MultiMedia+Reflections

**MultiMedia 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 first putting the curriculum of this course together the goal was to provide the overall knowledge of how multimedia technology is used everyday to enhance the learning and work environment. The second unit of the course would break down the different phases in which multimedia technology can be used to build up from simple uses of multi media to more complex and extreme multi media developments. The third thru fifth unit of the course would allow the students to use these concepts in building their own multimedia presentations. As it turns out my initial goal of what I envisioned for this course did not necessarily turn out in the manner in which my brain envisioned it. Weeks 3 – 5 were accomplished however the 1st and 2nd weeks may have not provided the outcome to the students that I was hoping. My personal experience fell directly in line with the quote by Randy Nelson in the Pixar Video paraphrased as "....Proof of the Portfolio versus the Promise of the Resume". The actual multimedia technology course provided the opportunity to develop picture and video productions however the learning and knowledge transfer of the concepts to the students did not go over as smoothly for the first time media learners.**

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 that were achieved from the curriculum put together are very relevant to the day to day activities of the learning and work environment. No matter if the students are professional teachers or (like some of them) work in totally different industries the multimedia course showed them how to facilitate instructional learning and activities to create meaningful video production presentations. One of the key points about this course was not just creating a curriculum to show students how to create productions but to show them how to provide that same instruction to current or future students of their own or even members in their work environments. The course provided the education on how to create the productions and will reevaluate the development of the “How To” Instructional Guide. The evaluation and enhancements to this course will definitely provide a total solution to the education and instruction for the multimedia multi media course going forward. Overall the course was extremely educational and very necessary for the times lived. **

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? **One outcome that was not originally achieved at the time assumed to be most beneficial was kind of an overview of multi media as a topic before jumping directly in to video production. Many of the photo/video creation and editing software were very new to most students and there was not much chance to get familiar with or a true understanding of them before having to submit a graded assignment using them. Students felt more pressured about getting the assignment delivered versus being able to concentrate on learning the uses of the technologies to submit and well developed production. However, these challenges were subsided later in the course, but could have made the difference on assignment submission earlier in the course. Such reading as "Video Basics and Production Projects for the Classroom" by Andrew Garrison and "Top 5 Free Editing Software Programs" by Desktop-Video-Guide in week 1 may have helped. Overall the students achieved their outcomes of understanding how to create and edit photo and video movies using Windows or Mac video editing software tools. The students worked hard and were very pleased with their final PSA Production video segment assignment and had a lot of fun planning and working together.**

4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? However the following sources attempted to assist in the manner "How to Use Digital Story Telling in Your Classroom" - Jennifer New, April 2009. Another very important feedback received in this course versus previous courses was that so much time was put into developing the productions that students would forget about the discussion board submittal because so much time was spent on the internet and the effort in completing the assignments and not as much time on Brighten application.**
 * As for the students being able to actively and efficiently complete their assignments, the most feedback received from students was the not understanding how to display and share multimedia footage publicly. All students in the course were not current online network communication users, ex. (YouTube and TeacherTube) so the uncertainty of how to build and link accounts across blogs and wikis to the site where their productions would be stored caused an extreme amount of issue and delay in week 1. This feedback came from several students of the same group. Once they understood how to use those networking sites they were able to successfully (without questions and issue) complete and submit all subsequent assignments.

5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?
 * The great thing about growth and learning is that a self evaluation can be conducted after any new adventure. The self evaluation allows the ability to measure the knowledge and ability of ones self to what he/she is instructing. As an individual currently in a leadership role both on a professional work level and as a business owner the course directly enhanced and brought forth leadership abilities, positive attitude and my no quit drive. On the contrary, this particular course also initially exposed how far behind I was in some of the uses of modern day technology and technology communication, which became the focus of our PSA Video assignment. Previous to this course I was a non-user of online communications networking sites. However now I am a fist time user and an ongoing user. From a skill development stand point, in reference to multimedia I am definitely a work in progress with great potential as an educator of multimedia production instruction.**