Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Work Load

What work have I been doing in my internship?
Well, we have spreadsheets of all tasks completed.
On there I see that I have completed about 20 Course Migrations, this means making new websites for courses that need to be migrated from the old learning platform to a new one.
Those are my main big tasks. In between them I help develop media in various ways.
Many of the courses feature presentations, or web movies.
These are usually of the instructors lectures with slide shows or instructional animations. The instructors often want to offer the web movie along with the slideshows.
I am called on to translate the video narration and insert the transcription into powerpoint notes, edit raw audio into slides, clean up audio, render power point animations, convert powerpoint into web movies, edit the web movies, post them online and link to them through the websites.
I edit content, copy, audio, video, layout, styles, information structure, slides, notes, titles, animations, menus. I engage in work flow meetings daily, I keep logs of tasks and work completed, I help develop new methods and procedures, I work with my team to accomplish goals in the best ways possible.
All this, every day.
Each day may bring a new unique task, as I support the instructional designers in a variety of ways.
Whatever they are working on and need help with I will come in and support them. So there is always new types of tasks and technology to learn. I have been working with so many new types of media applications. I am truly learning what it means to be a media developer, or an interactive multimedia assistant! My skills are growing daily as I need to work farther and farther into new applications.
The scope of my job is not even realized yet, as each day brings new things. I discover new possibilities and responsibilities every time I go to work. The full range of work is growing as my skills develop and trust is built between my supervisors, my team and I.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Job Title

What do i do for work?
Common question that I've never had a simple answer to.
Some people have quick and easy little job titles that do not warrant any further questions.
Me it's always led to a discussion or at least a couple paragraphs of description.

Even now my job description is not simple, or it is so vague that it calls for elaboration.

My official title is Interactive Multimedia Assistant.
I fall within the Media Developer group, within my dept that works fine.
To people out in the world, I usually say:

I work at NPS
If they want more I say
I work for the dept that makes the websites for the school courses
I work in the library
I'm in web development
I make websites at NPS
I work in a dept called CED3 which makes the online coursework for the school
I work in distance learning
I work in instructional design
I support instructional designers in designing coursework
I'm an "interactive multimedia assistant so i do all kinds of things, I edit audio and video, help with and appear in video shoots, make websites, prepare presentations, support and assist the instructional designers in any way i can.
I'm in web development at NPS
I make websites for the Navy.

etc. etc.

So no simple answer but at least i have a cool job and description that usually gets nods of approval.

I heard the NPS is the largest employer in Monterey, it gets a lot of recognition, has prestige and is exclusive.