This course has been quite the journey. I felt totally lost during the beginning classes. I didn’t understand what was being discussed. I didn’t understand what was expected on the assignments. I definitely felt overwhelmed and in over my head. Now, as the course is ending, I am amazed with what I have accomplished.
Did I enjoy everything? No. Did I learn new techniques to bring to the classroom? Yes. Will I use any of this in my “everyday life?” Absolutely. Let’s discuss the various projects.
My least favorite assignment was the wikis. Part of that may be due to the fact we were near the beginning of all the presentations. I never felt our group fully understood how to use the wiki to create our portion of the project. During the week we were busy with our jobs and did not get much chance to talk over how we wanted to do our section. The class time did not give much time to work together to plan. While our presentation went fine, I, personally, felt it lacked – what, I’m not sure. We certainly had the information. I simply feel it was far from my best work.
Digital Storytelling was a favorite project. For the first assignment I had wanted to do something tied to my upbringing as a military brat. However, all my memories are in slides and at my mother’s – both making it much too difficult. Pulling out vacation photos and scanning them into the computer made me appreciate the photos that I now take with a digital camera. The photos now are readily available for manipulation.
My difficulties with the first DST was in using the product Adobe Premiere Elements 8. I purchased the product happily but quickly came to a screeching halt as the program would not allow me to create a project. After spending over an hour on a phone call to India for technical support it appeared that that difficulty had been overcome. I was able to create the DST on the trip to Cooperstown, including music and narration. However as soon as I tried to begin the second DST, I ran into the exact same difficulties. It became a huge frustration. I did not have the time to spend on the phone with India. Something had to be done.
Solution: MovieMaker – which was already on my computer. (Oops, sorry about that, husband.) I recreated my Cooperstown DST to practice. I was much happier with the resulting story. MovieMaker was much easier to use. So now on to the second DST.
The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer was a very personal story for me. Doing the actual walk was an accomplishment. Combining the two day walk of 39 miles, the many video clips taken, the more than 100 photos taken, the narration, and the search for just the right music from the free use site gave me a huge sense of ownership over the entire project. I am extremely proud of it.
I am not sure if my students will be able to get that same personal experience when creating their own DSTs but it is a final product I will try to encourage my teachers to consider. It touches on so many literacies and crosses all the curriculums. I will need to sell it. It is a very different way to tell a story that there will be resistance from teachers. They are finally feeling comfortable with PowerPoint. Now I want them to try something else, another program they will need to learn. I will have to work hand-in-hand with them – which means I will need to choose carefully the teacher with whom to begin. Hmmmm.
Podcasting I did not like when it was first introduced. It seemed pointless to me. But as I created my two podcasts I began to connect with it. Giving my podcast the name of “Celebrate Learning” was a great idea. Now I would like to propose doing it as a club at school. Instead of the students simply typing out a newsletter, wouldn’t it be great to create a “radio show” that everyone could listen to? I will be discussing it with my principal. Or, perhaps I will continue to “Celebrate Learning” within my own library page on the school website. As the teachers, parents, and students discover it, I would hope it to morph into a popular tool to inform our community of the activities going on within our walls. (Wouldn’t Will Richardson be proud of me? I just might have found my baby steps on my own.)
I end this reflection here. The journey has proven to be very enlightening. I was overwhelmed at the beginning. Now I have begun to see the possibilities of these tools of the Read/Write Web.
