Auto-ethnography

I ended up creating my auto-ethnography on WeVideo, but that is not where I started.  I knew I wanted to create some type of slideshare, have the ability to include videos and music, and be able to add narration.  After looking at several sites, I realized I was limited since I am using a Chromebook.  Most programs that require a download are not compatible with Chromebooks, so I needed to find a slideshare that would work online.

I looked into several online programs:  Slideshare, UtellStory, and Narrable.  Each of these had advantages and seemed fairly easy to use.  However, as far as I could tell, none of them met all three of my requirements of being able to incorporate video, music and narration.  Present.me seemed promising, since you can add a video of yourself explaining each slide.  I almost used it, but could not figure out how to add music.  I finally settled on YouTube which I was surprised to find out has a slideshare program.  It is not easy to find, but once I did find it I realized it allowed for many options, such as transitions between slides and easy controls for editing each slide.  After spending some time building a slide show, I was disappointed to find out that narration was not an option.  I could have just added titles and text slides, but I was determined to narrate my slideshare.

Back to the drawing board, I ended up at WeVideo.  Ironically, I first discovered WeVideo a year ago and made my “Cooking with TPACK” video when starting the IT&DML program.  I hadn’t used it since.  WeVideo has everything I wanted and more.  Projects are stored online, it is compatible with Chromebooks, you can upload your own photos, videos and sounds.  It is very easy to narrate slides from within the program.  One nice feature of WeVideo is that there are three levels of editing tools:  Beginner, Simple and Advanced.  You can easily switch between modes and use the features you are comfortable with.  All of these are available in the free version, but there is a paid version with even more options.

Besides experimenting with many online tools, I found it very challenging to decide what and what not to include in my auto-ethnography.  My goal was to keep the presentation to three minutes, but it turned out to be four and a half minutes long.  Despite this, I am pleased with the result.  I learned a lot about slideshare tools and spent a great deal of time reflecting on my personal and professional life.  Here is my auto-ethnography: