Zoom Armour Class Planning and Tools

Zoom Armour Class Planning and Tools

I have been asked how I did my Zoom 

class on armouring 101, and which tools I used. When you are explaining something once, why not put it in a blog and explain it to whoever shows interest?

First step was the skeleton. Quickly overview the whole course, then each of the six two hour lessons.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lgCjJHQJ58ZIMpwRTxJRaPOvhr0qXYGHm0h3LsD-iaA/edit?usp=sharing

Important principles: First lesson should be assess each students needs. Do they match what you are planning to teach. Next is vocabulary - what must you teach otherwise the words make no sense?

Lesson One - I spoke to the students about their personal expectations. I had written a five page google document on types of workshops. This document was the skeleton, and my knowledge filled it out. It was also the vocabulary lesson - each of the critical words was discussed and brought up so students could hear them in a context. This was a 'talking head' lesson done in front of my computer.

Lesson Two-Four. Each of these practical skills lessons involved iphone video days. My beloved Tig would be the cameraperson and count me in. I would have a printed list of each technique, and would explain them from memory. Later, we would extract the video files from my iPhone using a iXpand lightning made by Sandisk. 

These gizmos are an iPhone lightning adaptor at one end, and a USB stick at the other. Then I would transfer the files to my Windows 10 PC. I would convert these files from Apple format to .mp4 and edit them using HD Movie Maker - PRO which cost $15AUD from the Microsoft store.

I estimate that a two hour lesson needs about 50 minutes of video if, like me, you stop the video at bits that need expanding, answer questions, and prompts for questions from your audience. Shooting for 40 minutes of video generally took about four hours of shooting, and six hours of editing. Armour videos have sound problems. The loud hammering and grinding noises you make can cut out the sound and stop your words from being heard. In the lessons I just explained what I said during the zoom. To publish my videos on Youtube, I decide subtitling would be needed. I used Aegissub for this. I estimate 40 minutes of subtitling will take about four hours.

Lessons Five and Six - Were again talking head. Parts were based off a blog post, which involved me showing the blog post, and talking about the key points, expanding on them, and constantly quizzing the listeners about why decisions might have been made. Parts were based of memory without scripting - talking about shop practice and how decisions come about. Yet another part was showing and presenting over a Microsoft Powerpoint

The final part was going over the expectations expressed in the very first lesson, and then expanding on them. The student who expressed an interest in Mongol armour - I advised which workshop they needed, which groups they should look to to research Mongol, and examples of Mongol armour for example. The last 30 minutes were left for final questions. 

So I used a bevvy of technical tools, but I would say the most important was a good skeleton put together on a Google Document.