EDLD 5363 Week 5 Reflection

This week has been a bit crazy.  I am trying to be on vacation and complete the course at the same time.  I think I managed both.  The project and our group were great. We really enjoyed working with each other.


I learned, from this group experience that it is possible to have a successful collaboration in the way that it is meant to be.  I don’t think that comes from working with anyone under any conditions and circumstances.  I learned and believe that it takes an understanding of the group dynamics and being able draw on each other’s strengths.  This has been a very important thing for me to learn.  The success of our group was not only that we all want to get an “A”, but that we were able to speak up about our own strengths we were able to acknowledge and appreciate the strengths of others in the group. I will also point out that another strength of our team was our ability to accept each other’s quirks.  None of us would ever look back on this experience and feel like anyone else did not do enough.  This has been a very positive experience.


As far as the technical aspects of the learning experience, I was able to build upon what I had learned using PRE 4.  At the beginning of the project I decided to upgrade to PRE 10 and it was a good thing that I did.  I never would have been able to make the visual effects that I achieved happen without it.  Even though I experienced problems with learning the software, I was able to either solve the problem myself or seek help from Adobe in order to fix the problem.  I still have a lot to learn but I have come a long way.  What a difference it made to have 3 video tracks, 3 audio tracks, a track for narration, and a soundtrack.  The visual effects that I made happen were totally dependent upon the 3 video tracks and I used all of them.


Even though I have more to learn, I am confident in my ability to teach students and teachers how to use Adobe software.  I am also more confident in my ability to facilitate group projects with both students and teachers, because I have a better grasp of group dynamics and can help others with getting the most and best out of each other in a group project.