Week+5+EDLD+5363+Course+Reflections

 =Final 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?** After reading the syllabus for this course I envisioned learning about the production process of creating videos and best practices for using the process and products with students and teachers. In addition, I anticipated collaborating online with class members. I do find myself adjusting my expectations because I often confuse my needs with what we will actually be doing in the course. I already feel comfortable with the use of the technology and my needs include design, composition, and shooting video. Everything we did was specifically outlined in the syllabus and met my expectations. The most challenging activity for me was the digital storytelling project the first week even though I have made projects similar to this in the past. It took much planning to gather the images, create a story board and complete the project. Working with a group of people using online collaboration tools presented challenges as well but none that weren’t quickly and easily resolved.

**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?** Producing quality video is important in the areas of Educational and Instructional Technology. Providing staff development to teachers is one of the main uses of multimedia. Not only can video and multimedia be used to create online courses for teachers but offering staff development to teach educators how to create videos to use with students is important. Short videos are often used in eCourses for our teachers to replace demonstrations that would be used in face-to-face instruction. Often this is in the form of showing a computer screen using specialized software. However, many times this is combined with other video clips and audio. Actually teaching teachers to create multimedia projects moves us one step closer to them using them with students. Online collaboration is becoming increasingly important due to busy schedules and inability to meet face-to-face. Being able to work through the use of wikis, blogs and chat tools gives me the skills and tools I need to help teachers embrace Web 2.0 tools in their own teaching.

**3.** **What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?** Although the group project helped me achieve the goal of online collaboration it kept me from working on my personal weaknesses. By requiring our group to produce only one public service announcement, we were able to contribute to the group project using our strengths. When forming our group we shared our strengths and weaknesses and group roles were established based on what we shared about ourselves. One of my weaknesses is shooting video. I do not fully understand the different types of shots and how they should be used nor am I proficient at setting up shots, providing appropriate lighting and actually shooting quality video. I feel that the goal of the group was to work with everyone’s strengths to get the project done so there wasn’t really the opportunity to work on my weaknesses. Perhaps if there were a way to work in a group yet experience all job responsibilities, I could have reached some of my personal goals. I am sure that time played a major factor.

**4.** **Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?** The design of this course did not make it difficult to complete course assignments. My group had plenty of time to complete the required elements with plenty of time communicate during post-production. This is actually the first course that I felt a bit relaxed about our assignments. I was a bit confused about week four. I thought that the assignment description in the courseware did not require us to actually submit anything yet the day the assignment was due, an announcement was posted that we were required to show our group collaboration. Unfortunately I was not able to access my courseware due to a family emergency so I was unable to meet this last minute requirement. I did include information about our online collaboration on my wiki so hopefully this will suffice. The only other problem I had was joining the optional activity. I was able to participate in the first meeting but family obligations kept me from participating in additional meetings.

**5.** **What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?** The activities in the course helped me grow as a person. With the digital storytelling activity I was able to look inside myself and find a positive way to share personal information without revealing too many private details. I found that there really needs to be a purpose for me to share information on a blog or video sites. Today’s youth seems to live out loud and share much personal information on social networking sites, video sites and blogs. A close look at internet safety related to our PSA helped me see that we really need to educate our students about what is private. After viewing other projects I feel that my technology skills are pretty good. During our group collaboration we found that most of us had strong personalities and were used to being the leader. We all wanted to take ownership of all the jobs. I found that sometimes the role of the leader means stepping back and making sure everyone stays on track. IT was hard to do that when you are used to being in the middle of the activity.