Multimedia+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? I envisioned for this course that we would spent time developing multimedia presentations and that I would increase my skills with different photo/video editing software. While I did achieve those things, the greater outcome that I received was an increased understanding of how to collaborate with my peers in developing a project and completing it according to a time line. I found that working with the others in my group was an enjoyable event. That when you get a group together that is motivated that much can be done. We were able to work well together because we all had the same vision of what we wanted to accomplish, the method that we all saw of getting there may have been slightly different, but we were all willing to give and take some so that the overall goal could be accomplished.

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 of this course are very relevant to my course work. I am in a field that there is only one teacher per school for what I do. That means that I have to spend a lot of time collaborating with the other teachers at the other campuses online. We can’t just walk down the hall and discuss different things. Since my class is also in a computer lab we have an opportunity to develop lots of different multimedia assignments that can be used. One that I am planning on doing next year is having students us Camtasia to develop a video tutorial of something we do in class. That way they can help to share what they learn with others. I also plan on developing some make up lessons so that the students that miss class will be able to catch up on their own time.

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? One of the performance outcomes that I did not achive was participate in an optional web conference. One of the major reasons I did not do it was because of the word “optional”. I have a hard time doing extra work when it is not required. The reason is because I am doing a full time job along with caring for my family (which is also a full time job). So putting those two things together makes it hard for me to make time for optional events. Most of my school work is done between the hours of 10pm and Midnight! So as you can imagine 5:00pm is not a real good time for me to leave the family and hide out in the computer room. I think it would have been a good experience to participate, and I will make a greater effort next time there is an opportunity.

4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? Yes I feel that I was successful in the course assignments. One of the things that I think helped the most was being proactive in getting a group together. The first day I saw that we were going to be needing to get into groups, so I set up my wiki to facilitate that. By setting it up first it allowed for others that were ready to do the work to come together. It provided and atmosphere of community and union that is hard to achive through the provided course software. This was also great because it allowed me to interact with others in the group. I noticed that when I started reading the discussion board that I knew some of the people that were posting. It allowed me to understand more about why those people were posting the way they were.

5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? One of the greatest things I learned from this course was more about collaboration. I had an opportunity to work with others in education and to see the things that I put my students through. I have them do group projects at different times of the year and now I can understand a little more about what they feel. As far as leadership skills, our group worked well together because we could openly discuss different ideas, and then when it was time to make a dission some one would step up and make it. It was not always the same person, but we were always willing to accept what others had to say and then work with it. No one wanted to be the “slacker” so we all worked hard and this in turn helped us all to have a good attitude about what we were doing. The result of our work can easily be seen in our final product.