Tuesday, December 9, 2008

BIO

I worked for a local furniture manufacturing company that closed in 2007. After being permanently laid off, I was given an opportunity to pursue a college degree and I decided to take it. I enrolled in the Medical Office Administration program at Gaston College. I felt that it was a field that I could find work in, and it would be a job that I would enjoy. I worked for Cherryville Family Care through CO-OP during the 2008 fall semester. It was a great experience. I hope to obtain employment at a local doctor's office, clinic, or hospital after completing my degree program in spring 2009.

I have been married for 23 years. I have a daughter who is in high school. We live in Western Lincoln County with our two rescued cats, Buster and Tiger.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking software is the premier product for large-vocabulary continuous recognition of natural speech. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you can create documents quickly and easily with your voice, without being slowed by typing on your keyboard.

You can dictate, rather than type, into any program that accepts text. Dragon NaturallySpeaking recognizes natural and continuous speech and converts it to text on the screen.

Learning to train your "Dragon" takes time, but it is well worth the effort to be able to use your computer by speaking to it. You can create documents, format them, and edit them all by using voice commands. This program would be useful for almost any type of dictation.

PhotoStory and YouTube

Microsoft® Photo Story 3 for Windows® helps you create exciting video stories from your pictures that you can share with family and friends. For example, you could create a video story that features narrated photographs from a family vacation or a video story that includes pictures and sounds of your new baby.In a few simple steps, you can import and edit your pictures, add titles, record narration, add background music, and save your story using the optimal quality settings (profile) for the way your story will be played.

YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience.
YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on http://www.youtube.com/ and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow.

You can find almost anything on YouTube. I use YouTube to share videos of the high school band with other parents and students. My school project for YouTube was a photo story created with Microsoft PhotoStory for Windows. I used photos of the light houses of North Carolina to create my video. PhotoStory allows you to create a timeline for your photos. You can create a dialogue and narrate the video.

Survey Monkey

Intelligent survey software for primates of all species. SurveyMonkey has a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily. Find out what everyone is talking about... SurveyMonkey is flexible and scalable enough to meet the needs of a wide range of people: whether you're managing HR for a multi-national organization, or you're simply trying to gather feedback for your blog.

I used Survey Monkey to create a survey about becoming an organ donor. Survey Monkey is a quick and easy way to gather information. It has clear instructions and various templates that allow you to create the type of survey you need.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Animoto

Animoto is a web application that, with the click of a button, produces videos using images and music that a user selects. Using their patent-pending Artificial Intelligence developed to think like an actual editor & director, the resulting video has the emotional impact of a movie trailer and the visual energy of a music video.Animoto will analyze your images, feel your music and then customize your video! No two videos are ever the same.

I used Animoto to make a video of downtown Lincolnton. It is a wonderful tool for making your pictures into a video. It can also be used for presentations, which is a welcome change from slideshows and PowerPoint. Animoto is a program that I will use over and over again to create short or full length videos.

Facebook

Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected.Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. Sharing on Facebook isn't just about family news or vacation pictures; it's also about your favorite stores and restaurants, helping you and your friends find great new choices and resources. It's also an important part of how a young business gets established.

I think that Facebook is a great way to reconnect with friends from school and let them know what's happening in your life. Use Facebook to post pictures of family, your vacations, or share your favorite musical artists. It is a great tool for keeping in contact with other students and faculty. It could also be used to make contacts in your field of work.

Sound Recorder and Switch Audio File Conversion Software

Using Sound Recorder, you can record, mix, play, and edit sounds. You can also link or insert sounds into another document. You can modify an uncompressed sound file by:
· Adding sounds to a file.
· Deleting part of the sound file.
· Changing the playback speed.
· Changing the playback volume.
· Changing the playback direction.
· Changing or converting the sound file type.
· Adding an echo.
With Switch you can convert your sound files into the formats you need to compress for storage, create ringtones, add to a presentation, listen on your portable device and much more. In fact, the possibilities are endless using this powerful audio converter.

The Sound Recorder has many possible uses. In class we used it to narrate a medical condition. After creating the Sound Recorder file, it can be saved in several formats to fit your needs.