Foot: Final Reflection Post

     This course was a relatively challenging course in terms of the amount of work that we had to do. I think the divide came because we have grown up in the time that all the different kinds of media sites have come about. We technically already know about them and how to use them. We started the semester off learning from Gary Mote, who was very informative, but it almost seemed like there was so much information that we couldn't take it all in at that moment. I think it would have been more beneficial if we had started on our autobiographies and the he came in to help us with uploading and editing them. 

       The next issue I had was with the readings we did outside of class. It almost seemed like everything we had to do was to be done outside of class and didn't really tie in with that day's lesson. We would talk about Little Brother for a little bit, but mostly just had to blog about it. The problem is, we spent so much time reading the book and then having to make our own lengthy blog posts that we really don't have time to look at a lot of our peers posts too. We would read articles about the Internet and Facebook and then have to blog about them. To us, Facebook is like second nature and we all have probably heard the story of how it got started ten times. I feel that I would have enjoyed reading the articles more if I knew they were going to incorporate them into the lesson during the next class period. 

       The multigenre autobiography was fun. I did feel bad for the people who got cut off in the end. I was the first one to go and I think mine was only six or seven minutes, but some people didn't even get to show their whole thing because we ran out of time. I realize that some people went over the time limit, so that was understandable. I think it would be easier if there was say a 6 minute time limit and we could not even start showing our autobiography if it was longer than that. That seems like it would give everyone the same advantage. 

       I absolutely did  not enjoy the Costanzo book. I could understand learning a little about films, but to have to scrutinize the camera shot seems to me like that would be for a film class. Even after reading the chapters in the book and before I did my film shot analysis, I had to go research some of the shots because I did not know what they were. I feel that we could have covered that more in class. We aren't film majors and just because we read one book doesn't mean we are going to be experts on film. The film analysis was very frustrating and time consuming because the whole time I kept wondering if I was doing it right. I feel that if we would have been able to review it more in class, then I would have felt more confident and knew what I was doing.The film festival seemed like an overall good experience, but I feel we could have learned the same thing by just watching a film at any movie theater.

       I really enjoyed our time at Firestone. It was a little unorganized and that's understandable for doing it the first time. Some days, I didn't feel like I was doing a lot for my student and I knew she was bored, so I tried to integrate some other aspects beside the OGT packet, like going over test strategies. It's great to get into the real school setting and help the students. That made me envision what I will be doing next year during student teaching. 

      I also enjoyed doing the Canonical Wiki. It took me a rather lengthy time to complete it because I got so caught  up in the different lessons I found online. I wanted to get the best lessons and since there were so many, it took me a long time to look. Not only did I find lessons to use with Edgar Allan Poe, but I found websites that I can use in the future with different texts. So I got to find lessons that I can use with Poe's works, lessons to use with other works and great teacher friendly websites. This was probably my favorite part of the whole semester!

        We read a graphic novel last semester, but did not go over them in detail. I really had trouble knowing how to compare and contrast Naruto and Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer. I wish that we would have spent the class time learning about the different descriptions of graphic novels. Instead we listened to music and looked at post cards and then with only like a half hour or so left we started comparing other graphic novels. I feel that during class we could have learned about those different descriptions and that would have been extremely beneficial to us. With that knowledge then we could go out and compare Naruto and Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer. Without it, I left lost and dreading the upcoming blog post because I didn't even know half of the words to compare and contrast them.

        The major concern I had with this course was the blogging. Blogging is a new form of communication and can be used in the classroom setting, but I don't feel like I would use it like we used it. For one, to tell someone how many times they have to blog seems a little bit too intense. Its supposed to be a blog where you go and look at other people's and learn what they are talking about. It took me so much time to read the books and make my own blogs and make sure that I commented on six other people's blogs, that I didn't have the time to look at any other blogs than the ones I commented on. Also, sometimes things come up and I can't seem to think that you should make  your students stretch out their blogging over the weeks they have to do it. One week they might have an emergency or not get the time to blog. As long as they get their blog posts done, it shouldn't matter if they did it in three consecutive days or took them three weeks. I think the blog should be an addition to the class, not feel like it's the class in and of itself. 
     Overall I can understand how multimedia can be used in the classroom, but I don't feel that it will be used every day and be as intense as we used it. It's good to make us aware of it, but I really think there are better options to having a literature circle than through Facebook. I would like to use things like the autobiography and films in my future classroom, but don't plan on making my students define certain shots when they might not be that familiar with the shots. Also, it might seem fun to make a video, but I don't think it should be as strict. If you aren't going to teach the students how to put a video together or how to edit it, then I think the original videos and the creative videos should be graded just the same. There might be a group that is not very tech saavy and is fearful of making their video look like a piece of art. You want them to give their best effort, but also take into consideration that it's not a video class and they won't be experts. 
      Like everything else, I think all things are good in moderation. Blogging might be beneficial, but I think it could be toned down a bit. Usually I'm all about structure, but for some reason I liked the flexibility of the Canonical Wiki and I think that let me explore it more. There were a lot of great ideas I got out of this class, I just wished we could have done more in class and got more out of the class sessions, so I knew exactly what I should be doing or how to do the project.