April 24, 2009

I finally feel like I am gaining some momentum in my project.

During Spring Break, I finally filmed some other teachers. Filming my own lectures is fine, but I needed to get other teachers on board to see if this is going to work.

First, our friend Lizzie was in town an filmed a math lecture with me. She has won awards for her teaching and is really committed to helping her students. I edited her first lesson on multiplying fractions and posted it on the site. Unfortunately, I unknowingly lost a piece of a video file that threw off the beginning of the lesson. Worse still, someone else caught it, but at least I was able to fix it.

Second, a friend of a friend recommended a science teacher in Santa Barbara. I drove up on April 18th and filmed three chemistry lessons. It went really well, and I think that he would like to film more in the future.

I have a few other teachers who are busy now but say that they would like to film later, probably summer. Hopefully, I can line up a few teachers before the summer so that I can film like crazy while the teachers have time.

Now I just have to edit all of the footage. 

March 26, 2009

Things are progressing nicely. Since the beginning of the year, I have been searching for contributing teachers, and I am finally getting some positive results.

I realized in February that the email blast to strangers was not going to work. I have emailed about 100 teachers: two have replied with no commitment, and a third says he is interested after finals.

However, approaching friends (and friends of friends) is working nicely. I have dates in the calendar for a math teacher and a chemistry teacher. I have a four English and two Math teachers who would like to contribute when they have more time.

I suspect that summer and vacations will be very busty times for me since that is when teachers can film most easily. The rest of the year will be spent on the site and on marketing.

February 12, 2009

In my quest to make my website completely DIY, I have tried two new things this week.

First, I made my first Flash animation. I had played around with Flash a few months ago and worked through some tutorials, but this was the first animation I have completed. I used it to tell a story in my "Commas in Items in a Series" lesson (http:www.clickademics.com/englishvideos/series_commas.php). I was really happy with the result, even if it is a little rough.

Secondly, I am going to try and write an iPhone app. I have always thought that students would like to watch my content on their mobile devices, and an iPhone app is much cooler than just a mobile wing to my website, which I will do sometime as well. I bought a couple of books and found a few video tutorial websites. My goal is to watch a video and work through a chapter each day, kind of like going to a class.

Lastly, I emailed a few more teachers today, letting them know about the site and asking if they would like to join. No replies yet, but we will see tomorrow.

January 16, 2009

Exciting times here at Clickademics.

I am ready to take the next step on my website, gathering content.

Until now, I have been filming my own lectures in my own house. I am presently hunting for teachers to contribute their lectures. Early next week, I will send out an email to 100 teachers in the area inviting them to be a part of the website. I even found a large, quiet room where I can film - for free.

I am hoping to line up a number of teachers for the next two months of Saturdays. If I can do all of my filming on Saturdays, then I can edit all week. I would be able to gather a lot of content quickly.

If I can book a number of Saturdays, I can find some friends or old students to be my assistants. That should make it a lot easier.

I cannot wait to see the responses to my email.

January 5, 2009

I have not had much to document because I took the holidays off. We had so much to do between Thanksgiving and New Years, that I did very little to my website.

However, January should be a busy time for me. The website is built, and I have a few videos finished on the site, so this new year is the time to go out and find contributors. First, I have to finalize my business plan with the help of my wife, and then I will start calling all the teachers that I can. 

My goal is to find either teachers who are excited to make big contributions to the site, or talented math and science teachers who will give me enough lectures to make a package that families will want to purchase. 

My brother-in-law had a good idea. Instead of just posting any old videos, I should approach it as problem solving. Whatever academic subject it is, I should find the ten topics that are most troublesome to students and create lectures that solve those problems. After all, students and parents will come to the site hoping to solve problems, not just to be entertained.

Starting Point

This is my blog documenting my year creating my educational video website.

Though I have been working steadily on the website since summer, I finally feel like I am making progress.

For the last three weeks, I have been reading a great deal about databases and working through countless tutorials. It seems like I should be able to make the whole website on my own. This is incredibly good news, since I had budgeted five thousand dollars for a web designer, and that might not have been enough. 

The website that I have created may not be as slick as a professional one, but I can always hire someone once it becomes profitable.

Today, I had a minor breakthrough. I made a page in PHP that let users try a free trial of the website. The hard part was making the website send an automatic confirmation email with a password. Since there is not a built in function in Dreamweaver, I had to use code which was surprisingly finicky.

In just a week or two, I will be ready to find teachers and film their lectures. That is when the real fun will start.

Brad