YouTube with Camtasia.  Finally, grabbing the embed code from the video, I could place the video in my wiki. 

I think that about sums it up.   Hopefully, this will help someone out in the future.