EDLD+5363+Final+Assessment+and+Course+Reflection+Responses

What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned? When I first found' out what course we were enrolled in next, I was very excited. I teach Multimedia on a daily basis and I love doing it. This class has definetely had its challenges and some things I was not sure how to do, but I made it through it and learned quite a bit. Working in a group environment from a long distance was very interesting. I was very concerned about how it was going to work. I know multimedia works pretty well, since this is what I teach, but I was very nervous about working in groups long distance. I too have the fears most of our students have about working in groups. Will my group work? Will we be able to get things to each other the way we need to and in a timely manner? Will everyone know how to do it or at least be able to figure it out. I must say, my group was awesome. We all had challenges, but with two of us on vacation, one of us in training, and one of us really working to get us to communicate on a Wiki, we all worked really well together. I believe the outcome was much better than I ever thought it could be. I am excited to say I learned a lot during this class, even though I teach it on a daily basis. I cannot wait to get back to school this next year and give an assignment to my students very similar to this. I think they will get a lot out of it to prepare them for the business world and working with individuals anywhere in the world.

During the class I learned all about the pre-production process, just how important storyboards are, the planning process, the shot requirements, and just the overall plan to make sure the ideas can actually be put into a video or photostory. We tell our studnets how important these things are, but we forget about the process when we are doing it ourselves. We feel since we know how to actually do most of the stuff, we don't have to do all the pre-production work. (posted July 3rd 9 PM)

__To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?__ Everything we did in this class is very relevant to what I do on a daily basis. Since I am a technology teacher, I use all of these skills everyday. My students learn the whole Adobe Creative Suite, Movie Maker, and other software programs. This class has allowed me to improve on my skills using Wikis and my Blog. I will definetly incorporate using Wiki's in my classes this next year. I believe this class has opened my eyes to working in groups from long distances. At my school, we have partnered with an academy in Korea to help learn from each other long distances. I cannot wait to get my students more involved with this partner school by utilizing Wiki's, Blogs, and videos. I was looking forward to taking this class because it is what I teach and I thought it would just be a breeze and I would not have to learn a bunch of new things. I was wrong, even though I knew how to do most of it, I still learned a lot and really enjoyed the class. When I got back to school this year, I plan on getting my studnets to put together some videos we can post on a class Wiki and get the partner school involved in it. The partner school is to learn from us, as we are from them. If I get the students to work the pre-production process, gather all the information and work in groups well together, we can put all the videos together and edit them using software, such as Movie Maker, and they too can create videos to post. Once the students come together and form groups, they can break down the pre-production process and learn what it is to make good shot and editing selections, making the right lighting choices, and just taking enough video to get ready to edit. Once the students have done this, they will need to make decisions on editing software and what web file format they will use to post it on YouTube or the Wiki so the partner school in Korea can benefit from the video. When they create the videos, they will need to make sure they give credit where credit it due. If the students use Google Images, like we did on our PSA, they will need to give credit somewhere in the video. They may also use existing video from sites like, YouTube, they will too need to know how to edit existing video and give credit to YouTube or the creater. Copyright is a big issue when it comes to producing videos. Everyone involved needs to know where their information is coming from and the editors need to make sure credit is given. Just like our PSA stated several times, if you take it and use it, you are stealing it(pirating it) and it is illegal. Give credit where credit is due.(posted July 5th 1:20 PM)

__What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?__ In the beginning of week 5, I was struggling with getting all the videos from my group members off our Wiki where we were placing all of our work. The reason I was having a hard time, was Movie Maker is limited to the file extensions it will take and of course, most of the videos were not Movie Maker compatible. I however, achieved eventually, getting them from the Wiki and YouTube by downloading Any Video Converter. The challenge was very frustrating because I know how to work Movie Maker pretty well, I know how to mix audio in Audacity, and I know how to edit both of them; however, getting them in an editable format, was difficult for me. The key to getting everything done for the final PSA was, make a plan of action, download the converter, convert it, and then take a break. Once I had a break from the computer and walked away, I did well once I came back to the computer a couple of hours later. As a whole, I had a great group and we planned everything out pretty well. I think the challenges we faced made us all better at dealing with multimedia. As a group, we could have possibly gotten some of the videos done earlier and to the editor, we could have had clearer video and better quality, not being in school and having students was a little bit of a challenge when we wanted to put students in our video, and I think we could have decreased our narration a little to make it exactly 1 minute.(posted July 5th 1:52 PM)

__Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?__ I believe I was very successful in completing the course assignments. When this class first began, I jumped right in, got my assignments done at the beginning of the week and had the rest of the week off. The last two weeks of the course, when we were working in groups, I happened to be traveling on my vacations. My group was wonderful, we stayed in contact with each other, and we got the work done on time, but I happen to really like getting my work done early so I can relax the rest of the week. Since it is summer time, I get my weekly assignments done in a couple of days at the beginning of the week and I am able to spend time with my family the rest of the week. When working in a group, you might not have the information you need at the time you are ready to work on it. This was a little bit of a challenge for me, because I like to be able to work on my own time, this is why I am enjoying this masters program so much. In the end, my group was wonderful, we got all the information on the Wiki, we communicated well, and we got the assignment done in plenty of time for our deadline.(posted July 5th 2:07 PM)

__What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?__ This class was very exciting for me. I love making videos, using technology for every assignment, and just being familiar with programs that we use. However, I did learn a lot from this class. I learned how to use a Wiki to REALLY help me communicate with my group members and get information to my professor. This class was great and I cannot wait to utitlize the skills I have learned this next year in my class. I feel my technology skills were a little challenged when I had to figure out how to convert files in order to get them in a format I can actual edit. I had never done this before, because when I teach editing, we use the correct file formats when we video, so we don't have to convert anything. - just saves everyone a step -. I was challenged using technology and it really was exciting for me, since I use technology all the time, having a challenge just teaches me more with the technology. I feel I have great leadership skills and everytime I am put in a group assignment, I like to think I try to initiate some things so I we can get an assignment done. As far as my attitude, I try to have a positive attitude when it comes to my life in general. We all get frustrated and down, but if we just try to keep a posted outlook and attitude on life in general, what we have to do usually gets done. If you have a bad attitude, most of the things that need to be done will not get done.