5363+Course+Reflection


 * Course Reflections for EDLD 5363**

1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you had envisioned?

The outcomes that I envisioned for this course included: learning more about web conferences and how to participate in them from my desktop; how to communicate and collaborate in online conferences; learn more about various multimedia types and how to use them to create work that can be used to enhance teaching and participation in my classroom; develop skills on how to select instructional strategies including multimedia elements; learn more about “storyboarding” and how to use this technology to enhance the classroom experience for my students; learn to edit films and build rough copies of film from individual shots taken by someone else to create a video production. I did achieve these outcomes in the course and they did align very closely with what I had envisioned for this course. I was a little nervous entering the course because I knew very little about the subject of multimedia and video and was afraid that I would be in over my head. I found out early that Dr. Abernathy walks us through the process very slowly and I learned the processes very easily.

2. To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work you do in your school? Why or why not?

The outcomes that I achieved in this course are relevant to the job I do at my school. As a technology leader in my school, I can use the outcomes of this course to teach my fellow educators how to communicate more efficiently via web conferencing. This will enable them to participate in conferences from their desktop so that they may be able to interact with colleagues on a more frequent basis. I can also instruct them on using multimedia in various ways in their classrooms to enhance the education experience of their students. In addition, I can instruct my fellow educators how to use technology, such as storyboarding, to create examples for their students to learn by. Also, teaching my coworkers to use the creation of short films via still shots will enable them to further learning by example in their students. All of the concepts that I learned in this course can be utilized by myself as well as others to enhance the overall education experience for our students.

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?

Although I did achieve my overall outcomes for this course, I feel that I would have learned these concepts more in depth with a class that lasted longer. A longer class would have enabled me to have more creativity and application time to work on projects and revise them more effectively. In the course I learned the concepts of web conferencing and multimedia use for my classroom and participated effectively but I will have to continue to use the outcomes from this class and my knowledge of what I learned in this class or I will be weak in these areas. I intend to continue to use storyboarding and creation of film from still shots in my classroom on a weekly basis so that I won’t lose the skills I have learned and I will grow more experienced in the creation of these short films. I know that my students will not only enjoy the films but will appreciate them as a learning tool as well.

4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

I was successful in completing all the course assignments. I would never let a challenge prevent me or discourage me from completing my work. Having said that, I would like to take this time to let you know that the biggest challenge for me was finding my own group to participate in for our group project. I had no access to anyone’s email addresses and could only post messages to the discussion board asking someone to pick me up in their group. I have taken many online courses and participated in group projects for almost all of them. I do understand the importance of working in groups and the learning experiences derived from that. In my extensive experience in this matter, I have found that the most successful group projects were the ones where the Professor, or Academic Coach in this circumstance, put the students into groups ahead of the project so that the groups could begin immediately on the project itself and not waste precious time attempting to place themselves with other students.

5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

I learned a lot about my technology skills. I learned that even though I don’t understand something that is very technical I can learn it rather easily if I take it one step at a time. I learned that I don’t need to fear the unknown, and given the opportunity to slow down and learn a new skill is a very attainable goal. As far as learning about myself, I can’t say that I learned a lot about myself, rather I reinforced what I already knew. I learned or reinforced that when put in a crunch I can always pull through to complete what needs to be done. I learned that I can achieve or complete anything I put my mind to even if it sometimes seems impossible. I reinforced understanding that my leadership skills only improve when needed to push something to completion or in times when I have an approaching deadline.