EDLD+5363,+Mulitmedia+&+Video+Technology--Final+Reflections


 * Final Reflections and Course Assessment **

*  My experiments with video in previous courses left me with many unanswered questions: How can I coordinate narration with moving images? How do I edit video once it’s been rendered? How do I know which file types are best for various distribution media? Yet, with only five weeks to study and explore, I knew I wouldn’t become an expert. Thus, I began this course with the modest expectation of learning the basics of video and sound capture, as well as some video and sound editing techniques. Now that I have discovered [|Windows Movie Maker] (which I didn’t even know is installed on my computer), gained greater facility manipulating sound files in Audacity, and endured a “crash course” in video production as part of a team, I feel confident to tackle video projects on my own. I have even learned how to find a plethora of tutorial materials and forums for nearly any multimedia equipment or software I might want to use. I think the outcomes I envisioned aligned fairly closely with those I actually achieved in this course, in that I acquired enough general knowledge and skill, along with forming partnerships with more advanced learners, which equips me to continue developing multimedia expertise as a self-directed learner—a true 21st century learning outcome! One course outcome that I didn’t fully anticipate involves an understanding of digital storytelling that I gained, first by creating a personal digital story during week one, and then by creating the storyboard and shot list for our team’s PSA during weeks three through five. Joe Lambert (2010, January) breaks down the process of conceiving and executing a digital story into seven useful steps (pp. 9-24) that I followed in selecting images, writing my script, and choosing music for my personal story. I was able to follow these same storytelling principals in working with my PSA team to determine our establishing shot, transitional shots, and other elements to advance our story and our message. All our team collaboration and production documents may be accessed and viewed at the following link: http://epressler.wikispaces.com/EDLD+5363%2C+Multimedia+%26+Video+Technology--Collaboration
 * 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? **

 ﻿ ﻿ **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 learning outcomes I achieved in this course are highly relevant to services I provide in my school. As a college learning center manager and tutor, I must devise engaging supplementary study materials to support students’ academic success in a number of disciplines; I am also charged with training student tutors to effectively support the learning of their peer-clients. Skills in producing Multimedia expand my options for reaching a broader range of learners. According to instructional designer Patti Shank (2005), “Researchers have found that multimedia helps people learn more easily because it appeals more readily to diverse learning preferences,” but she warns that multimedia require appropriate techniques and practices in order to be effective (p. 2). I know I will employ two resources Shank provides in her article: Mayer’s “[P]rinciples that influence the effectiveness of multimedia” (Table 1, p. 8) and the “[E]xample media types and tools for various instructional purposes” (Table 2, p. 9).

Assisting students with research projects, as well as preparing instructional materials, requires that I have a thorough understanding of copyright and fair use guidelines. Therefore, the more experience I gained in determining the acceptable use and proper citation of borrowed video clips used in our team’s PSA will enhance my ability to perform my current job duties. Although the United States Copyright Office recommends obtaining permissions as an absolute safeguard against copyright violation (Fair Use, 2009), time constraints on our project prohibited this step. Therefore we utilized only very limited segments of borrowed footage in the final cut of our PSA. According to Stanford University Library, Palo Alto (n.d.), “An educational multimedia presentation may include. . . up to 10% or three minutes, whichever is less, of a copyrighted motion media work. . . .” [|A list of citations for the video clips we incorporated may be viewed by clicking this link.] An important lesson I learned is that, because the rules of copyright and fair use are less than black and white, each instance of borrowing from others' works must be carefully considered. Ideally, authors and creators should specify their wishes regarding how others use their intellectual property. In order to clarify the conditions we all agreed to as a team, we registed our PSA--Be Prepared for the Unexpected: Carry a Car Emergency Exit Tool--with CreativeCommons.org and obtained the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. This license allows others to use identical copies (not portions or alterations) of our work for non-commercial purposes, but only with proper attribution to us as the authors. The license icon is a clickable link embedded below our PSA on our wiki pages.

=
Any instructional materials I create for my job, as well as personal projects I may wish to publish, will be licensed with Creative Common. I also plan to educate students and colleagues about the importance of obtaining Creative Commons licenses for their works. ======

** 3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? ** I believe I have achieved, to varying extents, all but one of the learning and performance outcomes listed in the course syllabus. Only number seven, under “Learning Outcomes”—“Assist others for continual growth and expertise in technology operations and concepts”—remains unfulfilled. . . if “technology operations and concepts” pertain to multimedia. I have produced rudimentary multimedia products (slide shows, Power Point presentations) for professional purposes, and I have assisted less experience students and colleagues in such productions. However, I have yet to work with video in a professional capacity or provide instruction to others in more advanced multimedia techniques and software applications. Though I have accomplished all video and sound editing and production tasks required in this course, this experience has served merely as an introduction. In order for me to guide others in technical and pedagogical matters related to multimedia, I require more extensive experience. I need to prepare myself for the task of leading others in uses of multimedia technology, as instructors on my campus are beginning to challenge students by assigning small video and podcasting projects (which have proven rather overwhelming for many of our non-traditional students who have had limited exposure to technology). As a means of sharpening my own knowledge and preparing to support other learners, I plan to compile a collection of resources (many of which I used in this course) for all phases of video production, software tutorials, and educational uses of multimedia. A page of links will be available from the Learning Center Web page.

** 4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you? **    ﻿ Measuring “success” in terms of learning, I would say that I have successfully completed all of my course assignments. Whether or not I have met all criteria detailed in the rubric for each assignment is another matter. For example, I didn’t follow directions exactly as given for the week two assignment—evaluating two free video editing packages (and posting the evaluation on my blog), experimenting with the video editing program of my choice, and using [|Audacity] to record a “quick-start” audio podcast tutorial for the editing software I had used. While I satisfied the first two parts of the assignment, for the third part I created a video podcast tutorial (which made more sense to me, since video is a visual medium). In my tutorial, I demonstrate use of Windows Movie Maker to clip a slide show video I had previously created into two segments, trim the clips to remove transitions, insert a still image between the clips, and add new transitions on either side of the inserted image. I used [|Camtasia] to record my tutorial (with narration) in three parts, and then I assembled these clips in Windows Movie Maker, adding transitions, as well as introductory and concluding slides with additional narration (I also added background music in Movie Maker). I did not actually use audacity for the assignment (as directions specified), but working with the sound capabilities in Camtasia an Movie Maker provided me with significant experience recording and editing audio files, which I believe was the general objective, anyway. Initially, I had intended on using Audacity for an audio podcast, but experimenting with Movie Maker convinced me that creating a video podcast would offer a more fruitful learning experience, as well as result in a more useful tutorial for new users of Movie Maker. I later discovered that expectations on the week five post-production rubric call for presence of our editing “practice” video on our wiki; my instructional associate has assured me, though, that substitution of my video tutorial is acceptable. The only remaining discrepancy is that my video tutorial is embedded (and hosted on YouTube) rather than uploaded because the file exceeds the size limit Wikispaces allows for uploads. I am prepared to sacrifice a few points, if necessary, and embrace, instead, the greater benefit of the learning I gained. I might add that changes made to the week two assignment after the start of the course, unclear expectations regarding web conference attendance and associated blog posts, and rubric criteria requiring further clarification, made course performance and participation somewhat stressful. One of the advantages of online learning should be the ability to work ahead and pace learning in accordance with one’s other (professional and family) responsibilities. I don’t feel I was able to enjoy that advantage in this course; hence, I had to work harder than might otherwise be necessary to complete course assignments. As I stated earlier, I feel that I have successfully completed my assignments and learned a great deal in the process. Although I judge that the final cut of our PSA meets grading criteria for the course, I do recognize room for improvement. Our PSA might have benefited from including more original footage, perhaps avoiding use of two clips containing commercial logos that we obscured with a blur overlay. These scenes—depicting a flipped car and a car being submerged in a river—would undoubtedly have been impossible to duplicate, but we might have discovered alternative ways to convey our message or simulate these effects using animation techniques. The [|Wax] video editor (a free download) offers the capability of creating original 2-D and 3-D effects. If we had assembled our team earlier, we could have charged at least one member with learning to use this software. ** 5. What did you learn from the course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? **  ** ﻿ ** One of the most important self-revelations I experienced in this course concerns my tendency to irritate others with tedious questions and expectations of perfection. In the process of completing the PSA project, my lack of experience with video caused me to rely heavily on the guidance of my more expert teammates. While I researched most of the questions I had about video production and technical issues, I continually sought confirmation and clarification from my associates, bombarding them with a daily (and even hourly) stream of emails. When some of my emails went unanswered, I began to realize that my desperate need to communicate might be hindering our team’s progress. One of my team members made a rather pointed comment regarding the need for “action,” rather than “discussion.” I took the “hint” and tried to focus more on the tasks before us; nevertheless, when I saw a need for further team communication, I did all I could to facilitate dialogue. I arranged a chat session in TokBox and created a debriefing area on our team wiki. Though some of my team members participated reluctantly, I think my contributions assisted us all in completing our pre-production revisions and final blog post and assessment. The problem, in my retrospect, is that I didn’t plan communication activities in advance, causing members to feel pressured to participate while trying to complete crucial project tasks at the same time. A leadership strength I possess (and one I share with each of my teammates) is a willingness to apply any knowledge I have and take action whenever I perceive a need. For example, our team leader exported our final PSA as an .AVI file, which I knew (from experience in a previous course) to be a larger file type. I worried that the larger file would consume more storage space on our wiki pages than necessary, so I requested that she also render the file in .WMV format. In researching the two file types, I discovered that .AVI is “compatible across multiple platforms,” such as Mac and Linux (Dominic, 2010), while .WMV provides greater file compression (hence reduced file size) while still offering acceptable quality for Web publication (AVI vs. WMV, 2007). Considering the advantages of each file type, I felt that providing both .AVI and .WMV would afford team members the most flexibility in displaying and viewing the video. My team members agreed. My experience as part of a video production team tested my patience at times. However, my perseverance proved that my tolerant attitude toward adversity will continue to help me overcome obstacles to learning. Rather than trying to avoid failure, I follow the recommendation of Randy Nelson (2008), Dean of Pixar University, to strive for “error recovery” and embrace every opportunity to learn. 

** ﻿ References: **    AVI vs. WMV [Discussion thread]. (2007, October). Retrieved September 24, 2010, from [] Dominic, M. (2010, May 13). AVI vs. WMV. Retrieved September 24, 2010, from [] Fair use. (2009, May). United States Copyright Office. Retrieved September 19, 2010, from  [] Nelson, R. (2008). Learning and working in the collaborative age: A new model for the workplace [Video file]. //Edutopia//. Retrieved September 24, 2010, from [] Shank, P. (2005, December). The value of multimedia in learning. Retrieved August 23, 2010, from [] Stanford University Library, Palo Alto. (n.d.). Proposed educational guidelines on fair use. Retrieved August 23, 2010, from []