Multimedia+5363+Reflections

 Reflections on Multimedia 5363  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 initially saw the title of this course, Multimedia and Video Technology, I got excited. I knew that we were probably going to “create” something. I thought that we might create something that would not really be personal, but something that was geared more towards the subjects that we teach. I was very pleasantly surprised when I opened up the first week’s assignment and we had to create a Photostory about a chapter in our own life! It was fantastic! This made me realize that the course was going to be full of creations that would help people in some form or fashion. Everything that I envisioned for this course was achieved! The most important outcome was that I create something that will actually be used. It is very difficult for the psyche to put a lot of time and effort into a project and then it sit in a file somewhere on my hard drive never to be opened again! This has been one of my favorite classes so far in the program and I cannot wait to continue sharing our creations!  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? Everything that we did in this course will be helpful to the work that I do in my school, be it in training or in the classroom. The Photostory that I created has touched lives of people that I do not even know (my story was on my life in Saudi Arabia) and many of the students that I shared it with this year. It is something that I will share every year with my students so they have a better understanding of who I am and how the “other half” of the world lives! The podcast that I created about Windows Live Movie Maker will actually be used by the students and teachers that I train. It is a great startup tutorial for the software! Hopefully, the PSA that we created will be used by my school and our district to help promote our Dropout Recovery Walk. I think the message is powerful and it is better than just giving a link and having someone read a lot of “stuff”. It truly gives the viewer an understanding of the importance of the walk!  3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? I do not feel that there was anything that I envisioned for the course that I did not achieve. I hoped to create something that I could actually use in the future, and I achieved that. The only thing that I would have liked to do more of was creating more pieces to use. I think that the PSA could have been two weeks long. Maybe my group missed something but we seemed to finish fairly quickly once we got started. I think we could of had another “project” between the podcast and the start of the PSA. Everything built up quite nicely to the PSA project but adding one more piece would have been perfect! In addition, we would have another project to share with our students and our teachers! I do not feel that the class was lacking anything at all; the extra project would be to enhance what we have already created!  4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? Completing the course assignments for this course was very rewarding! We were able to plan something that we were very passionate about, revise it, edit it, finalize it and then, most importantly, share it! The readings for the assignments were very helpful for all types of videoing and still picture taking. I will be able to use the information that I acquired not only in my work, but also in my personal videoing and picture taking! There are not many courses that span that both personal and professional experiences. I must admit managing my time for this course was a bit more difficult that it has been for other courses. The first week of the course was the first week of school with a new position so that was fairly difficult! The second week while I was tackling my homework, my one year old decided to eat and earring. That threw my head off track. Lastly, we went to California for 5 days in the middle of all of this! It has been a crazy 5 weeks, but I know that managing my time the way that I did has been very rewarding! Working in a group was rewarding because we could closely collobarte with people! We were able to devlop relationships by working together. However, it was challenging at times because were aren’t “in the same place”. Our effective use of Skype was awesome but it is difficult to collobarte over cyberspace! Some of us have kids, some do not, so we really had to plan our meetings carefully!  5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? This course taught me a lot about myself! I realize that the nature of this course, creating something with technology, is of great interest to me. I always knew that I liked to put things together for a nice production but I did not realize how much I liked it when it was something that I am passionate about. I also realized that I actually can successfully use my time wisely! In the past, I have usually been a procrastinator, but I really pulled everything together and planned much better. This was probably because I had other people relying on me. My technology and leadership skills, I believe, are good. I do not think they are great though and could use some touching up. My technology skills are good. I can fiddle with, and research something and usually get the hang of it. I know that I will get better the more I use specific pieces of software, etc. As far as Leadership skills, I think my weakest skill is taking on too much by myself. I tend to say, “Ok, just let me do it”. I need to let go of the reigns a bit more. As far as my strongest point, I feel that I do step up and take initiative. I am not really one to sit back and let things happen, I need a plan. If no one is leaning towards creating a plan, I do not mind stepping in and getting it going. I think I have a great attitude. I am so excited about what we are doing with this course and the other course s in our program. When I get discouraged about things, I always remember the big picture. I also think that I am a good cheerleader for my friends. If they want to take a break I love cheering them on and make them realize that they “can do it”! I hope that my positive attitude is pushed on to others!