Week 5 consisted of finalizing a PSA project that we worked on in a collaborative group. This week was full of new techniques and learning. This process stretched out over weeks 3, 4, and 5. Week 3 consisted of the pre-production process. It began with the pre-production assignment being inserted into a collaborative Google doc and being shared with the entire group. Each group member was assigned a different text color to write in so that we could easily keep up with who was saying what. During this process we assigned jobs to everyone and recorded a preliminary script and shot list. Week 4 mostly consisted of the actual production process which included everyone delivering their video clips and other assets by the scheduled times. Jeanette found a storyboard template that made this process much easier. A dropbox account was opened for all to drop their clips into so they could be edited and added to the timeline. Everyone followed the 3 second rule and the rule of thirds to ensure that we would have high quality clips to work with. We also made several changes to the script and shot list during this time. Finally we are to week 5 which consisted of the post-production. It was filled with watching the project carefully to ensure that the clips were fused together correctly, transitions were smooth, and that the audio matched up just right. Editing was one step during this week. It went pretty smoothly thanks to the collaboration of our group. Bryan was a great help by sharing the tutorial videos, especially the one about framing a shot. The thirds rule was very helpful in setting up and shooting high quality shots. Web delivery selection was also a step that we had to deal with during this week. YouTube is my choice for the web delivery of our PSA. I am familiar with it and it is widely viewed and therefore will be the quickest way to get our message out to the public. YouTube also offers an easy step for posting and sharing your work with others, the embed code. This time also included revising our week 3 assignment with all the changes that were made along the way. We also had a member create a Reflection Google doc so that all team members could post their debriefing comments. The final step in this process is making sure that every group member has copies of all the needed documentation to submit to epic and TK20.
With the PSA finalized we licensed it under the creative commons:
Do You Understand Me? Digital Natives Vs. Digital Immigrants by Mary Johnson, Jeanette King, Brent Langham, Lesha Stallons, and Kim Stephenson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Our group consisted of Mary Johnson, Jeanette King, Brent Langham, Lesha Stallons and myself. I think that we all worked fabulously together. We collaborated our ideas and progress in a Google doc and through emails, and texts. Everyone did their part to make this assignment come together without too many frustrations. All deadlines were met by each group member. Thanks to all four of you for making this an exciting learning experience. This definitely would have been a stressful event had it been an individual assignment.
EDLD 5363 - ET8038
PSA LINK
Wiki Link
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
EDLD 5363 Week 2 Software Evaluation Reflection
Podcast Link
Wiki Link
Google Collaboration Doc
Open source video editing software and audio editing software are two terms that I was not comfortable with before this week. Thanks to this program, Animoto and Photostory 3 are the only programs of this nature that I have recently worked with. This assignment asked us to go online, research, and choose a free video editing program to explore, use, and teach to someone else through the use of a podcast. Upon investigating for a free video editing program I was overwhelmingly surprised at the magnitude of programs available. After some discussion with my partners I decided to use Windows Movie Maker, Mary Johnson chose this program also, and Jeanette King chose Windows Live Movie Maker. This decision, for me, was based on the user friendly style and the fact that it was included with my operating system. As we collaborated on this project we discovered a key difference in Movie Maker and Live Movie maker was the disappearance omission of the timeline.
I enjoyed working with my partners to create my tutorial and now I understand why my students like working in collaborative groups. In the process of creating the podcast I also became more familiar with the importance of file extensions. The two file extensions used for my assignment were .wmv and .mp3. I can’t wait to have my middle school science students dive into this program and start creating some exciting projects. Garrison (1999) stated, “integrating media production in your curriculum can help find new access to students and help them find new access to the material” (p.1). Engaging and teaching students with these types of programs, I believe, is the key to giving them a voice and ownership of their own learning and therefore creating life-long learners.
Garrison, A. (1999, Winter). Video basics and production projects for the classroom. Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved April 6, 2009, from http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article3.html.
EDLD 5363 - ET8038
Wiki Link
Google Collaboration Doc
Open source video editing software and audio editing software are two terms that I was not comfortable with before this week. Thanks to this program, Animoto and Photostory 3 are the only programs of this nature that I have recently worked with. This assignment asked us to go online, research, and choose a free video editing program to explore, use, and teach to someone else through the use of a podcast. Upon investigating for a free video editing program I was overwhelmingly surprised at the magnitude of programs available. After some discussion with my partners I decided to use Windows Movie Maker, Mary Johnson chose this program also, and Jeanette King chose Windows Live Movie Maker. This decision, for me, was based on the user friendly style and the fact that it was included with my operating system. As we collaborated on this project we discovered a key difference in Movie Maker and Live Movie maker was the disappearance omission of the timeline.
I enjoyed working with my partners to create my tutorial and now I understand why my students like working in collaborative groups. In the process of creating the podcast I also became more familiar with the importance of file extensions. The two file extensions used for my assignment were .wmv and .mp3. I can’t wait to have my middle school science students dive into this program and start creating some exciting projects. Garrison (1999) stated, “integrating media production in your curriculum can help find new access to students and help them find new access to the material” (p.1). Engaging and teaching students with these types of programs, I believe, is the key to giving them a voice and ownership of their own learning and therefore creating life-long learners.
Garrison, A. (1999, Winter). Video basics and production projects for the classroom. Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved April 6, 2009, from http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article3.html.
EDLD 5363 - ET8038
EDLD 5363 Week 2 Web Conference Reflection
The video conference this week was great for clearing up some issues about the discussion board posts, the assignment, and especially the length of the podcast. Dr. Abernathy was having some server issues but we still managed to complete the webcast without too many technical difficulties. She answered questions such as “How long does the podcast actually have to be?” and “What exactly are we posting to the discussion board this week?” We seem to be receiving conflicting information in our assignments and our overviews. We have been told that the overviews are the latest information and that they are what we should go by, but they do not always include all the needed information. Sometimes they just add to the confusion. I personally had the best technical web conference experience to date. I have figured out that if I do not run my webcam that I don’t have the issues that I normally encounter with my audio. I usually have audio that cuts in and out making it nearly impossible to keep up and understand the flow of the conversation.
EDLD 5363 - ET8038
Sunday, November 20, 2011
EDLD 5363 Week 1 Web Conference
I enjoyed the web conference this week. It was informative. I liked the fact that the web conference started on time and was closed once we started. This kept latecomers from coming in and needing everything repeated so that they could catch up. Dr. Abernathy answered our questions as they came up and we also had our instructional associate, Dawn Kirkland, present to help out with the questions. Having the small number of participants involved in the web coference allowed my audio to work for most of the conference. This was fantastic. I also appreciate the idea of Dr. Abernathy conducting two or three conferences a week to help space out the participants and offering multiple chances for members of the class to join in.
EDLD 5363 - ET8038
EDLD 5363 - ET8038
EDLD 5363 - Week 1 - Digital Storytelling
Thankfully this was a long week, I needed every bit of the time. I had technology issues in the creation of this product but upon completion I was very pleased with my product. My story was lighthearted and brought back great memories of my adventure. I can see that this will be a fun and valuable tool that can be used to engage students' interests in completing projects at school.
Some of the issues that I encountered this week were the fact that Photostory 3 was not compatible with the operating system on my computer, Windows Vista. Another issue that I had was that once I embedded the youtube video into my google site wiki I was no longer able to edit the page. I would click on the edit button and the entire screen would go black. Despite the issues that I had I still really enjoyed the assignment and learning and working with a new web 2.0 tool that I can use in my curriculum.
EDLD 5363 - ET8038
Some of the issues that I encountered this week were the fact that Photostory 3 was not compatible with the operating system on my computer, Windows Vista. Another issue that I had was that once I embedded the youtube video into my google site wiki I was no longer able to edit the page. I would click on the edit button and the entire screen would go black. Despite the issues that I had I still really enjoyed the assignment and learning and working with a new web 2.0 tool that I can use in my curriculum.
EDLD 5363 - ET8038
Sunday, November 6, 2011
EDLD 5301 Final Course Reflection
How do I feel about this course? That question has brought about a roller coaster of emotions. When I first found out what the title of my new class would be, Research For Teachers, I was immediately intimidated, writing was never my favorite thing to do. My preconceived notions of research enforced my fears of beginning this course. Thankfully week one was helpful in alleviating some of these apprehensions by informing me of the difference in research and action inquiry. The image that the word research conjured up was someone locked away in a corner of the library with stacks of books surrounding them and wads of paper all over the floor while they steadily were writing page after page of information. To my delight that image was dispelled and replaced with knowledge that this course would deal with me questioning practices and topics that I was already familiar with and had an interest in.
Our reading assignments from the course text, Leading with Passion and Knowledge by Nancy Dana, were very beneficial in explaining what action research was and how to go about finding and developing our wonderings and questions. “Wonderings materialize at the nexuses of real-world observations, dilemmas, felt difficulties and passions that you develop in your work” (Dana, 30).
In week 2 we were introduced to three different gentlemen that talked to us about research and data and the way that it drives decisions that schools make on a daily basis. These videos were enlightening in the fact that we were able to see that what we were doing is something that actually is used to make decisions for schools and school improvement. One video that I found particularly interesting was with Johnny Briseno a principal from Rancho Isabella Elementary. He pointed out that even though looking at quantitative data is great for helping make decisions you sometimes have to go back and look at the qualitative data to get a true representation of what is going on and what final decisions need to be made.
In week 3 were asked to develop an action research plan and then all of the sudden my apprehensions all came flooding back. Watching the assigned lectures, reading the assigned pages of text, and collaborating with my peers once again calmed me back down. Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools: 8 Steps From Analysis to Action by Harris, Edmonson, and Combs was helpful in accomplishing the goal of setting up my action research plan. This book provided me with a template to follow and pointed out and summarized the 8 critical action steps to performing an action inquiry. After completing this assignment I was once again feeling pretty good about this course.
We then hit week 4 and 5 and after the web conferences and questions that were presented to the instructor I started feeling confused on whether I was doing all that I needed to be doing and whether I was doing it correctly. My instructor and peers quickly helped with the confusion and I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one that was experiencing this roller coaster of emotions.
My peers, the discussion board, the web conferences, the assigned videos, and the textbooks were a great tool for getting through this course and the feeling of satisfaction as it comes to an end that I have accomplished the goal set out for me by this course.
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools 8 steps from analysis to action. (pp. 47-55). Larchmont, NY: Eye On Education, Inc.
Briseno, J. (n.d.) Week 2 Interview 1 [web video]. Retrieved from http://lamar.epiclms.net
EDLD 5301
ET8038
Our reading assignments from the course text, Leading with Passion and Knowledge by Nancy Dana, were very beneficial in explaining what action research was and how to go about finding and developing our wonderings and questions. “Wonderings materialize at the nexuses of real-world observations, dilemmas, felt difficulties and passions that you develop in your work” (Dana, 30).
In week 2 we were introduced to three different gentlemen that talked to us about research and data and the way that it drives decisions that schools make on a daily basis. These videos were enlightening in the fact that we were able to see that what we were doing is something that actually is used to make decisions for schools and school improvement. One video that I found particularly interesting was with Johnny Briseno a principal from Rancho Isabella Elementary. He pointed out that even though looking at quantitative data is great for helping make decisions you sometimes have to go back and look at the qualitative data to get a true representation of what is going on and what final decisions need to be made.
In week 3 were asked to develop an action research plan and then all of the sudden my apprehensions all came flooding back. Watching the assigned lectures, reading the assigned pages of text, and collaborating with my peers once again calmed me back down. Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools: 8 Steps From Analysis to Action by Harris, Edmonson, and Combs was helpful in accomplishing the goal of setting up my action research plan. This book provided me with a template to follow and pointed out and summarized the 8 critical action steps to performing an action inquiry. After completing this assignment I was once again feeling pretty good about this course.
We then hit week 4 and 5 and after the web conferences and questions that were presented to the instructor I started feeling confused on whether I was doing all that I needed to be doing and whether I was doing it correctly. My instructor and peers quickly helped with the confusion and I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one that was experiencing this roller coaster of emotions.
My peers, the discussion board, the web conferences, the assigned videos, and the textbooks were a great tool for getting through this course and the feeling of satisfaction as it comes to an end that I have accomplished the goal set out for me by this course.
Dana, N. F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Harris, S., Edmonson, S., & Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools 8 steps from analysis to action. (pp. 47-55). Larchmont, NY: Eye On Education, Inc.
Briseno, J. (n.d.) Week 2 Interview 1 [web video]. Retrieved from http://lamar.epiclms.net
EDLD 5301
ET8038
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