Reflection

An awesome experience. That statement describes the learning that has taken place over the last eleven months. The TATC program is organized, well staffed and challenging. This has been my first on-line learning experience, but I will never hesitate to try it again because I was able to accomplish the tasks at hand without causing undue hardship on my family. I was able to get a lot of the work done during school hours thanks to an understanding principal who gave me an extra conference period. The other learners in the program were so great to help and give advice and encouragement.

I believe that Standard I-V had to be in place before I could attempt this series of courses. Without the background and understanding that these five indicators represent, the assignments would have been too difficult. Having taught school for 14 years, most of it in computers, I have learned to adapt well to change. That is essential in this field.

Standard VII-Desktop Publishing is my favorite of all the technology applications. It is like producing a piece of art in that you must design using the elements and principals of design and color. These desktop publishing courses improved my skills at design by making me aware of such things as contrast, proximity, alignment and repetition. My biggest challenge in this area of technology was the file formats. I had never needed to transfer files or include them in other software. Learning how to make a file compatible to other software or other computers was something that will help me in the future. I am proud of the artifacts that I have included in the portfolio because I believe that they are well designed and functional.

Standard VIII-Digital Graphics and Animation tied right in with the knowledge I already had in the field of art. My minor in college was art and I had taken art lessons as a child. Being able to take that knowledge and apply it to a web page and incorporate animation and graphics was a lot of fun. I must say that the Photoshop part of this unit gave me a lot of problems. I have not had Photoshop to use until we got the software for this course, so I was not good at it by any means. I was able to satisfy the needs of the assignment, but have since used it for student projects and become a little more adept. This area still has a pretty steep learning curve for me. I will continue to practice my skills in graphics and animation, but I know from experience that the students I teach will catch on faster!

Standard IX-Multimedia was a different kind of challenge for me. I have always needed to be able to edit audio because I direct the one-act play in Albany. I have, on many occasions, wished I could create a CD of exactly the sounds I needed. This year I was able to do just that! This course fell at precisely the right time for me to be able to use the audio editing skills I had learned to make a background CD that was perfect. Also, I learned how to download video from my personal camera and add it to a web page. This course may have caused me the most frustration because of all the different skills that it required. But, it has also been the most beneficial to my overall learning experience. I will never be afraid to try something new even if it takes me several tries to get it right. In the future I will use the animation skills and editing skills to teach Graphics and Multimedia courses.

Standard X-Video Technology became the obsession in my life. The TATC course was scary! In fact, I remember thinking, "Who can I get to do this for me?" Looking back on it I realize just how much I have learned about my own equipment, my computer and video. I made so many attempts at producing the music video in this unit that the song was imbedded in my head for weeks. I could not stay away from it. I was drawn to the challenge of getting the music and the video to match up. Even though it wasn't perfect, after days of working, I finally was pleased with the outcome (still it called me to try again, but I had to give up and submit it!). I am still struggling to help my husband with some projects that he has started and will continue to learn more in the process. I have just begun my learning odyssey in video technology.

Standard XI-Web Mastering taught me to be inventive. Having this course early in the series of courses was good, but it also was very stressful. I have no knowledge of HTML and, I don't really care to learn it. To me it is a cousin to math and therefore is evil! Really, I do not like the technical part of technology. The only web page I had ever created was in Microsoft Publisher. I would not recommend a self-taught crash course in Adobe Go Live 6.0. I have been able to pick up enough about the software to produce reasonably functional web pages, but I need to get the book out and read it! I have included in my portfolio my first Adobe web page. It is such a mess that I cannot even figure out how I did it! But, the fact is---I did do it. I learned enough to pass the course and have built on the knowledge and continue to build. A grant will be providing some new software for my lab next year. Included will be Photoshop and Adobe Go Live 6.0. I'm looking forward to putting my knowledge to work.

I have learned an incredible amount over the course of a year. I would recommend the TATC program to any teacher who needs to improve his or her skills in the field of technology applications.