America – The Movie

And here you have yet another homework assignment from my Educational Technology Leadership class. I’m a little miffed that this is not for a grade. I mean, posting the video to Youtube, my blog, AND my wiki will get me a participation grade in WEEK FIVE….but I don’t get a grade for how well I editing the FREE clips I had to find online to complete the assignment.

Just finding the clips was a hassle. But Freestockvideo.com allows for the free download and use of their low res previews. Not a huge selection, so my video topic was really determined by what was available for download. I did find Pond5.com and they had great video clips, but it’s a pay site and I just couldn’t see spending money for something I’m not getting graded on (AND, I believe the assignment was all about finding the free stuff or giving proper credit for anything that you used).

I used Premier Pro CS3 to put all of the clips together, BTW.

This was another assignment where they tried to get us to collaborate on the planning part of the assignment, but then create the videos on our own. Yeah. Not happening here in the real world. I think the collaborative aspects of the assignment need to be rethought and reworked to be realistic for a one week timeframe with busy, working adults. And I’m always a big fan of “Don’t give me busy work – grade it or don’t give it to me.” But that’s just me.

That covers my reflection on THIS assignment. I’m sure there are those who needed the assignment for it’s intended purpose, to learn the editing software. But I’m ready to move forward…so let’s go!