My computer survived.....and other reflections on composing a video

My feelings during the composition process (in GIF form, naturally):

Out of all the projects we completed, this was the assignment I struggle with the most when it came to developing an initial vision. Usually, when reading an assignment, I can visualize and idea or statement that is inspired by the assignment prompt. In theory, this project should have been the easiest to compose because it was the second revision of educational beliefs I had been thinking about the entire six weeks. While I expected learning the new technology would pose challenges, I was surprised by how much I struggled to formulate an outline.

Through my reflections while working on the video and after its completion, I believe that I struggled initially with my composing because I did not feel like I had a genuine, practical connection to my educational beliefs. I struggled with this also when composing my alphabetic text version. Everything felt too idealistic and aspirational, especially compared to what I felt my peers composed. Furthermore, I was challenged by the concept of creating a video (or movie) with no movement (actual recorded film). Unlike some of my classmates, I do not have pictures of my students or classroom, and I especially do not have film. This lack of material helped me to think outside of the box. Because of my lack of personal material, I decided to use the medium of animation. I wanted my video to be aspirational, because that is where I am currently in my teaching experience. Through the animation medium I could clearly state my educational beliefs, while also leaving a sense of distance due to the fact that I have not practically applied my beliefs yet. The helped me to feel more honest in my composing.

Like many of my classmates, this was the first time make a video that was not solely a slideshow set to music. I experienced a lot of frustration as I learned new mediums. The process for everyone was very slow, but I think I made it almost more challenging because I used a range of different interface. First, I relied visually on the website Moovly, an animation creator. On Moovly, I designed the way my animations would look and move. I also had to time them out, even though I had not yet scripted my voiceovers. While Moovly is an easy website to use, it is not accessible to everyone. I chose to pay for a subscription so that I could download my animations in clips. Furthermore, Moovly was challenging to work with when it came to incorporating other elements such as personal photos and voiceovers. In the future – when I have more time to play around with it - I want to figure out how to use other elements beyond animation within the Moovly platform. Despite having a MacBook, I chose to use WeVideo over iMovie. Although I was annoyed that I had to have a watermark on my video, I found that WeVideo was easier to maneuver than iMovie.

I was frustrated the majority of the time that I composed this piece; however, with it now completed, I am very proud of the work I produced. I liked the way that it incorporated elements of my alphabetic teaching philosophy as well as my infographic visuals. When revising my previous assignments for this project, I found that I relied more on my infographic than my essay. This surprised, because I never thought of myself as preferring visuals to text. But, as is the point with the infographic medium, I found the information easier to process in visual form than in alphabetic form. The final project, while aspirational, is something I am excited to see once I have finished my first year of teaching. I’m interested to see how my teaching philosophy changes, especially if some of my broad statements become clearer.

End result of my composing: