Video Learning Reflection

Well apparently I'm the only person that experienced real problems with this assignment.  Unfortunately technology worked against me on this one.  My first idea was to do a video on my promethean using promethean software.  I created my flipcharts for a project on quadratics and went back to make the movie.  When I tried to record myself talking, no luck.  Turns out my laptop has no microphone.  After searching high and low at my school, I finally found one.  I created my video and hit roadblock number 2.  The sound was terrible and on top of that, I could not open my video on any other computer.  After much frustration, I gave up and decided to use movie maker to make my video.

The basic setup for movie maker was simple.  Again my problems were technology related.  My desktop also has no microphone.  I get my movie all set up and go to save as movie and my computer freezes.  I try to no avail and end up having to shut down and restart entirely.  At this point, I am ready to cry.  But with perseverance, I ended up with a video on quadratics.  This video is meant to be a review at the end of the unit.

Overall, I can see where making my own video can be beneficial.  Yet with time constraints, it is so very tempting to use one of the many videos on YouTube and Khan Academy.  I believe this experience would have been much more enjoyable without all of the issues I encountered.

Reflections

Reflections

The process of designing this blog started out a little bumpy.  When I first went onto blogger, I ran into my first question immediately.  I was unsure if I was supposed to choose Google profile or Blogger profile.  After determining that I was supposed to choose Blogger profile, I was on my way.  I had trouble watching the video explaining the step-by-step process.  I could hear, but could not see the video of the computer screen.  I was reminded that I am definitely a visual learner!  So I thought I would see what I could accomplish on my own.  I found the initial setup of the blog to be very simple, but making modifications was a little more troublesome.  I decided that the video was a must, and determined that I could successfully watch the video at school.  After watching the video, the real fun began.  I felt some frustration in trying to convert my pages to tabs, but eventually I discovered the secret and my page began to take shape.  Being your typical female, the most enjoyable part for me was changing fonts, backgrounds, and layouts.  The hardest part was deciding what I liked best!

I learned a lot through this experience.  I always thought that a webpage was something I would never have.  I believed it was beyond my technological capabilities.  Yet, with my first blog site behind me, I found that it was much simpler than I could have imagined.  There are little things that I am still figuring out, but I always feel so proud when I discover the right path.  I look forward to not only using this blog for my classroom, but also teaching my students how easy it is to use and encouraging them to do so also.  In the future, I would like to have assignments, my pacing guide, and all relevant class information included on my blog.  In this technological age, I believe having the blog will help me be more accessible to my students and my parents.

url:  ktootle.blogspot.com