Innovative Learning Blog
Blog: Reflect on your process of building your website.
I've really enjoyed building the website. I feel that the courses prior helped me design the website and provided confidence that I can do it. Now that I have been immersed in Web 2.0 technology, I don't feel intimidated to try something technologically challenging. I also feel supported. If I didn't have the support of professors, Cohort members, and others like Dr. Redmond, the Touro librarian, and Marie Zorn who have helped me along the way, I wouldn't have completed this graduate program and website. I also have to give a huge shout out to my wife Jennifer, who allowed me to spend endless hours troubleshooting my way through this graduate program and Capstone project. Building this website is one of the things that intrigued me about enrolling in the Innovative Learning graduate program. I knew that to graduate, I would have to create a website, which has always been an interest of mine. Creating this website feels like creating digital stories via Animoto and Powtoon. I love the experience, and wish I could use this template to create more websites, however, I am inspired to create my own website from scratch much like creating a digital story from scratch with tools like WeVideo. I also hope that learning tools like WeVideo will help me to learn more advanced technological tools such as products put out by Adobe. This program has guided me to learn tools to utilize in the classroom and in my own personal hobbies of creating videos and using technology to connect lives. I look forward to publishing the website to showcase all that I have learned to Touro, NapaLearns, NVUSD, cohort members, family and friends. The website is representative of all the hard work that I have put into this program and project as well as the support of family members who made it all possible. My parents laid the foundation for my education and my passion for it, and Jennifer and my two children were my kindred inspiration for completing this journey to help make better lives for our family.
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Please share final thoughts and sighs of relief on this last blog.
It is amazing that in less than a year I will have graduated from a master's program. More amazing is all the technological tools that I learned, which I've already been able to apply to teaching and personal life. In addition, I've learned pedagogical models, such as TPACK and SAMR, that I will use as a basis to launch the incorporation of tech tools into the classroom. I am still not a tech expert, and I still have a lot to learn about how to best utilize the tech tools that I've learned from the program. However, I felt like this program not only got my feet wet using technology in the classroom, but it forced me to swim in the Web 2.0 ocean. Prior to this program, I felt that as an educator I had gotten my feet wet using technology in the classroom. After graduating the program, I feel that prior I wasn't even at the ocean. I was complacently comfort in my teaching zone. This program brought me to the technology beach and now I am an avid swimmer. I am thankful to have found a program that reinvigorated my passion for teaching and provided me confidence to pursue avenues of technology to utilize in the classroom. I appreciate the dedicated cohort who offered fresh ideas, opinions, and thoughts that helped me grow as a professional and as a person. The professors of this program brought positive energy and insight to each class. They fostered a friendly and supportive environment. The assignments were rigorous and purposeful. I enjoyed the challenge of the assignments, and the connectedness of the assignments to the Capstone and to our teaching. I was thankful for support in completing the assignments from Cohort members and professors. In the end, I am very satisfied with my enrollment and completion of this master's program. I now feel that I have transformed from a passionate teacher to a passionate and innovative teacher. I look forward to the upcoming year and beyond. I also look forward to crossing paths with cohort members and professors. They are colleagues and friends of mine. We all share a commonality in that we all chose a career that values citizenship, global awareness, helping others, and the connection among people (students,staff,friends,family) that help to create our life stories. This master's program, this cohort, is now part of my life story. Please continue blogging around your journey from rough to final cut and any challenges or successes you can share with the group.
I really enjoyed the journey of creating my first video from scratch. Now, I feel like I can use WeVideo to create other videos and perhaps teach 2nd grade students how to use this program. One of the main challenges of creating the 90 second video was to be precise with the script and images because the video had to fit a certain time frame. I enjoyed working within the time frame because it made me use a lot of editing tools. Since this was my first WeVideo I ever created, all the editing tools were new tools that I was learning to use. The main success was the video itself. It's not perfect nor will it win any 90 second video awards. However, it is original in it's design and I'm proud to have learned a new tech tool that I could apply to the creation of something. I enjoyed working with audio, graphics, images, and video to create a digital story. The tech expert at my school uses WeVideo and IMovie, and knowing that a lot of people in my cohort are also using IMovie makes me want to learn how to use it as well. When the graduate program is over and I have more free time I would love to explore WeVideo in greater depth and learn how to use IMovie. I look forward to the coming year and beyond to start creating professional videos for school and personal hobby. I've already thought of ideas such as creating a video for Back to School Night to show to the parents that would be informative and engaging with images and screencasts of their children starting the school year. The process of building the website has been technologically engaging and frustrating. I have always wanted to create my own website, and it's fun to work with a pre-made website much like using animoto for pre-made videos.
I realize many people end up writing a very long thesis paper for their master's project. I am so glad to have the opportunity to do a Capstone project instead, where I get to learn new digital tools and apply them to the project and to my own teaching. I look forward to the new year in applying all the tech tools I have learned from this master's program and incorporate them into my teaching. My Macbook is five years old, which in the "tech world" means it is outdated. My outdated computer has encountered many glitches while working on my Capstone project. I lost 2 hours of work one day, and an hour worth or work another day. I finally contacted Gould and Redmond and had Marie meet with me one on one. In the end, there is nothing I can do unless I want to buy a new computer. I have to work around the glitches. Working around the glitches has caused me to spend a significant amount of more time put into creating the site. I have to work on a Word doc, paste it to the site, quickly save it and then immediately exit Weebly. I can't just work directly on the site or Weebly will automatically refresh the page to when I first started using it. At least one other student, Suzeth Baker, is having the same problem. Other students have had this problem in the past. All in all, I enjoy working on the site to showcase all that I have learned, all that I applied to my teaching, and all that I plan on incorporating into my teaching. Give us an honest appraisal (venting?) of your next journey steps around trying to produce your Capstone Project video. What problems did you encounter? How did you solve them? The intent is open a useful discussion that can help raise the bar for everyone. Please respond to three others’ posts by July 4.
I have enjoyed the journey of making a video from scratch, despite the fact that I barely have anything ready to present for tomorrow's class. Hopefully, I will find some time to get more of a rough draft video. However, I have enjoyed the process of learning how to create a video using an editing program like WeVideo. Since I am still trying my best to learn all that I can do using WeVideo, I haven't had time to check out other editing software programs such as IMovie. I was really impressed what Kelley created using IMovie, and I haven't figured out to make that style of movie using WeVideo. One of the main problems I have encountered is being able to add text. I would love to learn how to write text so that it appears at the bottom of the screen besides using the "Movie title" templates. So far, to solve the problem, I have been using the Movie title templates for when I want to do text, but I would like to figure out a different way. The main problem is just finding the time to learn how to use all the editing tools, utilize the program's resources to it's max potential, and manipulate all the images, sound, and video embedded to create the project. I'm also having a hard time nailing down my script, but again, I think with time I will get there. |
AuthorMy name is Joe Hall. I am an elementary bilingual teacher in Napa, CA. Archives
July 2017
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