Course+Reflection+Responses+for+EDLD5363

//**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 began the Multimedia and Video Technology course with trepidation. I have used multimedia in my classroom, but always items for which I had a subscription. Other people’s work. I read the course syllabus, so I had some idea of what was to come and the many new skills I would be exposed to and called upon to learn. I wanted to learn make videos, to learn how to add and modify audio, and make something that could reach my students. I learned to make videos using several techniques; piecing together photos to create a story, short clips gleaned from the Internet, and created, with a small group of my colleagues, a 60-second public service announcement. These are the tangible rewards. I achieved each of these outcomes. Some were easier than others, but I was able to reach and complete the coursework and assignments. The not-so-tangible rewards I received were just as many: I learned how to make several different types of videos; add, subtract, and modify audio files; put video clips, music, and narration together into a coherent piece of work, and many other things. Unfortunately, I began the course thinking that by the time I came to the end I would be making beautiful, stirring videos and know a lot more than I feel I actually learned. I know now that I set my sights too high. Not in wanting to create quality videos, but in thinking that in five short weeks, I could have learned what has taken professional video and film makers years to learn. Frustrating me was that for every new skill I learned, I would see five or ten more skills I had yet to master. So, after adjusting for unreasonable expectations on my part, the actual course outcomes directly aligned not only to those I envisioned, but those that I learned and will continue to learn.

**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?** In nearly all respects, what I learned during the Multimedia and Video Technology course is relevant to the work I do at my school. While I did not become a video wizard during the five weeks of the course, I learned many different skills. I learned about various video techniques, how to record and edit audio files, how to put them together and create something new! I have also learned that I have a great deal more to learn. I cannot wait until I know everything (or even a lot more than I know now) before using what I do know to help my students learn. I can, however, learn as I use the technology in my classroom and as part of my duties as a trainer on the campus. One concern is that children are very forgiving – they tend to just be glad I am trying something new and are willing to help me along as I continue to learn. Many teachers, even if they do not have the skills or wish to learn the skills, demand something closer to perfection from other adults, especially someone who stands before them as a trainer. So more than anything, I will need to swallow my fears of appearing less than polished, and use my colleagues as well as my students for input into how well I am learning to use and manipulate the knowledge learned in this course and others.

**What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?** The only outcome I did not achieve during the Multimedia and Video Technology course is that which in unattainable: perfection. What prevented me from achieving perfection is one that I will never be able to overcome in this lifetime: my humanness. Just being in my 50s does not preclude me from wanting to be and know everything and wanting it right now. But I do have something that stands and works in my favor – I have a strong desire to learn new things. I was a lifelong learner long before it became an educational buzzword. It helps me as a teacher of students who have been removed from their home campuses for disciplinary problems. Like my students, I love to learn, but find it difficult to learn in formal settings. Anything new I can introduce to my students helps them to learn and I am constantly on the lookout for anything I can use to reach them. I am quickly learning that with multimedia and video technology, I will be learning alongside my students. We will discover the new and practice what we learn together.

**Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?** I successfully completed all the course assignments, turning them in on time. I became discouraged a couple of times during the five weeks, though. Choosing a topic for the Week 1 and 2 assignments was a challenge. For various reasons, I do not have many photographs or access to them. While I have a digital camera, I rarely have it with me, and when I do, more often than not lose the shot fumbling to get it clear of its case. For Week 1, I lucked into finding a CD that my brother had made of old maternal family photos he had scanned. I nearly gave up, because many of the people in the photos I had never met and didn’t know their names much less how they were related. With my mother out-of-town, I did a lot of research on the Internet to trace my mother’s family back four generations. Out of discouragement I learned several things: first, I need to sit down with my mother and the pictures and listen to what she remembers; second, nothing is ever hopeless – I was able to create a tribute to a man I barely knew but was a strong presence in my early life. A man my mom still refers to as “Daddy.” My success in Week 1 led to a somewhat easier time in Week 2. It still took a while to choose a topic, but not nearly as long as it did for Week 1.

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

I learned quite a bit about myself and working with others during this course. Technologically, I continue to learn new skills, while recognizing that the more I learn, the more I have yet to learn! I was “appointed” leader when the group was first forming, but mostly we all took turns leading, according to our individual strengths and where we were in the course of our project. I did learn that I did not need to “show the way.” Sometimes leading is done from behind or beside. I knew that my group would create a professional looking and sounding public service announcement. We are all educators working towards a Masters degree. I freely admit though, my attitude at the beginning was "If the others don't pull their weight, they are pushing their luck. I will do what it takes to make sure we turn out a professional product." I need not have worried. Each one of us had the same goal in mind: to create, produce, and turn in a professional PSA. And each of us, in moving toward that goal was going to give 100%. Our group experienced interruptions and difficulties as any group or professional learning community might -- summer vacations planned before beginning our masters programs, the death of a best friend, church, and family obligations, etc. Yet the members of our group kept their faces turned toward our goal. Those few times it was necessary, each member stepped up keeping all of us on track. It has truly been an awesome, eye-opening experience; both into group dynamics and into my own misconceptions of group membership.