Thoughts on Link Courses

Here are my thoughts on the following questions:

1.
Have the linked courses been beneficial to you and if so how? If not, why not?
Attending the linked courses for Digital Storytelling and Popular Culture could not have been a better ending to my graduate studies. The ability to tackle a topic such as Popular Culture in Education, for which I had very little background, and construct products that were useful to facilitation in the classroom or online was amazing. The modeling that took place in class allowed me to construct a learning strategy that met my needs as instructor with a greater sense of ease. Furthermore, the synergy between the topic and developing the tool, a digital story, provided structure to both courses. My story was created through my engagement with new technology. The final draft of my narrative drove the types of technologies I selected. At the end of the linked courses, all objectives were met and I am able to walk away with a deeper understanding of both topics, much deeper than if I had taken them separately.

2.
Have the digital photo/storytelling assignments been worthwhile in helping you learn the technology skills presented?
The digital storytelling assignments have been very useful in helping me better use the technologies. Since create a movie or script was new to me, the out-of-class assignments were important to tackling the concepts, technologies and processes. At first the blogging was a little overwhelming. I had blogging for three classes and my internship. However, the blogging ended up being a great way to structure my thoughts on the experiences, tools and products.

3.
Have the digital photo/storytelling assignments been worthwhile in helping you learn the popular culture content?
My honest answer is that blogging for the popular culture assignments was my biggest challenge in the course. Coming from an adult learning, technologist, instructional designer, consulting background, my comfort level was again and again tested with placing myself in the shoes of a K-12 teacher. However, as the semester progressed so did my comfort level with the subject matter and how to extend learning for students.

4.
Do you think that the linked course pairing helped you connect technical skills to content area knowledge? If so, how and if not, what do you think did not work?
See Question #1. I think the pairing was wonderful. As IT professionals, it is important to develop new ways of using technology to creatively facilitate learning. The educational subject matter has an influence on what decisions we make in development. Having CUIN students work through this process is essential to gaining a better understanding and assimilation.

5.
Would you be interested in taking other linked courses if they were offered and would you recommend this pair of linked courses to other students?
Yes and yes. I am very interested in taking these types of courses as a doctoral student.

6.
Is there anything else you can suggest that you feel would improve the digital photography/storytelling half of the linked course pair?
My suggestions for the digital storytelling part of the course are;

1. I would have liked to have seen more practice around the storytelling part of the process. When I was developing my script I got hung up on developing a popular culture learning product. Therefore I went straight for facts and dates. However, upon working with the mid-term assignment, I realized that the script could contain those things, but needed to be framed. This could be due to the fact that my technology comfort level was much, much higher than my script writing. My thought would be to provide a script in the first class which would allow students more time to understand how the images fit into the story, i.e. Here is an article on the 80's. Collect images that help tell the story. Then work with Picasa3 to collage the images in class. Then having students construct smaller scripts while practicing collecting photos, add audio, etc. - Like we did for the first attempt of a digital story...but require a script. Followed by the mid-term, where you add audio and photos to practice those technical skills.

2. At first, I didn't agree with assigning popular culture topics to students and having them create a digital story about the topic. Dr. Robin had pointed out that the story should come from a point of passion. My topic, Journalism in Popular Culture, was sad to say very alien to me as subject matter for teaching much less for creating a knowledgeable story. In the end though, I think it was a great idea. It forced me to overcome my fear of constructing materials around an unknown topic. As educators that concept is very important.

7.
One option under consideration is to have a linked pair of courses where the content area course would be offered as a traditional 3 hour per week face-to-face course and the digital photo/storytelling course would be offered online, or mostly online. Please discuss your reaction to this idea and provide any questions or comments you have on this topic.
See my previous post on this topic. I think the hybrid option would be very appropriate. A complete online digital storytelling course doesn't seem as attractive to me. First, because I think the face-to-face interaction with Dr. Robin, Anne and Hal was so important. The ability to discuss problems and ideas in person was much needed. Second, the flow from popular culture into digital storytelling on some nights allowed me to take information from one directly into another for practice. Finally, I thought the interactions between students, Cam and Dr. Robin was something that all students should be able to experience...and no I'm not just sucking up. ;-)

8.
Do you have any other comments that you would like to add?
Just thank you to Dr. Robin and Cam for allowing me to be a part of such an amazing experience. I have learned so much this semester about my role as a technologist and an educator. And thank you to Anne and Hal for such great support. The Story Circle activity was so practical and useful. As well, the software suggestions were very cool indeed.