PSA+Assessment+Response+Items

At the start of this course I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I thought that I would learn how to use video in an educational setting and not so much in how to use the video software. I quickly learned that I would have to put my video skills to use. Luckily, I had some experience before and it wasn’t too terribly hard to complete my assignments. I did learn a few more features with other software that has helped to expand my knowledge about video use. Although I thought that I was doing quite well with my video software knowledge, the course and outcomes helped me achieved a greater wealth of knowledge. The biggest piece of knowledge that I achieved was learning about certain camera shots and their uses. I had never stopped to think about what angle or range I was shooting from or for how long the camera was running. I soon realized that people really only want the highlights of an event and you can set the stage by using the correct shot. Overall, I enjoyed meeting the course outcomes. **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 course outcomes are indeed relevant to the work that I do in my school. Many times I find myself working with teachers who want to use video in their classrooms. The majority of the time, they want to use the technology available, but don't know how exactly to use it or use it effectively. I'm bombarded with questions about using the movie making software, but most of the time they are the right questions. I seldom hear, "I want to use video to make my students understand a certain concept better" or "I want to use video in my classroom as a cooperative group project." Most of the time it is for a birthday party that is coming up or an anniversary that a teacher wants to put something together quickly. I will definitely and in fact have already used the knowledge I've learned in this course with teachers that I work with and train. The concepts that I've learned about shot techniques and length have been very beneficial. I've already had a summer training on iMovie and explained how to use video to grab the audiences attention and the importance of various shots. Although I enjoyed this course and thought that achieving all outcomes would be easy, I found it difficult to complete the collaboration piece of this course. I worked with a co-worker who I frequently work with and had no problems. We were tasked with taking on a new partner or two for the final project. I didn't think it would be a big issue. After posted a request for volunteers, we only had one taker, so we were happy to work with someone else outside our district. Unfortunately, communication consisted of only a couple of initial emails, a posting on google docs and unanswered phone calls. I found it extremely frustrating having to rely on another person who doesn't hold up their end of the deal. Things seemed fine in the beginning, seeing how my district partner and I wrote the script, shot sequence, and took all the video footage. All that was left was to piece the footage together which our distant partner agreed to complete as his job role. A lack of communication prevented us from successfully achieving the collaboration goal as much as we tried. My district partner and I were stumped as to what happened and feel very reluctant and hesitant to take on other collaborative projects in the future. In the end, we rushed to get the assignment completed at the last minute. It was not fun having to wait on one of our group members last minute work in order to complete the assignment. He did come through in the end and completed his portion of the assignment. This led to frantic completion of our revised shot list and made for a long night that we had not planned on. My other partner and I were discouraged by the lack of communication from the third and final partner/piece of our group. We had hoped to have better communication, but were left in the dark when it came to revisions and edits to the video.
 * 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?**
 * 3.** **What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?**
 * 4.** **Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?**

Overall, we learned things to do next time we are faced with such a situation, so that hopefully we won't be so discouraged. Completing the assignment in the end proved to be a challenge, but we stuck through it and worked feverishly together and got it done. What a relief. **5.** **What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?** This course has taught me quite a bit about myself. My technology skills have definitely improved learning about shot and video techniques. The biggest thing that I am aware of is my whole new outlook on television commercials and movies. Thanks to this course, I don't know that I can sit through a movie without thinking about the shot sequence that took place, the types of shots and the countless hours put into editing. I have a different attitude and much respect when I think the people that we never recognize because the credits at the end of a movie just flash by so fast. They are the true masters of the movies. As I reflect on this course, I think about what leadership skills could have been better. Maybe our collaborative part could have been more successful if I had been more persistent in emails from the beginning of our project. As a campus leader, I will think about that part next time I am involved in a collaborative project.