Course+Reflections

**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?** I envisioned achieving a set of multimedia competencies through this course. Namely, utilizing still digital photographs to create personal digital stories, and producing powerful videos to support content mastery and knowledge construction using freely available video editing software. The course aligned perfectly with my objectives as evidenced by the following outcomes: - To plan, design, develop, and evaluate an individual digital storytelling project - To demonstrate video editing techniques. - To plan, design, develop, and evaluate a group video production project. - To edit existing video clips into one coherent video sequence. - To select and use technology equipment and software for appropriate tasks. - To assist others for continual growth and expertise in technology operations and concepts. The course was designed in a style that helped me achieve my objectives. First, it set the foundation by introducing students to still images editing and scripting, then it built on that knowledge to teach video editing skills and film scripting. These accumulated skills are used to create a video PSA that combines everyone of the learned skill sets including those learned in a previous class about audio editing. I was delighted to see how my skills developed during the course and how each week's assignment helped me pinpoint my strengths and weaknesses and adjust accordingly. Learning the technical terms in scripting and editing was a challenge only matched by the ability to perform those techniques in a production that showcases my mastery of those concepts. As I self assessed the end result/product, I realized how, through, interaction with my group members and through my individual work, I learned to become an expert in educational multimedia production, which puts me in a position to impart this knowledge on teachers on my campus, so that they can in turn use these skills to help their students achieve higher learning and experience a deeper, more engaging and meaningful interaction with the content. **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?** Image editing, audio editing, filming, and video editing are skills that students are familiar with in some instances, but mainly, they are skills that they need to become familiar with. Their relevance emanates first, from the fact that students live in an environment that is saturated with imagery and sound, Second, they are skills that are necessary for them to acquire in school and outside of school. But, most importantly their relevance is derived from the fact that research has proven their effectiveness in helping students make more sense of what they learn, achieve higher mastery of the content, and raise their levels of motivation and engagement. My main concern as a leader is to make sure that educators on my campus equip their students with skills that promote their success in school and extend beyond school, to ensure a seamless integration and success in an increasingly evolving and competitive job market that awaits them in the near future. Multimedia is an important component in my educational philosophy, so being able to master these skills allows me to help each teacher on campus become a better educator and facilitator for their students. I was able to achieve most of the outcomes that I set out to achieve in the beginning of this class. I was able to succeed in this endeavor thanks to the way the course was designed, as it built on prior knowledge and newly learned skills to prepare students to successfully master the skills taught.  However, I was not able to master video editing as I would have liked. I am convinced that with more practice in video editing using different video editing programs and a wider range of techniques could have benefited me in producing a higher quality PSA video for my final assignment. My belief is that more practice time and/or more video editing assignments would have helped me develop stronger video editing skills and learn new techniques that could have greatly enhanced the quality of my finished PSA video, as well as, the future videos that I will work on in my classroom, especially in the area of pace and narrative clarity. **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 relative ease. First, because I am genuinely passionate about the integration of multimedia and video technology in my teaching, but also because of the design of the course, which prepared me for each week's assignment and allowed me to gain the skills necessary to successfully complete it, while building each week on the skills learned in the week that preceded it. That said, the journey through this course was not smooth all the time, due to issues that I had to face with me being overseas in a developing country where internet connection is not always up and a 6 hour time difference that made it challenging to collaborate with my group members in real time i.e. set up video conferences. those challenges gave me an additional incentive to show even more commitment and discipline than I have in my previous courses to complete my assignment and to collaborate effectively with my team mates. So, we succeeded in having productive video conferences even when the only time that worked for the group was midnight or 1:00 AM local time where I am.
 * 3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?**

I learned from this course that my passion for technology and my deep belief in its effectiveness in promoting learning in the classroom while keeping it fun and relevant, are well founded. In week 1, I was able to produce my first digital story. Finding digital images and editing them using effects, transitions, and music that fit and promote the project's main idea, and enrich the storyline was challenging, but it was also revealing. It revealed to me how a powerful learning tool it can be. I was well aware of the power of images in the learning process, but through this assignment I learned how the student's use of images to convey meaning enhances his/her own understanding of the subject through the process of defining the purpose of the digital story, designing a script, and developing a narration. Due to a faulty microphone, my voice narration could barely be heard. So, after the digital story was finished and uploaded, I had to acquire a new microphone to re-record the narration in order to complete the assignment as required. That experience taught me to keep Murphy's law "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"  in mind when assigning multimedia projects to my students, and to plan ahead for as many eventual issues that could arise concerning the whole class or in a single group during the project. In week 2, I edited an existing video. I had a great time completing that assignment, because I was free in my choice of the video footage to use. That reminded me of the importance of allowing students more freedom in their projects results in more engagement and promotes creativity. In week 5, I had to put all the skills learned in the previous weeks to create a video PSA in collaboration with a group of fellow students. In this project, I experienced working with individuals who are at different multimedia knowledge levels, have different approaches to the work at hand, have different thinking preferences, and have diverse personalities. Every group in my classroom will inevitably have these characteristics, and as an educator I will have to manage that and teach my students to manage it using team building skills and effective collaboration techniques in a group setting.
 * 5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?**

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Throughout weeks 3,4, and 5 I practiced those skills and techniques as did each member of the team. We communicated by email, Wiki, and video conferencing. Our interactions, were productive and professional and every opinion was important. The atmosphere that we created in our group was very conducive to collaboration. Consequently, we exchanged 32 emails, posted 27 wiki posts and edits, uploaded 18 different files to our Wiki, had 4 video conferences, and collaborated on google docs to create and edit our production document during the three weeks we had to produce a PSA. ====== To ensure the success of our multimedia assignment, we created a strict collaboration schedule that we maintained throughout the span of the project. During the pre-production phase we had daily brainstorming sessions through the wiki until we agreed on a PSA topic, then we held two video conferences to write our script, narration, pick our shot list, choose our transitions, and decide on the ".wmv" video format that will be most suited to upload the video to youtube and to the wiki. In the production phase, we shot our film, and added more shots that were not on the original script, but our filming crew thought they could be used in our video. We also, recorded the narration, found footage and background music on the internet. Each one uploaded their material to the wiki and we shared feedback using teh wiki, email, and our weekly video conference. Changes were made and the production document was updated accordingly. At the post-production phase, we edited the video and posted the audio file and the video file separately for review and feedback from team members. Members posted their feedback on the wiki and the video was re-edited until it was satisfactory to everyone in the team. At that point we updated the production document to reflect the added shots, deleted shots, and edited narration.  The different assignments were one part of the course, there were other parts such as the assigned readings, video lectures that I enjoyed and learned from, as well. The passion that I felt and the excitement that I experienced creating my multimedia projects will surely be translated in my teaching style in the classroom and my team of teachers will be able to experience those same feelings while working on their assignments. The ability to “create” is what sets multimedia apart from a traditional assignment, in my mind, providing me with the motivation to work long hours on putting together a project that represents how important what I am learning is to me. I am convinced, even more, that appropriate training of our faculty in video technology will benefit our students tremendously and get them one step closer to becoming creators of their knowledge instead of receivers of that knowledge. As stated earlier, my attitude and passion about learning, teaching, and multimedia technology are translated into my approach to each week's assignment. As the weeks went by, I realized that my technology background was an advantage that helped me tackle the weekly assignments, and allowed me to comfortably take a leadership role in my group project helping set things in motion and putting together a strategy to secure our group's success. I was pleased to see that my leadership skills helped keep everyone in the group focused, and established a relaxed atmosphere where everyone felt safe to contribute and add “value” to the group's work, while getting the best out of each member by allowing them to contribute based on their skill set and comfort level with the tasks at hand.