Some Words of Introduction to Adam's Guest Blog and Video

Before you watch the video about Adam...

Whenever I work on a project that I know will take a lot of time to complete anyway, I always make sure I learn something new in the process -- I love a good challenge.  Well, in creating the video to accompany Adam's blog, I wanted to try to do something with video editing I'd not done before, namely, layer in some video of him in the classroom to complement his preference for talking tech via a Google Hangout (which, as he says in the video, he did because he also wanted to learn something new).  I also needed to edit down our original Hangout to about half its length and hoped to create at least a somewhat cohesive final product.

The software I decided to use, Camtasia Studio, I had on a 30 day trial; somehow the nice Tech Smith people forgot to remove my ability to use it after my 30 days were up, so I thought I was lucky.  As it turned out, eh... not so much: I believe the software slowly self-destructs after the trial period, because whole slices of video were playing back empty or black, the software froze up after about fifteen minutes each time I used it, and it didn't like the format of the video I was using, even though it was the required type. 

So this little video project, which I originally thought might take me a few evening or weekend hours here or there, has ended up taking almost a month. It's also very imperfect, but I'm ok with that because I'm learning something new.  I also ascribe to the notion, whether it's about integrating technology or about life in general, that it's not about the destination, it's about the journey.

All the little bits and pieces across the bottom (eventually) became the final video.

Although that "free" software ended up costing me a lot of time, I still leave the experience feeling satisfied about two things:  I did learn how to do some simple layering of video, and -- most importantly -- I can now share my results, imperfect as they are, with others who I know will learn a lot from watching and listening to Adam's realistic take on becoming a "tech genius" and his plans for next year.

Believe me when I say that not all video editing software is as aggravating as what I chose to use; in fact, the title slides and music I added using MovieMaker, which is pretty user-friendly -- happily, Adam's blog also includes his document listing user-friendly screen cast tools.

As Adam says and writes below, using technology requires being ok when efforts are imperfect -- just be proud of the challenge you took on and CLICK SOME BUTTONS! With those words, I'll send you to Adam's guest blog and video.  I know you'll be inspired!