Video Technology and Multimedia

This course was extrememly valuable to me as an eduactor, wife and mom in encouraging new ways of sharing and presenting stories and information to a broader audience. Prior to this class, pretty much relied on the Web as a source for getting information. I learned here that I can now be the author of some of the information that others search for as "Web 2.0 tools change the nature of teh WEb from distributed to participatory" (Solomon and Schrum, 2007, p.46). I was fairly familiar with using Windows MovieMaker and had dabbled with Audacity in a couple of previous assignments in my Master's journey. Learning about and experiementing with Photo Story 3, Podcasting, ad eventually getting to work in iMovie. My work in MovieMaker has always seemed pretty straight forward, however after working in Photo Story 3 I think I was doing way more work than was needed. Photo Story 3 is extemely straight forward and great for new users to creating videos. As far as creating the podcasts, that was a pretty painless task also. Getting it online, that was another story altogether.
I remember for the most part that creating the products for each assignment was not too difficult a task. When it came time to publish each one on the Web, that is where some problems started to creep in. I approached each assignment in the manner of any teacher in America, trying to be as cost effective and least time consuming as possible. I had to search through several of the different sites offered for publishing a podcast before finding one that was easy to use and would be simple enough to show others how to use. The ultimate goal of creating a PSA to publish on the Web was a great test in team building and collaboration. My team for this project kept in close contact via e-mail and our Google doc to share ideas and compare notes for each phase of the project. This course tested our knowledge and use of the new Bloom's Taxonomy that incorporates the digital world that our students are learning in. As the students in this project, we were constantly working in the Evaluating level with "collaborating and networking, and testing" (Churches, 2008) and Creating level with " filming, animating, videocasting, podcasting, mixing and remixing, directing and producing, and publishing" (Chruches, 2008). While working with others is challenging from time to time, it is definitely more valuable to have the support of others than to go it alone. Having tried both, I defiinitely prefer to have someone to bounce ideas off of and get feedback from that knows what they are talking about.
Continuing beyond where I am currently, I have had to consider how video and multimedia tools can play a part in teaching for me and for other teachers I know. "Because technology permeates how students think, communicate, and process information, accomodating the positive attributes of their media-rich learning styles can help educators update teaching, learning, and the curriculum" (Williamson and Redish, 2009, p. 58). I think integrating ideas like these can be tremendous assets to teaching, my questions lie in how to get it in the hands of the students. I visualize helping teachers learn to use these tools first, and then carry it on into the classroom where teachers can show students how to create their own products and publish them to share. Finding the time to fit in a process like this though is very difficult to do with so much emphasis on administration making sure that the campus meets AYP each year. I worry that an endeavor such as this may seem unnecessary when so many other areas need improvement.

Resources:

Churches, A. (2008). Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally. Tech & Learning. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670

Solomon, G. and Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Washington, D.C.: ISTE.

Williamson, J. and Redish, T. (2009). ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards. Washington, D.C.: ISTE.