Reflection

 I was very excited about this class. I have received some basic training on the use of movie editing software through my districts’ technology department, but I have never found the time to actually use it in my class. I hoped that this class would give me the opportunity to explore this kind of resources in a collaborative environment that would make me feel more comfortable about bringing it back to my students. Indeed, this class gave me the motivation to explore and use Photostory and Movie maker more often. It also exposed me to other software available, but I decided to continue using the ones that are supported by our district. I did expect to see more articles and information about how to integrate this kind of technology on an everyday basis in the classroom. I understand that I can find this information through simple searches, but I think it would be beneficial to have information about how other teachers find the time and resources to utilize videos in the classroom. I did not expect to learn how to upload videos to YouTube, but I am really glad I acquired this knowledge through this class.  The information that was presented in this class is absolutely relevant to my current position. It is important to be knowledgeable about using video editing software when I am trying to encourage other teachers in my team to use this resource in their classrooms. Before this course, I felt intimidated about asking other team members to use Photo Story with their students to create book reports. Now I feel like I can not only share my knowledge about the program, but I can also share the final products my students and I have created. This class also exposed me to many different videos available online that I will be sharing with my team for further training.  I honestly still struggle with all the format compatibilities issues. I had to use file converters that were not really user friendly. I think this is a personal challenge that I need to continue working on improving. I would have liked to use other movie editing software during this course, but I had to narrow my options due to districts’ accessibility restrictions. I understand this is not related to the course’s design, but I decided that it was more beneficial to my students’ future learning to concentrate my exploration keeping in mind what I could actually use in my current classroom.  Thanks to my group, and many YouTube videos I was successful completing all my assignments. I have honestly shared with my school staff in many technology meetings the value of using simple searches on YouTube to find video tutorials on about any software available out there. I think that videos that are user-friendly like the ones posted on that website are a very important resource when trying to encourage peers to try new technology.  Through this course I learned that I can edit videos, and search for tutorials when I feel lost. I feel that when I was at the begging of this class, video editing was a very scary topic due to my many failed attempts with it. I believe that I never took the time before to explore all the resources available to assist me through the process. I know I still have a lot to learn when it comes to multimedia and video editing, but I feel like I am going on the right direction. I also feel a lot more confident as a leader, because I actually have final products created by me that I can share with my team. This class has made me realize that I can trust members in a group, even if the collaboration is done online. I can see myself using and sharing all the knowledge acquired throughout this course