EDLD 5370 Reflection over 5363 Part 4.3

This course was my third course and the first one that I considered fun. Multimedia and Video Technology introduced me to exactly the kind of learning for which I was hoping.
Multimedia and Video Technology was an entry into digital storytelling, podcasting and long-distance group projects. The two embedded assignments were modified in this course after it began. We were initially supposed to create a video podcast including RSS feeds, video, audio and digital images. We were then required to post them to the web. The assignment was changed to include an audio podcast regarding an analysis of 3 different video editing programs. The second assignment originally charged us with designing a six hour professional development activity for a group of 8-10 teachers instructing them on how to create a photostory they could then use as a model for their students. That assignment was changed to an exercise in which we simply created a digital story using PhotoStory 3.
I gained a lot of new knowledge about Web 2.0 tools that will continue my drive to learn about new tools in the future. I learned how digital storytelling can help students practice introspection in a way they might not if using a pencil and paper. I also learned that podcasts are quite easy and that students have many avenues to publish creative works to the web. The old information that I held included thinking that projects with video required hours of training with expensive video editing software and that podcasts were difficult to put online. My new knowledge about Web 2.0 tools reflects their ease of use. I think that Web 2.0 tools were created because digital tools are way too cool to be hard to use. Someone very smart told themselves that the tools HAD to be simplified and free for the masses. “Using technology tools to solve problems or create original products can aid students in constructing meaning and demonstrating their learning—often in ways similar to practicing professionals in the field.” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p.33) I now have every student in my classes bring 10 personal photos the first week of school to teach several skills including scanning and saving to network folders. The pictures also serve the purpose of making a Photostory presentation. It always surprises me just how creative students are when they don't know that they're learning. I wasn't aware of digital storytelling until taking this course but have since seen it in many technology articles and in online bookstores.”Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. …as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music.” (University of Houston, 2011) “Simply put, digital stories are short 2 to 3 minute multimedia movies that combine photographs, video, animation, sound, music, text, and often a narrative voice. Digital stories may be used as an expressive medium within the classroom…”(Digital Storytelling, n.d.) Students who can't find a voice to write about themselves on paper seem to breeze through sharing themselves with digital tools.
Digital Storytelling. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 30, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling
University of Houston. (2011). The educational uses of digital storytelling. Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
Williamson, O., & Redish, T. (2009). Iste's technology facilitation and leadership standards, what every k-12 leader should know and be able to do. Intl Society for Technology in Educ. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=9781564842527