EDLD+5363+Final+Assessment+Reflections



**Course Reflection Prompts**

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? When I first realized that my summer class was video technology, I was excited and apprehensive. I was excited about the opportunity to learn ways to use video technology in my classroom - that is one aspect that kids really love and relate to.  I actually spent the last week of school filming "skits" for my eighth graders, and the response I got was wonderful, even though I didn't have a clue what I was doing on iMovie. The main outcome I wanted to achieve in this course was learning effective ways to film and edit video educationally, and I feel that the actual course aligned exactly with my personal objectives. I feel much more confident handling a video camera, editing footage, and especially adding voiceover to film. I also found new websites for sharing information, especially video footage, that will be useful to my professionally and personally. My group members had innovative ideas and applicable suggestions for the use of multimedia technology, which is an outcome that I did not envision, but truly appreciate.

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? The outcomes I achieved are more relevant in my classroom than I thought they would be. I learned how easy it is to pull out the video camera and elicit responses from people. I learned that is not too much more work for me to provide this kind of motivation for my students. Throughout this class, I continually brainstormed ways to use what I learned in my ELA classes, and I am amazed at the abundance of lesson plans I can generate using this technology (iMovie, photostory, Audacity...). I appreciate the fact that the Academic Partnership program allows us to take a class that is so completely relevant and essential for teachers of the 21st Century. One outcome that is extremely relevant to my role as teacher is creating mini-feature-films over a specific topic. Literature is an easy subject for kids to relate to, and using technology to create self-text and text-world connections will be something that my students and I can have fun with and learn from on a regular basis.

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? The second week's assignment was difficult for me because my computer finally crashed and died, preventing me from gathering images off the Internet and creating a video montage of Honduras, our vacation destination this summer. I would have really liked to practice what I learned, but I ended up submitting a montage of the "bloopers" I shot the last week of school with my eighth graders. The bloopers were from footage I shot, not footage from the Internet. I do feel that the general outcome ( a video montage) was in line with the assignment, but I missed out on the copyrighting aspect that week. I appreciated the montage assignment on a professional level because I believe that is what my students spend a lot of time doing at home...creating works from footage that is not theirs (often in violation of copyright laws). This assignment taught me the importance of discussing the laws with my students, and implementing a project like this in my own classroom. For example, instead of gluing magazine pictures to posterboard, we could actually create a video montage of a work of literature. I don't feel that I simple "did not achieve" this outcome, I just went about it in a different way.

4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? I feel that I was successful with the weekly assignments. The first two weeks I was very discouraged because of the technology issues stated above - a Dell built in 2002 is not ready for video editing! However, I ordered a Mac Book Pro and feel that it enabled me to successfully help complete our group's PSA video. I learned that newer technology is a necessity for using multimedia technology in the classroom, and having older technology contributes to a lack of teacher incentive to use technology in their lessons. Teachers are easily discouraged when they have uncompatible technology and no one to help them use it - hopefully in my role as a Tech Coordinator, I can help the teachers on my campus next year, using what I learned in this class. We have two Macs on campus, but using what I learned by completing course assignments, I realize that our students can do the same things on the Dell computers in the lab. I feel that our group did an excellent job communicating and working together, and their support kept me from getting discouraged the last three weeks when we were trying to figure out how to transfer video from one computer to another.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">5. <span style="font-weight: normal; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? The first thing I learned from the Week One assignment is that my family is the most important thing in my life - it took me a while to determine what to do my Photostory over, and finally I realized that almost all of my pictures are of my two sisters and me. I also learned that if I am unsure how to use technology to create something, I should go on YouTube for instructions! YouTube has hundreds of how-to guides that really helped me during this course - instead of getting discouraged, I YouTubed it. I believe that I would make a positive difference as a Technology Leader because I totally understand what teachers face concerning time constraints, lack of updated technology, and minimal student motivation. Using video technology in our classrooms will go a long way to getting students interested in the material and connecting to it on a personal level. This class has given me many good ideas that I can share with others and become a leader on our campus in that way. I am even more excited about technology use on my campus because of this class, and I am not as overwhelmed by the options available as I was before this class.