EdTech 513 - Multimedia - Final Reflection

This course has been an incredible learning experience.  Starting from the organization of the course, to the incredible instructor - Dr. Diane Hall - to the amount of new information on teaching and learning, I have thoroughly enjoyed this course.  I honestly feel this course should be a core element of the MET program and not just an elective.  

This course, like every one I have taken in the MET program thus far, offered me a chance to learn about things I knew nothing or very little about. I really did not know what to expect when I enrolled in this course. I was not confident when the course began as I knew others in the class would have much more experience in this area of teaching and learning, however, I felt it was essential to gain knowledge in this area for my future goal as an assistant principal or supervisor of technology in our school board.

We were asked to narrow down what was learned in the class to three topics.  I found this very difficult to do, so instead, I narrowed my learning down to three main areas.

These areas are listed below:

1. The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning principles from Clark and Mayer’s E-Learning and the Science of Instruction – all of them. I knew nothing about multimedia and how to make even a good PowerPoint presentation. All of the principles taught me something I needed to know. I will keep this reading with me as a great resource in my development of online teaching and/or online mentoring. The principles hopefully will stay with me in the development of my future presentations. 
2. Programs and Software. I used many new software programs during this course. I really enjoyed Audacity and Camtasia. I also learned the proper way to use PowerPoint as a presentation tool.  Negatively, I found that I do not like the voice-over from Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. The knowledge obtained from these programs in this course will enhance my ability to use online learning as a tool for either my current teaching position or my future administration position. 
3. Different teaching media. I learned how to make a podcast, screencast, a digital story and more. All were new to my repertoire. These all have so much value in the development of courses and the learning of our students. It will allow me to use new teaching pedagogy like a flipped classroom or the ability to create more asynchronous distance learning courses.

EdTech 513 - Multimedia - Worked Example Screencast

This was our final project in this course.  Our goal was to make a worked example screencast. This topic was introduced to us in Chapters 10 through 12 in Clark and Mayer’s E-Learning and the Science of Instruction.

Our school board is pushing our teachers to use a locally developed learning and content management system called D2L - similar to Moodle.   It is the hope of the school board that our teachers design courses so that the students can have access to the same instruction whether at school, at home or on holidays.  One of the courses I teach is Financial Management.  It is a five module course that teaches topics in finance and accounting.  I decided to make this screencast on the creation of the balance sheet for two reasons.   First, the project would be put on the D2L shell and, second, some prerequisite knowledge was already learned in the first module, Personal Finance.

As I mentioned earlier, some prerequisite knowledge was required in order to follow along with the worked example.  This was the ability to use MS Excel.  In the readings, we learned of the Pretraining Principle.  This principle states that learners should be given pretraining for concepts required later in the course.  This principle was also used in the screencast to describe some necessary vocabulary for understanding of the worked example.

In the screencast, I tried to give the students ample opportunities to test their knowledge.  I tried to chunk the information into smaller parts and included examples of the correct answers so as to boost learning.

Below is my screencast.

The software used in the screencast were PowerPoint, MS Excel and Camtasia. Although this was my first attempt at a screencast, I learned that Camtasia is an exceptional tool for the development of this type of presentation.  I definitely should have used this program in the making of my digital story.

I learned so much during this project.  It was so fun exploring new ways to teach.  Not only did I review many of the multimedia principles learned in the class, I developed my first screencast, and, at the same time, had a chance to reacquaint myself with Camtasia and PowerPoint.  The learning and teaching advantages to screencasting are endless and will definitely be a part of my teaching practice as I move forward.

EdTech 513 - Multimedia - Digital Story Telling

The Essence of the People of Calgary - A Digital Story

I have included the script of the digital story.

I chose to do a digital story about the incredible will of the citizens of Calgary, AB after a severe flood damaged the city two years ago.  I live in Calgary and I had so many friends who were affected by this tragic event.  The story is about how the people of Calgary - from the Mayor, to the emergency services, to complete strangers - came together to help save the city.  I used the city entrance sign and its moniker of “Heart of the New West” as a basis to demonstrate the city’s heart.

As mentioned earlier, this was a devastating event in our city’s history.  I lived it.  The use of the Personalization Principle fit very well with this type of story.  I could speak to the audience in my own words.  I tried to make it as conversational as possible - as if I was describing events to my friends so they could feel the emotion and pride we went through.  I tried to convey to the audience how we felt during this time of tragedy (I think a more formal narration would have made it feel like a documentary instead of a heart felt story - I really I hope this is not how the viewer saw it as I wanted the audience to see the events through my eyes).  

As with almost all of the assignments in the MET program - especially the technology based ones - I learned an incredible amount during this assignment.  First, I had never heard of a digital story and its importance to education.  I found it very similar to a short instructional video which I learned in EdTech 533 - YouTube for Educators.  Second, I learned the importance of the Personalization Principle.  I find it backs up my findings as an educator.  Third, I had a chance to relearn Adobe Premiere Pro.  I learned it earlier in the MET program but felt I needed much more practice to have any real success with this software.  As you can see from my story, I still need a lot of work on this program.  I also found that I do not like the voice aspect of Premiere Pro - it just didn’t seem to work the way I wanted it to.  Next time I will use Camtasia or Audacity as they seem to produce a much better quality of sound.

EdTech 513 - Multimedia - Personalization Principle

This weeks topic was about Clark and Mayer's Personalization Principle from E-Learning and the Science of Instruction.  Clark and Mayer (2014) recommend that you create or select e-learning courses that include some spoken or printed text that is conversational rather than formal (p.182).

Our goal was to analyze this principle and answer the following question -  You have been working on a script for a narrated lesson. As a teacher, you are convinced that a more relaxed, less formal conversational style is the way to go. However, you need to get this approved by your instructional design team, one of whom is an English major and a stickler for "proper" English and grammar. When you show him your script, he is aghast. How might you respond?  

In reading my colleagues' posts, I found that of all the principles from Clark and Mayer, this one had the most controversy.  Many of my classmates did not see how the use of conversational English would benefit a presentation.  Some thought it would actually take away from the validity of the information being presented.  

I, on the other hand, think it has great benefit to a multimedia presentation.  Our students collaborate and learn very well from each other.  In new teaching and learning pedagogy, collaboration is at the forefront.  Students do not speak to each other in formal English all of the time.  They use a personalized approach or conversational English when they are talking to each other.  It is what they understand.  Now saying this, I do not think the inappropriate slang or text message language is appropriate.  Spelling and grammar should still be considered but the use of a less formal style could help in their learning.

Here is my full response to the question.  

References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.