EDLD+5363+PSA+&+Final+Assessment+&+Blog+Posts

=**21st Century Pirates ** = media type="file" key="21st Century Pirates.mpg" width="388" height="388" = =
 * __Week 5 Assignment:__ Public Service Announcement ** Team members: Petra Hagan, Christy Thornsberry, Meredith Obannion, Darlene Jones.

=**Team Debriefing on PSA experience:** =

(Petra) --- I was not used to do any work in teams, especially long distance and online, so initially I have to say I was a little skeptical about this experience, yet with all the modern technology like wiki's, email and texting I was amazed how easy this actually was. We were able to communicate, and discuss what we are doing, make decisions on topics and work together to get this project done. What is more amazing we could all do it on our own time schedule. It was a great experience and a good way to get to know some of the other students.

(Meredith)...I was very excited to take this class, this is what I teach daily, but I was TERRIFIED we were going to have to do a group project. I got through the first two assignments pretty easily, but I was still worried about this group project. Not beause I don't like working in groups, but because I thought it woudl be so hard to coordinate getting the parts together, getting them done in a timely manner, and just working long distance like this. I have to say, as the video has been edited and the final touches are being put on it, I had fun doing the group project. I think we all had great communication, between the Wiki(thanks Petra), text messaging, e-mailing, and whatever other forms we used, we were able to keep in touch dispite our distance. I cannot wait to see the finished product posted and done. It has been great working with this group.

(Christy) I understand how you feel about groups and long distance on top of that! But this was great. I have enjoyed actually learning. I will say I understand on a greater level how the wiki could work in the classroom. I have learned more this class. More about my computer capibilities than anything else. I am not too fond of downloading and working within files and that such on my computer. I was a little skeptical about downloading things to my computer, like video and pictures, but I updated virus protection and did it! I will say I am not much of a video person, I much prefer still photography, but this was a treat.

(Darlene) I, too, am not used to working in teams on creative projects. I was very concerned when I realized that our sharing would all be online. I now realize that it is not only easier than I thought, but it is also the way things are often times done in the business world. Ideally, if every student had access to a computer and the internet they would be able to do their science and history fair projects from home. Our use of Petra's wiki has been a wonderful experience. We were able to communicate at our own pace and everyone could read and respond accordingly. We also used email and texting quite successfully. I am very proud to have been a part of such a marvelous team. Thank you ladies for a job well done. You make us proud!

=EDLD 5363 Multimedia and Video Technology Course Reflections: = __What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those you envisioned?__ I was not sure what to expect from this class, never having done any video and multimedia productions. Since it involves technology, I was sure it would be fun and exiting. Collaborate group work was also new to me. In my previous years of college, this type of activity was not stressed as it is now. I was looking forward to see how all of it would work out, especially being an online class activity. With the help of modern technology, like wikis, phone texting and email, our group was able to collaborate well to step-by-step brainstorm together to plan and slowly create a PSA production we all like and agree with. Since we all learned how to create our own little videos and add music and narration in the first two weeks of the course we were able to actively participate and know the production steps needed to produce our “masterpiece”. Now, being at the end of this course, I realize the course objective and envisioned outcomes and feel that they were achieved. I feel confident on multimedia productions and presentations and how to teach and produce additional ones in the future. (posted July 1st, 11:35)

__To the extend that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?__ At the moment, I am a math teacher, and I am not sure how I could incorporate multimedia and video technology into my curriculum, especially with the vast amount of math materials my students are responsible for learning each year. However, I do hope next year I will be able to work as a technology leader and I do feel this type of digital technology will greatly benefit the students in many areas. The students love any hands on activities, especially involving technology, and projects like these are great for many reasons. The students learn how to deal with the new type of technology, produces and research. They can make these types of projects fun and creative, and I feel they will try hard and learn a lot since they gain ownership over what they create. In addition, being part of a collaborate group teaches students skills they need to know to enable them to function successfully in their future employment world. (posted July 1st, 12:00)

__What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?__ The only outcomes that I did not achieve the way I wanted to or in the time I would have like to, were related to my personal computer, video camera, or personal lack of knowledge. I could not locate my fire wire to transfer video shots to the computer and since my computer is old, I always had problems doing this. Then I decided to use my picture camera, which is very good, to take some video shots. This worked great and I also had no problems uploading them into the computer, yet they showed up with an “api” extension instead of “wmv”. With this extension, I was not able to upload the clips into our wiki workspace, where all our clips are located, nor was I able to email them to and of my group members. After doing some research, I finally downloaded the “Microsoft Media Encoder”, which converted the files to the needed extension. I was able to load them into the Movie Maker program and upload them to YouTube. However, the Movie Maker program does accept .api extensions, so I am still confused about all the extensions and how they work. (posted July 1st, 12:30)

__What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?__ I love computers, yet videos and cameras, etc. have always been giving me a hard time. I learned that I do have the ability to problem solve to combine both of them to create fun projects, something that will help me professionally and also personally ( I have many tapes of my girls I need to put on DVD’s). I also realized I have a lot more to learn about technology, little things like file extensions can create huge problems if they are not resolved, and it takes some research to find the correct solutions to fix these problems. I love technology, therefore I like to learn what is needed to help solve problems, yet sometimes it is difficult to find out where to look and whom to ask to get the correct answers. Leadership skills are learned, and are needed to effectively do group work, to assign tasks to members to get the jobs done in the most efficient ways. Good attitude is everything and I always try to have a great attitude. After all bad attitudes only worsen any situation, so we might as well be positive and have a good outlook. I also like the people I work with to think positive; negativity just dampens any situation. (posted July 1st, 1:20)

__Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?__ Looking back at the course expectations, I do believe that all my individual and all the group assignments were finished successfully, however not without a few challenges. Downloading new programs on my computer unfortunately allowed some unwanted materials to sneak in, that slowed down the operating system. My computer is old, and I had to clean it up several times to keep it alive. This did finally give me the excuse to invest into a new laptop, I could justify spending the money. Furthermore, working in groups on assignments is new to me, and it takes some adjusting. I am the type of person to try to get the work done in the beginning and not worry about it any more, and not everyone works like that. Like my daughter who is also in college told me, she works best under pressure, so in her case she likes to wait until the end, when she knows she absolutely has no more time left. We are all different, and each of us brings different strength and weaknesses to groups, yet with a good attitude, everything can turn out great. (posted July 3rd, 6:55)

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