EDLD+5363+-+Course+Reflections

With school being out for the summer, I knew I had some technology classes to teach but looked forward to having more time to spend on my Master’s Degree classes. I was excited to see I would be taking a Multimedia/Video class because I’ve had some experience with Photo Story and Movie Maker in the elementary setting. I envisioned using the skills I had already mastered and adding new skills and tips that I would learn from taking this course, and I think that’s exactly what happened. However, I had not planned on being able to use my knowledge to help others because I didn’t know we would have a group assignment for this project. Therefore, even though I learned more tips about creating, editing, and uploading videos, I received an unexpected outcome from being able to help others who were not as comfortable using this medium. This class also brought out the necessity for organizational and leadership skills.

Being an instructional technologist at two large elementary schools, I must be very organized and have the ability to work with teachers, students, administrators, parents, and community members. The technical knowledge I gleaned from this course will definitely help when working with teachers and students on various projects throughout the school year. I feel that I am more knowledgeable and can offer more options when creating multimedia projects. However, the lessons I learned from working with a group of people who live hundreds of miles away will help me communicate more clearly and effectively with everyone I come in contact with. I will also utilize many of the resources from the weekly readings. The Digital Storytelling Cookbook [Lambert, J. (2007, February). //Digital storytelling cookbook,// 1-30. //Story// Center. Retrieved April 4, 2009, from [].) is a wonderful resource that I’ll be able to use when teaching digital storytelling classes.

I mentioned that I wanted to learn more skills and tips from this course. Even though I achieved this to a degree, I felt that there were so many suggestions for using new software. One of the articles mentioned the top 7 video editing programs for beginners. [Desktop-Video-Guide. (n.d.) Top 7 video editing software programs for beginners. Retrieved on April 12, 2009, from []]. It would have been nice to see the difference between creating a video clip using Adobe Premiere Elements vs. Movie Maker so I was disappointed that I didn’t use any of the newer, pricier software that was mentioned throughout this course. I also wanted to try using a web camera but the purchase of one just didn’t fit in financially at this point in time. Therefore, I believe the cost of newer technology items prevented me from achieving some of the desirable outcomes of this course.

Hopefully I was successful in completing all of the course assignments. My goal each week was to print out the assignment sheet and check off the skills as they were completed. The biggest obstacle for me was uploading the video clips to either the wiki or the free sites. The wiki had a limit on the size of the video so it was time consuming to figure out how to lessen the length of the video in order for it to be published on the wiki. I was also disappointed in Teacher Tube. Since I had an existing account with them, I decided to put my personal Photo Story on that site. However, when I watched it back, it was very glitch and paused every few seconds to reload. I don’t think that’s a pleasurable way for anyone to watch a video. Therefore, in Week 2, I decided to try Flickr since I already have a Yahoo account. Everything uploaded nicely onto Flickr and I was much happier with that site than with Teacher Tube. However, I’m not sure if everyone can view the video on Flickr. It’s not clear whether I need to invite people or if they can see it. I also was disappointed that an assignment for Week 4 was posted on the Monday it was due at 11:00 in the morning. I think more notice and clear communication should have been sent out for the Week 4 requirement.

I’m so glad that I had some prior multimedia experience coming into the Multimedia class because it would have been much more overwhelming to take this class as a beginner. The partner I had for the first two assignments was not as comfortable with Photo Story or Movie Maker but I think her projects turned out great, and I was proud of how much she had learned in such a short time. When it was time for the group of four, I used my knowledge of Google Docs to help our team get a jump-start on the Pre-Production assignment. By using the same document, we were all aware of the plan and all had a say in the edit process. We were able to revisit to the document over and over to tweak the plan as the video process moved forward. I definitely picked up tips from my teammates about using the technology involved, but really felt that our positive attitudes and willingness to work as a team allowed our last three weeks to be surprisingly stress-free and fun. It’s amazing how well things can work when there is organization, leadership, and collaboration!