5363+Course+Reflection

As part of our final assignment for this class, we were asked to reflect on the following five questions:

**1.** ** What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned? **

For this course, I was expecting to learn about creating multimedia presentations using pictures, video clips, and audio. For the most part, I would say I achieved those outcomes. I learned the most on the digital storytelling assignment and that is the one I am most proud of. I thought my story was unique and compelling. I really liked deciding which order to put the clips in and using the various transitions between images. On the following assignment, creating a 60 second informational video from clips found on the internet, I knew right away I wanted to highlight Austin and all of the various attractions that make the city great. My only problem was limiting myself to around 60 seconds. The final project, the Public Service Announcement, was interesting and fun as well. Collaboration was difficult at times due to everyone’s different schedules, but everyone did their part. I was able to use the Audacity software and to upload video and audio files in to a user-friendly web-format. I believe the course outcomes aligned with my expectations.

**2.** ** 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? **

I believe that I can now teach kids how to use Windows Movie Maker to either create their own digital story or clip videos together into a presentation. Most students know how to use PowerPoint already. Movie Maker and other editing software are so much more powerful than PowerPoint. They can actually use music and voice narration to tell their story or enhance their presentation. They could even do a presentation about their favorite mathematician or a psa on why mathematics is important, since I teach math. The video editing software allows students to put individual touches on presentations and allow some of their own personality and ideas to come through. It’s also fun and interesting for them as well as the teacher. I think it is also important to educate students on correctly giving credit to others if they use anothers' work. For example, at the end of my clip on Austin, I included all the media sources that were used at the end of the video (Media Sources). We must make sure students know how and when to give gredit to others. Using these types of technologies not only can teach students about using technology, but also about the history and importance of any subject.

**3.** ** What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? **

The outcome I was not able to achieve was to record video using a digital video recorder and then downloading it into a usable format on my computer. Since I do not own a DVR, I checked one out from our school library. Filming was not an issue. I was able to go to the electronics store and get mini-discs and a Firewire cable in hopes to download the footage. However, the DVR did not come with the software I needed to download the footage onto my computer. I went back to the school library to see if they had the discs, but we could not find any. So, the camcorder I was hoping to use was useless since I couldn’t download the footage onto my computer. Luckily, I had a digital camera and was able to shoot the video with that. I am sure that the quality was not near as good as it could have been with the DVR. I was able to download the video I shot onto my computer, import it into movie maker, and upload it to our collaborative wiki to use in the psa. I was hoping to learn how to shoot video using the camcorder and download it into an editable format, but was unable to do that.

**4.** ** Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? **

I was able to complete the course assignments with little or no problems. Most of the instructions were clear and we could get more instructions on the internet if we needed more help. The main problem I encountered was with the assignment over using video clips from the internet into a presentation. I was able to download the clips with no problem onto my computer; however, getting them into a format compatible with Movie Maker proved to be a problem. I was able to download them using a Real Flash player, but was still unable to get them into Movie Maker. Finally, after much searching and asking around, one of my colleagues showed me free conversion software that reformats flash format into .mvi. Once I was able to get videos off the internet and into Movie Maker, the rest was easy. Using the Movie Maker editing software was fairly simple for a beginner. As with any software, you have to play around with it and explore different functions, but Movie Maker is pretty easy to do that in. It is not too complex, especially for someone who has never done anything like this before.


 * 5. ** ** What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? **

What I learned from this course is to not be afraid of technology you have never used before. Also, I learned to get familiar with such software **slowly **. Most of the tutorials and readings indicated which software was for beginners, intermediate users, and advanced users. I found that the software already on my computer, Windows Movie Maker 2.6, did the job just fine. I didn’t need to get more advanced software with all the bells and whistles. I hope to move up to that eventually, but I want to work up to it. I think I could easily teach students how to use this software and edit images, video, and sound. I also think I could show fellow teachers how to use this technology for their presentations. I am looking forward to experimenting more with the editing software and moving to more advanced software in the future. This course has only furthered my positive attitude towards using technology in the classroom. Not only will kids learn more about the technology, but they will actually have fun creating presentations that show off their individuality and making projects they can be proud of.