Late nights in the computer lab

Last published on January 6th and here it's already the 9th. Talk about slacking! I guess the two nights of lab work that went well into the early morning hours really through me off my deadline. Sorry world. Let me try and get you caught up. As the projects headed into the final stretch Windows Movie Maker threw another curve ball our way. When you try to trim AVI files they end up blacking out the backend of the show and all you get is audio. That is not cool. I read online in the forums and this is a known bug (not sure by whom, but at least Microsoft is aware that there is a problem - perhaps they will fix this in windows 7. Anyway, the task was to then convert the files once more into WMV so they could be edited. Now let's check the record. The video's come off the camera as mpg - since neither the Windows Movie Maker or iMovie would read these files they needed to be converted to at least a MP2 format. I checked the accepted formats for WMM and decided that MP4 would be good. Purchased a converter package and proceeded to convert well over 2 hours of video into MP4 format. Only to find out that these computers didn't have codecs for MP4 on them. Downloaded codecs and installed on all computers in the lab. Tried MP4 again with no success, so went back to the conversion tool and changed to AVI. WMM would accept them - but couldn't edit. One more trip to the converter to move to WMV - but wait - the conversion tool didn't include this format. Back to the web to find a free conversion tool. Downloaded Blaze Media Pro - free and a great tool for AVI to WMV conversion. Converted only video's needed for final projects. Phew that is a lot of handling of one video file! Imagine a whole room of them. Now I know why I am dizzy.

Anyway we solved the video format crisis with little interruption to class progress. Students were really getting loud which lead me to believe that they were engaged - and they were. I was very impressed with the group work that was being produced. The students really wanted to have a quality product.

While the video work took place our two webmasters, Boris and Aman setup shop in the front of the lab and built what I believe was the turning point in their day. I have never seen two happier students in my entire life. I was very proud of them. I will include the link at the bottom of this post. Now back to Thursday's lab session.

Students continued to glean their projects and get them just perfect. In the midst of all this chaos was studying if a final exam which would take place in the afternoon. Deadlines were set for noon on story and slideshow assignments and 4pm for video. I would love to say that all of these deadlines were met, but then that wouldn't be technology - would it....enter SAM.

What is SAM you ask? Well it is a very annoying virus that will pop up in the middle of your work and will simply say SORRY -SAM-. Exept he isn't sorry - in fact he quite enjoys ruining your project by shutting down your machine. This was popping up all over the lab - which didn't have virus protection! UGH. Back to the google groups for me. I found a SAM cleaner and installed it on every machine - instructing students to run the file if SAM appeared. Still it had infected all the thumb/flash/pen drives and would re-populate itself every time a file was transfered.

SAM is not my friend.

We continued to push forward. Three teams managed to make the noon deadline, three more finished over lunch and the final two finished mid afternoon. The video's became a bigger issue as conversion, sound quality and SAM started to make this more of a quest for the students and myself.

4pm came and went without a single video being turned in, as did 5pm and 6pm. Finally, shortly after 6:30pm the first video was completed. I never saw such big smiles as I awarded the first group with 3 extra bonus points. Then the urgency really set in with the remaining seven...they wanted bonus points. The projects continued to be completed about one per hour until close to 9pm when tragedy struck two groups. One has a reporter from the Times of India as a team member. He had been called away to cover a story about the petro (gasoline) strike and had to leave. Unfortunately his team's project was on his computer. I offered to come in early on Friday so they could finish - early being 7am. What was I thinking! Oh well, it is a good project and I wanted it to be completed...besides I couldn't let these students down.

Then another team had their project crash and be deleted just as they were finishing. They had ignored my cries of 'save often' and therefore had lost it. They would have to start over. They did, finishing at a little before 1am. The final team that I had been working with completed they project just a little after and we began uploading the projects to the website. Have I ever mentioned the bandwidth in India? Well it drops dramatically at night - and while you would think that 1am is prime time to work and upload - it is not. Needless to say the webmasters and I did not leave the lab until close to 2am. Hmmmm, did I mention I had told a group that I would meet them at 7am? I am in for a short nap instead of a good nights sleep. It is just a good thing that we have about 32 hours of plane riding at the end of Friday to catch up on sleep. Maybe I won't have jet lag this time.

Anyway, everything is winding down. I have the equipment back in the shipping cases and ready to head out. My luggage is packed and except for this laptop and my cell phone I am ready to hit the road.

The final step today is a ceremony at 10am to celebrate the accomplishments of the class. Just two short weeks ago a tired team stepped off the planes and began a journey. It has been quite the adventure and the journey has had a successful conclusion....except that I believe we have just begun. Many email addresses have been exchanged and I have a few more friends in my facebook account. I look forward to keeping in touch with another group of friends from India.

Oh - here is the link I promised...enjoy. If you like the site, please click on the 'contact us' link and let Boris know - he is the registered account that you will send to!

http://www.stxaviersbpj.org

For now, signing off from India. Up next - tales of a long plane ride!