Enhanced podcast options

I created podcasts for my course and showed images during lectures, and after the semester ended I looked into converting those into movies or enhanced podcasts. Making a movie was easy enough with iMovie, but the file sizes were pretty large. I estimated it would have been about 16GB total for the whole semester for large movies. The enhanced podcasts were smaller - the 5.4MB audio-only file became a 6.5MB file when images were added. However, the quality of the images meant they were much less useful. Since I already make the images available via a published Google Presentation, I think I ended up doing it the best way. Students can subscribe to the audio podcast and get the audio, and they can navigate through the images at their own pace. I will try to add an audio cue when I switch images so it will be a bit easier for students who are listening to the recording.

Congratulating successful students

Today was the final lecture day for my class, and I started by asking my students if any of them were either graduating this semester or transferring in the fall to a four-year college. A few did, and I had them stand up and I and the rest of the class gave them a round of applause for their success. I think they appreciated the recognition.

Missed the Spanish Civil War

I was so focused on a balanced lecture between the origins of war in Europe and Asia that I forgot to mention the Spanish Civil War. I used to show Picasso's Guernica as part of that lecture and include some art history. Next time I will try to remember it.