Course+Reflections+EDLD+5363+Multimedia

Course Reflections

As I approached the start of this course, I envisioned working on a variety of different video and audio projects on an individual basis. I thought I would be allowed to demonstrate and extend some of the multimedia skills that I acquired over the years by editing and producing various home and school videos. What I achieved was more in the area of how to work with others to create videos and other type media products. So the outcome that I envisioned for myself in the course was not aligned with the actual course assignments. I do feel I gained knowledge on how to carefully plan and implement a complete video concept from start to end. I think if I had been working alone I would have probably skipped over these steps of the process. To that end, I do see a true development in my skills to manage and complete a task from start to finish, and to follow thru on all phases of development. I do see these skills as relevant to what I do at school. This course also did force me to learn how to post video and audio to web sites, such as “teacher tube” and “you tube,” as well as to manage large data files when working in “the clouds.” I do believe teachers should be encouraged to utilize video capabilities in the classroom for student projects, all be it in a somewhat scaled down version of our last three week assignment. Going thru the process myself, I’ve learned some new key skills that I can share with teachers to pass along to their students, so students can develop and produce a more polish project and teachers can feel more confident in their own abilities.

As I reflect further on the course, I strongly feel that I did not get to really push myself in the area of project design, since I was forced to work with other partners. I would have preferred to work alone on a much longer, and maybe more challenging project that I could have used and shared at school. Working with partners has some advantages and disadvantages; yes, you learn how to work with a group and learn to communicate your ideas, however I felt I ended up compromising my standards when it came to getting quality video clips for the end product. It is difficult to convey a style and standard from a distance; you cannot provide the immediate feedback to a “satellite” partner, which makes it difficult to be successful. I really don’t think anyone would ever try to complete a task such as this from a distance in the real world within the very limited time frame we have in class.

I approached each week with a pretty excited and positive attitude for the task at hand. I’ve enjoyed working on audio and video projects, especially when I had a clear task to complete and I was successful in completing the course assignments. The most difficult parts to the course were trying to make sure I completed and placed each part of the assignment in the correct place and documented all the group work we did. My major concern regarding course assignments came from Week 2. During Week 2, the assignment and rubric changed halfway through the week, which caused most of the students, including myself, quite a bit of confusion. To date, the assignment has been awarded 0 points out of 0, implying that the assignment holds no weight, in which case, I do not understand why it was assigned at all. Either an assignment has value, and is graded as such, or has no value, in which case it was unnecessary. After participating in the webinar, I at least felt reassured it was not just myself that was confused and concerned regarding the Week 2 changes. I will say Dr. Abernathy was very patient when she was explaining her thoughts on why we needed to change the assignment rubric. What does discourage me throughout most of my master course work, however, is how long it takes me to interpret and understand the assignments and rubrics to each week’s activities. It seems that I spend at least one third of my total time breaking down the assignments to be able to complete the task to an acceptable level for the course. I think that this coursework would be so much easier if we had more face to face webinars in small group settings.

In conclusion, I did learn that I am very knowledgeable in the area of audio and video production. I always felt so much better after I attended the webinars and listened to the questions others were asking about and or struggling over. I also learned that my leadership skills in technology are very strong and growing stronger as I complete each new task. I enjoyed being able to assist other teachers in the area of technology, and plan to direct some in-services for the district in this area. I feel that I have a lot to give to teachers in the area of technology, especially in the area of multimedia and video technology applications. Through this course, I now am actively posting videos to my other wiki sites as well as to “you tube” so others can use them as well.