I have found that the actual work that I need to do, while tedious, is actually not that hard. It just takes time to get it done. I wish I did not have any other issues going on in my life or else this program would be quite easy for me I terms of the work. But with constantly having to drive to Southern California to visit my sick dad has taken a toll on the amount of work I have been able to do and when. All that keeps me going is that I know my dad would be so proud that I will be the first person in my entire family to receive a Masters. I feel the poster was pretty easy to do once I was able to plug in the right information. I will say that the program does allow us to do a lot of the work before it becomes overwhelming which overall makes it easier to handle. For a masters program, I think we’ve gotten it pretty easy and I am so lucky to say that I have learned quite a few innovative techniques. So much so that I was asked to present to my fellow BTSA peers about an add on that I learned through the program. Overall, the experience has sometimes been overwhelming but with the guidance of my cohort and instructors, I feel that it has been pretty manageable.
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While reflecting on my journey through this program I realize that I have actually taken away quite a lot of valuable information, such as how to apply technology in the classroom with a purpose, how to create more visually appearing presentations and videos, and an endless amount of tools that I could use in my classroom to help my students access the skills they need. Initially, I thought that this program just seemed like a lot of work without actually providing any useful information. Once I just let the process take over, I realized very quickly that there was a method to the madness. While I still think there was a lot of work that seemed unnecessary, I get that there needs to be a certain workload to a Masters program. I think if initially the program was a little more organized I would have been able to do more with my research but I worked with what I could and made it work for me. I am ready to use what I have learned in the program and apply it to my classroom for years to come. I also want to continue my learning as this has only sparked my interest in how to create a more innovative classroom.
I found that that once I had my videos taken and the animations created, it was all a matter of trimming and putting together the videos to get it together. When I decided to use Animoto, I thought there would be a lot of editing options but there were few, possibly due to it being a trial version. I had to take some of the videos I created and upload them to other sites to add different effects to them. I had to speed and trim one video and add a black and white effect to another. Once I got those made then I followed the story board I had made for my video. Animoto did make it easy in that sense because I could just add a new block for each part of my storyboard and add the video, picture, or text that I said I would add. Another annoying thing that I encountered was the voiceover. I had to do a voiceover for each separate block and it did not play the video while I was doing my voiceover so I couldn’t tell if I was in sync. Overall, I did enjoy the outcome of my video and after the hurdles, I enjoyed Animoto. Only wish I could afford the full version so I didn’t have to have a pesky watermark! Touro's values are as follows:
Because of this program, I also really understood how I could really bring a student-centered education to my classroom. I was able to identify how to design lessons and presentations with them in mind. I know that my district is really trying to focus on academic conversations so I hope to share with my colleagues what I have learned about the effects of technology on academic conversations. And I hope to continue my learning to discover how to make learning more innovative. I get these ideas in my head and I dwell on them so much that I need to make these ideas happen. The problem is that I don't realize how much work it's going to be until I get started!
That's kind of been the case with creating this capstone video. All my life I've been a huge procrastinator. It followed me to college and it's followed me to adulthood. So still I procrastinate. To be honest I work best that way! What I didn't consider though is that there just isn't enough time in a couple days to execute my big ideas. Getting the videos of my students acting out was easy. I used my honors class and they all acted it out perfectly for me! Creating the animation is taking quite a bit more time because even though I'm a procrastinator, I'm also a perfectionist with some of my work. I have the animations planned out in my head, it's just taking some time to get them finished. I guess it's good this class sets us up step by step so I know what I'm getting myself into. My rough draft video is super rough. So rough the compilation of it all hasn't technically happened just yet as I've been spending time trying to get the right parts ready. But, never fear! This is how I work. Everything is planned out and I know exactly what I need to do to get done. Oh, I also scratched my whole Piktochart video because I needed more flexibility with my videos and so now I'm going to be using animoto. Animoto has a 14 day trial so I haven't activated it yet until all my animations are ready to go so that way I can add and edit all within those 14 days. I'm really excited about the end product! I feel that I have been quite lucky with my credential program and coming into teaching during this time because I was always taught to integrate technology into my classroom. What I didn't realize was just because I knew about using technology and of a lot of digital tools to use in the classroom, didn't mean I knew how to use them meaningfully. I think I tried using a lot of technology, but merely as substitutes and not quite understanding how to use the technology to access content and build their knowledge. Now, I feel like I can take a look at what the learning targets are, where my students are, and how technology can help and decide whether technololgy is really needed. I thought I would always be using tech in my class, but I realize now that it is a lot more meaningful when it is used with a purpose rather than just to use it.
My journey this week has been more than stressful but manageable. It's been a balancing act to manage the current stresses with my family, my work life, and putting together my capstone. I just keep telling myself one day at a time! If I was asked to create a script and was not given any tools to help me create a script that was informative but also entertaining, then I would still be sitting here trying to figure out what to write. I always create scripts for the different videos I'm making so that I'm not just rambling on, but normally I'm creating videos based off of information already presented to me. In this case, I am creating the information and the presentation. We are asked to think about this as if we are telling a story. Well, being the English nerd that I am, putting it into that perspective helped me understand how to start this off. The guide to digital storytelling was incredibly useful because I jotted down the different things I should consider before writing a story and once I identified all those important parts like the audience, purpose, emotion, etc. then it was easy for me to piece them together; I just had to think about it first.
The storyboard was a lot easier to create once I had the script ready because then I could just pick the important parts of what is being said and think about how I can recreate that visually. I didn't draw out the scenes as others did, but I made sure that I could fully visualize the descriptions I was setting up. I know this is only a rough draft but I feel that it's given me a better understanding of how the final product will look. I decided to use Piktochart because it is a tool that I already use quite frequently and love using it to create different info graphics, presentations, posters, etc. Now I was able to use it create a logo! I do wish that once I established something that I liked that I could lock it into the another piece because if I decide I need to make something bigger or move it over a bit, then I have to move everything over. When designing my logo, I really wasn't sure how to start so I just decided to go through all the different graphics that were offered and kept adding them to the page until I had plenty to work with. I then decided that I needed a simple name that gave a clear picture of where my capstone project was heading, after that creating it was pretty simple. I love Piktochart because it's so user friendly and although I do have the pro version, the free version offers a lot of variety.
I think I feel like many others where I initially thought that my capstone audience was supposed to be for my students but it makes a lot more sense that it is for fellow educators. My driving question surrounds academic conversations and while my students always like to know the why, the results of this research would not benefit them as much as it would help other educators. My districts focus at the moment is academic conversations and the district is trying to go 1:1 so I thought figuring how to make technology and academic conversations could be paired, I just did not know how ~ and still that is something I'm trying to see will work.
After looking at the other learn more pages, I think that including visuals will be necessary to keep it engaging but informative. I really like using Piktochart and I plan to create a few info-graphics that outline the project. I also plan to include my research paper so anyone who wants to explore it in depth can have that resource. The reason I joined this program was because I wanted to learn how I could best help my students utilize technology in a purposeful way. I think the advancement of technology has opened up so many more doors for us to teach but I think a lot of us teachers are lacking the skill to properly utilize that technology. I've seen firsthand how huge of a gap there is in education. On one hand, I have students thriving and soaking up the information like a sponge. On the other hand, I have 7th grade students reading at a 2nd grade level and who can barely write a simple sentence. There must be something that can bridge that gap and I think the answer lies with technology since it allows us to differentiate learning and make education more customizable.
So far, having my fellow cohort members has far exceeded what I hoped cohort members could do. I feel so much support from my fellow classmates and it's been great going with them from class to class as we have developed a bond that makes me feel a lot more comfortable to go out there and try new things or speak up in the class. |