Course+Reflection+5363

Course Reflection
I have been looking forward to starting this class from the beginning. In my current job I assist many teachers with their desire to create and edit video. Before I started this class, I had envisioned its being a fun and exciting new endeavor that would help me prepare my trainings in a new and exciting way. I had also envisioned acquiring more knowledge concerning the different steps and setup options that need to be considered before starting the scene capturing phase. As the course progressed, I found that my vision did not align with how the class unraveled. In week one, we researched different programs for video editing. The frustration set in as I researched and found many of the programs cost you to use and the free ones were very watered down.

As we progressed from week 1 to week 5, I was little disappointed in the depth that we were taking with each new topic that was introduced. The information that we read was very basic information that I could have found answers with by myself. During each week, I followed the same path and watched the video, read the articles, took the test and then completed the assignments. Even though I did not need the information in the articles to complete the assignment, I wanted to make sure I was getting the most out of this course. The information that I received from all five weeks are currently being used in my work every day. My job is also to assist teachers in technology integration and the teachers are always asking my help with video and editing questions.

The one thing that I did not achieve in this course was higher level thinking skills I needed to push me past my comfort level with multimedia. I was forced to research new and exciting ways to edit video. I was a little frustrated at first with the different level of difficulty that free editing software produced, but I found that the current programs our district uses are sufficient in the needs of our teachers. As I read through the articles, I felt the articles were lower level than what I was expecting. I would have like to see a few more articles that outlined the correct way to shoot a video what to look for in the camera lens. The only thing that prevented me from achieving the outcome was the lack of money, time and training I needed to research and purchase the needed video editing program that would accomplish what I wanted to do with the video. I have found that the free video editing software can be very watered down.

The course assignments on the other hand were very good. I like the fact that we started off with a project reflection on something that was close to our hearts. This allowed us to become comfortable with the course expectations and software that was being used. As the weeks progressed we started a project and built on it every week. The only week I would like to see switched would be week 3 and is using audacity. I feel audacity could be used with the first week also. When creating a Photostory or Movie Maker project, students could use audacity to record voice narration. This would give them another way to add sound to their projects.

The one big thing I found out about myself was that I am more comfortable with multimedia than I first realized. I feel that I am on the right track with helping the teachers with their need to learn about video editing. As a professional, I enjoyed working with my group in producing our PSA. They were very professional and we had a great time getting to know each other online. Our group met and debriefed about this course. We all agreed that we wanted to pursue our interest in video more in-depth. We also agreed that it would have been easier if we would have had a central location assigned by Lamar to store our raw video. This would have allowed us to collaborate a little easier to create a better PSA. All that said, I enjoyed this class to the point that. It sparked an interest to pursue Multimedia to the next level. I am going to research and find video classes that will give me a more in-depth look at the world of video.