Summer Camp Fun

Hi everyone. I just found (and enjoyed) the idea of using ChatTango from my PBWorks Summer Camp class. I've posted the chat window in the sidebar. I am finding that the Things classes have prepared me well for doing this course. In the section of ideas for using technology on Wikis, I discovered that I had done almost all of the suggestions as part of the Things classes.

So, Thanks to the folks who ran the classes, and stop by my new Wiki for some of what I am doing there. The link is TTSP Media Wiki for Students.

Thing 38--Screencasting

I used Screentoaster to create a video that explains to teachers at my school how to use the media wiki that I created for teachers and students. While it wasn't difficult to figure out, I had a number of problems with glitches and, ahem, user error. I think I have finally gotten the bugs worked out, and with any luck it will work. I lost 4 previous versions of the video, some of which were longer and much more substantial, so this represents a mere shadow of its former self. It did not succeed in its upload to YouTube, and unfortunately I have yet to figure out where in Screentoaster I can try to do so again. (If you already have this figured out, drop me a note.) Nothing, however, prepared me for the incredible amounts of time that it took to try to download a zipped version of this to my network, nor for how long it took to try (unsuccessfully) to upload it to YouTube. We're talking over an hour in each case for a video that is only 4 minutes long. Is there some obvious thing I am missing in this process to make it shorter?
Here is the link: Using the TTSP Media Wiki.

I obviously chose to create a screencast of something that I plan to use already, to test it to see if that works reasonably well with my peers. As I work fewer and fewer days due to budget cutbacks, I want to make sure that what I do create gets used. I suspect that this feature is one of the most useful ones for me, given that it will make it easier for me to provide instruction to people when I am not able to work with them one-on-one.