Week 2 Reflection

The week 2 assignment was somewhat challenging for me. I was confused initially about what was required for the week.  I planned to attend the additional web conference on Tuesday to get some clarification, but due to technical difficulties, it was cancelled.  After reading Wednesday's web conference transcript and reading the discussion board, I think I finally got clarification.  After evaluating Windows Movie Maker and creating my script for my podcast, I downloaded Audacity and recorded my podcast.  In order to save it as a MP3 file, I then had to download LAME.  I was now ready to share it on the web and after setting up an account on Podbean I was able to do that.  I was curious how I was going to add it to my wiki, but Podbean had several embed codes that I could use. At first all of these steps seemed overwhelming, but after setting down and actually doing it, it was really fairly easy.  I have increased my knowledge of Movie Maker with this assignment and learned how to create a Podcast.  These are skills that will be very valuable for me as well as for my students. 

Week 1 Reflection

I really enjoyed the week 1 assignment.  The self-evaluation confirmed that I have very little knowledge about multimedia concepts or applications. All of the week 1 readings encouraged incorporating multimedia into the curriculum. Our 21^st century learners crave the engagement and excitement that multimedia can offer.  The personal digital story we were required to create was an excellent way to be introduced to a multimedia program.  The sample digital stories that we viewed on the Center for Digital Storytelling’s Web site were great examples to help get us started.  I’m not a creative storyteller, so I just stuck to telling a personal story.  I had already used Animoto in my Concepts of Educational Technology course, so I had to choose another program. I was unable to download Microsoft’s Photo Story 3 because there wasn’t a download for Windows Vista.  I used Windows Movie Maker since it was already installed on my computer.  It was fairly simple to learn to use.  When it came to embedding it into my blog I did have a little trouble.  From reading the internet, I learned that I had to save it as a movie and not just a project before I could embed it. I would be unable to incorporate this type of assignment into my dyslexia therapy class, but I could see that students would have so much fun with this type of assignment.  I’m glad that I am now knowledgeable about this program. I hope to be able to create movies with my personal photos of my son. I’ve wanted to learn how to do this for years, but haven’t taken the time to learn.  Without this class, I’m not sure I would have ever taken the time. 

Digital Story