EDLD+5363+Course+Reflections

Course Reflections for EDLD 5363 Multimedia and Video Production As I began this course, I was not very clear about what outcomes I expected from the class. I thought that I might learn more about how to make class slideshows and movies using computer software. I wanted to learn new ways to incorporate more of this type of learning in my classroom. I successfully produced and uploaded a digital video in Photo Story 2, as well as a short movie using Windows Movie Maker. Photo Story 3 was an easy program to learn to use, even for a novice like me. However, it took a lot more effort to learn and produce a quality video using Movie Maker. It was a challenge to get the audio and video alignment adjusted to make the video clip exactly three minutes. I found both programs exciting to use and can’t wait to use them in my classroom with my students. I also participated in a group project where we collaborated, brainstormed, shot and produced a 60 second Public Service Announcement. The PSA was about Early Colon Cancer Screening and was very important to members of our group. One of my partners, Arleen, had just lost her sister to colon cancer in April and my husband’s uncle has only 6 months to live. We felt like we had a very important message to share and wanted to make our message as clear and appealing as possible. We spoke back and forth through our wiki and our emails about how best to approach this topic and created a timeline on our wiki page to determine who would be responsible for each stage of the production process. We felt that using real people and personal scenes would get our poignant point across. We even decided to use footage of Arleen’s bereaved mother staring at her deceased daughter’s portrait as one of our shots. We wanted to incite real emotions in our viewers and I feel that we were successful in doing so. I did have lots of new learning experiences with this course. I achieved my expected outcomes to a great extent and I plan on using this newly acquired knowledge in my classes. These outcomes are very relevant to my teaching position in the First Grade. My young students are not afraid to try new technologies and will greatly benefit from the knowledge I gained from this course. I plan to have them work in groups to develop simple video projects such as an “All about Our School” and “Welcome to Our Classroom.” The challenge will be in getting the groups to collaborate and cooperate, just as it was for me during this course. I feel that in today’s digital age it is important for my students to be able to produce a personal digital story and learn to publish it to the web as a way to communicate with others. This will probably become a basic requirement for every elementary student in the future and I will be able to provide my students with the basic knowledge they need to be successful. I am very comfortable now teaching my students how to use Photo Story 3 and Windows Movie Maker and will be able to support their learning in these outstanding programs. The course description for EDLD 5363 is that students will work in collaborative teams and use digital media to produce a PSA or other short work and post it to the web. I found this process to be very frustrating at times and did not feel that I was achieving the outcomes from the course I envisioned when I began. It is nearly impossible to collaborate solely online using wikis and email. The physical distance between our group members made it hard for us all to coordinate our schedules and timetables. Not everyone agreed on when we should have the assignment done and ready to submit. One member of our group signed up to join us, but we never heard from her again. Another member wanted to wait until the night before the assigned work was due to discuss and complete the assignments. We relied very heavily on the class wiki, email and called one another on our cell phones. Not everyone would answer or respond to the emails or wiki posts. Often, our cell phones were the only way to communicate in a timely manner. We had a difficult time with our shot list and who would be responsible for which shots. The group agreed on the subject of our PSA very quickly, but the after that the process bogged down. We used Windows Movie Maker to edit and produce the original video clips that we shot ourselves. The only copyrighted material that we used was in the music clip, Lasting Hope, and it was located by Kim Flippin at []. The other information about cancer screening was obtained from cohttp://www.cancer.gov, http://www.medicinenet.com/colon_cancer/page7.htm, [] and []. We opened a free account with Media Fire to upload and download our shots during the editing process so that all members of our group could view and critique as we went. As a group, we shot, selected and edited the shots and placed them in the Movie Maker Program. We used the Movie Maker Program to save our work as wmv. Files so that we could be flexible in where we could post our PSA. We added the selected music clip and our recorded audio with Mr. Janner reading our PSA script. Our group used a wiki page to communicate the shot list, editing decisions and other aspects of the production process and we agreed to post the completed PSA to UTube and to Teacher Tube, as well as to our individual wikis. We also sent an invitation on the class discussion board to the members of class to view our PSA. We wanted to get our cancer message out as much as possible and make a difference in the lives of others. Overall, I was very successful in completing the assignments. We were successful in meeting the deadline for our Public Service Announcement and feel like we produced a quality product that will get our important message across to the public. It took a lot of collaboration and teamwork to get the three week assignment done and submitted. I also learned to use the Photo Story 3 Program and produced a video of my struggles to get an education and posted a copy to my wiki page to be shared with others. The Microsoft Movie Maker Program was more challenging for me to learn, but I was able to slowly work my way through it and produced a tourism video about the Grand Tetons in Wyoming and posted it to my wiki also. The challenge was due, in part, to my slow internet connection and my low bandwidth allowance from my ISP. This was often frustrating and I had to get up at two o’clock in the morning to try and download video clips when the internet was less occupied. Bandwidth became a real issue for me during this course. I had to go up to my school to use their internet to participate in the Web Conferences because my internet at home would not be fast enough. I live a great distance from town and have to use Wild Blue internet for about ninety dollars a month to complete the coursework, but it was still not fast enough and did not allow enough bandwidth to complete the coursework. It was very frustrating at times, but I worked around it. I learned a lot about myself through this course. I really like to work on my own time-table and being responsible for my own assignments. I did not like relying on others to get the work done and I became impatient and frustrated often throughout the last three weeks. I was able to complete all the assignments, but it took lots of effort to coordinate with others and I felt a lot more comfortable with the individual assignments. I did not like relying on others to do their best work and the fact that a percentage of my grade depended on us being able to work collaboratively. A positive is that I have increased my knowledge of video software and now know about freeware through the course readings that I can access at school without spending my classroom budget. My technology skills improved with this course and I will be able to apply them next school year as a grade-level technology leader, but my attitude and my level of patience could probably use some more work!
 * This is a copy of my Final Course Reflection for my Multimedia and Video Technology Course. Hop to it and happy reading! :-) Kimberly Gaskins **


 * All images are from cutecolors.com